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As she said "your accounts and so forth," she looked at the table

from which Mr Aylett had arisen to set a chair for her There was a

pile of account-books at the side against the wall, but they were

shut, and over heaped by pamphlets and newspapers; while before the

owner's seat lay an open portfolio, an unfinished letter within it

Winston wiped his pen with deliberation, closed the portfolio,

snapped to the spring-top of his inkstand, and finally wheeled his

office chair away from the desk to face his visitor

"Is it upon business that you wish to speak to me?"

He always disdained circumlocution, prided himself upon the

directness and simplicity of his address This acted now as a

dissuasive to the sentimental address Mrs Sutton hadthe flinty walls behind which his social affections

and sympathies were supposed to be intrenched Had her mission been

in behalf of any other cause, she would have drawn off her forces

upon sonoht of Mabel's bashfulness and solicitude, and Frederic's

strangerhood, she stood to her guns

Winston heard her story, from the not very coherent preamble, to the

warm and unqualified endorsement of Frederic Chilton's credentials,

and her moved mention of the ed his attitude, or manifested any inclination to

stay the narration by question or conomy denoted no e relative She had been bequeathed to his care, when