"The idea!" said Miss Nupkins, forcing a tear of very scanty proportions into the corner of each eye; "the idea of my being made such a fool of!"
"Ah! you may thank your papa, my dear," said Mrs. Nupkins; "how have I implored and begged that man to inquire into the Captain's family connections; how have I urged and entreated him to take some decisive step! I am quite certain nobody would believe it—quite."
"But, my dear," said Mr. Nupkins.
"Don't talk to me, you aggravating thing, don't!" said Mrs. Nupkins. My love," said Mr. Nupkins, "you professed yourself very fond of Captain Fitz-Marshall. You have constantly asked him here, my dear, and you have lost no opportunity of introducing him elsewhere."
"Didn't I say so, Henrietta?" cried Mrs. Nupkins, appealing to her daughter, with the air of a much-injured female. "Didn't I say that your papa would turn round and lay all this at my door? Didn't I say so?" Here Mrs. Nupkins sobbed.
"Oh pa!" remonstrated Miss Nupkins. And here she sobbed too.
"Isn't it too much, when he has brought all this disgrace and ridicule upon us, to taunt me with being the cause of it?" exclaimed Mrs. Nupkins.
"How can we ever show ourselves in society!" said Miss Nupkins.
"How can we face the Porkenhams!" cried Mrs. Nupkins.
"Or the Griggs's!" cried Miss Nupkins.
"Or the Slummintowkens!" cried Mrs. Nupkins. "But what does your papa care! What is it to him!" At this dreadful reflection, Mrs. Nupkins wept with mental anguish, and Miss Nupkins followed on the same side.
Mrs. Nupkins's tears continued to gush forth, with great velocity, until she had gained a little time to think the matter over: when she decided, in her own mind, that the best thing to do would be to ask Mr. Pickwick and his friends to
