Chapter 13 - Page 2

Government; and a General he had been, and armies he had
marched again and victory crowned, if all you heard was to be
believed. That how it was reported that Mr Merdle's words had
been, that if they could have made it worth his while to take the
whole Government he would have took it without a profit, but that
take it he could not and stand a loss. That how it was not to be
expected, ma'am, that he should lose by it, his ways being, as you
might say and utter no falsehood, paved with gold; but that how it
was much to be regretted that something handsome hadn't been got up
to make it worth his while; for it was such and only such that
knowed the heighth to which the bread and butchers' meat had rose,
and it was such and only such that both could and would bring that
heighth down.

So rife and potent was the fever in Bleeding Heart Yard, that Mr
Pancks's rent-days caused no interval in the patients. The disease
took the singular form, on those occasions, of causing the infected
to find an unfathomable excuse and consolation in allusions to the
magic name.

'Now, then!' Mr Pancks would say, to a defaulting lodger. 'Pay up!

Come on!'

'I haven't got it, Mr Pancks,' Defaulter would reply. 'I tell you
the truth, sir, when I say I haven't got so much as a single
sixpence of it to bless myself with.'

'This won't do, you know,' Mr Pancks would retort. 'You don't
expect it will do; do you?'
Defaulter would admit, with a low-spirited 'No, sir,' having no
such expectation.

'My proprietor isn't going to stand this, you know,' Mr Pancks
would proceed. 'He don't send me here for this. Pay up! Come!'

The Defaulter would make answer, 'Ah, Mr Pancks. If I was the rich
gentleman whose name is in everybody's mouth--if my name was
Merdle, sir--I'd soon pay up, and be glad to do it.'

Dialogues on the rent-question usually took place at the house-
doors or in the entries, and in the presence of several deeply
interested Bleeding Hearts. They always received a reference of
this kind with a low murmur of response, as if it were convincing;
and the Defaulter, however black and discomfited before, always
cheered up a little in making it.

'If I was Mr Merdle, sir, you wouldn't have cause to complain of me
then. No, believe me!' the Defaulter would proceed with a shake of
the head. 'I'd pay up so quick then, Mr Pancks, that you shouldn't
have to ask me.'

The response would be heard again here, implying that it was
impossible to say anything fairer, and that this was the next thing
to paying the money down.

Mr Pancks would be now reduced to saying as he booked the case,
'Well! You'll have the broker in, and be turned out; that's
what'll happen to you.