“Apple-pie order!” said Mr. Boffin, after checking off each inscription with his hand, like a man beating time. “And whatever you do with your ink, I can’t think, for you’re as clean as a whistle after it. Now, as to a letter. Let’s,” said Mr. Boffin, rubbing his hands in his pleasantly childish admiration, “let’s try a letter next.”

“To whom shall it be addressed, Mr. Boffin?”

“Anyone. Yourself.”

Mr. Rokesmith quickly wrote, and then read aloud: