But now, in sheer wonder and amazement at these mysteries, she withdrew at once, and repairing straightway to her own little parlour below stairs, sat down in her easy-chair with unnatural composure.
At this very crisis, a step was heard in the entry, and Mr Pecksniff, looking sweetly over the half-door of the bar, and into the vista of snug privacy beyond, murmured: 'Good evening, Mrs Lupin!' 'Oh dear me, sir!' she cried, advancing to receive him, 'I am so very glad you have come.' 'And I am very glad I have come,' said Mr Pecksniff, 'if I can be of service.

I am very glad I have come.

What is the matter, Mrs Lupin ?' 'A gentleman taken ill upon the road, has been so very bad upstairs, sir,' said the tearful hostess.
'A gentleman taken ill upon the road, has been so very bad upstairs, has he ?' repeated Mr Pecksniff.

'Well, well!' Now there was nothing that one may call decidedly original in this remark, nor can it be exactly said to have contained any wise precept theretofore unknown to mankind, or to have opened any hidden source of consolation; but Mr Pecksniff's manner was so bland, and he nodded his head so soothingly, and showed in everything such an affable sense of his own excellence, that anybody would have been, as Mrs Lupin was, comforted by the mere voice and presence of such a man; and, though he had merely said 'a verb must agree with its nominative case in number and person, my good friend,' or 'eight times eight are sixty-four, my worthy soul,' must have felt deeply grateful to him for his humanity and wisdom.
'And how,' asked Mr Pecksniff, drawing off his gloves and warming his hands before the fire, as benevolently as if they were somebody else's, not his; 'and how is he now ?' 'He is better, and quite tranquil,' answered Mrs Lupin.
'He is better, and quite tranquil,' said Mr Pecksniff.

'Very well! Ve-ry well!' Here again, though the statement was Mrs Lupin's and not Mr Pecksniff's, Mr Pecksniff made it his own and consoled her with it.