“You are a fool,” said Wegg, with a snap of his fingers, “and I’d have got rid of you before now, if I could have struck out any way of doing it. I have thought it over, I can tell you. You may go, and welcome. You leave the more for me. Because, you know,” said Wegg, dividing his next observation between Mr. Boffin and Mr. Harmon, “I am worth my price, and I mean to have it. This getting off is all very well in its way, and it tells with such an anatomical pump as this one,” pointing out Mr. Venus, “but it won’t do with a Man. I am here to be bought off, and I have named my figure. Now, buy me, or leave me.”

“I’ll leave you, Wegg,” said Mr. Boffin, laughing, “as far as I am concerned.”