‘No one is useless in this world,’ retorted the Secretary, ‘who lightens the burden of it for any one else.’
‘But I assure you I don’t, Mr Rokesmith,’ said Bella, half-crying.
‘Not for your father?’
‘Dear, loving, self-forgetting, easily-satisfied Pa! Oh, yes! He thinks so.’
‘It is enough if he only thinks so,’ said the Secretary. ‘Excuse the interruption: I don’t like to hear you depreciate yourself.’
‘But you once depreciated me, sir,’ thought Bella, pouting, ‘and I hope you may be satisfied with the consequences you brought upon your head!’ However, she said nothing to that purpose; she even said something to a different purpose.
‘Mr Rokesmith, it seems so long since we spoke together naturally, that I am embarrassed in approaching another subject. Mr Boffin. You know I am very grateful to him; don’t you? You know I feel a true respect for him, and am bound to him by the strong ties of his own generosity; now don’t you?’
‘Unquestionably. And also that you are his favourite companion.’
‘That makes it,’ said Bella, ‘so very difficult to speak of him. But—. Does he treat you well?’
‘You see how he treats me,’ the Secretary answered, with a patient and yet proud air.