“Ah!” said Mr. Boffin. “Perhaps. Anyhow, he named to me that the house had a board up, ‘This Eminently Aristocratic Mansion to be let or sold.’ Me and Mrs. Boffin went to look at it, and finding it beyond a doubt eminently aristocratic (though a trifle high and dull, which after all may be part of the same thing) took it. My literary man was so friendly as to drop into a charming piece of poetry on that occasion, in which he complimented Mrs. Boffin on coming into possession of⁠—how did it go, my dear?”

Mrs. Boffin replied: