ut
presuming to offer so simple a remedy to the consideration of so
profound a professor of the great healing art, he would venture to
inquire whether the strain, being by way of intricate calculations,
the spirits might not (humanly speaking) be restored to their tone by a
gentle and yet generous stimulant?

'Yes,' said the physician, 'yes, you are both right. But I may as well
tell you that I can find nothing the matter with Mr Merdle. He has
the constitution of a rhinoceros, the digestion of an ostrich, and
the concentration of an oyster. As to nerves, Mr Merdle is of a cool
temperament, and not a sensitive man: is about as invulnerable, I should
say, as Achilles. How such a man should suppose himself unwell without
reason, you may think strange. But I have found nothing the matter with
him. He may have some deep-seated recondite complaint. I can't say. I
only say, that at present I have not found it out.'

There was no shadow of Mr Merdle's complaint on the bosom now displaying
precious stones in rivalry with many similar superb jewel-stands; there
was no shadow of Mr Merdle's complaint on young Sparkler hovering about
the rooms, monomaniacally seeking any sufficiently ineligible young lady
with no nonsense about her; there was no shadow of Mr Merdle's complaint
on the Barnacles and Stiltstalkings, of whom whole colonies were
present; or on any of the company. Even on himself, its shadow was faint
enough as he moved about among the throng, receiving homage.

Mr Merdle's complaint. Society and he had so much to do with one another
in all things else, that it is hard to imagine his complaint, if he
had one, being solely his own affair. Had he that deep-seated recondite
complaint, and did any doctor find it out? Patience, in the meantime,
the shadow of the Marshalsea wall was a real darkening influence, and
could be seen on the Dorrit Family at any stage of the sun's course.

CHAPTER 22. A Puzzle

Mr Clennam did not increase in favour with the Father of the Marshalsea
in the ratio of his increasing visits. His obtuseness on the great
Testimonial question was not calculated to awaken admiration in the
paternal breast, but had rather a tendency to give offence in that
sensitive quarter, and to be regarded as a positive shortcoming in point
of gentlemanly feeling. An impression of disappointment, occasioned
by the discovery that Mr Clennam scarcely possessed that delicacy for
which, in the confidence of his n