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diff --git a/old/821.txt b/old/821.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6429c83 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/821.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39568 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dombey and Son, by Charles Dickens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Dombey and Son + +Author: Charles Dickens + + +Release Date: February, 1997 [EBook #821] +Last Updated: May 16, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOMBEY AND SON *** + + + + +Produced by Neil McLachlan, and Ted Davis + + + + + + + + +DOMBEY AND SON + +By Charles Dickens + + + + + +CONTENTS + + 1. Dombey and Son + 2. In which Timely Provision is made for an Emergency that + will sometimes arise in the best-regulated Families + 3. In which Mr Dombey, as a Man and a Father, is seen at the + Head of the Home-Department + 4. In which some more First Appearances are made on the + Stage of these Adventures + 5. Paul's Progress and Christening + 6. Paul's Second Deprivation + 7. A Bird's-eye Glimpse of Miss Tox's Dwelling-place; also + of the State of Miss Tox's Affections + 8. Paul's further Progress, Growth, and Character + 9. In which the Wooden Midshipman gets into Trouble + 10. Containing the Sequel of the Midshipman's Disaster + 11. Paul's Introduction to a New Scene + 12. Paul's Education + 13. Shipping Intelligence and Office Business + 14. Paul grows more and more Old-fashioned, and goes Home + for the holidays + 15. Amazing Artfulness of Captain Cuttle, and a new Pursuit + for Walter Gay + 16. What the Waves were always saying + 17. Captain Cuttle does a little Business for the Young people + 18. Father and Daughter + 19. Walter goes away + 20. Mr Dombey goes upon a journey + 21. New Faces + 22. A Trifle of Management by Mr Carker the Manager + 23. Florence solitary, and the Midshipman mysterious + 24. The Study of a Loving Heart + 25. Strange News of Uncle Sol + 26. Shadows of the Past and Future + 27. Deeper shadows + 28. Alterations + 29. The Opening of the Eyes of Mrs Chick + 30. The Interval before the Marriage + 31. The Wedding + 32. The Wooden Midshipman goes to Pieces + 33. Contrasts + 34. Another Mother and Daughter + 35. The Happy Pair + 36. Housewarming + 37. More Warnings than One + 38. Miss Tox improves an Old Acquaintance + 39. Further Adventures of Captain Edward Cuttle, Mariner + 40. Domestic Relations + 41. New Voices in the Waves + 42. Confidential and Accidental + 43. The Watches of the Night + 44. A Separation + 45. The Trusty Agent + 46. Recognizant and Reflective + 47. The Thunderbolt + 48. The Flight of Florence + 49. The Midshipman makes a Discovery + 50. Mr Toots's Complaint + 51. Mr Dombey and the World + 52. Secret Intelligence + 53. More Intelligence + 54. The Fugitives + 55. Rob the Grinder loses his Place + 56. Several People delighted, and the Game Chicken disgusted + 57. Another Wedding + 58. After a Lapse + 59. Retribution + 60. Chiefly Matrimonial + 61. Relenting + 62. Final + + + + +CHAPTER 1. Dombey and Son + + +Dombey sat in the corner of the darkened room in the great arm-chair +by the bedside, and Son lay tucked up warm in a little basket bedstead, +carefully disposed on a low settee immediately in front of the fire and +close to it, as if his constitution were analogous to that of a muffin, +and it was essential to toast him brown while he was very new. + +Dombey was about eight-and-forty years of age. Son about eight-and-forty +minutes. Dombey was rather bald, rather red, and though a handsome +well-made man, too stern and pompous in appearance, to be prepossessing. +Son was very bald, and very red, and though (of course) an undeniably +fine infant, somewhat crushed and spotty in his general effect, as yet. +On the brow of Dombey, Time and his brother Care had set some marks, as +on a tree that was to come down in good time--remorseless twins they are +for striding through their human forests, notching as they go--while the +countenance of Son was crossed with a thousand little creases, which the +same deceitful Time would take delight in smoothing out and wearing away +with the flat part of his scythe, as a preparation of the surface for +his deeper operations. + +Dombey, exulting in the long-looked-for event, jingled and jingled the +heavy gold watch-chain that depended from below his trim blue coat, +whereof the buttons sparkled phosphorescently in the feeble rays of the +distant fire. Son, with his little fists curled up and clenched, seemed, +in his feeble way, to be squaring at existence for having come upon him +so unexpectedly. + +'The House will once again, Mrs Dombey,' said Mr Dombey, 'be not only in +name but in fact Dombey and Son;' and he added, in a tone of luxurious +satisfaction, with his eyes half-closed as if he were reading the name +in a device of flowers, and inhaling their fragrance at the same time; +'Dom-bey and Son!' + +The words had such a softening influence, that he appended a term of +endearment to Mrs Dombey's name (though not without some hesitation, +as being a man but little used to that form of address): and said, 'Mrs +Dombey, my--my dear.' + +A transient flush of faint surprise overspread the sick lady's face as +she raised her eyes towards him. + +'He will be christened Paul, my--Mrs Dombey--of course.' + +She feebly echoed, 'Of course,' or rather expressed it by the motion of +her lips, and closed her eyes again. + +'His father's name, Mrs Dombey, and his grandfather's! I wish his +grandfather were alive this day! There is some inconvenience in the +necessity of writing Junior,' said Mr Dombey, making a fictitious +autograph on his knee; 'but it is merely of a private and personal +complexion. It doesn't enter into the correspondence of the House. +Its signature remains the same.' And again he said 'Dombey and Son,' in +exactly the same tone as before. + +Those three words conveyed the one idea of Mr Dombey's life. The earth +was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made +to give them light. Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships; +rainbows gave them promise of fair weather; winds blew for or against +their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their orbits, to +preserve inviolate a system of which they were the centre. Common +abbreviations took new meanings in his eyes, and had sole reference +to them. A. D. had no concern with Anno Domini, but stood for anno +Dombei--and Son. + +He had risen, as his father had before him, in the course of life and +death, from Son to Dombey, and for nearly twenty years had been the +sole representative of the Firm. Of those years he had been married, +ten--married, as some said, to a lady with no heart to give him; whose +happiness was in the past, and who was content to bind her broken spirit +to the dutiful and meek endurance of the present. Such idle talk was +little likely to reach the ears of Mr Dombey, whom it nearly concerned; +and probably no one in the world would have received it with such utter +incredulity as he, if it had reached him. Dombey and Son had often dealt +in hides, but never in hearts. They left that fancy ware to boys and +girls, and boarding-schools and books. Mr Dombey would have reasoned: +That a matrimonial alliance with himself must, in the nature of things, +be gratifying and honourable to any woman of common sense. That the +hope of giving birth to a new partner in such a House, could not fail +to awaken a glorious and stirring ambition in the breast of the least +ambitious of her sex. That Mrs Dombey had entered on that social +contract of matrimony: almost necessarily part of a genteel and wealthy +station, even without reference to the perpetuation of family Firms: +with her eyes fully open to these advantages. That Mrs Dombey had had +daily practical knowledge of his position in society. That Mrs Dombey +had always sat at the head of his table, and done the honours of his +house in a remarkably lady-like and becoming manner. That Mrs Dombey +must have been happy. That she couldn't help it. + +Or, at all events, with one drawback. Yes. That he would have allowed. +With only one; but that one certainly involving much. With the drawback +of hope deferred. That hope deferred, which, (as the Scripture very +correctly tells us, Mr Dombey would have added in a patronising way; +for his highest distinct idea even of Scripture, if examined, would +have been found to be; that as forming part of a general whole, of which +Dombey and Son formed another part, it was therefore to be commended +and upheld) maketh the heart sick. They had been married ten years, and +until this present day on which Mr Dombey sat jingling and jingling his +heavy gold watch-chain in the great arm-chair by the side of the bed, +had had no issue. + +--To speak of; none worth mentioning. There had been a girl some six +years before, and the child, who had stolen into the chamber unobserved, +was now crouching timidly, in a corner whence she could see her mother's +face. But what was a girl to Dombey and Son! In the capital of the +House's name and dignity, such a child was merely a piece of base coin +that couldn't be invested--a bad Boy--nothing more. + +Mr Dombey's cup of satisfaction was so full at this moment, however, +that he felt he could afford a drop or two of its contents, even to +sprinkle on the dust in the by-path of his little daughter. + +So he said, 'Florence, you may go and look at your pretty brother, if +you like, I daresay. Don't touch him!' + +The child glanced keenly at the blue coat and stiff white cravat, which, +with a pair of creaking boots and a very loud ticking watch, embodied +her idea of a father; but her eyes returned to her mother's face +immediately, and she neither moved nor answered. + +'Her insensibility is as proof against a brother as against every thing +else,' said Mr Dombey to himself He seemed so confirmed in a previous +opinion by the discovery, as to be quite glad of it.' + +Next moment, the lady had opened her eyes and seen the child; and the +child had run towards her; and, standing on tiptoe, the better to hide +her face in her embrace, had clung about her with a desperate affection +very much at variance with her years. + +'Oh Lord bless me!' said Mr Dombey, rising testily. 'A very ill-advised +and feverish proceeding this, I am sure. Please to ring there for Miss +Florence's nurse. Really the person should be more care-' + +'Wait! I--had better ask Doctor Peps if he'll have the goodness to step +upstairs again perhaps. I'll go down. I'll go down. I needn't beg you,' +he added, pausing for a moment at the settee before the fire, 'to take +particular care of this young gentleman, Mrs ----' + +'Blockitt, Sir?' suggested the nurse, a simpering piece of faded +gentility, who did not presume to state her name as a fact, but merely +offered it as a mild suggestion. + +'Of this young gentleman, Mrs Blockitt.' + +'No, Sir, indeed. I remember when Miss Florence was born--' + +'Ay, ay, ay,' said Mr Dombey, bending over the basket bedstead, and +slightly bending his brows at the same time. 'Miss Florence was all very +well, but this is another matter. This young gentleman has to accomplish +a destiny. A destiny, little fellow!' As he thus apostrophised the +infant he raised one of his hands to his lips, and kissed it; then, +seeming to fear that the action involved some compromise of his dignity, +went, awkwardly enough, away. + +Doctor Parker Peps, one of the Court Physicians, and a man of immense +reputation for assisting at the increase of great families, was +walking up and down the drawing-room with his hands behind him, to the +unspeakable admiration of the family Surgeon, who had regularly puffed +the case for the last six weeks, among all his patients, friends, and +acquaintances, as one to which he was in hourly expectation day and +night of being summoned, in conjunction with Doctor Parker Pep. + +'Well, Sir,' said Doctor Parker Peps in a round, deep, sonorous voice, +muffled for the occasion, like the knocker; 'do you find that your dear +lady is at all roused by your visit?' + +'Stimulated as it were?' said the family practitioner faintly: bowing at +the same time to the Doctor, as much as to say, 'Excuse my putting in a +word, but this is a valuable connexion.' + +Mr Dombey was quite discomfited by the question. He had thought so +little of the patient, that he was not in a condition to answer it. He +said that it would be a satisfaction to him, if Doctor Parker Peps would +walk upstairs again. + +'Good! We must not disguise from you, Sir,' said Doctor Parker Peps, +'that there is a want of power in Her Grace the Duchess--I beg your +pardon; I confound names; I should say, in your amiable lady. That there +is a certain degree of languor, and a general absence of elasticity, +which we would rather--not--' + +'See,' interposed the family practitioner with another inclination of +the head. + +'Quite so,' said Doctor Parker Peps, 'which we would rather not see. It +would appear that the system of Lady Cankaby--excuse me: I should say of +Mrs Dombey: I confuse the names of cases--' + +'So very numerous,' murmured the family practitioner--'can't be expected +I'm sure--quite wonderful if otherwise--Doctor Parker Peps's West-End +practice--' + +'Thank you,' said the Doctor, 'quite so. It would appear, I was +observing, that the system of our patient has sustained a shock, from +which it can only hope to rally by a great and strong--' + +'And vigorous,' murmured the family practitioner. + +'Quite so,' assented the Doctor--'and vigorous effort. Mr Pilkins here, +who from his position of medical adviser in this family--no one better +qualified to fill that position, I am sure.' + +'Oh!' murmured the family practitioner. '"Praise from Sir Hubert +Stanley!"' + +'You are good enough,' returned Doctor Parker Peps, 'to say so. Mr +Pilkins who, from his position, is best acquainted with the patient's +constitution in its normal state (an acquaintance very valuable to us in +forming our opinions in these occasions), is of opinion, with me, that +Nature must be called upon to make a vigorous effort in this instance; +and that if our interesting friend the Countess of Dombey--I beg your +pardon; Mrs Dombey--should not be--' + +'Able,' said the family practitioner. + +'To make,' said Doctor Parker Peps. + +'That effort,' said the family practitioner. + +'Successfully,' said they both together. + +'Then,' added Doctor Parker Peps, alone and very gravely, 'a crisis might +arise, which we should both sincerely deplore.' + +With that, they stood for a few seconds looking at the ground. Then, +on the motion--made in dumb show--of Doctor Parker Peps, they went +upstairs; the family practitioner opening the room door for that +distinguished professional, and following him out, with most obsequious +politeness. + +To record of Mr Dombey that he was not in his way affected by this +intelligence, would be to do him an injustice. He was not a man of whom +it could properly be said that he was ever startled, or shocked; but +he certainly had a sense within him, that if his wife should sicken and +decay, he would be very sorry, and that he would find a something gone +from among his plate and furniture, and other household possessions, +which was well worth the having, and could not be lost without sincere +regret. Though it would be a cool, business-like, gentlemanly, +self-possessed regret, no doubt. + +His meditations on the subject were soon interrupted, first by the +rustling of garments on the staircase, and then by the sudden whisking +into the room of a lady rather past the middle age than otherwise but +dressed in a very juvenile manner, particularly as to the tightness of +her bodice, who, running up to him with a kind of screw in her face and +carriage, expressive of suppressed emotion, flung her arms around his +neck, and said, in a choking voice, + +'My dear Paul! He's quite a Dombey!' + +'Well, well!' returned her brother--for Mr Dombey was her brother--'I +think he is like the family. Don't agitate yourself, Louisa.' + +'It's very foolish of me,' said Louisa, sitting down, and taking out her +pocket-handkerchief, 'but he's--he's such a perfect Dombey!' + +Mr Dombey coughed. + +'It's so extraordinary,' said Louisa; smiling through her tears, +which indeed were not overpowering, 'as to be perfectly ridiculous. So +completely our family. I never saw anything like it in my life!' + +'But what is this about Fanny, herself?' said Mr Dombey. 'How is Fanny?' + +'My dear Paul,' returned Louisa, 'it's nothing whatever. Take my word, +it's nothing whatever. There is exhaustion, certainly, but nothing like +what I underwent myself, either with George or Frederick. An effort +is necessary. That's all. If dear Fanny were a Dombey!--But I daresay +she'll make it; I have no doubt she'll make it. Knowing it to be +required of her, as a duty, of course she'll make it. My dear Paul, it's +very weak and silly of me, I know, to be so trembly and shaky from head +to foot; but I am so very queer that I must ask you for a glass of wine +and a morsel of that cake.' + +Mr Dombey promptly supplied her with these refreshments from a tray on +the table. + +'I shall not drink my love to you, Paul,' said Louisa: 'I shall drink to +the little Dombey. Good gracious me!--it's the most astonishing thing I +ever knew in all my days, he's such a perfect Dombey.' + +Quenching this expression of opinion in a short hysterical laugh which +terminated in tears, Louisa cast up her eyes, and emptied her glass. + +'I know it's very weak and silly of me,' she repeated, 'to be so trembly +and shaky from head to foot, and to allow my feelings so completely +to get the better of me, but I cannot help it. I thought I should have +fallen out of the staircase window as I came down from seeing dear +Fanny, and that tiddy ickle sing.' These last words originated in a +sudden vivid reminiscence of the baby. + +They were succeeded by a gentle tap at the door. + +'Mrs Chick,' said a very bland female voice outside, 'how are you now, +my dear friend?' + +'My dear Paul,' said Louisa in a low voice, as she rose from her seat, +'it's Miss Tox. The kindest creature! I never could have got here +without her! Miss Tox, my brother Mr Dombey. Paul, my dear, my very +particular friend Miss Tox.' + +The lady thus specially presented, was a long lean figure, wearing such +a faded air that she seemed not to have been made in what linen-drapers +call 'fast colours' originally, and to have, by little and little, +washed out. But for this she might have been described as the very pink +of general propitiation and politeness. From a long habit of listening +admiringly to everything that was said in her presence, and looking at +the speakers as if she were mentally engaged in taking off impressions +of their images upon her soul, never to part with the same but with +life, her head had quite settled on one side. Her hands had contracted +a spasmodic habit of raising themselves of their own accord as in +involuntary admiration. Her eyes were liable to a similar affection. She +had the softest voice that ever was heard; and her nose, stupendously +aquiline, had a little knob in the very centre or key-stone of the +bridge, whence it tended downwards towards her face, as in an invincible +determination never to turn up at anything. + +Miss Tox's dress, though perfectly genteel and good, had a certain +character of angularity and scantiness. She was accustomed to wear +odd weedy little flowers in her bonnets and caps. Strange grasses were +sometimes perceived in her hair; and it was observed by the curious, +of all her collars, frills, tuckers, wristbands, and other gossamer +articles--indeed of everything she wore which had two ends to it +intended to unite--that the two ends were never on good terms, and +wouldn't quite meet without a struggle. She had furry articles for +winter wear, as tippets, boas, and muffs, which stood up on end in +rampant manner, and were not at all sleek. She was much given to the +carrying about of small bags with snaps to them, that went off like +little pistols when they were shut up; and when full-dressed, she wore +round her neck the barrenest of lockets, representing a fishy old eye, +with no approach to speculation in it. These and other appearances of a +similar nature, had served to propagate the opinion, that Miss Tox was +a lady of what is called a limited independence, which she turned to +the best account. Possibly her mincing gait encouraged the belief, +and suggested that her clipping a step of ordinary compass into two or +three, originated in her habit of making the most of everything. + +'I am sure,' said Miss Tox, with a prodigious curtsey, 'that to have +the honour of being presented to Mr Dombey is a distinction which I have +long sought, but very little expected at the present moment. My dear Mrs +Chick--may I say Louisa!' + +Mrs Chick took Miss Tox's hand in hers, rested the foot of her +wine-glass upon it, repressed a tear, and said in a low voice, 'God +bless you!' + +'My dear Louisa then,' said Miss Tox, 'my sweet friend, how are you +now?' + +'Better,' Mrs Chick returned. 'Take some wine. You have been almost as +anxious as I have been, and must want it, I am sure.' + +Mr Dombey of course officiated, and also refilled his sister's glass, +which she (looking another way, and unconscious of his intention) +held straight and steady the while, and then regarded with great +astonishment, saying, 'My dear Paul, what have you been doing!' + +'Miss Tox, Paul,' pursued Mrs Chick, still retaining her hand, 'knowing +how much I have been interested in the anticipation of the event of +to-day, and how trembly and shaky I have been from head to foot in +expectation of it, has been working at a little gift for Fanny, which I +promised to present. Miss Tox is ingenuity itself.' + +'My dear Louisa,' said Miss Tox. 'Don't say so.' + +'It is only a pincushion for the toilette table, Paul,' resumed his +sister; 'one of those trifles which are insignificant to your sex in +general, as it's very natural they should be--we have no business to +expect they should be otherwise--but to which we attach some interest.' + +'Miss Tox is very good,' said Mr Dombey. + +'And I do say, and will say, and must say,' pursued his sister, pressing +the foot of the wine-glass on Miss Tox's hand, at each of the three +clauses, 'that Miss Tox has very prettily adapted the sentiment to the +occasion. I call "Welcome little Dombey" Poetry, myself!' + +'Is that the device?' inquired her brother. + +'That is the device,' returned Louisa. + +'But do me the justice to remember, my dear Louisa,' said Miss Tox in +a tone of low and earnest entreaty, 'that nothing but the--I have some +difficulty in expressing myself--the dubiousness of the result would +have induced me to take so great a liberty: "Welcome, Master Dombey," +would have been much more congenial to my feelings, as I am sure you +know. But the uncertainty attendant on angelic strangers, will, I hope, +excuse what must otherwise appear an unwarrantable familiarity.' Miss +Tox made a graceful bend as she spoke, in favour of Mr Dombey, which +that gentleman graciously acknowledged. Even the sort of recognition of +Dombey and Son, conveyed in the foregoing conversation, was so palatable +to him, that his sister, Mrs Chick--though he affected to consider her +a weak good-natured person--had perhaps more influence over him than +anybody else. + +'My dear Paul,' that lady broke out afresh, after silently contemplating +his features for a few moments, 'I don't know whether to laugh or cry +when I look at you, I declare, you do so remind me of that dear baby +upstairs.' + +'Well!' said Mrs Chick, with a sweet smile, 'after this, I forgive Fanny +everything!' + +It was a declaration in a Christian spirit, and Mrs Chick felt that it +did her good. Not that she had anything particular to forgive in her +sister-in-law, nor indeed anything at all, except her having married her +brother--in itself a species of audacity--and her having, in the course +of events, given birth to a girl instead of a boy: which, as Mrs Chick +had frequently observed, was not quite what she had expected of her, and +was not a pleasant return for all the attention and distinction she had +met with. + +Mr Dombey being hastily summoned out of the room at this moment, the two +ladies were left alone together. Miss Tox immediately became spasmodic. + +'I knew you would admire my brother. I told you so beforehand, my dear,' +said Louisa. Miss Tox's hands and eyes expressed how much. 'And as to +his property, my dear!' + +'Ah!' said Miss Tox, with deep feeling. + +'Im-mense!' + +'But his deportment, my dear Louisa!' said Miss Tox. 