I should live to be blind and deaf I know I
shall see and hear you, in my fancy, to the last of my dim old days!'

Mrs Boffin wept most heartily, and embraced her with all fondness; but
said not one single word except that she was her dear girl. She said
that often enough, to be sure, for she said it over and over again; but
not one word else.

Bella broke from her at length, and was going weeping out of the room,
when in her own little queer affectionate way, she half relented towards
Mr Boffin.

'I am very glad,' sobbed Bella, 'that I called you names, sir, because
you richly deserved it. But I am very sorry that I called you names,
because you used to be so different. Say good-bye!'

'Good-bye,' said Mr Boffin, shortly.

'If I knew which of your hands was the least spoilt, I would ask you
to let me touch it,' said Bella, 'for the last time. But not because I
repent of what I have said to you. For I don't. It's true!'

'Try the left hand,' said Mr Boffin, holding it out in a stolid manner;
'it's the least used.'

'You have been wonderfully good and kind to me,' said Bella, 'and I kiss
it for that. You have been as bad as bad could be to Mr Rokesmith, and I
throw it away for that. Thank you for myself, and good-bye!'

'Good-bye,' said Mr Boffin as before.

Bella caught him round the neck and kissed him, and ran out for ever.

She ran up-stairs, and sat down on the floor in her own room, and cried
abundantly. But the day was declining and she had no time to lose. She
opened all the places where she kept her dresses; selected only those
she had brought with her, leaving all the rest; and made a great
misshapen bundle of them, to be sent for afterwards.

'I won't take one of the others,' said Bella, tying the knots of the
bundle very tight, in the severity of her resolution. 'I'll leave all
the presents behind, and begin again entirely on my own account.' That
the resolution might be thoroughly carried into practice, she even
changed the dress she wore, for that in which she had come to the grand
mansion. Even the bonnet she put on, was the bonnet that had mounted
into the Boffin chariot at Holloway.

'Now, I am complete,' said Bella. 'It's a little trying, but I have
steeped my eyes in cold water, and I won't cry any more. You have been
a pleasant room to me, dear room. Adieu! We shall never see each other
again.'

With a parting kiss of her fingers to it, she softly closed the door and
went with a light