'I know,' returned Mrs Merdle, 'that you receive the best in the land. I
know that you move in the whole Society of the country. And I believe
I know (indeed, not to make any ridiculous pretence about it, I know I
know) who sustains you in it, Mr Merdle.'
'Mrs Merdle,' retorted that gentleman, wiping his dull red and yellow
face, 'I know that as well as you do. If you were not an ornament to
Society, and if I was not a benefactor to Society, you and I would never
have come together. When I say a benefactor to it, I mean a person who
provides it with all sorts of expensive things to eat and drink and look
at. But, to tell me that I am not fit for it after all I have done
for it--after all I have done for it,' repeated Mr Merdle, with a wild
emphasis that made his wife lift up her eyelids, 'after all--all!--to
tell me I have no right to mix with it after all, is a pretty reward.'
'I say,' answered Mrs Merdle composedly, 'that you ought to make
yourself fit for it by being more degage, and less preoccupied. There is
a positive vulgarity in carrying your business affairs about with you as
you do.' 'How do I carry them about, Mrs Merdle?' asked Mr Merdle.
'How do you carry them about?' said Mrs Merdle. 'Look at yourself in the
glass.' Mr Merdle involuntarily turned his eyes in the direction of the nearest
mirror, and asked, with a slow determination of his turbid blood to his
temples, whether a man was to be called to account for his digestion?
'You have a physician,' said Mrs Merdle. 'He does me no good,' said Mr Merdle. Mrs Merdle changed her ground. 'Besides,' said she, 'your digestion is nonsense. I don't speak of your
digestion. I speak of your manner.' 'Mrs Merdle,' returned her husband,
'I look to you for that. You supply manner, and I supply money.'
'I don't expect you,' said Mrs Merdle, reposing easily among her
cushions, 'to captivate people. I don't want you to take any trouble
upon yourself, or to try to be fascinating. I simply request you to care
about nothing--or seem to care about nothing--as everybody else does.' 'Do I ever say I care about anything?' asked Mr Merdle. 'Say? No! Nobody would attend to you if you did. But you show it.' 'Show what? What do I show?' demanded Mr Merdle hurriedly.