'His presence! His +dignity! No portrait that I have ever seen of anyone has been half +so replete with those qualities. Something so stately, you know: so +uncompromising: so very wide across the chest: so upright! A pecuniary +Duke of York, my love, and nothing short of it!' said Miss Tox. 'That's +what I should designate him.' + +'Why, my dear Paul!' exclaimed his sister, as he returned, 'you look +quite pale! There's nothing the matter?' + +'I am sorry to say, Louisa, that they tell me that Fanny--' + +'Now, my dear Paul,' returned his sister rising, 'don't believe it. Do +not allow yourself to receive a turn unnecessarily. Remember of what +importance you are to society, and do not allow yourself to be worried +by what is so very inconsiderately told you by people who ought to know +better. Really I'm surprised at them.' + +'I hope I know, Louisa,' said Mr Dombey, stiffly, 'how to bear myself +before the world.' + +'Nobody better, my dear Paul. Nobody half so well. They would be +ignorant and base indeed who doubted it.' + +'Ignorant and base indeed!' echoed Miss Tox softly. + +'But,' pursued Louisa, 'if you have any reliance on my experience, Paul, +you may rest assured that there is nothing wanting but an effort on +Fanny's part. And that effort,' she continued, taking off her bonnet, +and adjusting her cap and gloves, in a business-like manner, 'she must +be encouraged, and really, if necessary, urged to make. Now, my dear +Paul, come upstairs with me.' + +Mr Dombey, who, besides being generally influenced by his sister for the +reason already mentioned, had really faith in her as an experienced +and bustling matron, acquiesced; and followed her, at once, to the sick +chamber. + +The lady lay upon her bed as he had left her, clasping her little +daughter to her breast. The child clung close about her, with the same +intensity as before, and never raised her head, or moved her soft cheek +from her mother's face, or looked on those who stood around, or spoke, +or moved, or shed a tear. + +'Restless without the little girl,' the Doctor whispered Mr Dombey. 'We +found it best to have her in again.' + +'Can nothing be done?' asked Mr Dombey. + +The Doctor shook his head. 'We can do no more.' + +The windows stood open, and the twilight was gathering without. + +The scent of the restoratives that had been tried was pungent in +the room, but had no fragrance in the dull and languid air the lady +breathed. + +There was such a solemn stillness round the bed; and the two medical +attendants seemed to look on the impassive form with so much compassion +and so little hope, that Mrs Chick was for the moment diverted from her +purpose. But presently summoning courage, and what she called presence +of mind, she sat down by the bedside, and said in the low precise tone +of one who endeavours to awaken a sleeper: + +'Fanny! Fanny!' + +There was no sound in answer but the loud ticking of Mr Dombey's watch +and Doctor Parker Peps's watch, which seemed in the silence to be +running a race. + +'Fanny, my dear,' said Mrs Chick, with assumed lightness, 'here's Mr +Dombey come to see you. Won't you speak to him? They want to lay your +little boy--the baby, Fanny, you know; you have hardly seen him yet, I +think--in bed; but they can't till you rouse yourself a little. Don't +you think it's time you roused yourself a little? Eh?' + +She bent her ear to the bed, and listened: at the same time looking +round at the bystanders, and holding up her finger. + +'Eh?' she repeated, 'what was it you said, Fanny? I didn't hear you.' + +No word or sound in answer. Mr Dombey's watch and Dr Parker Peps's watch +seemed to be racing faster. + +'Now, really, Fanny my dear,' said the sister-in-law, altering her +position, and speaking less confidently, and more earnestly, in spite +of herself, 'I shall have to be quite cross with you, if you don't rouse +yourself. It's necessary for you to make an effort, and perhaps a very +great and painful effort which you are not disposed to make; but this is +a world of effort you know, Fanny, and we must never yield, when so much +depends upon us. Come! Try! I must really scold you if you don't!' + +The race in the ensuing pause was fierce and furious. The watches seemed +to jostle, and to trip each other up. + +'Fanny!' said Louisa, glancing round, with a gathering alarm. 'Only look +at me. Only open your eyes to show me that you hear and understand me; +will you? Good Heaven, gentlemen, what is to be done!' + +The two medical attendants exchanged a look across the bed; and the +Physician, stooping down, whispered in the child's ear. Not having +understood the purport of his whisper, the little creature turned her +perfectly colourless face and deep dark eyes towards him; but without +loosening her hold in the least. + +The whisper was repeated. + +'Mama!' said the child. + +The little voice, familiar and dearly loved, awakened some show of +consciousness, even at that ebb. For a moment, the closed eye lids +trembled, and the nostril quivered, and the faintest shadow of a smile +was seen. + +'Mama!' cried the child sobbing aloud. 'Oh dear Mama! oh dear Mama!' + +The Doctor gently brushed the scattered ringlets of the child, aside +from the face and mouth of the mother. Alas how calm they lay there; how +little breath there was to stir them! + +Thus, clinging fast to that slight spar within her arms, the mother +drifted out upon the dark and unknown sea that rolls round all the +world. + + + +CHAPTER 2. In which Timely Provision is made for an Emergency that will +sometimes arise in the best-regulated Families. + + +'I shall never cease to congratulate myself,' said Mrs Chick,' on having +said, when I little thought what was in store for us,--really as if I +was inspired by something,--that I forgave poor dear Fanny everything. +Whatever happens, that must always be a comfort to me!' + +Mrs Chick made this impressive observation in the drawing-room, after +having descended thither from the inspection of the mantua-makers +upstairs, who were busy on the family mourning. She delivered it for the +behoof of Mr Chick, who was a stout bald gentleman, with a very large +face, and his hands continually in his pockets, and who had a tendency +in his nature to whistle and hum tunes, which, sensible of the indecorum +of such sounds in a house of grief, he was at some pains to repress at +present. + +'Don't you over-exert yourself, Loo,' said Mr Chick, 'or you'll be laid +up with spasms, I see. Right tol loor rul! Bless my soul, I forgot! +We're here one day and gone the next!' + +Mrs Chick contented herself with a glance of reproof, and then proceeded +with the thread of her discourse. + +'I am sure,' she said, 'I hope this heart-rending occurrence will be a +warning to all of us, to accustom ourselves to rouse ourselves, and to +make efforts in time where they're required of us. There's a moral in +everything, if we would only avail ourselves of it. It will be our own +faults if we lose sight of this one.' + +Mr Chick invaded the grave silence which ensued on this remark with +the singularly inappropriate air of 'A cobbler there was;' and checking +himself, in some confusion, observed, that it was undoubtedly our own +faults if we didn't improve such melancholy occasions as the present. + +'Which might be better improved, I should think, Mr C.,' retorted his +helpmate, after a short pause, 'than by the introduction, either of +the college hornpipe, or the equally unmeaning and unfeeling remark of +rump-te-iddity, bow-wow-wow!'--which Mr Chick had indeed indulged in, +under his breath, and which Mrs Chick repeated in a tone of withering +scorn. + +'Merely habit, my dear,' pleaded Mr Chick. + +'Nonsense! Habit!' returned his wife. 'If you're a rational being, don't +make such ridiculous excuses. Habit! If I was to get a habit (as you +call it) of walking on the ceiling, like the flies, I should hear enough +of it, I daresay.' + +It appeared so probable that such a habit might be attended with +some degree of notoriety, that Mr Chick didn't venture to dispute the +position. + +'Bow-wow-wow!' repeated Mrs Chick with an emphasis of blighting +contempt on the last syllable. 'More like a professional singer with the +hydrophobia, than a man in your station of life!' + +'How's the Baby, Loo?' asked Mr Chick: to change the subject. + +'What Baby do you mean?' answered Mrs Chick. + +'The poor bereaved little baby,' said Mr Chick. 'I don't know of any +other, my dear.' + +'You don't know of any other,' retorted Mrs Chick. 'More shame for you, I +was going to say.' + +Mr Chick looked astonished. + +'I am sure the morning I have had, with that dining-room downstairs, one +mass of babies, no one in their senses would believe.' + +'One mass of babies!' repeated Mr Chick, staring with an alarmed +expression about him. + +'It would have occurred to most men,' said Mrs Chick, 'that poor dear +Fanny being no more,--those words of mine will always be a balm and +comfort to me,' here she dried her eyes; 'it becomes necessary to +provide a Nurse.' + +'Oh! Ah!' said Mr Chick. 'Toor-ru!--such is life, I mean. I hope you are +suited, my dear.' + +'Indeed I am not,' said Mrs Chick; 'nor likely to be, so far as I can +see, and in the meantime the poor child seems likely to be starved to +death. Paul is so very particular--naturally so, of course, having set +his whole heart on this one boy--and there are so many objections to +everybody that offers, that I don't see, myself, the least chance of an +arrangement. Meanwhile, of course, the child is--' + +'Going to the Devil,' said Mr Chick, thoughtfully, 'to be sure.' + +Admonished, however, that he had committed himself, by the indignation +expressed in Mrs Chick's countenance at the idea of a Dombey going +there; and thinking to atone for his misconduct by a bright suggestion, +he added: + +'Couldn't something temporary be done with a teapot?' + +If he had meant to bring the subject prematurely to a close, he could +not have done it more effectually. After looking at him for some moments +in silent resignation, Mrs Chick said she trusted he hadn't said it in +aggravation, because that would do very little honour to his heart. She +trusted he hadn't said it seriously, because that would do very little +honour to his head. As in any case, he couldn't, however sanguine his +disposition, hope to offer a remark that would be a greater outrage on +human nature in general, we would beg to leave the discussion at that +point. + +Mrs Chick then walked majestically to the window and peeped through +the blind, attracted by the sound of wheels. Mr Chick, finding that his +destiny was, for the time, against him, said no more, and walked off. +But it was not always thus with Mr Chick. He was often in the +ascendant himself, and at those times punished Louisa roundly. In +their matrimonial bickerings they were, upon the whole, a well-matched, +fairly-balanced, give-and-take couple. It would have been, generally +speaking, very difficult to have betted on the winner. Often when Mr +Chick seemed beaten, he would suddenly make a start, turn the tables, +clatter them about the ears of Mrs Chick, and carry all before him. +Being liable himself to similar unlooked for checks from Mrs Chick, +their little contests usually possessed a character of uncertainty that +was very animating. + +Miss Tox had arrived on the wheels just now alluded to, and came running +into the room in a breathless condition. + +'My dear Louisa,' said Miss Tox, 'is the vacancy still unsupplied?' + +'You good soul, yes,' said Mrs Chick. + +'Then, my dear Louisa,' returned Miss Tox, 'I hope and believe--but in +one moment, my dear, I'll introduce the party.' + +Running downstairs again as fast as she had run up, Miss Tox got the +party out of the hackney-coach, and soon returned with it under convoy. + +It then appeared that she had used the word, not in its legal or +business acceptation, when it merely expresses an individual, but as +a noun of multitude, or signifying many: for Miss Tox escorted a plump +rosy-cheeked wholesome apple-faced young woman, with an infant in her +arms; a younger woman not so plump, but apple-faced also, who led +a plump and apple-faced child in each hand; another plump and also +apple-faced boy who walked by himself; and finally, a plump and +apple-faced man, who carried in his arms another plump and apple-faced +boy, whom he stood down on the floor, and admonished, in a husky +whisper, to 'kitch hold of his brother Johnny.' + +'My dear Louisa,' said Miss Tox, 'knowing your great anxiety, and +wishing to relieve it, I posted off myself to the Queen Charlotte's +Royal Married Females,' which you had forgot, and put the question, Was +there anybody there that they thought would suit? No, they said there +was not. When they gave me that answer, I do assure you, my dear, I was +almost driven to despair on your account. But it did so happen, that one +of the Royal Married Females, hearing the inquiry, reminded the matron +of another who had gone to her own home, and who, she said, would in +all likelihood be most satisfactory. The moment I heard this, and had +it corroborated by the matron--excellent references and unimpeachable +character--I got the address, my dear, and posted off again.' + +'Like the dear good Tox, you are!' said Louisa. + +'Not at all,' returned Miss Tox. 'Don't say so. Arriving at the house +(the cleanest place, my dear! You might eat your dinner off the floor), +I found the whole family sitting at table; and feeling that no account +of them could be half so comfortable to you and Mr Dombey as the sight +of them all together, I brought them all away. This gentleman,' said +Miss Tox, pointing out the apple-faced man, 'is the father. Will you +have the goodness to come a little forward, Sir?' + +The apple-faced man having sheepishly complied with this request, stood +chuckling and grinning in a front row. + +'This is his wife, of course,' said Miss Tox, singling out the young +woman with the baby. 'How do you do, Polly?' + +'I'm pretty well, I thank you, Ma'am,' said Polly. + +By way of bringing her out dexterously, Miss Tox had made the inquiry +as in condescension to an old acquaintance whom she hadn't seen for a +fortnight or so. + +'I'm glad to hear it,' said Miss Tox. 'The other young woman is her +unmarried sister who lives with them, and would take care of her +children. Her name's Jemima. How do you do, Jemima?' + +'I'm pretty well, I thank you, Ma'am,' returned Jemima. + +'I'm very glad indeed to hear it,' said Miss Tox. 'I hope you'll keep +so. Five children. Youngest six weeks. The fine little boy with the +blister on his nose is the eldest. The blister, I believe,' said +Miss Tox, looking round upon the family, 'is not constitutional, but +accidental?' + +The apple-faced man was understood to growl, 'Flat iron.' + +'I beg your pardon, Sir,' said Miss Tox, 'did you--' + +'Flat iron,' he repeated. + +'Oh yes,' said Miss Tox. 'Yes! quite true. I forgot. The little +creature, in his mother's absence, smelt a warm flat iron. You're quite +right, Sir. You were going to have the goodness to inform me, when we +arrived at the door that you were by trade a--' + +'Stoker,' said the man. + +'A choker!' said Miss Tox, quite aghast. + +'Stoker,' said the man. 'Steam ingine.' + +'Oh-h! Yes!' returned Miss Tox, looking thoughtfully at him, and seeming +still to have but a very imperfect understanding of his meaning. + +'And how do you like it, Sir?' + +'Which, Mum?' said the man. + +'That,' replied Miss Tox. 'Your trade.' + +'Oh! Pretty well, Mum. The ashes sometimes gets in here;' touching his +chest: 'and makes a man speak gruff, as at the present time. But it is +ashes, Mum, not crustiness.' + +Miss Tox seemed to be so little enlightened by this reply, as to find +a difficulty in pursuing the subject. But Mrs Chick relieved her, by +entering into a close private examination of Polly, her children, her +marriage certificate, testimonials, and so forth. Polly coming out +unscathed from this ordeal, Mrs Chick withdrew with her report to her +brother's room, and as an emphatic comment on it, and corroboration of +it, carried the two rosiest little Toodles with her. Toodle being the +family name of the apple-faced family. + +Mr Dombey had remained in his own apartment since the death of his wife, +absorbed in visions of the youth, education, and destination of his baby +son. Something lay at the bottom of his cool heart, colder and heavier +than its ordinary load; but it was more a sense of the child's loss than +his own, awakening within him an almost angry sorrow. That the life +and progress on which he built such hopes, should be endangered in the +outset by so mean a want; that Dombey and Son should be tottering for +a nurse, was a sore humiliation. And yet in his pride and jealousy, he +viewed with so much bitterness the thought of being dependent for the +very first step towards the accomplishment of his soul's desire, on a +hired serving-woman who would be to the child, for the time, all that +even his alliance could have made his own wife, that in every new +rejection of a candidate he felt a secret pleasure. The time had now +come, however, when he could no longer be divided between these two sets +of feelings. The less so, as there seemed to be no flaw in the title of +Polly Toodle after his sister had set it forth, with many commendations +on the indefatigable friendship of Miss Tox. + +'These children look healthy,' said Mr Dombey. 'But my God, to think of +their some day claiming a sort of relationship to Paul!' + +'But what relationship is there!' Louisa began-- + +'Is there!' echoed Mr Dombey, who had not intended his sister to +participate in the thought he had unconsciously expressed. 'Is there, +did you say, Louisa!' + +'Can there be, I mean--' + +'Why none,' said Mr Dombey, sternly. 'The whole world knows that, I +presume. Grief has not made me idiotic, Louisa. Take them away, Louisa! +Let me see this woman and her husband.' + +Mrs Chick bore off the tender pair of Toodles, and presently returned +with that tougher couple whose presence her brother had commanded. + +'My good woman,' said Mr Dombey, turning round in his easy chair, as +one piece, and not as a man with limbs and joints, 'I understand you are +poor, and wish to earn money by nursing the little boy, my son, who has +been so prematurely deprived of what can never be replaced. I have no +objection to your adding to the comforts of your family by that means. +So far as I can tell, you seem to be a deserving object. But I must +impose one or two conditions on you, before you enter my house in that +capacity. While you are here, I must stipulate that you are always known +as--say as Richards--an ordinary name, and convenient. Have you any +objection to be known as Richards? You had better consult your husband.' + +'Well?' said Mr Dombey, after a pretty long pause. 'What does your +husband say to your being called Richards?' + +As the husband did nothing but chuckle and grin, and continually draw +his right hand across his mouth, moistening the palm, Mrs Toodle, after +nudging him twice or thrice in vain, dropped a curtsey and replied 'that +perhaps if she was to be called out of her name, it would be considered +in the wages.' + +'Oh, of course,' said Mr Dombey. 'I desire to make it a question of +wages, altogether. Now, Richards, if you nurse my bereaved child, I +wish you to remember this always. You will receive a liberal stipend in +return for the discharge of certain duties, in the performance of which, +I wish you to see as little of your family as possible. When those +duties cease to be required and rendered, and the stipend ceases to be +paid, there is an end of all relations between us. Do you understand +me?' + +Mrs Toodle seemed doubtful about it; and as to Toodle himself, he had +evidently no doubt whatever, that he was all abroad. + +'You have children of your own,' said Mr Dombey. 'It is not at all in +this bargain that you need become attached to my child, or that my child +need become attached to you. I don't expect or desire anything of the +kind. Quite the reverse. When you go away from here, you will have +concluded what is a mere matter of bargain and sale, hiring and letting: +and will stay away. The child will cease to remember you; and you will +cease, if you please, to remember the child.' + +Mrs Toodle, with a little more colour in her cheeks than she had had +before, said 'she hoped she knew her place.' + +'I hope you do, Richards,' said Mr Dombey. 'I have no doubt you know +it very well. Indeed it is so plain and obvious that it could hardly be +otherwise. Louisa, my dear, arrange with Richards about money, and let +her have it when and how she pleases. Mr what's-your name, a word with +you, if you please!' + +Thus arrested on the threshold as he was following his wife out of the +room, Toodle returned and confronted Mr Dombey alone. He was a strong, +loose, round-shouldered, shuffling, shaggy fellow, on whom his clothes +sat negligently: with a good deal of hair and whisker, deepened in its +natural tint, perhaps by smoke and coal-dust: hard knotty hands: and a +square forehead, as coarse in grain as the bark of an oak. A +thorough contrast in all respects, to Mr Dombey, who was one of those +close-shaved close-cut moneyed gentlemen who are glossy and crisp like +new bank-notes, and who seem to be artificially braced and tightened as +by the stimulating action of golden showerbaths. + +'You have a son, I believe?' said Mr Dombey. + +'Four on 'em, Sir. Four hims and a her. All alive!' + +'Why, it's as much as you can afford to keep them!' said Mr Dombey. + +'I couldn't hardly afford but one thing in the world less, Sir.' + +'What is that?' + +'To lose 'em, Sir.' + +'Can you read?' asked Mr Dombey. + +'Why, not partick'ler, Sir.' + +'Write?' + +'With chalk, Sir?' + +'With anything?' + +'I could make shift to chalk a little bit, I think, if I was put to it,' +said Toodle after some reflection. + +'And yet,' said Mr Dombey, 'you are two or three and thirty, I suppose?' + +'Thereabouts, I suppose, Sir,' answered Toodle, after more reflection + +'Then why don't you learn?' asked Mr Dombey. + +'So I'm a going to, Sir. One of my little boys is a going to learn me, +when he's old enough, and been to school himself.' + +'Well,' said Mr Dombey, after looking at him attentively, and with no +great favour, as he stood gazing round the room (principally round the +ceiling) and still drawing his hand across and across his mouth. 'You +heard what I said to your wife just now?' + +'Polly heerd it,' said Toodle, jerking his hat over his shoulder in the +direction of the door, with an air of perfect confidence in his better +half. 'It's all right.' + +'But I ask you if you heard it. You did, I suppose, and understood it?' +pursued Mr Dombey. + +'I heerd it,' said Toodle, 'but I don't know as I understood it rightly +Sir, 'account of being no scholar, and the words being--ask your +pardon--rayther high. But Polly heerd it. It's all right.' + +'As you appear to leave everything to her,' said Mr Dombey, frustrated +in his intention of impressing his views still more distinctly on the +husband, as the stronger character, 'I suppose it is of no use my saying +anything to you.' + +'Not a bit,' said Toodle. 'Polly heerd it. She's awake, Sir.' + +'I won't detain you any longer then,' returned Mr Dombey, disappointed. +'Where have you worked all your life?' + +'Mostly underground, Sir, 'till I got married. I come to the level then. +I'm a going on one of these here railroads when they comes into full +play.' + +As he added in one of his hoarse whispers, 'We means to bring up little +Biler to that line,' Mr Dombey inquired haughtily who little Biler was. + +'The eldest on 'em, Sir,' said Toodle, with a smile. 'It ain't a common +name. Sermuchser that when he was took to church the gen'lm'n said, it +wam't a chris'en one, and he couldn't give it. But we always calls him +Biler just the same. For we don't mean no harm. Not we.' + +'Do you mean to say, Man,' inquired Mr Dombey; looking at him with +marked displeasure, 'that you have called a child after a boiler?' + +'No, no, Sir,' returned Toodle, with a tender consideration for his +mistake. 