She was so very severe.
'Who is severe?' cried a voice at the door. 'There is no such thing as
severity in our family, I hope!' And then Mr Pecksniff peeped smilingly
into the room, and said, 'May I come in, Mrs Todgers?'
Mrs Todgers almost screamed, for the little door of communication
between that room and the inner one being wide open, there was a full
disclosure of the sofa bedstead in all its monstrous impropriety. But
she had the presence of mind to close this portal in the twinkling of an
eye; and having done so, said, though not without confusion, 'Oh yes, Mr
Pecksniff, you can come in, if you please.'
'How are we to-day,' said Mr Pecksniff, jocosely, 'and what are our
plans? Are we ready to go and see Tom Pinch's sister? Ha, ha, ha! Poor
Thomas Pinch!'
'Are we ready,' returned Mrs Todgers, nodding her head with mysterious
intelligence, 'to send a favourable reply to Mr Jinkins's round-robin?
That's the first question, Mr Pecksniff.'
'Why Mr Jinkins's robin, my dear madam?' asked Mr Pecksniff, putting one
arm round Mercy, and the other round Mrs Todgers, whom he seemed, in the
abstraction of the moment, to mistake for Charity.
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