Having assisted at a few more expositions of the lives of misers, Mr. Venus became almost indispensable to the evenings at the Bower. The circumstance of having another listener to the wonders unfolded by Wegg, or, as it were, another calculator to cast up the guineas found in teapots, chimneys, racks and mangers, and other such banks of deposit, seemed greatly to heighten Mr. Boffin’s enjoyment; while Silas Wegg, for his part, though of a jealous temperament which might under ordinary circumstances have resented the anatomist’s getting into favour, was so very anxious to keep his eye on that gentleman⁠—lest, being too much left to himself, he should be tempted to play any tricks with the precious document in his keeping⁠—that he never lost an opportunity of commending him to Mr. Boffin’s notice as a third party whose company was much to be desired. Another friendly demonstration towards him Mr.