'I should hope not! No, Sir. Arter a BILER Sir. The Steamingine +was a'most as good as a godfather to him, and so we called him Biler, +don't you see!' + +As the last straw breaks the laden camel's back, this piece of +information crushed the sinking spirits of Mr Dombey. He motioned his +child's foster-father to the door, who departed by no means unwillingly: +and then turning the key, paced up and down the room in solitary +wretchedness. + +It would be harsh, and perhaps not altogether true, to say of him that +he felt these rubs and gratings against his pride more keenly than he +had felt his wife's death: but certainly they impressed that event upon +him with new force, and communicated to it added weight and bitterness. +It was a rude shock to his sense of property in his child, that these +people--the mere dust of the earth, as he thought them--should be +necessary to him; and it was natural that in proportion as he felt +disturbed by it, he should deplore the occurrence which had made them +so. For all his starched, impenetrable dignity and composure, he wiped +blinding tears from his eyes as he paced up and down his room; and often +said, with an emotion of which he would not, for the world, have had a +witness, 'Poor little fellow!' + +It may have been characteristic of Mr Dombey's pride, that he pitied +himself through the child. Not poor me. Not poor widower, confiding by +constraint in the wife of an ignorant Hind who has been working 'mostly +underground' all his life, and yet at whose door Death had never +knocked, and at whose poor table four sons daily sit--but poor little +fellow! + +Those words being on his lips, it occurred to him--and it is an instance +of the strong attraction with which his hopes and fears and all his +thoughts were tending to one centre--that a great temptation was being +placed in this woman's way. Her infant was a boy too. Now, would it be +possible for her to change them? + +Though he was soon satisfied that he had dismissed the idea as romantic +and unlikely--though possible, there was no denying--he could not help +pursuing it so far as to entertain within himself a picture of what his +condition would be, if he should discover such an imposture when he was +grown old. Whether a man so situated would be able to pluck away the +result of so many years of usage, confidence, and belief, from the +impostor, and endow a stranger with it? + +But it was idle speculating thus. It couldn't happen. In a moment +afterwards he determined that it could, but that such women were +constantly observed, and had no opportunity given them for the +accomplishment of such a design, even when they were so wicked as to +entertain it. In another moment, he was remembering how few such cases +seemed to have ever happened. In another moment he was wondering whether +they ever happened and were not found out. + +As his unusual emotion subsided, these misgivings gradually melted away, +though so much of their shadow remained behind, that he was constant in +his resolution to look closely after Richards himself, without appearing +to do so. Being now in an easier frame of mind, he regarded the woman's +station as rather an advantageous circumstance than otherwise, by +placing, in itself, a broad distance between her and the child, and +rendering their separation easy and natural. Thence he passed to the +contemplation of the future glories of Dombey and Son, and dismissed the +memory of his wife, for the time being, with a tributary sigh or two. + +Meanwhile terms were ratified and agreed upon between Mrs Chick and +Richards, with the assistance of Miss Tox; and Richards being with much +ceremony invested with the Dombey baby, as if it were an Order, resigned +her own, with many tears and kisses, to Jemima. Glasses of wine were +then produced, to sustain the drooping spirits of the family; and Miss +Tox, busying herself in dispensing 'tastes' to the younger branches, +bred them up to their father's business with such surprising expedition, +that she made chokers of four of them in a quarter of a minute. + +'You'll take a glass yourself, Sir, won't you?' said Miss Tox, as Toodle +appeared. + +'Thankee, Mum,' said Toodle, 'since you are suppressing.' + +'And you're very glad to leave your dear good wife in such a comfortable +home, ain't you, Sir?' said Miss Tox, nodding and winking at him +stealthily. + +'No, Mum,' said Toodle. 'Here's wishing of her back agin.' + +Polly cried more than ever at this. So Mrs Chick, who had her matronly +apprehensions that this indulgence in grief might be prejudicial to the +little Dombey ('acid, indeed,' she whispered Miss Tox), hastened to the +rescue. + +'Your little child will thrive charmingly with your sister Jemima, +Richards,' said Mrs Chick; 'and you have only to make an effort--this is +a world of effort, you know, Richards--to be very happy indeed. You have +been already measured for your mourning, haven't you, Richards?' + +'Ye--es, Ma'am,' sobbed Polly. + +'And it'll fit beautifully. I know,' said Mrs Chick, 'for the same young +person has made me many dresses. The very best materials, too!' + +'Lor, you'll be so smart,' said Miss Tox, 'that your husband won't know +you; will you, Sir?' + +'I should know her,' said Toodle, gruffly, 'anyhows and anywheres.' + +Toodle was evidently not to be bought over. + +'As to living, Richards, you know,' pursued Mrs Chick, 'why, the very +best of everything will be at your disposal. You will order your little +dinner every day; and anything you take a fancy to, I'm sure will be as +readily provided as if you were a Lady.' + +'Yes to be sure!' said Miss Tox, keeping up the ball with great +sympathy. 'And as to porter!--quite unlimited, will it not, Louisa?' + +'Oh, certainly!' returned Mrs Chick in the same tone. 'With a little +abstinence, you know, my dear, in point of vegetables.' + +'And pickles, perhaps,' suggested Miss Tox. + +'With such exceptions,' said Louisa, 'she'll consult her choice +entirely, and be under no restraint at all, my love.' + +'And then, of course, you know,' said Miss Tox, 'however fond she is of +her own dear little child--and I'm sure, Louisa, you don't blame her for +being fond of it?' + +'Oh no!' cried Mrs Chick, benignantly. + +'Still,' resumed Miss Tox, 'she naturally must be interested in her +young charge, and must consider it a privilege to see a little cherub +connected with the superior classes, gradually unfolding itself from day +to day at one common fountain--is it not so, Louisa?' + +'Most undoubtedly!' said Mrs Chick. 'You see, my love, she's already +quite contented and comfortable, and means to say goodbye to her sister +Jemima and her little pets, and her good honest husband, with a light +heart and a smile; don't she, my dear?' + +'Oh yes!' cried Miss Tox. 'To be sure she does!' + +Notwithstanding which, however, poor Polly embraced them all round in +great distress, and coming to her spouse at last, could not make up her +mind to part from him, until he gently disengaged himself, at the close +of the following allegorical piece of consolation: + +'Polly, old 'ooman, whatever you do, my darling, hold up your head +and fight low. That's the only rule as I know on, that'll carry anyone +through life. You always have held up your head and fought low, Polly. +Do it now, or Bricks is no longer so. God bless you, Polly! Me and +J'mima will do your duty by you; and with relating to your'n, hold up +your head and fight low, Polly, and you can't go wrong!' + +Fortified by this golden secret, Folly finally ran away to avoid any +more particular leave-taking between herself and the children. But the +stratagem hardly succeeded as well as it deserved; for the smallest boy +but one divining her intent, immediately began swarming upstairs after +her--if that word of doubtful etymology be admissible--on his arms and +legs; while the eldest (known in the family by the name of Biler, in +remembrance of the steam engine) beat a demoniacal tattoo with his +boots, expressive of grief; in which he was joined by the rest of the +family. + +A quantity of oranges and halfpence thrust indiscriminately on each +young Toodle, checked the first violence of their regret, and the +family were speedily transported to their own home, by means of the +hackney-coach kept in waiting for that purpose. The children, under the +guardianship of Jemima, blocked up the window, and dropped out oranges +and halfpence all the way along. Mr Toodle himself preferred to ride +behind among the spikes, as being the mode of conveyance to which he was +best accustomed. + + + +CHAPTER 3. In which Mr Dombey, as a Man and a Father, is seen at the +Head of the Home-Department + + +The funeral of the deceased lady having been 'performed' to the entire +satisfaction of the undertaker, as well as of the neighbourhood at +large, which is generally disposed to be captious on such a point, +and is prone to take offence at any omissions or short-comings in the +ceremonies, the various members of Mr Dombey's household subsided into +their several places in the domestic system. That small world, like the +great one out of doors, had the capacity of easily forgetting its +dead; and when the cook had said she was a quiet-tempered lady, and the +house-keeper had said it was the common lot, and the butler had said +who'd have thought it, and the housemaid had said she couldn't hardly +believe it, and the footman had said it seemed exactly like a dream, +they had quite worn the subject out, and began to think their mourning +was wearing rusty too. + +On Richards, who was established upstairs in a state of honourable +captivity, the dawn of her new life seemed to break cold and grey. +Mr Dombey's house was a large one, on the shady side of a tall, dark, +dreadfully genteel street in the region between Portland Place and +Bryanstone Square. It was a corner house, with great wide areas +containing cellars frowned upon by barred windows, and leered at by +crooked-eyed doors leading to dustbins. It was a house of dismal state, +with a circular back to it, containing a whole suite of drawing-rooms +looking upon a gravelled yard, where two gaunt trees, with blackened +trunks and branches, rattled rather than rustled, their leaves were so +smoked-dried. The summer sun was never on the street, but in the morning +about breakfast-time, when it came with the water-carts and the old +clothes men, and the people with geraniums, and the umbrella-mender, and +the man who trilled the little bell of the Dutch clock as he went along. +It was soon gone again to return no more that day; and the bands of +music and the straggling Punch's shows going after it, left it a prey +to the most dismal of organs, and white mice; with now and then a +porcupine, to vary the entertainments; until the butlers whose families +were dining out, began to stand at the house-doors in the twilight, and +the lamp-lighter made his nightly failure in attempting to brighten up +the street with gas. + +It was as blank a house inside as outside. When the funeral was over, +Mr Dombey ordered the furniture to be covered up--perhaps to preserve it +for the son with whom his plans were all associated--and the rooms to be +ungarnished, saving such as he retained for himself on the ground floor. +Accordingly, mysterious shapes were made of tables and chairs, +heaped together in the middle of rooms, and covered over with great +winding-sheets. Bell-handles, window-blinds, and looking-glasses, being +papered up in journals, daily and weekly, obtruded fragmentary accounts +of deaths and dreadful murders. Every chandelier or lustre, muffled in +holland, looked like a monstrous tear depending from the ceiling's eye. +Odours, as from vaults and damp places, came out of the chimneys. The +dead and buried lady was awful in a picture-frame of ghastly bandages. +Every gust of wind that rose, brought eddying round the corner from +the neighbouring mews, some fragments of the straw that had been strewn +before the house when she was ill, mildewed remains of which were still +cleaving to the neighbourhood: and these, being always drawn by +some invisible attraction to the threshold of the dirty house to let +immediately opposite, addressed a dismal eloquence to Mr Dombey's +windows. + +The apartments which Mr Dombey reserved for his own inhabiting, were +attainable from the hall, and consisted of a sitting-room; a library, +which was in fact a dressing-room, so that the smell of hot-pressed +paper, vellum, morocco, and Russia leather, contended in it with the +smell of divers pairs of boots; and a kind of conservatory or little +glass breakfast-room beyond, commanding a prospect of the trees before +mentioned, and, generally speaking, of a few prowling cats. These three +rooms opened upon one another. In the morning, when Mr Dombey was at his +breakfast in one or other of the two first-mentioned of them, as well +as in the afternoon when he came home to dinner, a bell was rung for +Richards to repair to this glass chamber, and there walk to and fro with +her young charge. From the glimpses she caught of Mr Dombey at these +times, sitting in the dark distance, looking out towards the infant from +among the dark heavy furniture--the house had been inhabited for years +by his father, and in many of its appointments was old-fashioned and +grim--she began to entertain ideas of him in his solitary state, as if +he were a lone prisoner in a cell, or a strange apparition that was not +to be accosted or understood. Mr Dombey came to be, in the course of a +few days, invested in his own person, to her simple thinking, with all +the mystery and gloom of his house. As she walked up and down the glass +room, or sat hushing the baby there--which she very often did for hours +together, when the dusk was closing in, too--she would sometimes try to +pierce the gloom beyond, and make out how he was looking and what he +was doing. Sensible that she was plainly to be seen by him, however, she +never dared to pry in that direction but very furtively and for a moment +at a time. Consequently she made out nothing, and Mr Dombey in his den +remained a very shade. + +Little Paul Dombey's foster-mother had led this life herself, and had +carried little Paul through it for some weeks; and had returned upstairs +one day from a melancholy saunter through the dreary rooms of state (she +never went out without Mrs Chick, who called on fine mornings, usually +accompanied by Miss Tox, to take her and Baby for an airing--or in other +words, to march them gravely up and down the pavement, like a walking +funeral); when, as she was sitting in her own room, the door was slowly +and quietly opened, and a dark-eyed little girl looked in. + +'It's Miss Florence come home from her aunt's, no doubt,' thought +Richards, who had never seen the child before. 'Hope I see you well, +Miss.' + +'Is that my brother?' asked the child, pointing to the Baby. + +'Yes, my pretty,' answered Richards. 'Come and kiss him.' + +But the child, instead of advancing, looked her earnestly in the face, +and said: + +'What have you done with my Mama?' + +'Lord bless the little creeter!' cried Richards, 'what a sad question! I +done? Nothing, Miss.' + +'What have they done with my Mama?' inquired the child, with exactly the +same look and manner. + +'I never saw such a melting thing in all my life!' said Richards, who +naturally substituted for this child one of her own, inquiring for +herself in like circumstances. 'Come nearer here, my dear Miss! Don't be +afraid of me.' + +'I am not afraid of you,' said the child, drawing nearer. 'But I want to +know what they have done with my Mama.' + +Her heart swelled so as she stood before the woman, looking into her +eyes, that she was fain to press her little hand upon her breast and +hold it there. Yet there was a purpose in the child that prevented both +her slender figure and her searching gaze from faltering. + +'My darling,' said Richards, 'you wear that pretty black frock in +remembrance of your Mama.' + +'I can remember my Mama,' returned the child, with tears springing to +her eyes, 'in any frock.' + +'But people put on black, to remember people when they're gone.' + +'Where gone?' asked the child. + +'Come and sit down by me,' said Richards, 'and I'll tell you a story.' + +With a quick perception that it was intended to relate to what she had +asked, little Florence laid aside the bonnet she had held in her hand +until now, and sat down on a stool at the Nurse's feet, looking up into +her face. + +'Once upon a time,' said Richards, 'there was a lady--a very good lady, +and her little daughter dearly loved her.' + +'A very good lady and her little daughter dearly loved her,' repeated +the child. + +'Who, when God thought it right that it should be so, was taken ill and +died.' + +The child shuddered. + +'Died, never to be seen again by anyone on earth, and was buried in the +ground where the trees grow.' + +'The cold ground?' said the child, shuddering again. + +'No! The warm ground,' returned Polly, seizing her advantage, 'where the +ugly little seeds turn into beautiful flowers, and into grass, and corn, +and I don't know what all besides. Where good people turn into bright +angels, and fly away to Heaven!' + +The child, who had dropped her head, raised it again, and sat looking at +her intently. + +'So; let me see,' said Polly, not a little flurried between this earnest +scrutiny, her desire to comfort the child, her sudden success, and her +very slight confidence in her own powers. 'So, when this lady died, +wherever they took her, or wherever they put her, she went to GOD! and +she prayed to Him, this lady did,' said Polly, affecting herself beyond +measure; being heartily in earnest, 'to teach her little daughter to +be sure of that in her heart: and to know that she was happy there and +loved her still: and to hope and try--Oh, all her life--to meet her +there one day, never, never, never to part any more.' + +'It was my Mama!' exclaimed the child, springing up, and clasping her +round the neck. + +'And the child's heart,' said Polly, drawing her to her breast: 'the +little daughter's heart was so full of the truth of this, that even when +she heard it from a strange nurse that couldn't tell it right, but was a +poor mother herself and that was all, she found a comfort in it--didn't +feel so lonely--sobbed and cried upon her bosom--took kindly to the baby +lying in her lap--and--there, there, there!' said Polly, smoothing the +child's curls and dropping tears upon them. 'There, poor dear!' + +'Oh well, Miss Floy! And won't your Pa be angry neither!' cried a quick +voice at the door, proceeding from a short, brown, womanly girl of +fourteen, with a little snub nose, and black eyes like jet beads. 'When +it was 'tickerlerly given out that you wasn't to go and worrit the wet +nurse.' + +'She don't worry me,' was the surprised rejoinder of Polly. 'I am very +fond of children.' + +'Oh! but begging your pardon, Mrs Richards, that don't matter, you +know,' returned the black-eyed girl, who was so desperately sharp and +biting that she seemed to make one's eyes water. 'I may be very fond of +pennywinkles, Mrs Richards, but it don't follow that I'm to have 'em for +tea.' + +'Well, it don't matter,' said Polly. + +'Oh, thank'ee, Mrs Richards, don't it!' returned the sharp girl. +'Remembering, however, if you'll be so good, that Miss Floy's under my +charge, and Master Paul's under your'n.' + +'But still we needn't quarrel,' said Polly. + +'Oh no, Mrs Richards,' rejoined Spitfire. 'Not at all, I don't wish it, +we needn't stand upon that footing, Miss Floy being a permanency, Master +Paul a temporary.' Spitfire made use of none but comma pauses; shooting +out whatever she had to say in one sentence, and in one breath, if +possible. + +'Miss Florence has just come home, hasn't she?' asked Polly. + +'Yes, Mrs Richards, just come, and here, Miss Floy, before you've been +in the house a quarter of an hour, you go a smearing your wet face +against the expensive mourning that Mrs Richards is a wearing for your +Ma!' With this remonstrance, young Spitfire, whose real name was Susan +Nipper, detached the child from her new friend by a wrench--as if she +were a tooth. But she seemed to do it, more in the excessively sharp +exercise of her official functions, than with any deliberate unkindness. + +'She'll be quite happy, now she has come home again,' said Polly, +nodding to her with an encouraging smile upon her wholesome face, 'and +will be so pleased to see her dear Papa to-night.' + +'Lork, Mrs Richards!' cried Miss Nipper, taking up her words with a +jerk. 'Don't. See her dear Papa indeed! I should like to see her do it!' + +'Won't she then?' asked Polly. + +'Lork, Mrs Richards, no, her Pa's a deal too wrapped up in somebody +else, and before there was a somebody else to be wrapped up in she never +was a favourite, girls are thrown away in this house, Mrs Richards, I +assure you.' + +The child looked quickly from one nurse to the other, as if she +understood and felt what was said. + +'You surprise me!' cried Folly. 'Hasn't Mr Dombey seen her since--' + +'No,' interrupted Susan Nipper. 'Not once since, and he hadn't hardly +set his eyes upon her before that for months and months, and I don't +think he'd have known her for his own child if he had met her in the +streets, or would know her for his own child if he was to meet her in +the streets to-morrow, Mrs Richards, as to me,' said Spitfire, with a +giggle, 'I doubt if he's aweer of my existence.' + +'Pretty dear!' said Richards; meaning, not Miss Nipper, but the little +Florence. + +'Oh! there's a Tartar within a hundred miles of where we're now in +conversation, I can tell you, Mrs Richards, present company always +excepted too,' said Susan Nipper; 'wish you good morning, Mrs Richards, +now Miss Floy, you come along with me, and don't go hanging back like a +naughty wicked child that judgments is no example to, don't!' + +In spite of being thus adjured, and in spite also of some hauling on +the part of Susan Nipper, tending towards the dislocation of her +right shoulder, little Florence broke away, and kissed her new friend, +affectionately. + +'Oh dear! after it was given out so 'tickerlerly, that Mrs Richards +wasn't to be made free with!' exclaimed Susan. 'Very well, Miss Floy!' + +'God bless the sweet thing!' said Richards, 'Good-bye, dear!' + +'Good-bye!' returned the child. 'God bless you! I shall come to see you +again soon, and you'll come to see me? Susan will let us. Won't you, +Susan?' + +Spitfire seemed to be in the main a good-natured little body, although +a disciple of that school of trainers of the young idea which holds that +childhood, like money, must be shaken and rattled and jostled about +a good deal to keep it bright. For, being thus appealed to with some +endearing gestures and caresses, she folded her small arms and shook her +head, and conveyed a relenting expression into her very-wide-open black +eyes. + +'It ain't right of you to ask it, Miss Floy, for you know I can't refuse +you, but Mrs Richards and me will see what can be done, if Mrs Richards +likes, I may wish, you see, to take a voyage to Chaney, Mrs Richards, +but I mayn't know how to leave the London Docks.' + +Richards assented to the proposition. + +'This house ain't so exactly ringing with merry-making,' said Miss +Nipper, 'that one need be lonelier than one must be. Your Toxes and +your Chickses may draw out my two front double teeth, Mrs Richards, but +that's no reason why I need offer 'em the whole set.' + +This proposition was also assented to by Richards, as an obvious one. + +'So I'm agreeable, I'm sure,' said Susan Nipper, 'to live friendly, Mrs +Richards, while Master Paul continues a permanency, if the means can be +planned out without going openly against orders, but goodness gracious +Miss Floy, you haven't got your things off yet, you naughty child, you +haven't, come along!' + +With these words, Susan Nipper, in a transport of coercion, made a +charge at her young ward, and swept her out of the room. + +The child, in her grief and neglect, was so gentle, so quiet, and +uncomplaining; was possessed of so much affection that no one seemed to +care to have, and so much sorrowful intelligence that no one seemed to +mind or think about the wounding of, that Polly's heart was sore when +she was left alone again. In the simple passage that had taken place +between herself and the motherless little girl, her own motherly heart +had been touched no less than the child's; and she felt, as the child +did, that there was something of confidence and interest between them +from that moment. + +Notwithstanding Mr Toodle's great reliance on Polly, she was perhaps in +point of artificial accomplishments very little his superior. She had +been good-humouredly working and drudging for her life all her life, +and was a sober steady-going person, with matter-of-fact ideas about the +butcher and baker, and the division of pence into farthings. But she +was a good plain sample of a nature that is ever, in the mass, better, +truer, higher, nobler, quicker to feel, and much more constant to +retain, all tenderness and pity, self-denial and devotion, than the +nature of men. And, perhaps, unlearned as she was, she could have +brought a dawning knowledge home to Mr Dombey at that early day, which +would not then have struck him in the end like lightning. + +But this is from the purpose. Polly only thought, at that time, of +improving on her successful propitiation of Miss Nipper, and devising +some means of having little Florence aide her, lawfully, and without +rebellion. An opening happened to present itself that very night. + +She had been rung down into the glass room as usual, and had walked +about and about it a long time, with the baby in her arms, when, to her +great surprise and dismay, Mr Dombey--whom she had seen at first leaning +on his elbow at the table, and afterwards walking up and down the middle +room, drawing, each time, a little nearer, she thought, to the open +folding doors--came out, suddenly, and stopped before her. + +'Good evening, Richards.' + +Just the same austere, stiff gentleman, as he had appeared to her on +that first day. Such a hard-looking gentleman, that she involuntarily +dropped her eyes and her curtsey at the same time. + +'How is Master Paul, Richards?' + +'Quite thriving, Sir, and well.' + +'He looks so,' said Mr Dombey, glancing with great interest at the tiny +face she uncovered for his observation, and yet affecting to be half +careless of it. 