“Mr Tulliver says he always _will_ have a good dinner for his friends while he can pay for it,” she said; “and he’s a right to do as he likes in his own house, sister.” “Well, Bessy, _I_ can’t leave your children enough out o’ my savings to keep ’em from ruin. And you mustn’t look to having any o’ Mr Glegg’s money, for it’s well if I don’t go first,—he comes of a long-lived family; and if he was to die and leave me well for my life, he’d tie all the money up to go back to his own kin.” The sound of wheels while Mrs Glegg was speaking was an interruption highly welcome to Mrs Tulliver, who hastened out to receive sister Pullet; it must be sister Pullet, because the sound was that of a four-wheel. Mrs Glegg tossed her head and looked rather sour about the mouth at the thought of the “four-wheel.” She had a strong opinion on that subject. Sister Pullet was in tears when the one-horse chaise stopped before Mrs Tulliver’s door, and it was apparently requisite that she should shed a few more before getting out; for though her husband and Mrs Tulliver stood ready to support her, she sat still and shook her head sadly, as she looked through her tears at the vague distance. “Why, whativer is the matter, sister?” said Mrs Tulliver. She was not an imaginative woman, but it occurred to her that the large toilet-glass in sister Pullet’s best bedroom was possibly broken for the second time. There was no reply but a further shake of the head, as Mrs Pullet slowly rose and got down from the chaise, not without casting a glance at Mr Pullet to see that he was guarding her handsome silk dress from injury. Mr Pullet was a small man, with a high nose, small twinkling eyes, and thin lips, in a fresh-looking suit of black and a white cravat, that seemed to have been tied very tight on some higher principle than that of mere personal ease. He bore about the same relation to his tall, good-looking wife, with her balloon sleeves, abundant mantle, and a large befeathered and beribboned bonnet, as a small fishing-smack bears to a brig with all its sails spread.