My Goodness , John ! '' `` Ah ! who 'd have thought it ? '' John returned . `` You never mean to say , '' pursued Dot , sitting on the floor and shaking her head at him , `` that it 's Gruff and Tackleton the toymaker ! '' John nodded . Mrs. Peerybingle nodded also , fifty times at least . Not in assent -- in dumb and pitying amazement ; screwing up her lips , the while , with all their little force -LRB- they were never made for screwing up ; I am clear of that -RRB- , and looking the good Carrier through and through , in her abstraction . Miss Slowboy , in the meantime , who had a mechanical power of reproducing scraps of current conversation for the delectation of the baby , with all the sense struck out of them , and all the nouns changed into the plural number , inquired aloud of that young creature , Was it Gruffs and Tackletons the toymakers then , and Would it call at Pastrycooks for wedding-cakes , and Did its mothers know the boxes when its fathers brought them home ; and so on . `` And that is really to come about ! '' said Dot . `` Why , she and I were girls at school together , John . '' He might have been thinking of her , or nearly thinking of her , perhaps , as she was in that same school-time . He looked upon her with a thoughtful pleasure , but he made no answer . `` And he 's as old ! As unlike her ! -- Why , how many years older than you is Gruff and Tackleton , John ? '' `` How many more cups of tea shall I drink to-night , at one sitting , than Gruff and Tackleton ever took in four , I wonder ? '' replied John good-humouredly , as he drew a chair to the round table , and began at the cold ham . `` As to eating , I eat but little ; but that little I enjoy , Dot . ''
Even this , his usual sentiment at meal-times , one of his innocent delusions -LRB- for his appetite was always obstinate , and flatly contradicted him -RRB- , awoke no smile in the face of his little wife , who stood among the parcels , pushing the cake-box slowly from her with her foot , and never once looked , though her eyes were cast down too , upon the dainty shoe she generally was so mindful XXXXX .
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