, »that it wouldn't do
twice,« and secondly, »that he wasn't worth it.« Fortified within this double
armour, Mr. Pancks snorted at Miss Rugg on easy terms.
    Up to this time, Mr. Pancks had transacted little or no business at his
quarters in Pentonville, except in the sleeping line; but now that he had become
a fortune-teller, he was often closeted after midnight with Mr. Rugg in his
little front-parlour office, and even after those untimely hours, burnt tallow
in his bedroom. Though his duties as his proprietor's grubber were in no wise
lessened; and though that service bore no greater resemblance to a bed of roses
than was to be discovered in its many thorns; some new branch of industry made a
constant demand upon him. When he cast off the Patriarch at night, it was only
to take an anonymous craft in tow, and labour away afresh in other waters.
    The advance from a personal acquaintance with the elder Mr. Chivery, to an
introduction to his amiable wife and disconsolate son, may have been easy; but
easy or not, Mr. Pancks soon made it. He nestled in the bosom of the tobacco
business within a week or two after his first appearance in the College, and
particularly addressed himself to the cultivation of a good understanding with
Young John. In this endeavour he so prospered as to lure that pining shepherd
forth from the groves, and tempt him to undertake mysterious missions; on which
he began to disappear at uncertain intervals for as long a space as two or three
days together. The prudent Mrs. Chivery, who wondered greatly at this change,
would have protested against it as detrimental to the Highland typification on
the doorpost, but for two forcible reasons; one, that her John was roused to
take strong interest in the business which these starts were supposed to advance
- and this she held to be good for his drooping spirits; the other, that Mr.
Pancks confidentially agreed to pay her, for the occupation of her son's time,
at the handsome rate of seven and sixpence per day. The proposal originated with
himself, and was couched in the pithy terms, »If your John is weak enough,
ma'am, not to take it, that is no reason why you should be, don't you see? So,
quite between ourselves, ma'am, business being business, here it is!«
    What Mr. Chivery thought of these things, or how much or how little he knew
about them, was never