"Very good; tell her to stay there till he comes back." And then
Miss Shum went bouncing up the stairs again, little knowing of
Haltamont's return.

. . . . . .

I'd long before observed that my master had an anchoring after Mary
Shum; indeed, as I have said, it was purely for her sake that he
took and kep his lodgings at Pentonwille. Excep for the sake of
love, which is above being mersnary, fourteen shillings a wick was
a LITTLE too strong for two such rat-holes as he lived in. I do
blieve the famly had nothing else but their lodger to live on: they
brekfisted off his tea-leaves, they cut away pounds and pounds of
meat from his jints (he always dined at home), and his baker's bill
was at least enough for six. But that wasn't my business. I saw
him grin, sometimes, when I laid down the cold bif of a morning, to
see how little was left of yesterday's sirline; but he never said a
syllabub: for true love don't mind a pound of meat or so hextra.

At first, he was very kind and attentive to all the gals; Miss
Betsy, in partickler, grew mighty fond of him: they sat, for whole
evenings, playing cribbitch, he taking his pipe and glas, she her
tea and muffing; but as it was improper for her to come alone, she
brought one of her sisters, and this was genrally Mary,--for he
made a pint of asking her, too,--and one day, when one of the
others came instead, he told her, very quitely, that he hadn't
invited her; and Miss Buckmaster was too fond of muffings to try
this game on again: besides, she was jealous of her three grown
sisters, and considered Mary as only a child. Law bless us! how