 I was lost, I'll be
bound. Well! how do you find yourself by this time?«
    Miss Charity replied that she was quite well, and gave Mr. Jonas Chuzzlewit
her hand.
    »That's right,« said Mr. Jonas, »and you've got over the fatigues of the
journey, have you? I say. How's the other one?«
    »My sister is very well, I believe,« returned the young lady. »I have not
heard her complain of any indisposition, sir. Perhaps you would like to see her,
and ask her yourself?«
    »No, no, cousin!« said Mr. Jonas, sitting down beside her on the
window-seat. »Don't be in a hurry. There's no occasion for that, you know. What
a cruel girl you are!«
    »It's impossible for you to know,« said Cherry, »whether I am or not.«
    »Well, perhaps it is,« said Mr. Jonas. »I say! Did you think I was lost? You
haven't told me that.«
    »I didn't think at all about it,« answered Cherry.
    »Didn't you, though?« said Jonas, pondering upon this strange reply. »- Did
the other one?«
    »I am sure it's impossible for me to say what my sister may, or may not have
thought on such a subject,« cried Cherry. »She never said anything to me about
it, one way or other.«
    »Didn't she laugh about it?« inquired Jonas.
    »No. She didn't even laugh about it,« answered Charity.
    »She's a terrible one to laugh, an't she?« said Jonas, lowering his voice.
    »She is very lively,« said Cherry.
    »Liveliness is a pleasant thing - when it don't lead to spending money. An't
it?« asked Mr. Jonas.
    »Very much so, indeed,« said Cherry, with a demureness of manner that gave a
very disinterested character to her assent.
    »Such liveliness as yours I mean, you know,« observed Mr. Jonas, as he
nudged her with his elbow. »I should have come to see you before, but I didn't
know where you was. How quick you hurried off, that morning!«
    »I was amenable to my papa's directions,« said
