 said Dick, shaking his head with a look of infinite
wisdom, and running on (as he was accustomed to do) with scraps of verse as if
they were only prose in a hurry; »when the heart of a man is depressed with
fears, the mist is dispelled when Miss Wackles appears: she's a very nice girl.
She's like the red red rose that's newly sprung in June - there's no denying
that - she's also like a melody that's sweetly played in tune. It's really very
sudden. Not that there's any need, on account of Fred's little sister, to turn
cool directly, but it's better not to go too far. If I begin to cool at all I
must begin at once, I see that. There's the chance of an action for breach,
that's one reason. There's the chance of Sophy's getting another husband, that's
another. There's the chance of - no, there's no chance of that, but it's as well
to be on the safe side.«
    This undeveloped consideration was the possibility, which Richard Swiveller
sought to conceal even from himself, of his not being proof against the charms
of Miss Wackles, and in some unguarded moment, by linking his fortunes to hers
for ever, of putting it out of his own power to further the notable scheme to
which he had so readily become a party. For all these reasons, he decided to
pick a quarrel with Miss Wackles without delay, and casting about for a pretext,
determined in favour of groundless jealousy. Having made up his mind on this
important point, he circulated the glass (from his right hand to his left, and
back again) pretty freely, to enable him to act his part with the greater
discretion, and then, after making some slight improvements in his toilet, bent
his steps towards the spot hallowed by the fair object of his meditations.
    This spot was at Chelsea, for there Miss Sophia Wackles resided with her
widowed mother and two sisters, in conjunction with whom she maintained a very
small day-school for young ladies of proportionate dimensions; a circumstance
which was made known to the neighbourhood by an oval board over the front
first-floor window, whereon appeared, in circumambient flourishes, the words
»Ladies' Seminary;« and which was further published and proclaimed at intervals
between the hours of half-past nine and ten in the morning, by a straggling and
solitary young lady
