out again in triumph, with her boxes, and
all the purchases that could be squeezed out of a ten-pound note, which Mr.
Jellyby had found in the Docks I suppose, but which he at all events gave her.
What my guardian would not have given her, if we had encouraged him, it would be
difficult to say; but we thought it right to compound for no more than her
wedding-dress and bonnet. He agreed to this compromise; and if Caddy had ever
been happy in her life, she was happy when we sat down to work.
    She was clumsy enough with her needle, poor girl, and pricked her fingers as
much as she had been used to ink them. She could not help reddening a little,
now and then: partly with the smart, and partly with vexation at being able to
do no better; but she soon got over that, and began to improve rapidly. So, day
after day, she, and my darling, and my little maid Charley, and a milliner out
of the town, and I, sat hard at work, as pleasantly as possible.
    Over and above this, Caddy was very anxious »to learn housekeeping,« as she
said. Now, Mercy upon us! the idea of her learning housekeeping of a person of
my vast experience was such a joke, that I laughed, and coloured up, and fell
into a comical confusion when she proposed it. However, I said, »Caddy, I am
sure you are very welcome to learn anything that you can learn of me, my dear;«
and I showed her all my books and methods, and all my fidgety ways. You would
have supposed that I was showing her some wonderful inventions, by her study of
them; and if you had seen her, whenever I jingled my housekeeping keys, get up
and attend me, certainly you might have thought that there never was a greater
impostor than I, with a blinder follower than Caddy Jellyby.
    So, what with working and housekeeping, and lessons to Charley, and
backgammon in the evening with my guardian, and duets with Ada, the three weeks
slipped fast away. Then I went home with Caddy, to see what could be done there;
and Ada and Charley remained behind, to take care of my guardian.
    When I say I went home with Caddy, I mean to the furnished lodging in Hatton
Garden. We went to Newman Street two or three times, where preparations were in
progress too; a good many, I observed, for enhancing the comforts of