The  commissary  having  been  buried  with  all  the  decorations  suit-
able to  the  service  (the  whole  team  of  proprieties  were  harnessed  to
his  hearse,  and  they  all  had  feathers  and  black  velvet  housings,  with
his  coat-of-arms  in  the  corner),  Mrs.  General  began  to  enquire  what
quantity  of  dust  and  ashes  was  deposited  at  the  bankers'.  It  then
transpired  that  the  commissary  had  so  far  stolen  a  march  on  Mrs.
General  as  to  have  bought  himself  an  annuity  some  years  before  his
marriage,  and  to  have  reserved  that  circumstance,  in  mentioning,  at  the
period  of  his  proposal,  that  his  income  was  derived  from  the  interest
of  his  money.  Mrs.  General  consequently  found  her  means  so  much  dimi-
nished, that,  but  for  the  perfect  regulation  of  her  mind,  she  might  have


336  LITTLE  DORKIT.
felt  disposed  to  question  the  accuracy  of  that  portion  of  the  late  service
which  had  declared  that  the  commissary  could  take  nothing  away  with
him.
