 it, or
let it alone. One or the other.«
    »Hum! The question, my dear friend,« said Mr. Pecksniff, laying his hand
tenderly upon his kinsman's knee, »is involved with many considerations. What
would I give them? Eh?«
    »Ah! what would you give 'em?« repeated Jonas.
    »Why, that,« said Mr. Pecksniff, »would naturally depend in a great measure
upon the kind of husbands they might choose, my dear young friend.«
    Mr. Jonas was evidently disconcerted, and at a loss how to proceed. It was a
good answer. It seemed a deep one, but such is the wisdom of simplicity!
    »My standard for the merits I would require in a son-in-law,« said Mr.
Pecksniff, after a short silence, »is a high one. Forgive me, my dear Mr.
Jonas,« he added, greatly moved, »if I say that you have spoiled me, and made it
a fanciful one; an imaginative one; a prismatically tinged one, if I may be
permitted to call it so.«
    »What do you mean by that?« growled Jonas, looking at him with increased
disfavour.
    »Indeed, my dear friend,« said Mr. Pecksniff, »you may well inquire. The
heart is not always a royal mint, with patent machinery, to work its metal into
current coin. Sometimes it throws it out in strange forms, not easily recognised
as coin at all. But it is sterling gold. It has at least that merit. It is
sterling gold.«
    »Is it?« grumbled Jonas, with a doubtful shake of the head.
    »Ay!« said Mr. Pecksniff, warming with his subject, »it is. To be plain with
you, Mr. Jonas, if I could find two such sons-in-law as you will one day make to
some deserving man, capable of appreciating a nature such as yours, I would -
forgetful of myself - bestow upon my daughters portions reaching to the very
utmost limit of my means.«
    This was strong language, and it was earnestly delivered. But who can wonder
that such a man as Mr. Pecksniff, after all he had seen and heard of Mr. Jonas,
should be strong and earnest upon such a theme; a theme that touched even the
worldly lips of undertakers with the honey of eloquence!
    Mr. Jonas was silent, and looked thoughtfully at the landscape. For they
were seated on the
