“And how is Betty, my good fellow?” Mrs. Boffin asked him.

“Thankee, mum,” said Sloppy, “she do pretty nicely, and sending her dooty and many thanks for the tea and all faviours and wishing to know the family’s healths.”

“Have you just come, Sloppy?”

“Yes, mum.”

“Then you have not had your dinner yet?”

“No, mum. But I mean to it. For I ain’t forgotten your handsome orders that I was never to go away without having had a good ’un off of meat and beer and pudding⁠—no: there was four of ’em, for I reckoned ’em up when I had ’em; meat one, beer two, vegetables three, and which was four?⁠—Why, pudding, he was four!” Here Sloppy threw his head back, opened his mouth wide, and laughed rapturously.