(I never was able to do more than taste it) I never could go through with what I sometimes have to do. 'Mrs. Harris,' I says, at the very last case as ever I acted in, which it was but a young person; 'Mrs. Harris,' I says, 'leave the bottle on the chimley-piece, and don't ask me to take none, but let me put my lips to it when I am so dispoged, and then I will do what I'm engaged to do, according to the best of my ability.' 'Mrs. Gamp,' she says, in answer, 'if ever there was a sober creetur to be got at eighteen pence a day for working people, and three and six for gentlefolks—night watching,'" said Mrs. Gamp, with emphasis, "'being a extra charge—you are that inwalable person.' 'Mrs. Harris,' I says to her, 'don't name the charge, for if I could afford to lay all my feller creeturs out for nothink, I would gladly do it; sich is the love I bear 'em. But what I always says to them as has the management of matters, Mrs. Harris'"—here she kept her eye on Mr. Pecksniff—"'be they gents or be they ladies—is, don't ask me whether I won't take none, or whether I will, but leave the bottle on the chimley piece, and let me put my lips to it when I am so dispoged.'"
The conclusion of this affecting narrative brought them to the house. In the passage they encountered Mr. Mould the undertaker: a little elderly gentleman, bald, and in a suit of black; with a note-book in his hand, a massive gold watch-chain dangling from his fob, and a face in which a queer attempt at melancholy was at odds with a smirk of satisfaction; so that he looked as a man might who, in the very act of smacking his lips over choice old wine, tried to make believe it was physic.
"Well, Mrs. Gamp, and how are you, Mrs. Gamp?" said this gentleman, in a voice as soft as his step.
"Pretty well, I thank you, sir," dropping a curtsey.
"You 'll be very particular here, Mrs. Gamp. This is not a common case, Mrs. Gamp. Let everything be very nice and comfortable, Mrs. Gamp, if you please," said the undertaker, shaking his head with a solemn air.
"It shall be, sir," she replied, curtseying again. "You knows me of old, sir, I hope."
"I hope so, too, Mrs. Gamp," said the undertaker; "and I think so also." Mrs. Gamp curtseyed again. "This is one of the most impressive cases, sir," he continued, addressing Mr. Pecksniff, "that I have seen in the whole course of my professional experience."
"Indeed, Mr. Mould!" cried that gentleman.
"Such affectionate regret, sir, I never saw. There is no limitation—there is positively no limitation,"—opening his eyes wide, and standing on tiptoe, "in point of expense. I have orders, sir, to put on my whole establishment of mutes; and mutes come very dear, Mr. Pecksniff; not to mention their drink. To provide silver-plated handles of the very best description, ornamented with angels' heads from the most expensive dies. To be perfectly profuse in feathers. In short, sir, to turn out something absolutely gorgeous."
"My friend Mr. Jonas is an excellent man," said Mr. Pecksniff.
"I have seen a good deal of what is filial in my time, sir," retorted
