thought, to go to a girl's father
for permission to ask the girl to be his wife, before the girl had
herself assented; but the circumstances in this case were peculiar.
It had seemed to him that Marion's only reason for rejecting him was
based on disparity in their social condition,--which to his thinking
was the worst reason that could be given. It might be that the reason
had sprung from some absurd idea originating with the Quaker father;
or it might be that the Quaker father would altogether disapprove of
any such reason. At any rate he would be glad to know whether the old
man was for him or against him. And with the object of ascertaining
this, he determined that he would pay a visit to the office in King's
Court on the Wednesday morning. He could not endure the thought
of leaving London,--it might be for much more than the one day
intended,--without making some effort in regard to the object which
was nearest his heart.

Early in the day he walked into Messrs. Pogson and Littlebird's
office, and saw Mr. Tribbledale seated on a high stool behind a huge
desk, which nearly filled up the whole place. He was rather struck
by the smallness and meanness of Messrs. Pogson and Littlebird's
premises, which, from a certain nobility belonging to the Quaker's
appearance, he would have thought to be spacious and important.
It is impossible not to connect ideas after this fashion. Pogson
and Littlebird themselves carried in their own names no flavour of
commercial grandeur. Had they been only known to Hampstead by their
name, any small mercantile retreat at the top of the meanest alley in
the City might have sufficed for them. But there was something in the
demeanour of Zachary Fay which seemed to give promise of one of those
palaces of trade which are now being erected in every street and lane
devoted in the City to business. Nothing could be less palatial than
Pogson and Littlebird's counting-house. Hampstead had entered it
from a little court, which it seemed to share with one other equally
unimportant tenement opposite to it, by a narrow low passage. Here he
saw two doors only, through one of which he passed, as it was open,
having noticed that the word "Private" was written on the other. Here
he found himself face to face with Tribbledale and with a little boy
who sat at Tribbledale's right hand on a stool equally high. Of these
two, as far as he could see, consisted the establishment of Messrs.
Pogson and Littlebird. "C