 »when I take my chamber candlestick
to-night, remind me to be more than usually particular in praying for Mr.
Anthony Chuzzlewit; who has done me an injustice.«
    This was said in a very bland voice, and aside, as being addressed to his
daughter's private ear. With a cheerfulness of conscience, prompting almost a
sprightly demeanour, he then resumed:
    »All our thoughts centring in our very dear, but unkind relative, and he
being as it were beyond our reach, we are met to-day, really as if we were a
funeral party, except - a blessed exception - that there is no Body in the
house.«
    The strong-minded lady was not at all sure that this was a blessed
exception. Quite the contrary.
    »Well, my dear madam!« said Mr. Pecksniff. »Be that as it may, here we are;
and being here, we are to consider whether it is possible by any justifiable
means -«
    »Why, you know as well as I,« said the strong-minded lady, »that any means
are justifiable in such a case, don't you?«
    »Very good, my dear madam, very good; whether it is possible by any means,
we will say by any means, to open the eyes of our valued relative to his present
infatuation. Whether it is possible to make him acquainted by any means with the
real character and purpose of that young female whose strange, whose very
strange position, in reference to himself,« here Mr. Pecksniff sunk his voice to
an impressive whisper, »really casts a shadow of disgrace and shame upon this
family; and who, we know,« here he raised his voice again, »else why is she his
companion? harbours the very basest designs upon his weakness and his property.«
    In their strong feeling on this point, they, who agreed in nothing else, all
concurred as one mind. Good Heaven, that she should harbour designs upon his
property! The strong-minded lady was for poison, her three daughters were for
Bridewell and bread-and-water, the cousin with the toothache advocated Botany
Bay, the two Miss Pecksniffs suggested flogging. Nobody but Mr. Tigg, who,
notwithstanding his extreme shabbiness, was still understood to be in some sort
a lady's man, in right of his upper lip and his frogs, indicated a doubt of the
justifiable nature of these measures; and he only ogled the three Miss
Chuzzlewits with the least admixture of banter in his admiration,