'They give you everything you want, I hope?' + +'Oh yes, thank you, Sir.' + +She suddenly appended such an obvious hesitation to this reply, however, +that Mr Dombey, who had turned away; stopped, and turned round again, +inquiringly. + +'If you please, Sir, the child is very much disposed to take notice of +things,' said Richards, with another curtsey, 'and--upstairs is a little +dull for him, perhaps, Sir.' + +'I begged them to take you out for airings, constantly,' said Mr Dombey. +'Very well! You shall go out oftener. You're quite right to mention it.' + +'I beg your pardon, Sir,' faltered Polly, 'but we go out quite plenty +Sir, thank you.' + +'What would you have then?' asked Mr Dombey. + +'Indeed Sir, I don't exactly know,' said Polly, 'unless--' + +'Yes?' + +'I believe nothing is so good for making children lively and cheerful, +Sir, as seeing other children playing about 'em,' observed Polly, taking +courage. + +'I think I mentioned to you, Richards, when you came here,' said Mr +Dombey, with a frown, 'that I wished you to see as little of your family +as possible.' + +'Oh dear yes, Sir, I wasn't so much as thinking of that.' + +'I am glad of it,' said Mr Dombey hastily. 'You can continue your walk +if you please.' + +With that, he disappeared into his inner room; and Polly had the +satisfaction of feeling that he had thoroughly misunderstood her object, +and that she had fallen into disgrace without the least advancement of +her purpose. + +Next night, she found him walking about the conservatory when she came +down. As she stopped at the door, checked by this unusual sight, and +uncertain whether to advance or retreat, he called her in. His mind was +too much set on Dombey and Son, it soon appeared, to admit of his having +forgotten her suggestion. + +'If you really think that sort of society is good for the child,' he +said sharply, as if there had been no interval since she proposed it, +'where's Miss Florence?' + +'Nothing could be better than Miss Florence, Sir,' said Polly eagerly, +'but I understood from her maid that they were not to--' + +Mr Dombey rang the bell, and walked till it was answered. + +'Tell them always to let Miss Florence be with Richards when she +chooses, and go out with her, and so forth. Tell them to let the +children be together, when Richards wishes it.' + +The iron was now hot, and Richards striking on it boldly--it was a +good cause and she bold in it, though instinctively afraid of Mr +Dombey--requested that Miss Florence might be sent down then and there, +to make friends with her little brother. + +She feigned to be dandling the child as the servant retired on this +errand, but she thought that she saw Mr Dombey's colour changed; that +the expression of his face quite altered; that he turned, hurriedly, as +if to gainsay what he had said, or she had said, or both, and was only +deterred by very shame. + +And she was right. The last time he had seen his slighted child, there +had been that in the sad embrace between her and her dying mother, which +was at once a revelation and a reproach to him. Let him be absorbed +as he would in the Son on whom he built such high hopes, he could not +forget that closing scene. He could not forget that he had had no part +in it. That, at the bottom of its clear depths of tenderness and truth +lay those two figures clasped in each other's arms, while he stood on +the bank above them, looking down a mere spectator--not a sharer with +them--quite shut out. + +Unable to exclude these things from his remembrance, or to keep his +mind free from such imperfect shapes of the meaning with which they were +fraught, as were able to make themselves visible to him through the +mist of his pride, his previous feeling of indifference towards little +Florence changed into an uneasiness of an extraordinary kind. Young as +she was, and possessing in any eyes but his (and perhaps in his too) +even more than the usual amount of childish simplicity and confidence, +he almost felt as if she watched and distrusted him. As if she held the +clue to something secret in his breast, of the nature of which he +was hardly informed himself. As if she had an innate knowledge of one +jarring and discordant string within him, and her very breath could +sound it. + +His feeling about the child had been negative from her birth. He had +never conceived an aversion to her: it had not been worth his while or +in his humour. She had never been a positively disagreeable object to +him. But now he was ill at ease about her. She troubled his peace. He +would have preferred to put her idea aside altogether, if he had known +how. Perhaps--who shall decide on such mysteries!--he was afraid that he +might come to hate her. + +When little Florence timidly presented herself, Mr Dombey stopped in his +pacing up and down and looked towards her. Had he looked with greater +interest and with a father's eye, he might have read in her keen glance +the impulses and fears that made her waver; the passionate desire to run +clinging to him, crying, as she hid her face in his embrace, 'Oh father, +try to love me! there's no one else!' the dread of a repulse; the fear +of being too bold, and of offending him; the pitiable need in which she +stood of some assurance and encouragement; and how her overcharged young +heart was wandering to find some natural resting-place, for its sorrow +and affection. + +But he saw nothing of this. He saw her pause irresolutely at the door +and look towards him; and he saw no more. + +'Come in,' he said, 'come in: what is the child afraid of?' + +She came in; and after glancing round her for a moment with an uncertain +air, stood pressing her small hands hard together, close within the +door. + +'Come here, Florence,' said her father, coldly. 'Do you know who I am?' + +'Yes, Papa.' + +'Have you nothing to say to me?' + +The tears that stood in her eyes as she raised them quickly to his face, +were frozen by the expression it wore. She looked down again, and put +out her trembling hand. + +Mr Dombey took it loosely in his own, and stood looking down upon her +for a moment, as if he knew as little as the child, what to say or do. + +'There! Be a good girl,' he said, patting her on the head, and regarding +her as it were by stealth with a disturbed and doubtful look. 'Go to +Richards! Go!' + +His little daughter hesitated for another instant as though she would +have clung about him still, or had some lingering hope that he might +raise her in his arms and kiss her. She looked up in his face once more. +He thought how like her expression was then, to what it had been when +she looked round at the Doctor--that night--and instinctively dropped +her hand and turned away. + +It was not difficult to perceive that Florence was at a great +disadvantage in her father's presence. It was not only a constraint upon +the child's mind, but even upon the natural grace and freedom of her +actions. As she sported and played about her baby brother that night, +her manner was seldom so winning and so pretty as it naturally was, +and sometimes when in his pacing to and fro, he came near her (she had, +perhaps, for the moment, forgotten him) it changed upon the instant and +became forced and embarrassed. + +Still, Polly persevered with all the better heart for seeing this; and, +judging of Mr Dombey by herself, had great confidence in the mute appeal +of poor little Florence's mourning dress. 'It's hard indeed,' thought +Polly, 'if he takes only to one little motherless child, when he has +another, and that a girl, before his eyes.' + +So, Polly kept her before his eyes, as long as she could, and managed +so well with little Paul, as to make it very plain that he was all the +livelier for his sister's company. When it was time to withdraw +upstairs again, she would have sent Florence into the inner room to say +good-night to her father, but the child was timid and drew back; and +when she urged her again, said, spreading her hands before her eyes, as +if to shut out her own unworthiness, 'Oh no, no! He don't want me. He +don't want me!' + +The little altercation between them had attracted the notice of Mr +Dombey, who inquired from the table where he was sitting at his wine, +what the matter was. + +'Miss Florence was afraid of interrupting, Sir, if she came in to say +good-night,' said Richards. + +'It doesn't matter,' returned Mr Dombey. 'You can let her come and go +without regarding me.' + +The child shrunk as she listened--and was gone, before her humble friend +looked round again. + +However, Polly triumphed not a little in the success of her +well-intentioned scheme, and in the address with which she had brought +it to bear: whereof she made a full disclosure to Spitfire when she was +once more safely entrenched upstairs. Miss Nipper received that proof +of her confidence, as well as the prospect of their free association +for the future, rather coldly, and was anything but enthusiastic in her +demonstrations of joy. + +'I thought you would have been pleased,' said Polly. + +'Oh yes, Mrs Richards, I'm very well pleased, thank you,' returned +Susan, who had suddenly become so very upright that she seemed to have +put an additional bone in her stays. + +'You don't show it,' said Polly. + +'Oh! Being only a permanency I couldn't be expected to show it like a +temporary,' said Susan Nipper. 'Temporaries carries it all before 'em +here, I find, but though there's a excellent party-wall between this +house and the next, I mayn't exactly like to go to it, Mrs Richards, +notwithstanding!' + + + +CHAPTER 4. In which some more First Appearances are made on the Stage of +these Adventures + + +Though the offices of Dombey and Son were within the liberties of the +City of London, and within hearing of Bow Bells, when their clashing +voices were not drowned by the uproar in the streets, yet were there +hints of adventurous and romantic story to be observed in some of the +adjacent objects. Gog and Magog held their state within ten minutes' +walk; the Royal Exchange was close at hand; the Bank of England, with +its vaults of gold and silver 'down among the dead men' underground, was +their magnificent neighbour. Just round the corner stood the rich East +India House, teeming with suggestions of precious stuffs and stones, +tigers, elephants, howdahs, hookahs, umbrellas, palm trees, palanquins, +and gorgeous princes of a brown complexion sitting on carpets, with +their slippers very much turned up at the toes. Anywhere in the +immediate vicinity there might be seen pictures of ships speeding away +full sail to all parts of the world; outfitting warehouses ready to pack +off anybody anywhere, fully equipped in half an hour; and little timber +midshipmen in obsolete naval uniforms, eternally employed outside the +shop doors of nautical Instrument-makers in taking observations of the +hackney carriages. + +Sole master and proprietor of one of these effigies--of that which might +be called, familiarly, the woodenest--of that which thrust itself +out above the pavement, right leg foremost, with a suavity the least +endurable, and had the shoe buckles and flapped waistcoat the least +reconcileable to human reason, and bore at its right eye the most +offensively disproportionate piece of machinery--sole master and +proprietor of that Midshipman, and proud of him too, an elderly +gentleman in a Welsh wig had paid house-rent, taxes, rates, and dues, +for more years than many a full-grown midshipman of flesh and blood has +numbered in his life; and midshipmen who have attained a pretty green +old age, have not been wanting in the English Navy. + +The stock-in-trade of this old gentleman comprised chronometers, +barometers, telescopes, compasses, charts, maps, sextants, quadrants, +and specimens of every kind of instrument used in the working of a +ship's course, or the keeping of a ship's reckoning, or the prosecuting +of a ship's discoveries. Objects in brass and glass were in his drawers +and on his shelves, which none but the initiated could have found the +top of, or guessed the use of, or having once examined, could have ever +got back again into their mahogany nests without assistance. Everything +was jammed into the tightest cases, fitted into the narrowest corners, +fenced up behind the most impertinent cushions, and screwed into the +acutest angles, to prevent its philosophical composure from being +disturbed by the rolling of the sea. Such extraordinary precautions were +taken in every instance to save room, and keep the thing compact; and +so much practical navigation was fitted, and cushioned, and screwed into +every box (whether the box was a mere slab, as some were, or something +between a cocked hat and a star-fish, as others were, and those quite +mild and modest boxes as compared with others); that the shop itself, +partaking of the general infection, seemed almost to become a snug, +sea-going, ship-shape concern, wanting only good sea-room, in the event +of an unexpected launch, to work its way securely to any desert island +in the world. + +Many minor incidents in the household life of the Ships' +Instrument-maker who was proud of his little Midshipman, assisted and +bore out this fancy. His acquaintance lying chiefly among ship-chandlers +and so forth, he had always plenty of the veritable ships' biscuit on +his table. It was familiar with dried meats and tongues, possessing an +extraordinary flavour of rope yarn. Pickles were produced upon it, in +great wholesale jars, with 'dealer in all kinds of Ships' Provisions' on +the label; spirits were set forth in case bottles with no throats. Old +prints of ships with alphabetical references to their various mysteries, +hung in frames upon the walls; the Tartar Frigate under weigh, was +on the plates; outlandish shells, seaweeds, and mosses, decorated the +chimney-piece; the little wainscotted back parlour was lighted by a +sky-light, like a cabin. + +Here he lived too, in skipper-like state, all alone with his nephew +Walter: a boy of fourteen who looked quite enough like a midshipman, +to carry out the prevailing idea. But there it ended, for Solomon Gills +himself (more generally called old Sol) was far from having a maritime +appearance. To say nothing of his Welsh wig, which was as plain and +stubborn a Welsh wig as ever was worn, and in which he looked like +anything but a Rover, he was a slow, quiet-spoken, thoughtful old +fellow, with eyes as red as if they had been small suns looking at +you through a fog; and a newly-awakened manner, such as he might have +acquired by having stared for three or four days successively through +every optical instrument in his shop, and suddenly came back to the +world again, to find it green. The only change ever known in his outward +man, was from a complete suit of coffee-colour cut very square, and +ornamented with glaring buttons, to the same suit of coffee-colour minus +the inexpressibles, which were then of a pale nankeen. He wore a very +precise shirt-frill, and carried a pair of first-rate spectacles on his +forehead, and a tremendous chronometer in his fob, rather than doubt +which precious possession, he would have believed in a conspiracy +against it on part of all the clocks and watches in the City, and even +of the very Sun itself. Such as he was, such he had been in the shop +and parlour behind the little Midshipman, for years upon years; going +regularly aloft to bed every night in a howling garret remote from the +lodgers, where, when gentlemen of England who lived below at ease had +little or no idea of the state of the weather, it often blew great guns. + +It is half-past five o'clock, and an autumn afternoon, when the reader +and Solomon Gills become acquainted. Solomon Gills is in the act of +seeing what time it is by the unimpeachable chronometer. The usual daily +clearance has been making in the City for an hour or more; and the human +tide is still rolling westward. 'The streets have thinned,' as Mr +Gills says, 'very much.' It threatens to be wet to-night. All the +weatherglasses in the shop are in low spirits, and the rain already +shines upon the cocked hat of the wooden Midshipman. + +'Where's Walter, I wonder!' said Solomon Gills, after he had carefully +put up the chronometer again. 'Here's dinner been ready, half an hour, +and no Walter!' + +Turning round upon his stool behind the counter, Mr Gills looked out +among the instruments in the window, to see if his nephew might be +crossing the road. No. He was not among the bobbing umbrellas, and he +certainly was not the newspaper boy in the oilskin cap who was slowly +working his way along the piece of brass outside, writing his name over +Mr Gills's name with his forefinger. + +'If I didn't know he was too fond of me to make a run of it, and go +and enter himself aboard ship against my wishes, I should begin to be +fidgetty,' said Mr Gills, tapping two or three weather-glasses with +his knuckles. 'I really should. All in the Downs, eh! Lots of moisture! +Well! it's wanted.' + +'I believe,' said Mr Gills, blowing the dust off the glass top of a +compass-case, 'that you don't point more direct and due to the back +parlour than the boy's inclination does after all. And the parlour +couldn't bear straighter either. Due north. Not the twentieth part of a +point either way.' + +'Halloa, Uncle Sol!' + +'Halloa, my boy!' cried the Instrument-maker, turning briskly round. +'What! you are here, are you?' + +A cheerful looking, merry boy, fresh with running home in the rain; +fair-faced, bright-eyed, and curly-haired. + +'Well, Uncle, how have you got on without me all day? Is dinner ready? +I'm so hungry.' + +'As to getting on,' said Solomon good-naturedly, 'it would be odd if I +couldn't get on without a young dog like you a great deal better than +with you. As to dinner being ready, it's been ready this half hour and +waiting for you. As to being hungry, I am!' + +'Come along then, Uncle!' cried the boy. 'Hurrah for the admiral!' + +'Confound the admiral!' returned Solomon Gills. 'You mean the Lord +Mayor.' + +'No I don't!' cried the boy. 'Hurrah for the admiral! Hurrah for the +admiral! For-ward!' + +At this word of command, the Welsh wig and its wearer were borne without +resistance into the back parlour, as at the head of a boarding party of +five hundred men; and Uncle Sol and his nephew were speedily engaged on +a fried sole with a prospect of steak to follow. + +'The Lord Mayor, Wally,' said Solomon, 'for ever! No more admirals. The +Lord Mayor's your admiral.' + +'Oh, is he though!' said the boy, shaking his head. 'Why, the Sword +Bearer's better than him. He draws his sword sometimes.' + +'And a pretty figure he cuts with it for his pains,' returned the Uncle. +'Listen to me, Wally, listen to me. Look on the mantelshelf.' + +'Why who has cocked my silver mug up there, on a nail?' exclaimed the +boy. + +'I have,' said his Uncle. 'No more mugs now. We must begin to drink out +of glasses to-day, Walter. We are men of business. We belong to the +City. We started in life this morning.' + +'Well, Uncle,' said the boy, 'I'll drink out of anything you like, so +long as I can drink to you. Here's to you, Uncle Sol, and Hurrah for +the--' + +'Lord Mayor,' interrupted the old man. + +'For the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Common Council, and Livery,' said the +boy. 'Long life to 'em!' + +The uncle nodded his head with great satisfaction. 'And now,' he said, +'let's hear something about the Firm.' + +'Oh! there's not much to be told about the Firm, Uncle,' said the boy, +plying his knife and fork. 'It's a precious dark set of offices, and in +the room where I sit, there's a high fender, and an iron safe, and some +cards about ships that are going to sail, and an almanack, and some +desks and stools, and an inkbottle, and some books, and some boxes, and +a lot of cobwebs, and in one of 'em, just over my head, a shrivelled-up +blue-bottle that looks as if it had hung there ever so long.' + +'Nothing else?' said the Uncle. + +'No, nothing else, except an old birdcage (I wonder how that ever came +there!) and a coal-scuttle.' + +'No bankers' books, or cheque books, or bills, or such tokens of wealth +rolling in from day to day?' said old Sol, looking wistfully at his +nephew out of the fog that always seemed to hang about him, and laying +an unctuous emphasis upon the words. + +'Oh yes, plenty of that I suppose,' returned his nephew carelessly; +'but all that sort of thing's in Mr Carker's room, or Mr Morfin's, or Mr +Dombey's.' + +'Has Mr Dombey been there to-day?' inquired the Uncle. + +'Oh yes! In and out all day.' + +'He didn't take any notice of you, I suppose?'. + +'Yes he did. He walked up to my seat,--I wish he wasn't so solemn and +stiff, Uncle,--and said, "Oh! you are the son of Mr Gills the Ships' +Instrument-maker." "Nephew, Sir," I said. "I said nephew, boy," said he. +But I could take my oath he said son, Uncle.' + +'You're mistaken I daresay. It's no matter.' + +'No, it's no matter, but he needn't have been so sharp, I thought. There +was no harm in it though he did say son. Then he told me that you had +spoken to him about me, and that he had found me employment in the House +accordingly, and that I was expected to be attentive and punctual, and +then he went away. I thought he didn't seem to like me much.' + +'You mean, I suppose,' observed the Instrument-maker, 'that you didn't +seem to like him much?' + +'Well, Uncle,' returned the boy, laughing. 'Perhaps so; I never thought +of that.' + +Solomon looked a little graver as he finished his dinner, and glanced +from time to time at the boy's bright face. When dinner was done, and +the cloth was cleared away (the entertainment had been brought from a +neighbouring eating-house), he lighted a candle, and went down +below into a little cellar, while his nephew, standing on the mouldy +staircase, dutifully held the light. After a moment's groping here and +there, he presently returned with a very ancient-looking bottle, covered +with dust and dirt. + +'Why, Uncle Sol!' said the boy, 'what are you about? that's the +wonderful Madeira!--there's only one more bottle!' + +Uncle Sol nodded his head, implying that he knew very well what he was +about; and having drawn the cork in solemn silence, filled two glasses +and set the bottle and a third clean glass on the table. + +'You shall drink the other bottle, Wally,' he said, 'when you come to +good fortune; when you are a thriving, respected, happy man; when the +start in life you have made to-day shall have brought you, as I pray +Heaven it may!--to a smooth part of the course you have to run, my +child. My love to you!' + +Some of the fog that hung about old Sol seemed to have got into his +throat; for he spoke huskily. His hand shook too, as he clinked his +glass against his nephew's. But having once got the wine to his lips, he +tossed it off like a man, and smacked them afterwards. + +'Dear Uncle,' said the boy, affecting to make light of it, while the +tears stood in his eyes, 'for the honour you have done me, et cetera, +et cetera. I shall now beg to propose Mr Solomon Gills with three times +three and one cheer more. Hurrah! and you'll return thanks, Uncle, when +we drink the last bottle together; won't you?' + +They clinked their glasses again; and Walter, who was hoarding his wine, +took a sip of it, and held the glass up to his eye with as critical an +air as he could possibly assume. + +His Uncle sat looking at him for some time in silence. When their eyes +at last met, he began at once to pursue the theme that had occupied his +thoughts, aloud, as if he had been speaking all the time. + +'You see, Walter,' he said, 'in truth this business is merely a habit +with me. I am so accustomed to the habit that I could hardly live if +I relinquished it: but there's nothing doing, nothing doing. When that +uniform was worn,' pointing out towards the little Midshipman, 'then +indeed, fortunes were to be made, and were made. But competition, +competition--new invention, new invention--alteration, alteration--the +world's gone past me. I hardly know where I am myself, much less where +my customers are.' + +'Never mind 'em, Uncle!' + +'Since you came home from weekly boarding-school at Peckham, for +instance--and that's ten days,' said Solomon, 'I don't remember more +than one person that has come into the shop.' + +'Two, Uncle, don't you recollect? There was the man who came to ask for +change for a sovereign--' + +'That's the one,' said Solomon. + +'Why Uncle! don't you call the woman anybody, who came to ask the way to +Mile-End Turnpike?' + +'Oh! it's true,' said Solomon, 'I forgot her. Two persons.' + +'To be sure, they didn't buy anything,' cried the boy. + +'No. They didn't buy anything,' said Solomon, quietly. + +'Nor want anything,' cried the boy. + +'No. If they had, they'd gone to another shop,' said Solomon, in the +same tone. + +'But there were two of 'em, Uncle,' cried the boy, as if that were a +great triumph. 