“It is because I am so grateful for the good opinion of all my friends, and am so touched by it, that I cannot bear to run the risk of forfeiting it in any case, even in the cause of duty. I have asked my husband (my dear Alfred, Mr. Boffin) whether it is the cause of duty, and he has most emphatically said Yes. I wish I had asked him sooner. It would have spared me much distress.”

(“Can this be more dropping down upon me!” thought Mr. Boffin, quite bewildered.)

“It was Alfred who sent me to you, Mr. Boffin. Alfred said, ‘Don’t come back, Sophronia, until you have seen Mr. Boffin, and told him all. Whatever he may think of it, he ought certainly to know it.’ Would you mind coming into the carriage?”

Mr. Boffin answered, “Not at all,” and took his seat at Mrs. Lammle’s side.

“Drive slowly anywhere,” Mrs. Lammle called to her coachman, “and don’t let the carriage rattle.”

“It must he more dropping down, I think,” said Mr. Boffin to himself. “What next?”