wit. No, no,' cried Mould, with
bitter sarcasm. 'Hang 'em up, hang 'em up; sole 'em and heel 'em, and
have 'em ready for his son against he's old enough to wear 'em; but
don't try 'em on yourselves, for they won't fit you. We knew him,' said
Mould, in the same biting vein, as he pocketed his note-book; 'we
knew him, and are not to be caught with chaff. Mr Pecksniff, sir, good
morning.'
Mr Pecksniff returned the compliment; and Mould, sensible of having
distinguished himself, was going away with a brisk smile, when he
fortunately remembered the occasion. Quickly becoming depressed again,
he sighed; looked into the crown of his hat, as if for comfort; put it
on without finding any; and slowly departed.
Mrs Gamp and Mr Pecksniff then ascended the staircase; and the former,
having been shown to the chamber in which all that remained of Anthony
Chuzzlewit lay covered up, with but one loving heart, and that a halting
one, to mourn it, left the latter free to enter the darkened room below,
and rejoin Mr Jonas, from whom he had now been absent nearly two hours.
He found that example to bereaved sons, and pattern in the eyes of all
performers of funerals, musing over a fragment of writing-paper on the
desk, and scratching figures on it with a pen. The old man's chair, and
hat, and walking-stick, were removed from their accustomed places, and
put out of sight; the window-blinds as yellow as November fogs, were
drawn down close; Jonas himself was so subdued, that he could scarcely
be heard to speak, and only seen to walk across the room.
'Pecksniff,' he said, in a whisper, 'you shall have the regulation of
it all, mind! You shall be able to tell anybody who talks about it that
everything was correctly and nicely done. There isn't any one you'd like
to ask to the funeral, is there?'
'No, Mr Jonas, I think not.'
'Because if there is, you know,' said Jonas, 'ask him. We don't want to
make a secret of it.'
'No,' repeated Mr Pecksniff, after a little reflection. 'I am not
the less obliged to you on that account, Mr Jonas, for your liberal
hospitality; but there really is no one.'
'Very well,' said Jonas; 'then you, and I, and Chuffey, and the doctor,
will be just a coachful. We'll have the doctor, Pecksniff, because he
knows what was the matter with him, and that it couldn't be helped.'
'Where is our dear friend, Mr Chuffey?' asked Pecksniff, looking round
the chamber, and winking both his eyes at once--for he was ov
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