 added
with some exultation,
    »But you may thank your fortunate stars - the same stars that made you Mrs.
Quilp - you may thank them that I'm upon the old gentleman's track, and have got
a new light. So let me hear no more about this matter, now, or at any other
time, and don't get anything too nice for dinner, for I shan't be home to it.«
    So saying, Mr. Quilp put his hat on and took himself off, and Mrs. Quilp who
was afflicted beyond measure by the recollection of the part she had just acted,
shut herself up in her chamber, and smothering her head in the bed-clothes
bemoaned her fault more bitterly than many less tender-hearted persons would
have mourned a much greater offence; for, in the majority of cases, conscience
is an elastic and very flexible article, which will bear a deal of stretching
and adapt itself to a great variety of circumstances. Some people by prudent
management and leaving it off piece by piece, like a flannel waistcoat in warm
weather, even contrive, in time, to dispense with it altogether; but there be
others who can assume the garment and throw it off at pleasure; and this, being
the greatest and most convenient improvement, is the one most in vogue.
 

                                  Chapter VII

»Fred,« said Mr. Swiveller, »remember the once popular melody of Begone dull
care; fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass
the rosy wine!«
    Mr. Richard Swiveller's apartments were in the neighbourhood of Drury Lane,
and in addition to this conveniency of situation had the advantage of being over
a tobacconist's shop, so that he was enabled to procure a refreshing sneeze at
any time by merely stepping out on the staircase, and was saved the trouble and
expense of maintaining a snuffbox. It was in these apartments that Mr. Swiveller
made use of the expressions above recorded, for the consolation and
encouragement of his desponding friend; and it may not be uninteresting or
improper to remark that even these brief observations partook in a double sense
of the figurative and poetical character of Mr. Swiveller's mind, as the rosy
wine was in fact represented by one glass of cold gin-and-water, which was
replenished, as occasion required, from a bottle and jug upon the table, and was
passed from one to another, in a scarcity of tumblers which, as Mr. Swiveller's
was a bachelor's establishment, may be acknowledged without a blush.
