 all her relations and friends.
    »Visitors for Miss Pinch!« said the footman. He must have been an ingenious
young man, for he said it very cleverly: with a nice discrimination between the
cold respect with which he would have announced visitors to the family, and the
warm personal interest with which he would have announced visitors to the cook.
    »Visitors for Miss Pinch!«
    Miss Pinch rose hastily; with such tokens of agitation as plainly declared
that her list of callers was not numerous. At the same time, the little pupil
became alarmingly upright, and prepared herself to take mental notes of all that
might be said and done. For the lady of the establishment was curious in the
natural history and habits of the animal called Governess, and encouraged her
daughters to report thereon whenever occasion served; which was, in reference to
all parties concerned, very laudable, improving, and pleasant.
    It is a melancholy fact; but it must be related, that Mr. Pinch's sister was
not at all ugly. On the contrary, she had a good face; a very mild and
prepossessing face; and a pretty little figure - slight and short, but
remarkable for its neatness. There was something of her brother, much of him
indeed, in a certain gentleness of manner, and in her look of timid
trustfulness; but she was so far from being a fright, or a dowdy, or a horror,
or anything else, predicted by the two Miss Pecksniffs, that those young ladies
naturally regarded her with great indignation, feeling that this was by no means
what they had come to see.
    Miss Mercy, as having the larger share of gaiety, bore up the best against
this disappointment, and carried it off, in outward show at least, with a
titter; but her sister, not caring to hide her disdain, expressed it pretty
openly in her looks. As to Mrs. Todgers, she leaned on Mr. Pecksniff's arm and
preserved a kind of genteel grimness, suitable to any state of mind, and
involving any shade of opinion.
    »Don't be alarmed, Miss Pinch,« said Mr. Pecksniff, taking her hand
condescendingly in one of his, and patting it with the other. »I have called to
see you, in pursuance of a promise given to your brother, Thomas Pinch. My name
- compose yourself, Miss Pinch - is Pecksniff.«
    The good man emphasised these words as though he would have said, »You see
in me, young person, the benefactor of your race; the patron of
