.«
    Clennam, with his former look, said »Ah!«
    »I am going back to it, you see,« said Pancks.
    »Yes. I see you are going back to it,« returned Clennam, wondering why.
    »Wasn't it a curious thing that they should run in little Altro's head? Eh?«
said Pancks as he smoked. »Wasn't that how you put it?«
    »That was what I said.«
    »Ay! But, think of the whole Yard having got it. Think of their all meeting
me with it, on my collecting days, here and there and everywhere. Whether they
pay, or whether they don't pay. Merdle, Merdle, Merdle. Always Merdle.«
    »Very strange how these runs on an infatuation prevail,« said Arthur.
    »An't it?« returned Pancks. After smoking for a minute or so, more drily
than comported with his recent oiling, he added: »Because you see these people
don't understand the subject.«
    »Not a bit,« assented Clennam.
    »Not a bit,« cried Pancks. »Know nothing of figures. Know nothing of money
questions. Never made a calculation. Never worked it, sir!«
    »If they had -« Clennam was going on to say; when Mr. Pancks, without change
of countenance, produced a sound so far surpassing all his usual efforts, nasal
or bronchial, that he stopped.
    »If they had?« repeated Pancks in an inquiring tone.
    »I thought you - spoke,« said Arthur, hesitating what name to give the
interruption.
    »Not at all,« said Pancks. »Not yet. I may in a minute. If they had?«
    »If they had,« observed Clennam, who was a little at a loss how to take his
friend, »why, I suppose they would have known better.«
    »How so, Mr. Clennam?« Pancks asked, quickly, and with an odd effect of
having been from the commencement of the conversation loaded with the heavy
charge he now fired off. »They're right, you know. They don't mean to be, but
they're right.«
    »Right in sharing Cavalletto's inclination to speculate with Mr. Merdle?«
    »Per-fectly, sir,« said Pancks. »I've gone into it. I've made the
calculations. I've worked it. They're safe and genuine