'You said only one.' + +'Well, Wally,' resumed the old man, after a short pause: 'not being like +the Savages who came on Robinson Crusoe's Island, we can't live on a man +who asks for change for a sovereign, and a woman who inquires the way +to Mile-End Turnpike. As I said just now, the world has gone past me. +I don't blame it; but I no longer understand it. Tradesmen are not the +same as they used to be, apprentices are not the same, business is not +the same, business commodities are not the same. Seven-eighths of my +stock is old-fashioned. I am an old-fashioned man in an old-fashioned +shop, in a street that is not the same as I remember it. I have fallen +behind the time, and am too old to catch it again. Even the noise it +makes a long way ahead, confuses me.' + +Walter was going to speak, but his Uncle held up his hand. + +'Therefore, Wally--therefore it is that I am anxious you should be early +in the busy world, and on the world's track. I am only the ghost of this +business--its substance vanished long ago; and when I die, its ghost +will be laid. As it is clearly no inheritance for you then, I have +thought it best to use for your advantage, almost the only fragment of +the old connexion that stands by me, through long habit. Some people +suppose me to be wealthy. I wish for your sake they were right. But +whatever I leave behind me, or whatever I can give you, you in such a +House as Dombey's are in the road to use well and make the most of. Be +diligent, try to like it, my dear boy, work for a steady independence, +and be happy!' + +'I'll do everything I can, Uncle, to deserve your affection. Indeed I +will,' said the boy, earnestly. + +'I know it,' said Solomon. 'I am sure of it,' and he applied himself +to a second glass of the old Madeira, with increased relish. 'As to the +Sea,' he pursued, 'that's well enough in fiction, Wally, but it won't do +in fact: it won't do at all. It's natural enough that you should think +about it, associating it with all these familiar things; but it won't +do, it won't do.' + +Solomon Gills rubbed his hands with an air of stealthy enjoyment, as he +talked of the sea, though; and looked on the seafaring objects about him +with inexpressible complacency. + +'Think of this wine for instance,' said old Sol, 'which has been to the +East Indies and back, I'm not able to say how often, and has been once +round the world. Think of the pitch-dark nights, the roaring winds, and +rolling seas:' + +'The thunder, lightning, rain, hail, storm of all kinds,' said the boy. + +'To be sure,' said Solomon,--'that this wine has passed through. Think +what a straining and creaking of timbers and masts: what a whistling and +howling of the gale through ropes and rigging:' + +'What a clambering aloft of men, vying with each other who shall lie +out first upon the yards to furl the icy sails, while the ship rolls and +pitches, like mad!' cried his nephew. + +'Exactly so,' said Solomon: 'has gone on, over the old cask that held +this wine. Why, when the Charming Sally went down in the--' + +'In the Baltic Sea, in the dead of night; five-and-twenty minutes past +twelve when the captain's watch stopped in his pocket; he lying +dead against the main-mast--on the fourteenth of February, seventeen +forty-nine!' cried Walter, with great animation. + +'Ay, to be sure!' cried old Sol, 'quite right! Then, there were five +hundred casks of such wine aboard; and all hands (except the first mate, +first lieutenant, two seamen, and a lady, in a leaky boat) going to work +to stave the casks, got drunk and died drunk, singing "Rule Britannia", +when she settled and went down, and ending with one awful scream in +chorus.' + +'But when the George the Second drove ashore, Uncle, on the coast of +Cornwall, in a dismal gale, two hours before daybreak, on the fourth +of March, 'seventy-one, she had near two hundred horses aboard; and the +horses breaking loose down below, early in the gale, and tearing to and +fro, and trampling each other to death, made such noises, and set up +such human cries, that the crew believing the ship to be full of devils, +some of the best men, losing heart and head, went overboard in despair, +and only two were left alive, at last, to tell the tale.' + +'And when,' said old Sol, 'when the Polyphemus--' + +'Private West India Trader, burden three hundred and fifty tons, +Captain, John Brown of Deptford. Owners, Wiggs and Co.,' cried Walter. + +'The same,' said Sol; 'when she took fire, four days' sail with a fair +wind out of Jamaica Harbour, in the night--' + +'There were two brothers on board,' interposed his nephew, speaking very +fast and loud, 'and there not being room for both of them in the only +boat that wasn't swamped, neither of them would consent to go, until +the elder took the younger by the waist, and flung him in. And then +the younger, rising in the boat, cried out, "Dear Edward, think of your +promised wife at home. I'm only a boy. No one waits at home for me. Leap +down into my place!" and flung himself in the sea!' + +The kindling eye and heightened colour of the boy, who had risen from +his seat in the earnestness of what he said and felt, seemed to remind +old Sol of something he had forgotten, or that his encircling mist had +hitherto shut out. Instead of proceeding with any more anecdotes, as he +had evidently intended but a moment before, he gave a short dry cough, +and said, 'Well! suppose we change the subject.' + +The truth was, that the simple-minded Uncle in his secret attraction +towards the marvellous and adventurous--of which he was, in some sort, +a distant relation, by his trade--had greatly encouraged the same +attraction in the nephew; and that everything that had ever been put +before the boy to deter him from a life of adventure, had had the usual +unaccountable effect of sharpening his taste for it. This is invariable. +It would seem as if there never was a book written, or a story told, +expressly with the object of keeping boys on shore, which did not lure +and charm them to the ocean, as a matter of course. + +But an addition to the little party now made its appearance, in the +shape of a gentleman in a wide suit of blue, with a hook instead of a +hand attached to his right wrist; very bushy black eyebrows; and a thick +stick in his left hand, covered all over (like his nose) with knobs. +He wore a loose black silk handkerchief round his neck, and such a very +large coarse shirt collar, that it looked like a small sail. He was +evidently the person for whom the spare wine-glass was intended, and +evidently knew it; for having taken off his rough outer coat, and hung +up, on a particular peg behind the door, such a hard glazed hat as a +sympathetic person's head might ache at the sight of, and which left a +red rim round his own forehead as if he had been wearing a tight basin, +he brought a chair to where the clean glass was, and sat himself down +behind it. He was usually addressed as Captain, this visitor; and had +been a pilot, or a skipper, or a privateersman, or all three perhaps; +and was a very salt-looking man indeed. + +His face, remarkable for a brown solidity, brightened as he shook hands +with Uncle and nephew; but he seemed to be of a laconic disposition, and +merely said: + +'How goes it?' + +'All well,' said Mr Gills, pushing the bottle towards him. + +He took it up, and having surveyed and smelt it, said with extraordinary +expression: + +'The?' + +'The,' returned the Instrument-maker. + +Upon that he whistled as he filled his glass, and seemed to think they +were making holiday indeed. + +'Wal'r!' he said, arranging his hair (which was thin) with his hook, and +then pointing it at the Instrument-maker, 'Look at him! Love! Honour! +And Obey! Overhaul your catechism till you find that passage, and when +found turn the leaf down. Success, my boy!' + +He was so perfectly satisfied both with his quotation and his reference +to it, that he could not help repeating the words again in a low voice, +and saying he had forgotten 'em these forty year. + +'But I never wanted two or three words in my life that I didn't know +where to lay my hand upon 'em, Gills,' he observed. 'It comes of not +wasting language as some do.' + +The reflection perhaps reminded him that he had better, like young +Norval's father, "increase his store." At any rate he became silent, and +remained so, until old Sol went out into the shop to light it up, when +he turned to Walter, and said, without any introductory remark:-- + +'I suppose he could make a clock if he tried?' + +'I shouldn't wonder, Captain Cuttle,' returned the boy. + +'And it would go!' said Captain Cuttle, making a species of serpent in +the air with his hook. 'Lord, how that clock would go!' + +For a moment or two he seemed quite lost in contemplating the pace of +this ideal timepiece, and sat looking at the boy as if his face were the +dial. + +'But he's chock-full of science,' he observed, waving his hook towards +the stock-in-trade. 'Look'ye here! Here's a collection of 'em. Earth, +air, or water. It's all one. Only say where you'll have it. Up in a +balloon? There you are. Down in a bell? There you are. D'ye want to put +the North Star in a pair of scales and weigh it? He'll do it for you.' + +It may be gathered from these remarks that Captain Cuttle's reverence +for the stock of instruments was profound, and that his philosophy knew +little or no distinction between trading in it and inventing it. + +'Ah!' he said, with a sigh, 'it's a fine thing to understand 'em. And +yet it's a fine thing not to understand 'em. I hardly know which +is best. It's so comfortable to sit here and feel that you might be +weighed, measured, magnified, electrified, polarized, played the very +devil with: and never know how.' + +Nothing short of the wonderful Madeira, combined with the occasion +(which rendered it desirable to improve and expand Walter's mind), could +have ever loosened his tongue to the extent of giving utterance to this +prodigious oration. He seemed quite amazed himself at the manner in +which it opened up to view the sources of the taciturn delight he had +had in eating Sunday dinners in that parlour for ten years. Becoming a +sadder and a wiser man, he mused and held his peace. + +'Come!' cried the subject of this admiration, returning. 'Before you +have your glass of grog, Ned, we must finish the bottle.' + +'Stand by!' said Ned, filling his glass. 'Give the boy some more.' + +'No more, thank'e, Uncle!' + +'Yes, yes,' said Sol, 'a little more. We'll finish the bottle, to the +House, Ned--Walter's House. Why it may be his House one of these +days, in part. Who knows? Sir Richard Whittington married his master's +daughter.' + +'"Turn again Whittington, Lord Mayor of London, and when you are old you +will never depart from it,"' interposed the Captain. 'Wal'r! Overhaul +the book, my lad.' + +'And although Mr Dombey hasn't a daughter,' Sol began. + +'Yes, yes, he has, Uncle,' said the boy, reddening and laughing. + +'Has he?' cried the old man. 'Indeed I think he has too.' + +'Oh! I know he has,' said the boy. 'Some of 'em were talking about it in +the office today. And they do say, Uncle and Captain Cuttle,' lowering +his voice, 'that he's taken a dislike to her, and that she's left, +unnoticed, among the servants, and that his mind's so set all the while +upon having his son in the House, that although he's only a baby now, +he is going to have balances struck oftener than formerly, and the +books kept closer than they used to be, and has even been seen (when +he thought he wasn't) walking in the Docks, looking at his ships and +property and all that, as if he was exulting like, over what he and +his son will possess together. That's what they say. Of course, I don't +know.' + +'He knows all about her already, you see,' said the instrument-maker. + +'Nonsense, Uncle,' cried the boy, still reddening and laughing, +boy-like. 'How can I help hearing what they tell me?' + +'The son's a little in our way at present, I'm afraid, Ned,' said the +old man, humouring the joke. + +'Very much,' said the Captain. + +'Nevertheless, we'll drink him,' pursued Sol. 'So, here's to Dombey and +Son.' + +'Oh, very well, Uncle,' said the boy, merrily. 'Since you have +introduced the mention of her, and have connected me with her and have +said that I know all about her, I shall make bold to amend the toast. So +here's to Dombey--and Son--and Daughter!' + + + +CHAPTER 5. Paul's Progress and Christening + + +Little Paul, suffering no contamination from the blood of the Toodles, +grew stouter and stronger every day. Every day, too, he was more +and more ardently cherished by Miss Tox, whose devotion was so far +appreciated by Mr Dombey that he began to regard her as a woman of +great natural good sense, whose feelings did her credit and deserved +encouragement. He was so lavish of this condescension, that he not only +bowed to her, in a particular manner, on several occasions, but even +entrusted such stately recognitions of her to his sister as 'pray tell +your friend, Louisa, that she is very good,' or 'mention to Miss +Tox, Louisa, that I am obliged to her;' specialities which made a deep +impression on the lady thus distinguished. + +Whether Miss Tox conceived that having been selected by the Fates +to welcome the little Dombey before he was born, in Kirby, Beard and +Kirby's Best Mixed Pins, it therefore naturally devolved upon her to +greet him with all other forms of welcome in all other early stages +of his existence--or whether her overflowing goodness induced her to +volunteer into the domestic militia as a substitute in some sort for his +deceased Mama--or whether she was conscious of any other motives--are +questions which in this stage of the Firm's history herself only could +have solved. Nor have they much bearing on the fact (of which there +is no doubt), that Miss Tox's constancy and zeal were a heavy +discouragement to Richards, who lost flesh hourly under her patronage, +and was in some danger of being superintended to death. + +Miss Tox was often in the habit of assuring Mrs Chick, that nothing +could exceed her interest in all connected with the development of +that sweet child; and an observer of Miss Tox's proceedings might have +inferred so much without declaratory confirmation. She would +preside over the innocent repasts of the young heir, with ineffable +satisfaction, almost with an air of joint proprietorship with Richards +in the entertainment. At the little ceremonies of the bath and toilette, +she assisted with enthusiasm. The administration of infantine doses of +physic awakened all the active sympathy of her character; and being on +one occasion secreted in a cupboard (whither she had fled in modesty), +when Mr Dombey was introduced into the nursery by his sister, to behold +his son, in the course of preparation for bed, taking a short walk +uphill over Richards's gown, in a short and airy linen jacket, Miss +Tox was so transported beyond the ignorant present as to be unable to +refrain from crying out, 'Is he not beautiful Mr Dombey! Is he not +a Cupid, Sir!' and then almost sinking behind the closet door with +confusion and blushes. + +'Louisa,' said Mr Dombey, one day, to his sister, 'I really think I must +present your friend with some little token, on the occasion of Paul's +christening. She has exerted herself so warmly in the child's behalf +from the first, and seems to understand her position so thoroughly (a +very rare merit in this world, I am sorry to say), that it would really +be agreeable to me to notice her.' + +Let it be no detraction from the merits of Miss Tox, to hint that in Mr +Dombey's eyes, as in some others that occasionally see the light, they +only achieved that mighty piece of knowledge, the understanding of their +own position, who showed a fitting reverence for his. It was not so much +their merit that they knew themselves, as that they knew him, and bowed +low before him. + +'My dear Paul,' returned his sister, 'you do Miss Tox but justice, as a +man of your penetration was sure, I knew, to do. I believe if there +are three words in the English language for which she has a respect +amounting almost to veneration, those words are, Dombey and Son.' + +'Well,' said Mr Dombey, 'I believe it. It does Miss Tox credit.' + +'And as to anything in the shape of a token, my dear Paul,' pursued +his sister, 'all I can say is that anything you give Miss Tox will be +hoarded and prized, I am sure, like a relic. But there is a way, my dear +Paul, of showing your sense of Miss Tox's friendliness in a still more +flattering and acceptable manner, if you should be so inclined.' + +'How is that?' asked Mr Dombey. + +'Godfathers, of course,' continued Mrs Chick, 'are important in point of +connexion and influence.' + +'I don't know why they should be, to my son,' said Mr Dombey, coldly. + +'Very true, my dear Paul,' retorted Mrs Chick, with an extraordinary +show of animation, to cover the suddenness of her conversion; 'and +spoken like yourself. I might have expected nothing else from you. I +might have known that such would have been your opinion. Perhaps;' here +Mrs Chick faltered again, as not quite comfortably feeling her way; +'perhaps that is a reason why you might have the less objection to +allowing Miss Tox to be godmother to the dear thing, if it were only as +deputy and proxy for someone else. That it would be received as a great +honour and distinction, Paul, I need not say.' + +'Louisa,' said Mr Dombey, after a short pause, 'it is not to be +supposed--' + +'Certainly not,' cried Mrs Chick, hastening to anticipate a refusal, 'I +never thought it was.' + +Mr Dombey looked at her impatiently. + +'Don't flurry me, my dear Paul,' said his sister; 'for that destroys +me. I am far from strong. I have not been quite myself, since poor dear +Fanny departed.' + +Mr Dombey glanced at the pocket-handkerchief which his sister applied to +her eyes, and resumed: + +'It is not be supposed, I say--' + +'And I say,' murmured Mrs Chick, 'that I never thought it was.' + +'Good Heaven, Louisa!' said Mr Dombey. + +'No, my dear Paul,' she remonstrated with tearful dignity, 'I must +really be allowed to speak. I am not so clever, or so reasoning, or so +eloquent, or so anything, as you are. I know that very well. So much the +worse for me. But if they were the last words I had to utter--and +last words should be very solemn to you and me, Paul, after poor dear +Fanny--I would still say I never thought it was. And what is more,' +added Mrs Chick with increased dignity, as if she had withheld her +crushing argument until now, 'I never did think it was.' + +Mr Dombey walked to the window and back again. + +'It is not to be supposed, Louisa,' he said (Mrs Chick had nailed her +colours to the mast, and repeated 'I know it isn't,' but he took no +notice of it), 'but that there are many persons who, supposing that +I recognised any claim at all in such a case, have a claim upon me +superior to Miss Tox's. But I do not. I recognise no such thing. Paul +and myself will be able, when the time comes, to hold our own--the +House, in other words, will be able to hold its own, and maintain its +own, and hand down its own of itself, and without any such common-place +aids. The kind of foreign help which people usually seek for their +children, I can afford to despise; being above it, I hope. So that +Paul's infancy and childhood pass away well, and I see him becoming +qualified without waste of time for the career on which he is destined +to enter, I am satisfied. He will make what powerful friends he pleases +in after-life, when he is actively maintaining--and extending, if that +is possible--the dignity and credit of the Firm. Until then, I am enough +for him, perhaps, and all in all. I have no wish that people should step +in between us. I would much rather show my sense of the obliging conduct +of a deserving person like your friend. Therefore let it be so; and +your husband and myself will do well enough for the other sponsors, I +daresay.' + +In the course of these remarks, delivered with great majesty and +grandeur, Mr Dombey had truly revealed the secret feelings of his +breast. An indescribable distrust of anybody stepping in between himself +and his son; a haughty dread of having any rival or partner in the boy's +respect and deference; a sharp misgiving, recently acquired, that he was +not infallible in his power of bending and binding human wills; as sharp +a jealousy of any second check or cross; these were, at that time the +master keys of his soul. In all his life, he had never made a friend. +His cold and distant nature had neither sought one, nor found one. And +now, when that nature concentrated its whole force so strongly on a +partial scheme of parental interest and ambition, it seemed as if its +icy current, instead of being released by this influence, and running +clear and free, had thawed for but an instant to admit its burden, and +then frozen with it into one unyielding block. + +Elevated thus to the godmothership of little Paul, in virtue of her +insignificance, Miss Tox was from that hour chosen and appointed to +office; and Mr Dombey further signified his pleasure that the ceremony, +already long delayed, should take place without further postponement. +His sister, who had been far from anticipating so signal a success, +withdrew as soon as she could, to communicate it to her best of friends; +and Mr Dombey was left alone in his library. He had already laid his +hand upon the bellrope to convey his usual summons to Richards, when his +eye fell upon a writing-desk, belonging to his deceased wife, which had +been taken, among other things, from a cabinet in her chamber. It was +not the first time that his eye had lighted on it He carried the key +in his pocket; and he brought it to his table and opened it now--having +previously locked the room door--with a well-accustomed hand. + +From beneath a leaf of torn and cancelled scraps of paper, he took one +letter that remained entire. Involuntarily holding his breath as he +opened this document, and 'bating in the stealthy action something of +his arrogant demeanour, he sat down, resting his head upon one hand, +and read it through. + +He read it slowly and attentively, and with a nice particularity +to every syllable. Otherwise than as his great deliberation seemed +unnatural, and perhaps the result of an effort equally great, he allowed +no sign of emotion to escape him. When he had read it through, he +folded and refolded it slowly several times, and tore it carefully into +fragments. Checking his hand in the act of throwing these away, he put +them in his pocket, as if unwilling to trust them even to the chances +of being re-united and deciphered; and instead of ringing, as usual, for +little Paul, he sat solitary, all the evening, in his cheerless room. + +There was anything but solitude in the nursery; for there, Mrs Chick and +Miss Tox were enjoying a social evening, so much to the disgust of Miss +Susan Nipper, that that young lady embraced every opportunity of making +wry faces behind the door. Her feelings were so much excited on the +occasion, that she found it indispensable to afford them this relief, +even without having the comfort of any audience or sympathy whatever. +As the knight-errants of old relieved their minds by carving their +mistress's names in deserts, and wildernesses, and other savage places +where there was no probability of there ever being anybody to read them, +so did Miss Susan Nipper curl her snub nose into drawers and wardrobes, +put away winks of disparagement in cupboards, shed derisive squints into +stone pitchers, and contradict and call names out in the passage. + +The two interlopers, however, blissfully unconscious of the young lady's +sentiments, saw little Paul safe through all the stages of undressing, +airy exercise, supper and bed; and then sat down to tea before the fire. +The two children now lay, through the good offices of Polly, in +one room; and it was not until the ladies were established at their +tea-table that, happening to look towards the little beds, they thought +of Florence. + +'How sound she sleeps!' said Miss Tox. + +'Why, you know, my dear, she takes a great deal of exercise in the +course of the day,' returned Mrs Chick, 'playing about little Paul so +much.' + +'She is a curious child,' said Miss Tox. + +'My dear,' retorted Mrs Chick, in a low voice: 'Her Mama, all over!' + +'In-deed!' said Miss Tox. 