,«
returned his obliging client with an impatient gesture.
    »He's extremely pleasant!« cried the obsequious Sampson. »His acquaintance
with Natural History too is surprising. Quite a Buffoon, quite!«
    There is no doubt that Mr. Brass intended some compliment or other; and it
has been argued with show of reason that he would have said Buffon, but made use
of a superfluous vowel. Be this as it may, Quilp gave him no time for
correction, as he performed that office himself by more than tapping him on the
head with the handle of his umbrella.
    »Don't let's have any wrangling,« said Miss Sally, staying his hand. »I've
showed you that I know him, and that's enough.«
    »She's always foremost!« said the dwarf, patting her on the back and looking
contemptuously at Sampson. »I don't like Kit, Sally.«
    »Nor I,« rejoined Miss Brass.
    »Nor I,« said Sampson.
    »Why, that's right!« cried Quilp. »Half our work is done already. This Kit
is one of your honest people; one of your fair characters; a prowling prying
hound; a hypocrite; a double-faced, white-livered, sneaking spy; a crouching cur
to those that feed and coax him, and a barking yelping dog to all besides.«
    »Fearfully eloquent!« cried Brass with a sneeze. »Quite appalling!«
    »Come to the point,« said Miss Sally, »and don't talk so much.«
    »Right again!« exclaimed Quilp, with another contemptuous look at Sampson,
»always foremost! I say, Sally, he is a yelping, insolent dog to all besides,
and most of all, to me. In short, I owe him a grudge.«
    »That's enough, sir,« said Sampson.
    »No, it's not enough, sir,« sneered Quilp; »will you hear me out? Besides
that I owe him a grudge on that account, he thwarts me at this minute, and
stands between me and an end which might otherwise prove a golden one to us all.
Apart from that, I repeat that he crosses my humour, and I hate him. Now, you
know the lad, and can guess the rest. Devise your own means of putting him out
of my way, and execute them. Shall it be done?«
    »It shall, sir,« said Sampson
