in her little in the corner of another system and knows it quite well and comes and cries and goes away and is satisfied verily miss is easier of satisfaction than the world that troubles mr so much i and son at the counting house the clerks discuss the great disaster in all its lights and shades hut chiefly wonder who will get mr s place they are generally of opinion that it will be of some of its and made uncomfortable by newly devised and and those who are beyond all hope of it are quite sure they would rather not have it and don t at all envy the person for whom it may prove to be reserved nothing like the prevailing sensation has existed in the counting house since mr s little son died but all such there take a social not to say jovial turn and lead to the cultivation of good fellowship a reconciliation is established on the occasion between the acknowledged wit of the counting house and an rival with whom he has been at deadly for months and a little dinner being proposed in of their happily restored takes place at a neighboring tavern the wit in the chair the rival acting as vice president the following the removal of the cloth are opened by the chair who says gentlemen he can t disguise from himself that this is not a time for private recent to which he need not more particularly allude but which have not been altogether without notice in some sunday papers and a daily paper which he need not name here every other member of the company names it in an audible murmur have caused him to reflect and he feels that for him and robinson to have any personal at such a moment would be for ever to deny that good feeling in the general cause for which he has reason to think and hope that the gentlemen in s house have always been distinguished robinson replies to this like a man and a brother and one gentleman who has been in the office three years under continual notice to quit on account of in his appears in a perfectly new light suddenly bursting out with a thrilling speech in which he says may their respected chief never again know the desolation which has fallen on his hearth and says a great variety of things beginning with may he again which are received with of applause in short a most delightful evening is passed only interrupted by a difference between two who quarrelling about the probable amount of mr car vol and son s late per defy each other with and are taken out greatly excited water is in general request at the office next day and most of the party deem the bill an as to perch the messenger he is in a fair way of being ruined for life he finds himself again constantly in bars of public houses being treated and lying dreadfully it appears that he met everybody concerned in the late transaction everywhere and said to them sir or madam as the case was why do you look so pale at which each shuddered from head to foot and said oh perch and ran away either the con of these or the reaction consequent on liquor mr perch to an extreme state of low spirits at that hour of the evening when he usually seeks consolation in the society of mrs perch at ball s pond and mrs perch a good deal for she fears his confidence in woman is shaken now and that he half expects on coming home at night to find her gone of with some mr s servants are becoming at the same quite dissipated and unfit for other service they have hot every night and talk it over with smoking drinks upon the board mr is always after half past ten and frequently to know whether he didn t say that no good would ever come of living in a comer house they whisper about miss and wonder where she is but agree that if mr don t know mrs s this brings them to the latter of whom cook says she had a stately way though hadn t she but she was too high they all agree that she was too high and mr s old flame the who is very virtuous that you will never talk to her any more about people who holds their heads up as if the ground wasn t good enough for em everything that is said and done about it except by mr is done in chorus mr and the world are alone together and son chapter secret good mrs brown and her daughter kept silent � any together in their own dwelling it was early in the evening and late in the spring but a few days had elapsed since had told major of his singular intelligence singularly obtained which might turn out to be and might turn out to be true and the world was not satisfied yet the mother and daughter sat for a long time without changing a word almost without motion the old woman s face was anxious and expectant that of her daughter was expectant too but in a less sharp degree and sometimes it darkened as if with gathering disappointment and incredulity the old woman without these changes in its expression though her eyes were often turned towards it sat and and listening their abode though poor and miserable was not so utterly wretched as in the days when only good mrs brown inhabited it some few attempts at cleanliness and order were manifest though made in a reckless way that might have connected them at a glance with the younger woman the shades of evening and deepened as the two kept silence until tlie blackened walls were nearly lost in the prevailing gloom 