t to burn him that he
might forgive it, Arthur began:

'I beg your pardon, Mr Casby--'

'Not so, not so,' said the Patriarch, 'not so.'

'--But, Miss Wade had an attendant with her--a young woman brought up
by friends of mine, over whom her influence is not considered very
salutary, and to whom I should be glad to have the opportunity of giving
the assurance that she has not yet forfeited the interest of those
protectors.'

'Really, really?' returned the Patriarch.

'Will you therefore be so good as to give me the address of Miss Wade?'

'Dear, dear, dear!' said the Patriarch, 'how very unfortunate! If you
had only sent in to me when they were here! I observed the young woman,
Mr Clennam. A fine full-coloured young woman, Mr Clennam, with very dark
hair and very dark eyes. If I mistake not, if I mistake not?'

Arthur assented, and said once more with new expression, 'If you would
be so good as to give me the address.'

'Dear, dear, dear!' exclaimed the Patriarch in sweet regret. 'Tut, tut,
tut! what a pity, what a pity! I have no address, sir. Miss Wade mostly
lives abroad, Mr Clennam. She has done so for some years, and she is (if
I may say so of a fellow-creature and a lady) fitful and uncertain to a
fault, Mr Clennam. I may not see her again for a long, long time. I may
never see her again. What a pity, what a pity!'

Clennam saw now, that he had as much hope of getting assistance out of
the Portrait as out of the Patriarch; but he said nevertheless:

'Mr Casby, could you, for the satisfaction of the friends I have
mentioned, and under any obligation of secrecy that you may consider it
your duty to impose, give me any information at all touching Miss Wade?
I have seen her abroad, and I have seen her at home, but I know nothing
of her. Could you give me any account of her whatever?'

'None,' returned the Patriarch, shaking his big head with his utmost
benevolence. 'None at all. Dear, dear, dear! What a real pity that
she stayed so short a time, and you delayed! As confidential agency
business, agency business, I have occasionally paid this lady money; but
what satisfaction is it to you, sir, to know that?'

'Truly, none at all,' said Clennam.

'Truly,' assented the Patriarch, with a shining face as he
philanthropically smiled at the fire, 'none at all, sir. You hit the
wise answer, Mr Clennam. Truly, none at all, sir.' His turning of
his smooth thumbs over one another as he sat there, was so typical to