“I don’t know who it can be,” said Mrs. Sparsit, wiping her mouth and arranging her mittens.

“A stranger, ma’am, evidently.”

“What a stranger can want at the Bank at this time of the evening, unless he comes upon some business for which he is too late, I don’t know,” said Mrs. Sparsit, “but I hold a charge in this establishment from Mr. Bounderby, and I will never shrink from it. If to see him is any part of the duty I have accepted, I will see him. Use your own discretion, Bitzer.”