“Oh, certainly, ma’am,” replied Mrs. Rogers; after whom all the other ladies responded, “Oh, certainly.”

“Of course I feel it, ma’am,” said Mr. Raddle, rubbing his hands, and evincing a slight tendency to brighten up a little. “Indeed, to tell you the truth, I said, as we was a-coming along in the cabrioily⁠—”

At the recapitulation of the word which awakened so many painful recollections, Mrs. Raddle applied her handkerchief to her eyes again, and uttered a half-suppressed scream; so that Mrs. Bardell frowned upon Mr. Raddle, to intimate that he had better not say anything more, and desired Mrs. Rogers’s servant, with an air, to “put the wine on.”