'Surely, surely,' returned Mr. Grewgious. 'You two should be of
one mind in all things. Is the young gentleman expected shortly?'
'He has gone away only this morning. He will be back at
Christmas.'
'Nothing could happen better. You will, on his return at
Christmas, arrange all matters of detail with him; you will then
communicate with me; and I will discharge myself (as a mere
business acquaintance) of my business responsibilities towards the
accomplished lady in the corner window. They will accrue at that
season.' Blurring pencil once again. 'Memorandum, "Leave." Yes.
I will now, my dear, take my leave.'
'Could I,' said Rosa, rising, as he jerked out of his chair in his
ungainly way: 'could I ask you, most kindly to come to me at
Christmas, if I had anything particular to say to you?'
'Why, certainly, certainly,' he rejoined; apparently--if such a
word can be used of one who had no apparent lights or shadows about
him--complimented by the question. 'As a particularly Angular man,
I do not fit smoothly into the social circle, and consequently I
have no other engagement at Christmas-time than to partake, on the
twenty-fifth, of a boiled turkey and celery sauce with a--with a
particularly Angular clerk I have the good fortune to possess,
whose father, being a Norfolk farmer, sends him up (the turkey up),
as a present to me, from the neighbourhood of Norwich.
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