'Ah dear me!' + +A tone of most extraordinary compassion Miss Tox said it in, though she +had no distinct idea why, except that it was expected of her. + +'Florence will never, never, never be a Dombey,' said Mrs Chick, 'not if +she lives to be a thousand years old.' + +Miss Tox elevated her eyebrows, and was again full of commiseration. + +'I quite fret and worry myself about her,' said Mrs Chick, with a sigh +of modest merit. 'I really don't see what is to become of her when she +grows older, or what position she is to take. She don't gain on her Papa +in the least. How can one expect she should, when she is so very unlike +a Dombey?' + +Miss Tox looked as if she saw no way out of such a cogent argument as +that, at all. + +'And the child, you see,' said Mrs Chick, in deep confidence, 'has poor +dear Fanny's nature. She'll never make an effort in after-life, I'll +venture to say. Never! She'll never wind and twine herself about her +Papa's heart like--' + +'Like the ivy?' suggested Miss Tox. + +'Like the ivy,' Mrs Chick assented. 'Never! She'll never glide and +nestle into the bosom of her Papa's affections like--the--' + +'Startled fawn?' suggested Miss Tox. + +'Like the startled fawn,' said Mrs Chick. 'Never! Poor Fanny! Yet, how I +loved her!' + +'You must not distress yourself, my dear,' said Miss Tox, in a soothing +voice. 'Now really! You have too much feeling.' + +'We have all our faults,' said Mrs Chick, weeping and shaking her head. +'I daresay we have. I never was blind to hers. I never said I was. Far +from it. Yet how I loved her!' + +What a satisfaction it was to Mrs Chick--a common-place piece of folly +enough, compared with whom her sister-in-law had been a very angel of +womanly intelligence and gentleness--to patronise and be tender to the +memory of that lady: in exact pursuance of her conduct to her in her +lifetime: and to thoroughly believe herself, and take herself in, and +make herself uncommonly comfortable on the strength of her toleration! +What a mighty pleasant virtue toleration should be when we are right, to +be so very pleasant when we are wrong, and quite unable to demonstrate +how we come to be invested with the privilege of exercising it! + +Mrs Chick was yet drying her eyes and shaking her head, when Richards +made bold to caution her that Miss Florence was awake and sitting in her +bed. She had risen, as the nurse said, and the lashes of her eyes were +wet with tears. But no one saw them glistening save Polly. No one else +leant over her, and whispered soothing words to her, or was near enough +to hear the flutter of her beating heart. + +'Oh! dear nurse!' said the child, looking earnestly up in her face, 'let +me lie by my brother!' + +'Why, my pet?' said Richards. + +'Oh! I think he loves me,' cried the child wildly. 'Let me lie by him. +Pray do!' + +Mrs Chick interposed with some motherly words about going to sleep like +a dear, but Florence repeated her supplication, with a frightened look, +and in a voice broken by sobs and tears. + +'I'll not wake him,' she said, covering her face and hanging down her +head. 'I'll only touch him with my hand, and go to sleep. Oh, pray, +pray, let me lie by my brother to-night, for I believe he's fond of me!' + +Richards took her without a word, and carrying her to the little bed in +which the infant was sleeping, laid her down by his side. She crept as +near him as she could without disturbing his rest; and stretching out +one arm so that it timidly embraced his neck, and hiding her face on +the other, over which her damp and scattered hair fell loose, lay +motionless. + +'Poor little thing,' said Miss Tox; 'she has been dreaming, I daresay.' + +Dreaming, perhaps, of loving tones for ever silent, of loving eyes for +ever closed, of loving arms again wound round her, and relaxing in that +dream within the dam which no tongue can relate. Seeking, perhaps--in +dreams--some natural comfort for a heart, deeply and sorely wounded, +though so young a child's: and finding it, perhaps, in dreams, if not +in waking, cold, substantial truth. This trivial incident had so +interrupted the current of conversation, that it was difficult +of resumption; and Mrs Chick moreover had been so affected by the +contemplation of her own tolerant nature, that she was not in spirits. +The two friends accordingly soon made an end of their tea, and a servant +was despatched to fetch a hackney cabriolet for Miss Tox. Miss Tox had +great experience in hackney cabs, and her starting in one was generally +a work of time, as she was systematic in the preparatory arrangements. + +'Have the goodness, if you please, Towlinson,' said Miss Tox, 'first of +all, to carry out a pen and ink and take his number legibly.' + +'Yes, Miss,' said Towlinson. + +'Then, if you please, Towlinson,' said Miss Tox, 'have the goodness +to turn the cushion. Which,' said Miss Tox apart to Mrs Chick, 'is +generally damp, my dear.' + +'Yes, Miss,' said Towlinson. + +'I'll trouble you also, if you please, Towlinson,' said Miss Tox, +'with this card and this shilling. He's to drive to the card, and is to +understand that he will not on any account have more than the shilling.' + +'No, Miss,' said Towlinson. + +'And--I'm sorry to give you so much trouble, Towlinson,' said Miss Tox, +looking at him pensively. + +'Not at all, Miss,' said Towlinson. + +'Mention to the man, then, if you please, Towlinson,' said Miss Tox, +'that the lady's uncle is a magistrate, and that if he gives her any of +his impertinence he will be punished terribly. You can pretend to say +that, if you please, Towlinson, in a friendly way, and because you know +it was done to another man, who died.' + +'Certainly, Miss,' said Towlinson. + +'And now good-night to my sweet, sweet, sweet, godson,' said Miss Tox, +with a soft shower of kisses at each repetition of the adjective; 'and +Louisa, my dear friend, promise me to take a little something warm +before you go to bed, and not to distress yourself!' + +It was with extreme difficulty that Nipper, the black-eyed, who +looked on steadfastly, contained herself at this crisis, and until the +subsequent departure of Mrs Chick. But the nursery being at length free +of visitors, she made herself some recompense for her late restraint. + +'You might keep me in a strait-waistcoat for six weeks,' said Nipper, +'and when I got it off I'd only be more aggravated, who ever heard the +like of them two Griffins, Mrs Richards?' + +'And then to talk of having been dreaming, poor dear!' said Polly. + +'Oh you beauties!' cried Susan Nipper, affecting to salute the door by +which the ladies had departed. 'Never be a Dombey won't she? It's to be +hoped she won't, we don't want any more such, one's enough.' + +'Don't wake the children, Susan dear,' said Polly. + +'I'm very much beholden to you, Mrs Richards,' said Susan, who was +not by any means discriminating in her wrath, 'and really feel it as a +honour to receive your commands, being a black slave and a mulotter. +Mrs Richards, if there's any other orders, you can give me, pray mention +'em.' + +'Nonsense; orders,' said Polly. + +'Oh! bless your heart, Mrs Richards,' cried Susan, 'temporaries always +orders permanencies here, didn't you know that, why wherever was you +born, Mrs Richards? But wherever you was born, Mrs Richards,' pursued +Spitfire, shaking her head resolutely, 'and whenever, and however (which +is best known to yourself), you may bear in mind, please, that it's one +thing to give orders, and quite another thing to take 'em. A person may +tell a person to dive off a bridge head foremost into five-and-forty +feet of water, Mrs Richards, but a person may be very far from diving.' + +'There now,' said Polly, 'you're angry because you're a good little +thing, and fond of Miss Florence; and yet you turn round on me, because +there's nobody else.' + +'It's very easy for some to keep their tempers, and be soft-spoken, Mrs +Richards,' returned Susan, slightly mollified, 'when their child's made +as much of as a prince, and is petted and patted till it wishes its +friends further, but when a sweet young pretty innocent, that never +ought to have a cross word spoken to or of it, is rundown, the case is +very different indeed. My goodness gracious me, Miss Floy, you naughty, +sinful child, if you don't shut your eyes this minute, I'll call in them +hobgoblins that lives in the cock-loft to come and eat you up alive!' + +Here Miss Nipper made a horrible lowing, supposed to issue from a +conscientious goblin of the bull species, impatient to discharge the +severe duty of his position. Having further composed her young charge +by covering her head with the bedclothes, and making three or four angry +dabs at the pillow, she folded her arms, and screwed up her mouth, and +sat looking at the fire for the rest of the evening. + +Though little Paul was said, in nursery phrase, 'to take a deal of +notice for his age,' he took as little notice of all this as of +the preparations for his christening on the next day but one; which +nevertheless went on about him, as to his personal apparel, and that of +his sister and the two nurses, with great activity. Neither did he, on +the arrival of the appointed morning, show any sense of its importance; +being, on the contrary, unusually inclined to sleep, and unusually +inclined to take it ill in his attendants that they dressed him to go +out. + +It happened to be an iron-grey autumnal day, with a shrewd east wind +blowing--a day in keeping with the proceedings. Mr Dombey represented in +himself the wind, the shade, and the autumn of the christening. He stood +in his library to receive the company, as hard and cold as the weather; +and when he looked out through the glass room, at the trees in the +little garden, their brown and yellow leaves came fluttering down, as if +he blighted them. + +Ugh! They were black, cold rooms; and seemed to be in mourning, like the +inmates of the house. The books precisely matched as to size, and +drawn up in line, like soldiers, looked in their cold, hard, slippery +uniforms, as if they had but one idea among them, and that was a +freezer. The bookcase, glazed and locked, repudiated all familiarities. +Mr Pitt, in bronze, on the top, with no trace of his celestial origin +about him, guarded the unattainable treasure like an enchanted Moor. +A dusty urn at each high corner, dug up from an ancient tomb, preached +desolation and decay, as from two pulpits; and the chimney-glass, +reflecting Mr Dombey and his portrait at one blow, seemed fraught with +melancholy meditations. + +The stiff and stark fire-irons appeared to claim a nearer relationship +than anything else there to Mr Dombey, with his buttoned coat, his white +cravat, his heavy gold watch-chain, and his creaking boots. But this +was before the arrival of Mr and Mrs Chick, his lawful relatives, who +soon presented themselves. + +'My dear Paul,' Mrs Chick murmured, as she embraced him, 'the beginning, +I hope, of many joyful days!' + +'Thank you, Louisa,' said Mr Dombey, grimly. 'How do you do, Mr John?' + +'How do you do, Sir?' said Chick. + +He gave Mr Dombey his hand, as if he feared it might electrify him. Mr +Dombey took it as if it were a fish, or seaweed, or some such clammy +substance, and immediately returned it to him with exalted politeness. + +'Perhaps, Louisa,' said Mr Dombey, slightly turning his head in his +cravat, as if it were a socket, 'you would have preferred a fire?' + +'Oh, my dear Paul, no,' said Mrs Chick, who had much ado to keep her +teeth from chattering; 'not for me.' + +'Mr John,' said Mr Dombey, 'you are not sensible of any chill?' + +Mr John, who had already got both his hands in his pockets over the +wrists, and was on the very threshold of that same canine chorus which +had given Mrs Chick so much offence on a former occasion, protested that +he was perfectly comfortable. + +He added in a low voice, 'With my tiddle tol toor rul'--when he was +providentially stopped by Towlinson, who announced: + +'Miss Tox!' + +And enter that fair enslaver, with a blue nose and indescribably frosty +face, referable to her being very thinly clad in a maze of fluttering +odds and ends, to do honour to the ceremony. + +'How do you do, Miss Tox?' said Mr Dombey. + +Miss Tox, in the midst of her spreading gauzes, went down altogether +like an opera-glass shutting-up; she curtseyed so low, in acknowledgment +of Mr Dombey's advancing a step or two to meet her. + +'I can never forget this occasion, Sir,' said Miss Tox, softly. ''Tis +impossible. My dear Louisa, I can hardly believe the evidence of my +senses.' + +If Miss Tox could believe the evidence of one of her senses, it was a +very cold day. That was quite clear. She took an early opportunity of +promoting the circulation in the tip of her nose by secretly chafing +it with her pocket handkerchief, lest, by its very low temperature, it +should disagreeably astonish the baby when she came to kiss it. + +The baby soon appeared, carried in great glory by Richards; while +Florence, in custody of that active young constable, Susan Nipper, +brought up the rear. Though the whole nursery party were dressed by +this time in lighter mourning than at first, there was enough in the +appearance of the bereaved children to make the day no brighter. The +baby too--it might have been Miss Tox's nose--began to cry. Thereby, as +it happened, preventing Mr Chick from the awkward fulfilment of a very +honest purpose he had; which was, to make much of Florence. For this +gentleman, insensible to the superior claims of a perfect Dombey +(perhaps on account of having the honour to be united to a Dombey +himself, and being familiar with excellence), really liked her, and +showed that he liked her, and was about to show it in his own way now, +when Paul cried, and his helpmate stopped him short-- + +'Now Florence, child!' said her aunt, briskly, 'what are you doing, +love? Show yourself to him. Engage his attention, my dear!' + +The atmosphere became or might have become colder and colder, when Mr +Dombey stood frigidly watching his little daughter, who, clapping her +hands, and standing on tip-toe before the throne of his son and heir, +lured him to bend down from his high estate, and look at her. Some +honest act of Richards's may have aided the effect, but he did look +down, and held his peace. As his sister hid behind her nurse, he +followed her with his eyes; and when she peeped out with a merry cry to +him, he sprang up and crowed lustily--laughing outright when she ran in +upon him; and seeming to fondle her curls with his tiny hands, while she +smothered him with kisses. + +Was Mr Dombey pleased to see this? He testified no pleasure by the +relaxation of a nerve; but outward tokens of any kind of feeling were +unusual with him. If any sunbeam stole into the room to light the +children at their play, it never reached his face. He looked on so +fixedly and coldly, that the warm light vanished even from the laughing +eyes of little Florence, when, at last, they happened to meet his. + +It was a dull, grey, autumn day indeed, and in a minute's pause and +silence that took place, the leaves fell sorrowfully. + +'Mr John,' said Mr Dombey, referring to his watch, and assuming his hat +and gloves. 'Take my sister, if you please: my arm today is Miss Tox's. +You had better go first with Master Paul, Richards. Be very careful.' + +In Mr Dombey's carriage, Dombey and Son, Miss Tox, Mrs Chick, Richards, +and Florence. In a little carriage following it, Susan Nipper and the +owner Mr Chick. Susan looking out of window, without intermission, as +a relief from the embarrassment of confronting the large face of that +gentleman, and thinking whenever anything rattled that he was putting up +in paper an appropriate pecuniary compliment for herself. + +Once upon the road to church, Mr Dombey clapped his hands for the +amusement of his son. At which instance of parental enthusiasm Miss +Tox was enchanted. But exclusive of this incident, the chief difference +between the christening party and a party in a mourning coach consisted +in the colours of the carriage and horses. + +Arrived at the church steps, they were received by a portentous beadle. +Mr Dombey dismounting first to help the ladies out, and standing near +him at the church door, looked like another beadle. A beadle less +gorgeous but more dreadful; the beadle of private life; the beadle of +our business and our bosoms. + +Miss Tox's hand trembled as she slipped it through Mr Dombey's arm, +and felt herself escorted up the steps, preceded by a cocked hat and +a Babylonian collar. It seemed for a moment like that other solemn +institution, 'Wilt thou have this man, Lucretia?' 'Yes, I will.' + +'Please to bring the child in quick out of the air there,' whispered the +beadle, holding open the inner door of the church. + +Little Paul might have asked with Hamlet 'into my grave?' so chill and +earthy was the place. The tall, shrouded pulpit and reading desk; the +dreary perspective of empty pews stretching away under the galleries, +and empty benches mounting to the roof and lost in the shadow of the +great grim organ; the dusty matting and cold stone slabs; the grisly +free seats in the aisles; and the damp corner by the bell-rope, where +the black trestles used for funerals were stowed away, along with some +shovels and baskets, and a coil or two of deadly-looking rope; the +strange, unusual, uncomfortable smell, and the cadaverous light; were +all in unison. It was a cold and dismal scene. + +'There's a wedding just on, Sir,' said the beadle, 'but it'll be over +directly, if you'll walk into the westry here.' + +Before he turned again to lead the way, he gave Mr Dombey a bow and a +half smile of recognition, importing that he (the beadle) remembered to +have had the pleasure of attending on him when he buried his wife, and +hoped he had enjoyed himself since. + +The very wedding looked dismal as they passed in front of the altar. The +bride was too old and the bridegroom too young, and a superannuated beau +with one eye and an eyeglass stuck in its blank companion, was giving +away the lady, while the friends were shivering. In the vestry the fire +was smoking; and an over-aged and over-worked and under-paid attorney's +clerk, 'making a search,' was running his forefinger down the parchment +pages of an immense register (one of a long series of similar volumes) +gorged with burials. Over the fireplace was a ground-plan of the vaults +underneath the church; and Mr Chick, skimming the literary portion of +it aloud, by way of enlivening the company, read the reference to Mrs +Dombey's tomb in full, before he could stop himself. + +After another cold interval, a wheezy little pew-opener afflicted with +an asthma, appropriate to the churchyard, if not to the church, summoned +them to the font--a rigid marble basin which seemed to have been playing +a churchyard game at cup and ball with its matter of fact pedestal, and +to have been just that moment caught on the top of it. Here they waited +some little time while the marriage party enrolled themselves; and +meanwhile the wheezy little pew-opener--partly in consequence of her +infirmity, and partly that the marriage party might not forget her--went +about the building coughing like a grampus. + +Presently the clerk (the only cheerful-looking object there, and he was +an undertaker) came up with a jug of warm water, and said something, as +he poured it into the font, about taking the chill off; which millions +of gallons boiling hot could not have done for the occasion. Then the +clergyman, an amiable and mild-looking young curate, but obviously +afraid of the baby, appeared like the principal character in a +ghost-story, 'a tall figure all in white;' at sight of whom Paul rent +the air with his cries, and never left off again till he was taken out +black in the face. + +Even when that event had happened, to the great relief of everybody, +he was heard under the portico, during the rest of the ceremony, now +fainter, now louder, now hushed, now bursting forth again with an +irrepressible sense of his wrongs. This so distracted the attention of +the two ladies, that Mrs Chick was constantly deploying into the centre +aisle, to send out messages by the pew-opener, while Miss Tox kept her +Prayer-book open at the Gunpowder Plot, and occasionally read responses +from that service. + +During the whole of these proceedings, Mr Dombey remained as impassive +and gentlemanly as ever, and perhaps assisted in making it so cold, that +the young curate smoked at the mouth as he read. The only time that he +unbent his visage in the least, was when the clergyman, in delivering +(very unaffectedly and simply) the closing exhortation, relative to the +future examination of the child by the sponsors, happened to rest his +eye on Mr Chick; and then Mr Dombey might have been seen to express by a +majestic look, that he would like to catch him at it. + +It might have been well for Mr Dombey, if he had thought of his own +dignity a little less; and had thought of the great origin and purpose +of the ceremony in which he took so formal and so stiff a part, a little +more. His arrogance contrasted strangely with its history. + +When it was all over, he again gave his arm to Miss Tox, and conducted +her to the vestry, where he informed the clergyman how much pleasure +it would have given him to have solicited the honour of his company +at dinner, but for the unfortunate state of his household affairs. The +register signed, and the fees paid, and the pew-opener (whose cough was +very bad again) remembered, and the beadle gratified, and the sexton +(who was accidentally on the doorsteps, looking with great interest at +the weather) not forgotten, they got into the carriage again, and drove +home in the same bleak fellowship. + +There they found Mr Pitt turning up his nose at a cold collation, set +forth in a cold pomp of glass and silver, and looking more like a dead +dinner lying in state than a social refreshment. On their arrival Miss +Tox produced a mug for her godson, and Mr Chick a knife and fork and +spoon in a case. Mr Dombey also produced a bracelet for Miss Tox; and, +on the receipt of this token, Miss Tox was tenderly affected. + +'Mr John,' said Mr Dombey, 'will you take the bottom of the table, if +you please? What have you got there, Mr John?' + +'I have got a cold fillet of veal here, Sir,' replied Mr Chick, rubbing +his numbed hands hard together. 