I find that
I cannot endure the contemplation of Lieutenant Walters's bliss, and
should rush out, I hope, Captain Gills, that you and he will both
consider it as my misfortune and not my fault, or the want of inward
conflict. That you'll feel convinced I bear no malice to any living
creature-least of all to Lieutenant Walters himself--and that you'll
casually remark that I have gone out for a walk, or probably to see what
o'clock it is by the Royal Exchange. Captain Gills, if you could enter
into this arrangement, and could answer for Lieutenant Walters, it would
be a relief to my feelings that I should think cheap at the sacrifice of
a considerable portion of my property.'

'My lad,' returned the Captain, 'say no more. There ain't a colour you
can run up, as won't be made out, and answered to, by Wal'r and self.'

'Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'my mind is greatly relieved. I wish to
preserve the good opinion of all here. I--I--mean well, upon my honour,
however badly I may show it. You know,' said Mr Toots, 'it's as exactly
as Burgess and Co. wished to oblige a customer with a most extraordinary
pair of trousers, and could not cut out what they had in their minds.'

With this apposite illustration, of which he seemed a little Proud, Mr
Toots gave Captain Cuttle his blessing and departed.

The honest Captain, with his Heart's Delight in the house, and Susan
tending her, was a beaming and a happy man. As the days flew by, he
grew more beaming and more happy, every day. After some conferences with
Susan (for whose wisdom the Captain had a profound respect, and whose
valiant precipitation of herself on Mrs MacStinger he could never
forget), he proposed to Florence that the daughter of the elderly lady
who usually sat under the blue umbrella in Leadenhall Market, should,
for prudential reasons and considerations of privacy, be superseded in
the temporary discharge of the household duties, by someone who was not
unknown to them, and in whom they could safely confide. Susan, being
present, then named, in furtherance of a suggestion she had previously
offered to the Captain, Mrs Richards. Florence brightened at the name.
And Susan, setting off that very afternoon to the Toodle domicile, to
sound Mrs Richards, returned in triumph the same evening, accompanied by
the identical rosy-cheeked apple-faced Polly, whose demonstrations, when
brought into Florence's presence, were hardly less affectionate than
those of Susan Nipper