Presently Fanny and Pump
obligingly came to London, where the third was born.
'Polly was godmother to this, and who so loving as she and Pump now?
"Oh, Essex," says she to me, "he is so good, so generous, so fond of his
family; so handsome; who can help loving him, and pardoning his little
errors?" One day, while Mrs. Pump was yet in the upper regions, and
Doctor Fingerfee's brougham at her door every day, having business at
Guildhall, whom should I meet in Cheapside but Pump and Polly? The poor
girl looked more happy and rosy than I have seen her these twelve years.
Pump, on the contrary, was rather blushing and embarrassed.
'I couldn't be mistaken in her face and its look of mischief and
triumph. She had been committing some act of sacrifice. I went to the
family stockbroker. She had sold out two thousand pounds that morning
and given them to Pump. Quarrelling was useless--Pump had the money; he
was off to Dublin by the time I reached his mother's, and Polly radiant
still. He was going to make his fortune; he was going to embark the
money in the Bog of Allen--I don't know what. The fact is, he was going
to pay his losses upon the last Manchester steeple-chase, and I leave
you to imagine how much principal or interest poor Polly ever saw back
again.
'It was more than half her fortune, and he has had another thousand
since from her.
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