'What have you got there, Sir?' + +'This,' returned Mr Dombey, 'is some cold preparation of calf's head, I +think. I see cold fowls--ham--patties--salad--lobster. Miss Tox will do +me the honour of taking some wine? Champagne to Miss Tox.' + +There was a toothache in everything. The wine was so bitter cold that it +forced a little scream from Miss Tox, which she had great difficulty in +turning into a 'Hem!' The veal had come from such an airy pantry, that +the first taste of it had struck a sensation as of cold lead to Mr +Chick's extremities. Mr Dombey alone remained unmoved. He might have +been hung up for sale at a Russian fair as a specimen of a frozen +gentleman. + +The prevailing influence was too much even for his sister. She made +no effort at flattery or small talk, and directed all her efforts to +looking as warm as she could. + +'Well, Sir,' said Mr Chick, making a desperate plunge, after a long +silence, and filling a glass of sherry; 'I shall drink this, if you'll +allow me, Sir, to little Paul.' + +'Bless him!' murmured Miss Tox, taking a sip of wine. + +'Dear little Dombey!' murmured Mrs Chick. + +'Mr John,' said Mr Dombey, with severe gravity, 'my son would feel and +express himself obliged to you, I have no doubt, if he could appreciate +the favour you have done him. He will prove, in time to come, I trust, +equal to any responsibility that the obliging disposition of his +relations and friends, in private, or the onerous nature of our +position, in public, may impose upon him.' + +The tone in which this was said admitting of nothing more, Mr Chick +relapsed into low spirits and silence. Not so Miss Tox, who, having +listened to Mr Dombey with even a more emphatic attention than usual, +and with a more expressive tendency of her head to one side, now leant +across the table, and said to Mrs Chick softly: + +'Louisa!' + +'My dear,' said Mrs Chick. + +'Onerous nature of our position in public may--I have forgotten +the exact term.' + +'Expose him to,' said Mrs Chick. + +'Pardon me, my dear,' returned Miss Tox, 'I think not. It was more +rounded and flowing. Obliging disposition of relations and friends in +private, or onerous nature of position in public--may--impose upon him!' + +'Impose upon him, to be sure,' said Mrs Chick. + +Miss Tox struck her delicate hands together lightly, in triumph; and +added, casting up her eyes, 'eloquence indeed!' + +Mr Dombey, in the meanwhile, had issued orders for the attendance of +Richards, who now entered curtseying, but without the baby; Paul being +asleep after the fatigues of the morning. Mr Dombey, having delivered a +glass of wine to this vassal, addressed her in the following words: Miss +Tox previously settling her head on one side, and making other little +arrangements for engraving them on her heart. + +'During the six months or so, Richards, which have seen you an inmate +of this house, you have done your duty. Desiring to connect some little +service to you with this occasion, I considered how I could best effect +that object, and I also advised with my sister, Mrs--' + +'Chick,' interposed the gentleman of that name. + +'Oh, hush if you please!' said Miss Tox. + +'I was about to say to you, Richards,' resumed Mr Dombey, with an +appalling glance at Mr John, 'that I was further assisted in my +decision, by the recollection of a conversation I held with your husband +in this room, on the occasion of your being hired, when he disclosed to +me the melancholy fact that your family, himself at the head, were sunk +and steeped in ignorance.' + +Richards quailed under the magnificence of the reproof. + +'I am far from being friendly,' pursued Mr Dombey, 'to what is called by +persons of levelling sentiments, general education. But it is necessary +that the inferior classes should continue to be taught to know their +position, and to conduct themselves properly. So far I approve of +schools. Having the power of nominating a child on the foundation of an +ancient establishment, called (from a worshipful company) the Charitable +Grinders; where not only is a wholesome education bestowed upon the +scholars, but where a dress and badge is likewise provided for them; +I have (first communicating, through Mrs Chick, with your family) +nominated your eldest son to an existing vacancy; and he has this day, I +am informed, assumed the habit. The number of her son, I believe,' said +Mr Dombey, turning to his sister and speaking of the child as if he were +a hackney-coach, is one hundred and forty-seven. Louisa, you can tell +her.' + +'One hundred and forty-seven,' said Mrs Chick 'The dress, Richards, is +a nice, warm, blue baize tailed coat and cap, turned up with orange +coloured binding; red worsted stockings; and very strong leather +small-clothes. One might wear the articles one's self,' said Mrs Chick, +with enthusiasm, 'and be grateful.' + +'There, Richards!' said Miss Tox. 'Now, indeed, you may be proud. The +Charitable Grinders!' + +'I am sure I am very much obliged, Sir,' returned Richards faintly, 'and +take it very kind that you should remember my little ones.' At the same +time a vision of Biler as a Charitable Grinder, with his very small legs +encased in the serviceable clothing described by Mrs Chick, swam before +Richards's eyes, and made them water. + +'I am very glad to see you have so much feeling, Richards,' said Miss +Tox. + +'It makes one almost hope, it really does,' said Mrs Chick, who prided +herself on taking trustful views of human nature, 'that there may yet be +some faint spark of gratitude and right feeling in the world.' + +Richards deferred to these compliments by curtseying and murmuring +her thanks; but finding it quite impossible to recover her spirits from +the disorder into which they had been thrown by the image of her son in +his precocious nether garments, she gradually approached the door and +was heartily relieved to escape by it. + +Such temporary indications of a partial thaw that had appeared with her, +vanished with her; and the frost set in again, as cold and hard as ever. +Mr Chick was twice heard to hum a tune at the bottom of the table, but +on both occasions it was a fragment of the Dead March in Saul. The party +seemed to get colder and colder, and to be gradually resolving itself +into a congealed and solid state, like the collation round which it was +assembled. At length Mrs Chick looked at Miss Tox, and Miss Tox returned +the look, and they both rose and said it was really time to go. Mr +Dombey receiving this announcement with perfect equanimity, they took +leave of that gentleman, and presently departed under the protection of +Mr Chick; who, when they had turned their backs upon the house and left +its master in his usual solitary state, put his hands in his pockets, +threw himself back in the carriage, and whistled 'With a hey ho chevy!' +all through; conveying into his face as he did so, an expression of such +gloomy and terrible defiance, that Mrs Chick dared not protest, or in +any way molest him. + +Richards, though she had little Paul on her lap, could not forget her +own first-born. She felt it was ungrateful; but the influence of the +day fell even on the Charitable Grinders, and she could hardly help +regarding his pewter badge, number one hundred and forty-seven, as, +somehow, a part of its formality and sternness. She spoke, too, in the +nursery, of his 'blessed legs,' and was again troubled by his spectre in +uniform. + +'I don't know what I wouldn't give,' said Polly, 'to see the poor little +dear before he gets used to 'em.' + +'Why, then, I tell you what, Mrs Richards,' retorted Nipper, who had +been admitted to her confidence, 'see him and make your mind easy.' + +'Mr Dombey wouldn't like it,' said Polly. + +'Oh, wouldn't he, Mrs Richards!' retorted Nipper, 'he'd like it very +much, I think when he was asked.' + +'You wouldn't ask him, I suppose, at all?' said Polly. + +'No, Mrs Richards, quite contrairy,' returned Susan, 'and them two +inspectors Tox and Chick, not intending to be on duty tomorrow, as I +heard 'em say, me and Miss Floy will go along with you tomorrow morning, +and welcome, Mrs Richards, if you like, for we may as well walk there as +up and down a street, and better too.' + +Polly rejected the idea pretty stoutly at first; but by little and +little she began to entertain it, as she entertained more and more +distinctly the forbidden pictures of her children, and her own home. +At length, arguing that there could be no great harm in calling for a +moment at the door, she yielded to the Nipper proposition. + +The matter being settled thus, little Paul began to cry most piteously, +as if he had a foreboding that no good would come of it. + +'What's the matter with the child?' asked Susan. + +'He's cold, I think,' said Polly, walking with him to and fro, and +hushing him. + +It was a bleak autumnal afternoon indeed; and as she walked, and hushed, +and, glancing through the dreary windows, pressed the little fellow +closer to her breast, the withered leaves came showering down. + + + +CHAPTER 6. Paul's Second Deprivation + + +Polly was beset by so many misgivings in the morning, that but for +the incessant promptings of her black-eyed companion, she would have +abandoned all thoughts of the expedition, and formally petitioned for +leave to see number one hundred and forty-seven, under the awful shadow +of Mr Dombey's roof. But Susan who was personally disposed in favour +of the excursion, and who (like Tony Lumpkin), if she could bear the +disappointments of other people with tolerable fortitude, could not +abide to disappoint herself, threw so many ingenious doubts in the way +of this second thought, and stimulated the original intention with so +many ingenious arguments, that almost as soon as Mr Dombey's stately +back was turned, and that gentleman was pursuing his daily road towards +the City, his unconscious son was on his way to Staggs's Gardens. + +This euphonious locality was situated in a suburb, known by the +inhabitants of Staggs's Gardens by the name of Camberling Town; a +designation which the Strangers' Map of London, as printed (with a +view to pleasant and commodious reference) on pocket handkerchiefs, +condenses, with some show of reason, into Camden Town. Hither the two +nurses bent their steps, accompanied by their charges; Richards carrying +Paul, of course, and Susan leading little Florence by the hand, and +giving her such jerks and pokes from time to time, as she considered it +wholesome to administer. + +The first shock of a great earthquake had, just at that period, rent the +whole neighbourhood to its centre. Traces of its course were visible +on every side. Houses were knocked down; streets broken through and +stopped; deep pits and trenches dug in the ground; enormous heaps of +earth and clay thrown up; buildings that were undermined and shaking, +propped by great beams of wood. Here, a chaos of carts, overthrown and +jumbled together, lay topsy-turvy at the bottom of a steep unnatural +hill; there, confused treasures of iron soaked and rusted in something +that had accidentally become a pond. Everywhere were bridges that led +nowhere; thoroughfares that were wholly impassable; Babel towers +of chimneys, wanting half their height; temporary wooden houses +and enclosures, in the most unlikely situations; carcases of ragged +tenements, and fragments of unfinished walls and arches, and piles of +scaffolding, and wildernesses of bricks, and giant forms of cranes, and +tripods straddling above nothing. There were a hundred thousand shapes +and substances of incompleteness, wildly mingled out of their places, +upside down, burrowing in the earth, aspiring in the air, mouldering +in the water, and unintelligible as any dream. Hot springs and +fiery eruptions, the usual attendants upon earthquakes, lent their +contributions of confusion to the scene. Boiling water hissed and heaved +within dilapidated walls; whence, also, the glare and roar of flames +came issuing forth; and mounds of ashes blocked up rights of way, and +wholly changed the law and custom of the neighbourhood. + +In short, the yet unfinished and unopened Railroad was in progress; and, +from the very core of all this dire disorder, trailed smoothly away, +upon its mighty course of civilisation and improvement. + +But as yet, the neighbourhood was shy to own the Railroad. One or two +bold speculators had projected streets; and one had built a little, +but had stopped among the mud and ashes to consider farther of it. A +bran-new Tavern, redolent of fresh mortar and size, and fronting nothing +at all, had taken for its sign The Railway Arms; but that might be rash +enterprise--and then it hoped to sell drink to the workmen. So, the +Excavators' House of Call had sprung up from a beer-shop; and the +old-established Ham and Beef Shop had become the Railway Eating House, +with a roast leg of pork daily, through interested motives of a similar +immediate and popular description. Lodging-house keepers were favourable +in like manner; and for the like reasons were not to be trusted. The +general belief was very slow. There were frowzy fields, and +cow-houses, and dunghills, and dustheaps, and ditches, and gardens, +and summer-houses, and carpet-beating grounds, at the very door of the +Railway. Little tumuli of oyster shells in the oyster season, and of +lobster shells in the lobster season, and of broken crockery and faded +cabbage leaves in all seasons, encroached upon its high places. Posts, +and rails, and old cautions to trespassers, and backs of mean houses, +and patches of wretched vegetation, stared it out of countenance. +Nothing was the better for it, or thought of being so. If the miserable +waste ground lying near it could have laughed, it would have laughed it +to scorn, like many of the miserable neighbours. + +Staggs's Gardens was uncommonly incredulous. It was a little row of +houses, with little squalid patches of ground before them, fenced off +with old doors, barrel staves, scraps of tarpaulin, and dead bushes; +with bottomless tin kettles and exhausted iron fenders, thrust into the +gaps. Here, the Staggs's Gardeners trained scarlet beans, kept fowls +and rabbits, erected rotten summer-houses (one was an old boat), dried +clothes, and smoked pipes. Some were of opinion that Staggs's Gardens +derived its name from a deceased capitalist, one Mr Staggs, who had +built it for his delectation. Others, who had a natural taste for the +country, held that it dated from those rural times when the antlered +herd, under the familiar denomination of Staggses, had resorted to its +shady precincts. Be this as it may, Staggs's Gardens was regarded by +its population as a sacred grove not to be withered by Railroads; and so +confident were they generally of its long outliving any such ridiculous +inventions, that the master chimney-sweeper at the corner, who was +understood to take the lead in the local politics of the Gardens, had +publicly declared that on the occasion of the Railroad opening, if ever +it did open, two of his boys should ascend the flues of his dwelling, +with instructions to hail the failure with derisive cheers from the +chimney-pots. + +To this unhallowed spot, the very name of which had hitherto been +carefully concealed from Mr Dombey by his sister, was little Paul now +borne by Fate and Richards + +'That's my house, Susan,' said Polly, pointing it out. + +'Is it, indeed, Mrs Richards?' said Susan, condescendingly. + +'And there's my sister Jemima at the door, I do declare' cried Polly, +'with my own sweet precious baby in her arms!' + +The sight added such an extensive pair of wings to Polly's impatience, +that she set off down the Gardens at a run, and bouncing on Jemima, +changed babies with her in a twinkling; to the unutterable astonishment +of that young damsel, on whom the heir of the Dombeys seemed to have +fallen from the clouds. + +'Why, Polly!' cried Jemima. 'You! what a turn you have given me! who'd +have thought it! come along in Polly! How well you do look to be sure! +The children will go half wild to see you Polly, that they will.' + +That they did, if one might judge from the noise they made, and the +way in which they dashed at Polly and dragged her to a low chair in the +chimney corner, where her own honest apple face became immediately the +centre of a bunch of smaller pippins, all laying their rosy cheeks close +to it, and all evidently the growth of the same tree. As to Polly, she +was full as noisy and vehement as the children; and it was not until she +was quite out of breath, and her hair was hanging all about her flushed +face, and her new christening attire was very much dishevelled, that any +pause took place in the confusion. Even then, the smallest Toodle but +one remained in her lap, holding on tight with both arms round her neck; +while the smallest Toodle but two mounted on the back of the chair, and +made desperate efforts, with one leg in the air, to kiss her round the +corner. + +'Look! there's a pretty little lady come to see you,' said Polly; 'and +see how quiet she is! what a beautiful little lady, ain't she?' + +This reference to Florence, who had been standing by the door not +unobservant of what passed, directed the attention of the younger +branches towards her; and had likewise the happy effect of leading to +the formal recognition of Miss Nipper, who was not quite free from a +misgiving that she had been already slighted. + +'Oh do come in and sit down a minute, Susan, please,' said Polly. 'This +is my sister Jemima, this is. Jemima, I don't know what I should ever do +with myself, if it wasn't for Susan Nipper; I shouldn't be here now but +for her.' + +'Oh do sit down, Miss Nipper, if you please,' quoth Jemima. + +Susan took the extreme corner of a chair, with a stately and ceremonious +aspect. + +'I never was so glad to see anybody in all my life; now really I never +was, Miss Nipper,' said Jemima. + +Susan relaxing, took a little more of the chair, and smiled graciously. + +'Do untie your bonnet-strings, and make yourself at home, Miss Nipper, +please,' entreated Jemima. 'I am afraid it's a poorer place than you're +used to; but you'll make allowances, I'm sure.' + +The black-eyed was so softened by this deferential behaviour, that +she caught up little Miss Toodle who was running past, and took her to +Banbury Cross immediately. + +'But where's my pretty boy?' said Polly. 'My poor fellow? I came all +this way to see him in his new clothes.' + +'Ah what a pity!' cried Jemima. 'He'll break his heart, when he hears +his mother has been here. He's at school, Polly.' + +'Gone already!' + +'Yes. He went for the first time yesterday, for fear he should lose any +learning. But it's half-holiday, Polly: if you could only stop till he +comes home--you and Miss Nipper, leastways,' said Jemima, mindful in +good time of the dignity of the black-eyed. + +'And how does he look, Jemima, bless him!' faltered Polly. + +'Well, really he don't look so bad as you'd suppose,' returned Jemima. + +'Ah!' said Polly, with emotion, 'I knew his legs must be too short.' + +'His legs is short,' returned Jemima; 'especially behind; but they'll get +longer, Polly, every day.' + +It was a slow, prospective kind of consolation; but the cheerfulness and +good nature with which it was administered, gave it a value it did not +intrinsically possess. After a moment's silence, Polly asked, in a more +sprightly manner: + +'And where's Father, Jemima dear?'--for by that patriarchal appellation, +Mr Toodle was generally known in the family. + +'There again!' said Jemima. 'What a pity! Father took his dinner with +him this morning, and isn't coming home till night. But he's always +talking of you, Polly, and telling the children about you; and is the +peaceablest, patientest, best-temperedest soul in the world, as he +always was and will be!' + +'Thankee, Jemima,' cried the simple Polly; delighted by the speech, and +disappointed by the absence. + +'Oh you needn't thank me, Polly,' said her sister, giving her a sounding +kiss upon the cheek, and then dancing little Paul cheerfully. 'I say the +same of you sometimes, and think it too.' + +In spite of the double disappointment, it was impossible to regard in +the light of a failure a visit which was greeted with such a reception; +so the sisters talked hopefully about family matters, and about Biler, +and about all his brothers and sisters: while the black-eyed, having +performed several journeys to Banbury Cross and back, took sharp note +of the furniture, the Dutch clock, the cupboard, the castle on +the mantel-piece with red and green windows in it, susceptible of +illumination by a candle-end within; and the pair of small black velvet +kittens, each with a lady's reticule in its mouth; regarded by the +Staggs's Gardeners as prodigies of imitative art. The conversation soon +becoming general lest the black-eyed should go off at score and turn +sarcastic, that young lady related to Jemima a summary of everything +she knew concerning Mr Dombey, his prospects, family, pursuits, and +character. Also an exact inventory of her personal wardrobe, and some +account of her principal relations and friends. Having relieved her mind +of these disclosures, she partook of shrimps and porter, and evinced a +disposition to swear eternal friendship. + +Little Florence herself was not behind-hand in improving the occasion; +for, being conducted forth by the young Toodles to inspect some +toad-stools and other curiosities of the Gardens, she entered with them, +heart and soul, on the formation of a temporary breakwater across a +small green pool that had collected in a corner. She was still busily +engaged in that labour, when sought and found by Susan; who, such was +her sense of duty, even under the humanizing influence of shrimps, +delivered a moral address to her (punctuated with thumps) on her +degenerate nature, while washing her face and hands; and predicted that +she would bring the grey hairs of her family in general, with sorrow to +the grave. After some delay, occasioned by a pretty long confidential +interview above stairs on pecuniary subjects, between Polly and Jemima, +an interchange of babies was again effected--for Polly had all this +time retained her own child, and Jemima little Paul--and the visitors +took leave. + +But first the young Toodles, victims of a pious fraud, were deluded into +repairing in a body to a chandler's shop in the neighbourhood, for the +ostensible purpose of spending a penny; and when the coast was quite +clear, Polly fled: Jemima calling after her that if they could only go +round towards the City Road on their way back, they would be sure to +meet little Biler coming from school. + +'Do you think that we might make time to go a little round in that +direction, Susan?' inquired Polly, when they halted to take breath. + +'Why not, Mrs Richards?' returned Susan. + +'It's getting on towards our dinner time you know,' said Polly. + +But lunch had rendered her companion more than indifferent to this grave +consideration, so she allowed no weight to it, and they resolved to go +'a little round.' + +Now, it happened that poor Biler's life had been, since yesterday +morning, rendered weary by the costume of the Charitable Grinders. The +youth of the streets could not endure it. No young vagabond could be +brought to bear its contemplation for a moment, without throwing himself +upon the unoffending wearer, and doing him a mischief. His social +existence had been more like that of an early Christian, than an +innocent child of the nineteenth century. He had been stoned in the +streets. He had been overthrown into gutters; bespattered with mud; +violently flattened against posts. Entire strangers to his person had +lifted his yellow cap off his head, and cast it to the winds. His legs +had not only undergone verbal criticisms and revilings, but had been +handled and pinched. That very morning, he had received a perfectly +unsolicited black eye on his way to the Grinders' establishment, and +had been punished for it by the master: a superannuated old Grinder +of savage disposition, who had been appointed schoolmaster because he +didn't know anything, and wasn't fit for anything, and for whose cruel +cane all chubby little boys had a perfect fascination. + +Thus it fell out that Biler, on his way home, sought unfrequented +paths; and slunk along by narrow passages and back streets, to avoid +his tormentors. Being compelled to emerge into the main road, his ill +fortune brought him at last where a small party of boys, headed by a +ferocious young butcher, were lying in wait for any means of pleasurable +excitement that might happen. These, finding a Charitable Grinder in +the midst of them--unaccountably delivered over, as it were, into their +hands--set up a general yell and rushed upon him. + +But it so fell out likewise, that, at the same time, Polly, looking +hopelessly along the road before her, after a good hour's walk, had said +it was no use going any further, when suddenly she saw this sight. She +no sooner saw it than, uttering a hasty exclamation, and giving Master +Dombey to the black-eyed, she started to the rescue of her unhappy +little son. + +Surprises, like misfortunes, rarely come alone. The astonished Susan +Nipper and her two young charges were rescued by the bystanders from +under the very wheels of a passing carriage before they knew what had +happened; and at that moment (it was market day) a thundering alarm of +'Mad Bull!' was raised. + +With a wild confusion before her, of people running up and down, and +shouting, and wheels running over them, and boys fighting, and mad bulls +coming up, and the nurse in the midst of all these dangers being torn +to pieces, Florence screamed and ran. She ran till she was exhausted, +urging Susan to do the same; and then, stopping and wringing her hands +as she remembered they had left the other nurse behind, found, with a +sensation of terror not to be described, that she was quite alone. + +'Susan! Susan!' cried Florence, clapping her hands in the very ecstasy +of her alarm. 'Oh, where are they? where are they?' + +'Where are they?' said an old woman, coming hobbling across as fast as +she could from the opposite side of the way. 'Why did you run away from +'em?' + +'I was frightened,' answered Florence. 'I didn't know what I did. I +thought they were with me. Where are they?' + +The old woman took her by the wrist, and said, 'I'll show you.' + +She was a very ugly old woman, with red rims round her eyes, and a mouth +that mumbled and chattered of itself when she was not speaking. She was +miserably dressed, and carried some skins over her arm. She seemed to +have followed Florence some little way at all events, for she had lost +her breath; and this made her uglier still, as she stood trying to +regain it: working her shrivelled yellow face and throat into all sorts +of contortions. + +Florence was afraid of her, and looked, hesitating, up the street, of +which she had almost reached the bottom. It was a solitary place--more a +back road than a street--and there was no one in it but her-self and the +old woman. + +'You needn't be frightened now,' said the old woman, still holding her +tight. 