41/56 Bailey brings up the tea and coffee. There is a small cluster of admirers round Charity; but they are only those who cannot get near her sister. The youngest gentleman in company is pale, but collected, and still sits apart; for his spirit loves to hold communion with itself, and his soul recoils from noisy revellers. She has a consciousness of his presence and adoration. Have a care, Jinkins, ere you provoke a desperate man to frenzy! Mr Pecksniff had followed his younger friends upstairs, and taken a chair at the side of Mrs Todgers. |