BOOK THE FIRST: THE CUP AND THE LIP
Chapter 15: Two New Servants (continued)
'You remember, Wegg, when I first told you that I wanted to make
a sort of offer to you?'
'Let me get on my considering cap, sir,' replied that gentleman,
turning the open book face downward. 'When you first told me
that you wanted to make a sort of offer to me? Now let me think.'
(as if there were the least necessity) 'Yes, to be sure I do, Mr
Boffin. It was at my corner. To be sure it was! You had first
asked me whether I liked your name, and Candour had compelled
a reply in the negative case. I little thought then, sir, how familiar
that name would come to be!'
'I hope it will be more familiar still, Wegg.'
'Do you, Mr Boffin? Much obliged to you, I'm sure. Is it your
pleasure, sir, that we decline and we fall?' with a feint of taking up
the book.
'Not just yet awhile, Wegg. In fact, I have got another offer to
make you.'
Mr Wegg (who had had nothing else in his mind for several
nights) took off his spectacles with an air of bland surprise.
'And I hope you'll like it, Wegg.'
'Thank you, sir,' returned that reticent individual. 'I hope it may
prove so. On all accounts, I am sure.' (This, as a philanthropic
aspiration.)
'What do you think,' said Mr Boffin, 'of not keeping a stall,
Wegg?'
'I think, sir,' replied Wegg, 'that I should like to be shown the
gentleman prepared to make it worth my while!'
'Here he is,' said Mr Boffin.
Mr Wegg was going to say, My Benefactor, and had said My
Bene, when a grandiloquent change came over him.
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