and lace; what are they?
Men. Mere men. Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of
coat and waistcoat than some people imagine.
    Mr. Bumble had married Mrs. Corney, and was master of the workhouse. Another
beadle had come into power. On him the cocked-hat, gold-laced coat, and staff,
had all three descended.
    »And to-morrow two months it was done!« said Mr. Bumble, with a sigh. »It
seems a age.«
    Mr. Bumble might have meant that he had concentrated a whole existence of
happiness into the short space of eight weeks; but the sigh - there was a vast
deal of meaning in the sigh.
    »I sold myself,« said Mr. Bumble, pursuing the same train of reflection,
»for six teaspoons, a pair of sugar-tongs, and a milk-pot; with a small quantity
of second-hand furniture, and twenty pound in money. I went very reasonable.
Cheap, dirt cheap!«
    »Cheap!« cried a shrill voice in Mr. Bumble's ear: »you would have been dear
at any price; and dear enough I paid for you, Lord above knows that!«
    Mr. Bumble turned, and encountered the face of his interesting consort, who,
imperfectly comprehending the few words she had overheard of his complaint, had
hazarded the foregoing remark at a venture.
    »Mrs. Bumble, ma'am!« said Mr. Bumble, with sentimental sternness.
    »Well!« cried the lady.
    »Have the goodness to look at me,« said Mr. Bumble, fixing his eyes upon
her. (»If she stands such a eye as that,« said Mr. Bumble to himself, »she can
stand anything. It is a eye I never knew to fail with paupers. If it fails with
her, my power is gone.«)
    Whether an exceedingly small expansion of eye be sufficient to quell
paupers, who, being lightly fed, are in no very high condition; or whether the
late Mrs. Corney was particularly proof against eagle glances; are matters of
opinion. The matter of fact is, that the matron was in no way overpowered by Mr.
Bumble's scowl, but, on the contrary, treated it with great disdain, and even
raised a laugh thereat, which sounded as though it were genuine.
    On hearing this most unexpected sound, Mr. Bumble looked, first incredulous,
and afterwards amazed. He then relapsed into his former state