This may have been partially attributable to the
gallantry of the youngest gentleman, but it was certainly referable to
the state of his feelings also; for his eyes being frequently dimmed by
tears, he thought that aces were tens, and knaves queens, which at times
occasioned some confusion in his play.
On the seventh night of cribbage, when Mrs Todgers, sitting by, proposed
that instead of gambling they should play for 'love,' Mr Moddle was seen
to change colour. On the fourteenth night, he kissed Miss Pecksniff's
snuffers, in the passage, when she went upstairs to bed; meaning to have
kissed her hand, but missing it.
In short, Mr Moddle began to be impressed with the idea that Miss
Pecksniff's mission was to comfort him; and Miss Pecksniff began
to speculate on the probability of its being her mission to become
ultimately Mrs Moddle. He was a young gentleman (Miss Pecksniff was not
a very young lady) with rising prospects, and 'almost' enough to live
on. Really it looked very well.
Besides--besides--he had been regarded as devoted to Merry. Merry had
joked about him, and had once spoken of it to her sister as a conquest.
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