“I am very sorry, Mrs. Raddle,” said Bob Sawyer, with all imaginable humility, “but the fact is, that I have been disappointed in the City today.”⁠—Extraordinary place that City. An astonishing number of men always are getting disappointed there.

“Well, Mr. Sawyer,” said Mrs. Raddle, planting herself firmly on a purple cauliflower in the Kidderminster carpet, “and what’s that to me, Sir?”

“I⁠—I⁠—have no doubt, Mrs. Raddle,” said Bob Sawyer, blinking this last question, “that before the middle of next week we shall be able to set ourselves quite square, and go on, on a better system, afterwards.”