not grow after I’m married!”
“You will not? You will not?” repeated Mrs. Wilfer, solemnly.
“No, Ma, I will not. Nothing shall induce me.”
Mrs. Wilfer, having waved her gloves, became loftily pathetic.
“But it was to be expected;” thus she spake. “A child of mine deserts me for the proud and prosperous, and another child of mine despises me. It is quite fitting.”
“Ma,” Bella struck in, “ Mr. and Mrs. Boffin are prosperous, no doubt; but you have no right to say they are proud. You must know very well that they are not.”
“In short, Ma,” said Lavvy, bouncing over to the enemy without a word of notice, “you must know very well—or if you don’t, more shame for you!—that Mr. and Mrs. Boffin are just absolute perfection.”