returned Mrs. Sparsit. ‘I hope you may be happy, Mr. Bounderby. Oh, indeed I hope you may be happy, sir!’ And she said it with such great condescension as well as with such great compassion for him, that Bounderby, — far more disconcerted than if she had thrown her workbox at the mirror, or swooned on the hearthrug, — corked up the smelling-salts tight in his pocket, and thought, ‘Now confound this woman, who could have even guessed that she would take it in this way!’

‘I wish with all my heart, sir,’ said Mrs. Sparsit, in a highly superior manner; somehow she seemed, in a moment, to have established a right to pity him ever afterwards; ‘that you may be in all respects very happy.’

‘Well, ma’am,’ returned