 all brushed off his forehead, and stood
bolt upright, or slightly drooped in kindred action with his heavy eyelids. So
did his person, which was sleek though free from corpulency. So did his manner,
which was soft and oily. In a word, even his plain black suit, and state of
widower, and dangling double eyeglass, all tended to the same purpose, and cried
aloud, »Behold the moral Pecksniff!«
    The brazen plate upon the door (which being Mr. Pecksniff's, could not lie)
bore this inscription, »PECKSNIFF, ARCHITECT,« to which Mr. Pecksniff, on his
cards of business, added, »AND LAND SURVEYOR.« In one sense, and only one, he
may be said to have been a Land Surveyor on a pretty large scale, as an
extensive prospect lay stretched out before the windows of his house. Of his
architectural doings, nothing was clearly known, except that he had never
designed or built anything; but it was generally understood that his knowledge
of the science was almost awful in its profundity.
    Mr. Pecksniff's professional engagements, indeed, were almost, if not
entirely, confined to the reception of pupils; for the collection of rents, with
which pursuit he occasionally varied and relieved his graver toils, can hardly
be said to be a strictly architectural employment. His genius lay in ensnaring
parents and guardians, and pocketing premiums. A young gentleman's premium being
paid, and the young gentleman come to Mr. Pecksniff's house, Mr. Pecksniff
borrowed his case of mathematical instruments (if silver-mounted or otherwise
valuable); entreated him, from that moment, to consider himself one of the
family; complimented him highly on his parents or guardians, as the case might
be; and turned him loose in a spacious room on the two-pair front; where, in the
company of certain drawing-boards, parallel rulers, very stiff-legged compasses,
and two, or perhaps three, other young gentlemen, he improved himself, for three
or five years, according to his articles, in making elevations of Salisbury
Cathedral from every possible point of sight; and in constructing in the air a
vast quantity of Castles, Houses of Parliament, and other Public Buildings.
Perhaps in no place in the world were so many gorgeous edifices of this class
erected as under Mr. Pecksniff's auspices; and if but one-twentieth part of the
churches which were built in that front room, with one or other of the Miss
Pecksniffs at the altar in the act of marrying
