Mr Pancks was not slow to reply, with his usual calmness, ‘Indeed, ma’am! Bless my soul! I’m surprised to hear it.’ Despite his presence of mind, however, the speech of Mr F.‘s Aunt produced a depressing effect on the little assembly; firstly, because it was impossible to disguise that Clennam’s unoffending head was the particular temple of reason depreciated; and secondly, because nobody ever knew on these occasions whose Uncle George was referred to, or what spectral presence might be invoked under that appellation.
Therefore Flora said, though still not without a certain boastfulness and triumph in her legacy, that Mr F.‘s Aunt was ‘very lively to-day, and she thought they had better go.’ But Mr F.‘s Aunt proved so lively as to take the suggestion in unexpected dudgeon and declare that
