‘_Why really_,’ _said Mr. Crisparkle_, ‘_I am in great perplexity_. _If even Mr. Grewgious_, _whose head is much longer than mine_, _and who is a whole night’s cogitation in advance of me_, _is undecided_, _what must I be_!’ * * * * * _Am I agreed with generally in the views I take_?’ ‘_I entirely coincide with them_,’ _said Mr. Crisparkle_, _who had been very attentive_. ‘_As I have no doubt I should_,’ _added Mr. Tartar_, _smiling_, ‘_if I understood them_.’ ‘_Fair and softly_, _sir_,’ _said Mr. Grewgious_; ‘_we shall fully confide in you directly_, _if you will favour us with your permission_.’ * * * * * _I begin to understand to what you tend_,’ _said __Mr. Crisparkle_, ‘_and highly approve of your caution_.’ ‘_I needn’t repeat that I know nothing yet of the why and wherefore_,’ _said Mr. Tartar_; ‘_but I also understand to what you tend_, _so let me say at once that my chambers are freely at your disposal_.’ THE MANUSCRIPT I make also a few notes based on a careful examination of the manuscript. Certain passages are rewritten, and the result pasted over the original page. These passages have been noted. Also certain sentences have been altered in form, sometimes by the substitution of one word for another, and sometimes by the addition of words. It is not necessary to give every example, but a few may be noted. Towards the end of the second chapter the passage beginning ‘I have been taking opium for a pain,’ including the long paragraph which follows, has been entirely rewritten and pasted on. In the description of the Landlesses in chapter vi. Dickens made certain changes. As the sentence stands now it reads as follows: ‘An unusually handsome lithe young fellow, and an unusually handsome lithe girl; much alike; both very dark, and very rich in colour; she of almost the gipsy type; something untamed about them both; a certain air upon them of hunter and huntress; yet withal a certain air of being the objects of the chase, rather than the followers.’ As originally written it read thus: ‘A handsome young fellow, and a handsome girl; both dark and rich in colour; she quite gipsy like; something untamed about them both; a certain air upon them of hunter and huntress; yet a certain air of being the objects of the chase, rather than the followers.’