Book The Second: Riches Chapter 14 Taking Advice

Yes, she said, Edmund had taken the place. Mr Merdle
wished him to take it, and he had taken it. She hoped Edmund might like
it, but really she didn't know. It would keep him in town a good
deal, and he preferred the country. Still, it was not a disagreeable
position--and it was a position. There was no denying that the thing
was a compliment to Mr Merdle, and was not a bad thing for Edmund if he
liked it. It was just as well that he should have something to do, and
it was just as well that he should have something for doing it. Whether
it would be more agreeable to Edmund than the army, remained to be seen.

Thus the Bosom; accomplished in the art of seeming to make things of
small account, and really enhancing them in the process. While Henry
Gowan, whom Decimus had thrown away, went through the whole round of
his acquaintance between the Gate of the People and the town of Albano,
vowing, almost (but not quite) with tears in his eyes, that Sparkler was
the sweetest-tempered, simplest-hearted, altogether most lovable jackass
that ever grazed on the public common; and that only one circumstance
could have delighted him (Gowan) more, than his (the beloved jackass's)
getting this post, and that would have been his (Gowan's) getting it
himself.

He said it was the very thing for Sparkler. There was nothing
to do, and he would do it charmingly; there was a handsome salary to
draw, and he would draw it charmingly; it was a delightful, appropriate,
capital appointment; and he almost forgave the donor his slight of
himself, in his joy that the dear donkey for whom he had so great an
affection was so admirably stabled. Nor did his benevolence stop here.