with a power for good
or for evil in Society, should become, as it were, merged in the superior power
of a more legitimate and more gigantic growth, the influence of which (as in the
case of our friend, at whose board we sat) was habitually exercised in harmony
with the best interests of Society. Thus, instead of two rival and contending
flames, a larger and a lesser, each burning with a lurid and uncertain glare, we
had a blended and a softened light whose genial ray diffused an equable warmth
throughout the land. Bishop seemed to like his own way of putting the case very
much, and rather dwelt upon it; Bar, meanwhile (not to throw away a juryman),
making a show of sitting at his feet and feeding on his precepts.
    The dinner and dessert being three hours long, the bashful Member cooled in
the shadow of Lord Decimus faster than he warmed with food and drink, and had
but a chilly time of it. Lord Decimus, like a tall tower in a flat country,
seemed to project himself across the table-cloth, hide the light from the
honourable Member, cool the honourable Member's marrow, and give him a woeful
idea of distance. When he asked this unfortunate traveller to take wine, he
encompassed his faltering steps with the gloomiest of shades; and when he said,
»Your health, sir!« all around him was barrenness and desolation.
    At length Lord Decimus, with a coffee-cup in his hand, began to hover about
among the pictures, and to cause an interesting speculation to arise in all
minds as to the probabilities of his ceasing to hover, and enabling the smaller
birds to flutter up-stairs; which could not be done until he had urged his noble
pinions in that direction. After some delay, and several stretches of his wings
which came to nothing, he soared to the drawing-rooms.
    And here a difficulty arose, which always does arise, when two people are
specially brought together at a dinner to confer with one another. Everybody
(except Bishop, who had no suspicion of it) knew perfectly well that this dinner
had been eaten and drunk, specifically to the end that Lord Decimus and Mr.
Merdle should have five minutes' conversation together. The opportunity so
elaborately prepared was now arrived, and it seemed from that moment that no
mere human ingenuity could so much as get the two chieftains into the same room.
Mr. Merdle and his noble guest persisted in prowling about at opposite ends of
the perspective. It was in vain for the engaging Ferdinand