It was agreed that they should move into a good house in a good neighbourhood, and that a visit should be paid to Mr. Wilfer at once.  Mrs. Wilfer received them with a tragic air.

“Mrs. Boffin and me, ma’am,” said Mr. Boffin, “are plain people, and we make this call to say we shall be glad to have the honour and pleasure of your daughter’s acquaintance, and that we shall be rejoiced if your daughter will come to consider our house in the light of her home equally with this.”

“I am much obliged to you—­I am sure,” said Miss Bella, coldly shaking her curls, “but I doubt if I have the inclination to go out at all.”

“Bella,” Mrs. Wilfer admonished her solemnly, “you must conquer this!”

“Yes, do what your ma says, and conquer it, my dear,” urged Mrs. Boffin, “because we shall be so glad to have you, and because you are much too pretty to keep yourself shut up.”

With that Mrs. Boffin gave her a kiss, which Bella frankly returned; and it was settled that Bella should be sent for as soon as they were ready to receive her.

“By the bye, ma’am,” said Mr. Boffin, as he was leaving, “you have a lodger?”

“A gentleman,” Mrs. Wilfer answered, “undoubtedly occupies our first floor.”

“I may call him our mutual friend,” said Mr. Boffin.  “What sort of fellow is our mutual friend, now?  Do you like him?”

“Mr. Rokesmith is very punctual, very quiet—­a very eligible inmate.”

The Boffins drove away, and Mr. Rokesmith, coming to the Bower, extricated Mr. Boffin from a mass of disordered papers, and gave such satisfaction that his services were accepted, and he took up the secretaryship.

II.—­The Golden Dustman Deteriorates

Miss Bella Wilfer was conscious that she was growing mercenary.  She admitted as much to her father.  There were several other secrets she had to impart beyond her own lack of improvement.

“Mr. Rokesmith has made an offer to me, pa, and I told him I thought it a betrayal of trust on his part, and an affront to me.  Mrs. Boffin has herself told me, with her own kind lips, that they wish to see me well married; and that when I marry, with their consent, they will portion me most handsomely.  That is another secret.  And now there is only one more, and it is very hard to tell it.  But Mr. Boffin is being spoilt by prosperity, and is changing for the worse every day.  Not to me—­he is always the same to me—­but to others about him.  He grows suspicious, hard, and unjust.  If ever a good man were ruined by good fortune, it is my benefactor.”

Bella parted from her father, and returned to the Boffins, to find fresh proofs of the deterioration of the Golden Dustman.

“Now, Rokesmith,” Mr. Boffin was saying, “it’s time to settle about your wages.  A man of property like me is bound to consider the market price.  If I pay for a sheep, I buy it out and out.  Similarly, if I pay for a secretary, I buy him out and out.  It’s convenient to have you at all times ready on the premises.”