thinking that nobody finds
out how you contradict yourselves.'

'Ask me anything you wish to ask,' returned Rokesmith, 'but use the
expedition that you recommend.'

'You pretend to have a mighty admiration for this young lady?' said Mr
Boffin, laying his hand protectingly on Bella's head without looking
down at her.

'I do not pretend.'

'Oh! Well. You HAVE a mighty admiration for this young lady--since you
are so particular?'

'Yes.'

'How do you reconcile that, with this young lady's being a
weak-spirited, improvident idiot, not knowing what was due to herself,
flinging up her money to the church-weathercocks, and racing off at a
splitting pace for the workhouse?'

'I don't understand you.'

'Don't you? Or won't you? What else could you have made this young lady
out to be, if she had listened to such addresses as yours?'

'What else, if I had been so happy as to win her affections and possess
her heart?'

'Win her affections,' retorted Mr Boffin, with ineffable contempt,
'and possess her heart! Mew says the cat, Quack-quack says the duck,
Bow-wow-wow says the dog! Win her affections and possess her heart! Mew,
Quack-quack, Bow-wow!'

John Rokesmith stared at him in his outburst, as if with some faint idea
that he had gone mad.

'What is due to this young lady,' said Mr Boffin, 'is Money, and this
young lady right well knows it.'

'You slander the young lady.'

'YOU slander the young lady; you with your affections and hearts and
trumpery,' returned Mr Boffin. 'It's of a piece with the rest of your
behaviour. I heard of these doings of yours only last night, or you
should have heard of 'em from me, sooner, take your oath of it. I heard
of 'em from a lady with as good a headpiece as the best, and she knows
this young lady, and I know this young lady, and we all three know that
it's Money she makes a stand for--money, money, money--and that you and
your affections and hearts are a Lie, sir!'

'Mrs Boffin,' said Rokesmith, quietly turning to her, 'for your delicate
and unvarying kindness I thank you with the warmest gratitude. Good-bye!
Miss Wilfer, good-bye!'

'And now, my dear,' said Mr Boffin, laying his hand on Bella's head
again, 'you may begin to make yourself quite comfortable, and I hope you
feel that you've been righted.'

But, Bella was so far from appearing to feel it, that she shrank from
his hand and from the chair, and, starting up in an incoherent passion
of tears, and stretching out