falsely eloped with a half-pay captain. With a bottle-nosed captain that
any man might have considered himself safe from. It was in this room,'
said Mr Lillyvick, looking sternly round, 'that I first see Henrietta
Petowker. It is in this room that I turn her off, for ever.'

This declaration completely changed the whole posture of affairs.
Mrs Kenwigs threw herself upon the old gentleman's neck, bitterly
reproaching herself for her late harshness, and exclaiming, if she had
suffered, what must his sufferings have been! Mr Kenwigs grasped
his hand, and vowed eternal friendship and remorse. Mrs Kenwigs was
horror-stricken to think that she should ever have nourished in her
bosom such a snake, adder, viper, serpent, and base crocodile as
Henrietta Petowker. Mr Kenwigs argued that she must have been bad indeed
not to have improved by so long a contemplation of Mrs Kenwigs's virtue.
Mrs Kenwigs remembered that Mr Kenwigs had often said that he was
not quite satisfied of the propriety of Miss Petowker's conduct, and
wondered how it was that she could have been blinded by such a wretch.
Mr Kenwigs remembered that he had had his suspicions, but did not wonder
why Mrs Kenwigs had not had hers, as she was all chastity, purity, and
truth, and Henrietta all baseness, falsehood, and deceit. And Mr and
Mrs Kenwigs both said, with strong feelings and tears of sympathy, that
everything happened for the best; and conjured the good collector not to
give way to unavailing grief, but to seek consolation in the society
of those affectionate relations whose arms and hearts were ever open to
him.

'Out of affection and regard for you, Susan and Kenwigs,' said Mr
Lillyvick, 'and not out of revenge and spite against her, for she is
below it, I shall, tomorrow morning, settle upon your children, and make
payable to the survivors of them when they come of age of marry, that
money that I once meant to leave 'em in my will. The deed shall be
executed tomorrow, and Mr Noggs shall be one of the witnesses. He hears
me promise this, and he shall see it done.'

Overpowered by this noble and generous offer, Mr Kenwigs, Mrs Kenwigs,
and Miss Morleena Kenwigs, all began to sob together; and the noise of
their sobbing, communicating itself to the next room, where the children
lay a-bed, and causing them to cry too, Mr Kenwigs rushed wildly in,
and bringing them out in his arms, by two and two, tumbled them down in
their nightcaps and gowns at the feet of