As for Sebastian del Piombo
there, you would judge for yourself; if it were not his later
manner, the question was, Who was it? Titian, that might or might not
be--perhaps he had only touched it. Daniel Doyce said perhaps he hadn't
touched it, but Mr Meagles rather declined to overhear the remark.
When he had shown all his spoils, Mr Meagles took them into his own
snug room overlooking the lawn, which was fitted up in part like a
dressing-room and in part like an office, and in which, upon a kind of
counter-desk, were a pair of brass scales for weighing gold, and a scoop
for shovelling out money. 'Here they are, you see,' said Mr Meagles. 'I stood behind these two
articles five-and-thirty years running, when I no more thought of
gadding about than I now think of--staying at home. When I left the Bank
for good, I asked for them, and brought them away with me.
I mention it at once, or you might suppose that I sit in my
counting-house (as Pet says I do), like the king in the poem of the
four-and-twenty blackbirds, counting out my money.'
Clennam's eyes had strayed to a natural picture on the wall, of two
pretty little girls with their arms entwined. 'Yes, Clennam,' said
Mr Meagles, in a lower voice. 'There they both are. It was taken some
seventeen years ago. As I often say to Mother, they were babies then.' 'Their names?' said Arthur. 'Ah, to be sure! You have never heard any name but Pet. Pet's name is
Minnie; her sister's Lillie.'
'Should you have known, Mr Clennam, that one of them was meant for me?'
asked Pet herself, now standing in the doorway.
'I might have thought that both of them were meant for you, both
are still so like you. Indeed,' said Clennam, glancing from the fair
original to the picture and back, 'I cannot even now say which is not
your portrait.' 'D'ye hear that, Mother?' cried Mr Meagles to his wife,
who had followed her daughter. 'It's always the same, Clennam; nobody
can decide. The child to your left is Pet.'
The picture happened to be near a looking-glass. As Arthur looked at
it again, he saw, by the reflection of the mirror, Tattycoram stop in
passing outside the door, listen to what was going on, and pass away
with an angry and contemptuous frown upon her face, that changed its
beauty into ugliness. 'But come!' said Mr Meagles. 'You have had a long walk, and will be glad
to get your boots off. As to Daniel here, I suppose he'd never think of
taking his boots off, unless we showed him a boot-jack.'