“Well thought of, Scroope; and there's a beautiful paper-knife,—poor thing, she's not likely to want it now. What a sad bereavement! And are his affairs really so bad?”
“Ov-over head and ears in debt There ain't enough to bury him if the dwarf does not shell out,—but he will. They say he's in love with Nelly,—he, he, he!”
“Shocking, quite shocking. Yes, Martha, that telescope is a very good one. What improvidence, what culpable improvidence!”
“And is she quite friendless?” asked Martha, feelingly.
“Not while she has our protection,” said Mrs. Rickett», grandly. “I 've determined 'to take her up.'”
Martha reddened slightly at the phrase, for she knew of some others who had been so “taken up,” and with what small profit to their prosperity.
“Her talents, when aided by our patronage, will always support her,” said Mrs. Ricketts; “and I mean, when the shock of this calamity is past, to employ her on a little group for a centrepiece for our dinner-table. She will, of course, be charmed to have her genius displayed to such advantage. It will afford us a suitable opportunity of introducing her name.”
“And we shall have the piece of carving for nothing,” said Martha, who innocently believed that she was supplying another argument of equal delicacy and force.
“You 're an idiot!” said Mrs. Ricketts, angrily; “and I begin to fear you will never be anything else.”
“I 'm quite sure I shall not,” muttered the other, with a faint submissiveness, and continued the task of packing the trunks.