This casual repetition of the word personally, moved Mr. Dorrit to express
his hope that Mr. Merdle's approval, too, would not be wanting?
    »I cannot,« said Mrs. Merdle, »take upon myself to answer positively for Mr.
Merdle; gentlemen, especially gentlemen who are what Society calls capitalists,
having their own ideas of these matters. But I should think - merely giving an
opinion, Mr. Dorrit - I should think Mr. Merdle would be upon the whole,« here
she held a review of herself before adding at her leisure, »quite charmed.«
    At the mention of gentlemen whom Society called capitalists, Mr. Dorrit had
coughed, as if some internal demur were breaking out of him. Mrs. Merdle had
observed it, and went on to take up the cue.
    »Though, indeed, Mr. Dorrit, it is scarcely necessary for me to make that
remark, except in the mere openness of saying what is uppermost to one whom I so
highly regard, and with whom I hope I may have the pleasure of being brought
into still more agreeable relations. For, one cannot but see the great
probability of your considering such things from Mr. Merdle's own point of view,
except indeed that circumstances have made it Mr. Merdle's accidental fortune,
or misfortune, to be engaged in business transactions, and that they, however
vast, may a little cramp his horizon. I am a very child as to having any notion
of business,« said Mrs. Merdle; »but I am afraid, Mr. Dorrit, it may have that
tendency.«
    This skilful see-saw of Mr. Dorrit and Mrs. Merdle, so that each of them
sent the other up, and each of them sent the other down, and neither had the
advantage, acted as a sedative on Mr. Dorrit's cough. He remarked with his
utmost politeness, that he must beg to protest against its being supposed, even
by Mrs. Merdle, the accomplished and graceful (to which compliment she bent
herself), that such enterprises as Mr. Merdle's, apart as they were from the
puny undertakings of the rest of men, had any lower tendency than to enlarge and
expand the genius in which they were conceived. »You are generosity itself,«
said Mrs. Merdle in return, smiling her best smile; »let us hope so. But I
confess I am almost superstitious in my ideas about business.«
    Mr. Dorrit threw in another compliment here, to the effect that business,