need be at no loss to guess why, my dear. That
dreadful Art -«
    True. Mrs. Merdle hastened to spare the feelings of her afflicted friend.
She understood. Say no more!
    »And that,« said Mrs. Gowan, shaking her despondent head, »that's all.
That,« repeated Mrs. Gowan, furling her green fan for the moment, and tapping
her chin with it (it was on the way to being a double chin; might be called a
chin and a half at present), »that's all! On the death of the old people, I
suppose there will be more to come; but how it may be restricted or locked up, I
don't know. And as to that, they may live for ever. My dear, they are just the
kind of people to do it.«
    Now, Mrs. Merdle, who really knew her friend Society pretty well, and who
knew what Society's mothers were, and what Society's daughters were, and what
Society's matrimonial market was, and how prices ruled in it, and what scheming
and counter-scheming took place for the high buyers, and what bargaining and
huckstering went on, thought in the depths of her capacious bosom that this was
a sufficiently good catch. Knowing, however, what was expected of her, and
perceiving the exact nature of the fiction to be nursed, she took it delicately
in her arms, and put her required contribution of gloss upon it.
    »And that is all, my dear?« said she, heaving a friendly sigh. »Well, well!
The fault is not yours. You have nothing to reproach yourself with. You must
exercise the strength of mind for which you are renowned, and make the best of
it.«
    »The girl's family have made,« said Mrs. Gowan, »of course, the most
strenuous endeavours to - as the lawyers say - to have and to hold Henry.«
    »Of course they have, my dear,« said Mrs. Merdle.
    »I have persisted in every possible objection, and have worried myself
morning, noon, and night, for means to detach Henry from the connection.«
    »No doubt you have, my dear,« said Mrs. Merdle.
    »And all of no use. All has broken down beneath me. Now tell me, my love. Am
I justified in at last yielding my most reluctant consent to Henry's marrying
among people not in Society; or, have