 me. But you had better ask Edward if
you want to know.«
    »I wonder he doesn't call,« said Little Dorrit, after thinking a moment.
    »My dear Amy, your wonder will soon cease, if I am rightly informed. I
should not be at all surprised if he called to-day. The creature has only been
waiting to get his courage up, I suspect.«
    »Will you see him?«
    »Indeed, my darling,« said Fanny, »that's just as it may happen. Here he is
again. Look at him. O, you simpleton!«
    Mr. Sparkler had, undeniably, a weak appearance; with his eye in the window
like a knot in the glass, and no reason on earth for stopping his bark suddenly,
except the real reason.
    »When you asked me if I will see him, my dear,« said Fanny, almost as well
composed in the graceful indifference of her attitude as Mrs. Merdle herself,
»what do you mean?«
    »I mean,« said Little Dorrit - »I think I rather mean what do you mean, dear
Fanny?«
    Fanny laughed again, in a manner at once condescending, arch, and affable;
and said, putting her arm round her sister in a playfully affectionate way:
    »Now tell me, my little pet. When we saw that woman at Martigny, how did you
think she carried it off? Did you see what she decided on in a moment?«
    »No, Fanny.«
    »Then I'll tell you, Amy. She settled with herself, now I'll never refer to
that meeting under such different circumstances, and I'll never pretend to have
any idea that these are the same girls. That's her way out of a difficulty. What
did I tell you, when we came away from Harley Street that time? She is as
insolent and false as any woman in the world. But in the first capacity, my
love, she may find people who can match her.«
    A significant turn of the Spanish fan towards Fanny's bosom, indicated with
great expression where one of these people was to be found.
    »Not only that,« pursued Fanny, »but she gives the same charge to Young
Sparkler; and doesn't let him come after me until she has got it thoroughly into
his most ridiculous of all ridiculous noddles (for one really can't call it a
head), that he is to pretend to have been first
