would not have wondered about it, and might have stated the
amount with the utmost precision.
 

                                  Chapter XIII

                          The Progress of an Epidemic.

That it is at least as difficult to stay a moral infection as a physical one;
that such a disease will spread with the malignity and rapidity of the Plague;
that the contagion, when it has once made head, will spare no pursuit or
condition, but will lay hold on people in the soundest health, and become
developed in the most unlikely constitutions; is a fact as firmly established by
experience as that we human creatures breathe an atmosphere. A blessing beyond
appreciation would be conferred upon mankind, if the tainted, in whose weakness
or wickedness these virulent disorders are bred, could be instantly seized and
placed in close confinement (not to say summarily smothered) before the poison
is communicable.
    As a vast fire will fill the air to a great distance with its roar, so the
sacred flame which the mighty Barnacles had fanned caused the air to resound
more and more, with the name of Merdle. It was deposited on every lip, and
carried into every ear. There never was, there never had been, there never again
should be, such a man as Mr. Merdle. Nobody, as aforesaid, knew what he had
done; but everybody knew him to be the greatest that had appeared.
    Down in Bleeding Heart Yard, where there was not one unappropriated
halfpenny, as lively an interest was taken in this paragon of men as on the
Stock Exchange. Mrs. Plornish, now established in the small grocery and general
trade in a snug little shop at the crack end of the Yard, at the top of the
steps, with her little old father and Maggy acting as assistants, habitually
held forth about him over the counter, in conversation with her customers. Mr.
Plornish, who had a small share in a small builder's business in the
neighbourhood, said, trowel in hand, on the tops of scaffolds and on the tiles
of houses, that people did tell him as Mr. Merdle was the one, mind you, to put
us all to rights in respects of that which all on us looked to, and to bring us
all safe home as much we needed, mind you, fur toe be brought. Mr. Baptist, sole
lodger of Mr. and Mrs. Plornish, was reputed in whispers to lay by the savings
which were the result of his simple and moderate life, for investment in one of
Mr. Merdle's certain enterprises. The female Bleeding Hearts, when they came for
ounces of tea