'Come along with me.' + +'I--I don't know you. What's your name?' asked Florence. + +'Mrs Brown,' said the old woman. 'Good Mrs Brown.' + +'Are they near here?' asked Florence, beginning to be led away. + +'Susan ain't far off,' said Good Mrs Brown; 'and the others are close to +her.' + +'Is anybody hurt?' cried Florence. + +'Not a bit of it,' said Good Mrs Brown. + +The child shed tears of delight on hearing this, and accompanied the old +woman willingly; though she could not help glancing at her face as +they went along--particularly at that industrious mouth--and wondering +whether Bad Mrs Brown, if there were such a person, was at all like her. + +They had not gone far, but had gone by some very uncomfortable places, +such as brick-fields and tile-yards, when the old woman turned down a +dirty lane, where the mud lay in deep black ruts in the middle of the +road. She stopped before a shabby little house, as closely shut up as +a house that was full of cracks and crevices could be. Opening the door +with a key she took out of her bonnet, she pushed the child before her +into a back room, where there was a great heap of rags of different +colours lying on the floor; a heap of bones, and a heap of sifted dust +or cinders; but there was no furniture at all, and the walls and ceiling +were quite black. + +The child became so terrified the she was stricken speechless, and +looked as though about to swoon. + +'Now don't be a young mule,' said Good Mrs Brown, reviving her with a +shake. 'I'm not a going to hurt you. Sit upon the rags.' + +Florence obeyed her, holding out her folded hands, in mute supplication. + +'I'm not a going to keep you, even, above an hour,' said Mrs Brown. +'D'ye understand what I say?' + +The child answered with great difficulty, 'Yes.' + +'Then,' said Good Mrs Brown, taking her own seat on the bones, 'don't +vex me. If you don't, I tell you I won't hurt you. But if you do, I'll +kill you. I could have you killed at any time--even if you was in your +own bed at home. Now let's know who you are, and what you are, and all +about it.' + +The old woman's threats and promises; the dread of giving her offence; +and the habit, unusual to a child, but almost natural to Florence now, +of being quiet, and repressing what she felt, and feared, and hoped; +enabled her to do this bidding, and to tell her little history, or what +she knew of it. Mrs Brown listened attentively, until she had finished. + +'So your name's Dombey, eh?' said Mrs Brown. + +'I want that pretty frock, Miss Dombey,' said Good Mrs Brown, 'and that +little bonnet, and a petticoat or two, and anything else you can spare. +Come! Take 'em off.' + +Florence obeyed, as fast as her trembling hands would allow; keeping, +all the while, a frightened eye on Mrs Brown. When she had divested +herself of all the articles of apparel mentioned by that lady, Mrs B. +examined them at leisure, and seemed tolerably well satisfied with their +quality and value. + +'Humph!' she said, running her eyes over the child's slight figure, 'I +don't see anything else--except the shoes. I must have the shoes, Miss +Dombey.' + +Poor little Florence took them off with equal alacrity, only too glad +to have any more means of conciliation about her. The old woman then +produced some wretched substitutes from the bottom of the heap of rags, +which she turned up for that purpose; together with a girl's cloak, +quite worn out and very old; and the crushed remains of a bonnet that +had probably been picked up from some ditch or dunghill. In this +dainty raiment, she instructed Florence to dress herself; and as such +preparation seemed a prelude to her release, the child complied with +increased readiness, if possible. + +In hurriedly putting on the bonnet, if that may be called a bonnet which +was more like a pad to carry loads on, she caught it in her hair which +grew luxuriantly, and could not immediately disentangle it. Good +Mrs Brown whipped out a large pair of scissors, and fell into an +unaccountable state of excitement. + +'Why couldn't you let me be!' said Mrs Brown, 'when I was contented? You +little fool!' + +'I beg your pardon. I don't know what I have done,' panted Florence. 'I +couldn't help it.' + +'Couldn't help it!' cried Mrs Brown. 'How do you expect I can help +it? Why, Lord!' said the old woman, ruffling her curls with a furious +pleasure, 'anybody but me would have had 'em off, first of all.' + +Florence was so relieved to find that it was only her hair and not +her head which Mrs Brown coveted, that she offered no resistance or +entreaty, and merely raised her mild eyes towards the face of that good +soul. + +'If I hadn't once had a gal of my own--beyond seas now--that was proud +of her hair,' said Mrs Brown, 'I'd have had every lock of it. She's far +away, she's far away! Oho! Oho!' + +Mrs Brown's was not a melodious cry, but, accompanied with a wild +tossing up of her lean arms, it was full of passionate grief, and +thrilled to the heart of Florence, whom it frightened more than ever. +It had its part, perhaps, in saving her curls; for Mrs Brown, after +hovering about her with the scissors for some moments, like a new kind +of butterfly, bade her hide them under the bonnet and let no trace of +them escape to tempt her. Having accomplished this victory over herself, +Mrs Brown resumed her seat on the bones, and smoked a very short black +pipe, mowing and mumbling all the time, as if she were eating the stem. + +When the pipe was smoked out, she gave the child a rabbit-skin to carry, +that she might appear the more like her ordinary companion, and told her +that she was now going to lead her to a public street whence she could +inquire her way to her friends. But she cautioned her, with threats of +summary and deadly vengeance in case of disobedience, not to talk to +strangers, nor to repair to her own home (which may have been too near +for Mrs Brown's convenience), but to her father's office in the City; +also to wait at the street corner where she would be left, until the +clock struck three. These directions Mrs Brown enforced with assurances +that there would be potent eyes and ears in her employment cognizant +of all she did; and these directions Florence promised faithfully and +earnestly to observe. + +At length, Mrs Brown, issuing forth, conducted her changed and ragged +little friend through a labyrinth of narrow streets and lanes and +alleys, which emerged, after a long time, upon a stable yard, with a +gateway at the end, whence the roar of a great thoroughfare made itself +audible. Pointing out this gateway, and informing Florence that when the +clocks struck three she was to go to the left, Mrs Brown, after making a +parting grasp at her hair which seemed involuntary and quite beyond her +own control, told her she knew what to do, and bade her go and do it: +remembering that she was watched. + +With a lighter heart, but still sore afraid, Florence felt herself +released, and tripped off to the corner. When she reached it, she looked +back and saw the head of Good Mrs Brown peeping out of the low wooden +passage, where she had issued her parting injunctions; likewise the fist +of Good Mrs Brown shaking towards her. But though she often looked back +afterwards--every minute, at least, in her nervous recollection of the +old woman--she could not see her again. + +Florence remained there, looking at the bustle in the street, and more +and more bewildered by it; and in the meanwhile the clocks appeared to +have made up their minds never to strike three any more. At last the +steeples rang out three o'clock; there was one close by, so she couldn't +be mistaken; and--after often looking over her shoulder, and often going +a little way, and as often coming back again, lest the all-powerful +spies of Mrs Brown should take offence--she hurried off, as fast as she +could in her slipshod shoes, holding the rabbit-skin tight in her hand. + +All she knew of her father's offices was that they belonged to Dombey +and Son, and that that was a great power belonging to the City. So +she could only ask the way to Dombey and Son's in the City; and as +she generally made inquiry of children--being afraid to ask grown +people--she got very little satisfaction indeed. But by dint of asking +her way to the City after a while, and dropping the rest of her inquiry +for the present, she really did advance, by slow degrees, towards the +heart of that great region which is governed by the terrible Lord Mayor. + +Tired of walking, repulsed and pushed about, stunned by the noise and +confusion, anxious for her brother and the nurses, terrified by what she +had undergone, and the prospect of encountering her angry father in such +an altered state; perplexed and frightened alike by what had passed, and +what was passing, and what was yet before her; Florence went upon her +weary way with tearful eyes, and once or twice could not help stopping +to ease her bursting heart by crying bitterly. But few people noticed +her at those times, in the garb she wore: or if they did, believed that +she was tutored to excite compassion, and passed on. Florence, too, +called to her aid all the firmness and self-reliance of a character that +her sad experience had prematurely formed and tried: and keeping the end +she had in view steadily before her, steadily pursued it. + +It was full two hours later in the afternoon than when she had started +on this strange adventure, when, escaping from the clash and clangour +of a narrow street full of carts and waggons, she peeped into a kind +of wharf or landing-place upon the river-side, where there were a great +many packages, casks, and boxes, strewn about; a large pair of wooden +scales; and a little wooden house on wheels, outside of which, looking +at the neighbouring masts and boats, a stout man stood whistling, with +his pen behind his ear, and his hands in his pockets, as if his day's +work were nearly done. + +'Now then!' said this man, happening to turn round. 'We haven't got +anything for you, little girl. Be off!' + +'If you please, is this the City?' asked the trembling daughter of the +Dombeys. + +'Ah! It's the City. You know that well enough, I daresay. Be off! We +haven't got anything for you.' + +'I don't want anything, thank you,' was the timid answer. 'Except to +know the way to Dombey and Son's.' + +The man who had been strolling carelessly towards her, seemed surprised +by this reply, and looking attentively in her face, rejoined: + +'Why, what can you want with Dombey and Son's?' + +'To know the way there, if you please.' + +The man looked at her yet more curiously, and rubbed the back of his +head so hard in his wonderment that he knocked his own hat off. + +'Joe!' he called to another man--a labourer--as he picked it up and put +it on again. + +'Joe it is!' said Joe. + +'Where's that young spark of Dombey's who's been watching the shipment +of them goods?' + +'Just gone, by t'other gate,' said Joe. + +'Call him back a minute.' + +Joe ran up an archway, bawling as he went, and very soon returned +with a blithe-looking boy. + +'You're Dombey's jockey, ain't you?' said the first man. + +'I'm in Dombey's House, Mr Clark,' returned the boy. + +'Look'ye here, then,' said Mr Clark. + +Obedient to the indication of Mr Clark's hand, the boy approached +towards Florence, wondering, as well he might, what he had to do with +her. But she, who had heard what passed, and who, besides the relief +of so suddenly considering herself safe at her journey's end, felt +reassured beyond all measure by his lively youthful face and manner, ran +eagerly up to him, leaving one of the slipshod shoes upon the ground and +caught his hand in both of hers. + +'I am lost, if you please!' said Florence. + +'Lost!' cried the boy. + +'Yes, I was lost this morning, a long way from here--and I have had my +clothes taken away, since--and I am not dressed in my own now--and my +name is Florence Dombey, my little brother's only sister--and, oh dear, +dear, take care of me, if you please!' sobbed Florence, giving full vent +to the childish feelings she had so long suppressed, and bursting into +tears. At the same time her miserable bonnet falling off, her hair +came tumbling down about her face: moving to speechless admiration +and commiseration, young Walter, nephew of Solomon Gills, Ships' +Instrument-maker in general. + +Mr Clark stood rapt in amazement: observing under his breath, I never +saw such a start on this wharf before. Walter picked up the shoe, and +put it on the little foot as the Prince in the story might have fitted +Cinderella's slipper on. He hung the rabbit-skin over his left arm; +gave the right to Florence; and felt, not to say like Richard +Whittington--that is a tame comparison--but like Saint George of +England, with the dragon lying dead before him. + +'Don't cry, Miss Dombey,' said Walter, in a transport of enthusiasm. +'What a wonderful thing for me that I am here! You are as safe now as if +you were guarded by a whole boat's crew of picked men from a man-of-war. +Oh, don't cry.' + +'I won't cry any more,' said Florence. 'I am only crying for joy.' + +'Crying for joy!' thought Walter, 'and I'm the cause of it! Come along, +Miss Dombey. There's the other shoe off now! Take mine, Miss Dombey.' + +'No, no, no,' said Florence, checking him in the act of impetuously +pulling off his own. 'These do better. These do very well.' + +'Why, to be sure,' said Walter, glancing at her foot, 'mine are a mile +too large. What am I thinking about! You never could walk in mine! Come +along, Miss Dombey. Let me see the villain who will dare molest you +now.' + +So Walter, looking immensely fierce, led off Florence, looking very +happy; and they went arm-in-arm along the streets, perfectly indifferent +to any astonishment that their appearance might or did excite by the +way. + +It was growing dark and foggy, and beginning to rain too; but they cared +nothing for this: being both wholly absorbed in the late adventures of +Florence, which she related with the innocent good faith and confidence +of her years, while Walter listened as if, far from the mud and grease +of Thames Street, they were rambling alone among the broad leaves and +tall trees of some desert island in the tropics--as he very likely +fancied, for the time, they were. + +'Have we far to go?' asked Florence at last, lilting up her eyes to her +companion's face. + +'Ah! By-the-bye,' said Walter, stopping, 'let me see; where are we? Oh! +I know. But the offices are shut up now, Miss Dombey. There's nobody +there. Mr Dombey has gone home long ago. I suppose we must go home too? +or, stay. Suppose I take you to my Uncle's, where I live--it's very near +here--and go to your house in a coach to tell them you are safe, and +bring you back some clothes. Won't that be best?' + +'I think so,' answered Florence. 'Don't you? What do you think?' + +As they stood deliberating in the street, a man passed them, who glanced +quickly at Walter as he went by, as if he recognised him; but seeming to +correct that first impression, he passed on without stopping. + +'Why, I think it's Mr Carker,' said Walter. 'Carker in our House. Not +Carker our Manager, Miss Dombey--the other Carker; the Junior--Halloa! +Mr Carker!' + +'Is that Walter Gay?' said the other, stopping and returning. 'I +couldn't believe it, with such a strange companion.' + +As he stood near a lamp, listening with surprise to Walter's hurried +explanation, he presented a remarkable contrast to the two youthful +figures arm-in-arm before him. He was not old, but his hair was white; +his body was bent, or bowed as if by the weight of some great trouble: +and there were deep lines in his worn and melancholy face. The fire of +his eyes, the expression of his features, the very voice in which he +spoke, were all subdued and quenched, as if the spirit within him lay +in ashes. He was respectably, though very plainly dressed, in black; but +his clothes, moulded to the general character of his figure, seemed +to shrink and abase themselves upon him, and to join in the sorrowful +solicitation which the whole man from head to foot expressed, to be left +unnoticed, and alone in his humility. + +And yet his interest in youth and hopefulness was not extinguished +with the other embers of his soul, for he watched the boy's earnest +countenance as he spoke with unusual sympathy, though with an +inexplicable show of trouble and compassion, which escaped into his +looks, however hard he strove to hold it prisoner. When Walter, in +conclusion, put to him the question he had put to Florence, he still +stood glancing at him with the same expression, as if he had read some +fate upon his face, mournfully at variance with its present brightness. + +'What do you advise, Mr Carker?' said Walter, smiling. 'You always give +me good advice, you know, when you do speak to me. That's not often, +though.' + +'I think your own idea is the best,' he answered: looking from Florence +to Walter, and back again. + +'Mr Carker,' said Walter, brightening with a generous thought, 'Come! +Here's a chance for you. Go you to Mr Dombey's, and be the messenger of +good news. It may do you some good, Sir. I'll remain at home. You shall +go.' + +'I!' returned the other. + +'Yes. Why not, Mr Carker?' said the boy. + +He merely shook him by the hand in answer; he seemed in a manner ashamed +and afraid even to do that; and bidding him good-night, and advising him +to make haste, turned away. + +'Come, Miss Dombey,' said Walter, looking after him as they turned away +also, 'we'll go to my Uncle's as quick as we can. Did you ever hear Mr +Dombey speak of Mr Carker the Junior, Miss Florence?' + +'No,' returned the child, mildly, 'I don't often hear Papa speak.' + +'Ah! true! more shame for him,' thought Walter. After a minute's pause, +during which he had been looking down upon the gentle patient little +face moving on at his side, he said, 'The strangest man, Mr Carker +the Junior is, Miss Florence, that ever you heard of. If you could +understand what an extraordinary interest he takes in me, and yet how he +shuns me and avoids me; and what a low place he holds in our office, and +how he is never advanced, and never complains, though year after year +he sees young men passed over his head, and though his brother (younger +than he is), is our head Manager, you would be as much puzzled about him +as I am.' + +As Florence could hardly be expected to understand much about it, Walter +bestirred himself with his accustomed boyish animation and restlessness +to change the subject; and one of the unfortunate shoes coming off again +opportunely, proposed to carry Florence to his uncle's in his arms. +Florence, though very tired, laughingly declined the proposal, lest +he should let her fall; and as they were already near the wooden +Midshipman, and as Walter went on to cite various precedents, from +shipwrecks and other moving accidents, where younger boys than he had +triumphantly rescued and carried off older girls than Florence, they +were still in full conversation about it when they arrived at the +Instrument-maker's door. + +'Holloa, Uncle Sol!' cried Walter, bursting into the shop, and speaking +incoherently and out of breath, from that time forth, for the rest of +the evening. 'Here's a wonderful adventure! Here's Mr Dombey's daughter +lost in the streets, and robbed of her clothes by an old witch of a +woman--found by me--brought home to our parlour to rest--look here!' + +'Good Heaven!' said Uncle Sol, starting back against his favourite +compass-case. 'It can't be! Well, I--' + +'No, nor anybody else,' said Walter, anticipating the rest. 'Nobody +would, nobody could, you know. Here! just help me lift the little sofa +near the fire, will you, Uncle Sol--take care of the plates--cut some +dinner for her, will you, Uncle--throw those shoes under the grate. Miss +Florence--put your feet on the fender to dry--how damp they are--here's +an adventure, Uncle, eh?--God bless my soul, how hot I am!' + +Solomon Gills was quite as hot, by sympathy, and in excessive +bewilderment. He patted Florence's head, pressed her to eat, pressed +her to drink, rubbed the soles of her feet with his pocket-handkerchief +heated at the fire, followed his locomotive nephew with his eyes, and +ears, and had no clear perception of anything except that he was being +constantly knocked against and tumbled over by that excited young +gentleman, as he darted about the room attempting to accomplish twenty +things at once, and doing nothing at all. + +'Here, wait a minute, Uncle,' he continued, catching up a candle, 'till +I run upstairs, and get another jacket on, and then I'll be off. I say, +Uncle, isn't this an adventure?' + +'My dear boy,' said Solomon, who, with his spectacles on his forehead +and the great chronometer in his pocket, was incessantly oscillating +between Florence on the sofa, and his nephew in all parts of the +parlour, 'it's the most extraordinary--' + +'No, but do, Uncle, please--do, Miss Florence--dinner, you know, Uncle.' + +'Yes, yes, yes,' cried Solomon, cutting instantly into a leg of mutton, +as if he were catering for a giant. 'I'll take care of her, Wally! I +understand. Pretty dear! Famished, of course. You go and get ready. Lord +bless me! Sir Richard Whittington thrice Lord Mayor of London.' + +Walter was not very long in mounting to his lofty garret and descending +from it, but in the meantime Florence, overcome by fatigue, had sunk +into a doze before the fire. The short interval of quiet, though only +a few minutes in duration, enabled Solomon Gills so far to collect his +wits as to make some little arrangements for her comfort, and to darken +the room, and to screen her from the blaze. Thus, when the boy returned, +she was sleeping peacefully. + +'That's capital!' he whispered, giving Solomon such a hug that it +squeezed a new expression into his face. 'Now I'm off. I'll just take a +crust of bread with me, for I'm very hungry--and don't wake her, Uncle +Sol.' + +'No, no,' said Solomon. 'Pretty child.' + +'Pretty, indeed!' cried Walter. 'I never saw such a face, Uncle Sol. Now +I'm off.' + +'That's right,' said Solomon, greatly relieved. + +'I say, Uncle Sol,' cried Walter, putting his face in at the door. + +'Here he is again,' said Solomon. + +'How does she look now?' + +'Quite happy,' said Solomon. + +'That's famous! now I'm off.' + +'I hope you are,' said Solomon to himself. + +'I say, Uncle Sol,' cried Walter, reappearing at the door. + +'Here he is again!' said Solomon. + +'We met Mr Carker the Junior in the street, queerer than ever. He bade +me good-bye, but came behind us here--there's an odd thing!--for when we +reached the shop door, I looked round, and saw him going quietly away, +like a servant who had seen me home, or a faithful dog. How does she +look now, Uncle?' + +'Pretty much the same as before, Wally,' replied Uncle Sol. + +'That's right. Now I am off!' + +And this time he really was: and Solomon Gills, with no appetite for +dinner, sat on the opposite side of the fire, watching Florence in +her slumber, building a great many airy castles of the most fantastic +architecture; and looking, in the dim shade, and in the close vicinity +of all the instruments, like a magician disguised in a Welsh wig and a +suit of coffee colour, who held the child in an enchanted sleep. + +In the meantime, Walter proceeded towards Mr Dombey's house at a pace +seldom achieved by a hack horse from the stand; and yet with his head +out of window every two or three minutes, in impatient remonstrance +with the driver. Arriving at his journey's end, he leaped out, and +breathlessly announcing his errand to the servant, followed him straight +into the library, we there was a great confusion of tongues, and where +Mr Dombey, his sister, and Miss Tox, Richards, and Nipper, were all +congregated together. + +'Oh! I beg your pardon, Sir,' said Walter, rushing up to him, 'but I'm +happy to say it's all right, Sir. Miss Dombey's found!' + +The boy with his open face, and flowing hair, and sparkling eyes, +panting with pleasure and excitement, was wonderfully opposed to Mr +Dombey, as he sat confronting him in his library chair. + +'I told you, Louisa, that she would certainly be found,' said Mr Dombey, +looking slightly over his shoulder at that lady, who wept in company +with Miss Tox. 'Let the servants know that no further steps are +necessary. This boy who brings the information, is young Gay, from the +office. How was my daughter found, Sir? I know how she was lost.' Here +he looked majestically at Richards. 'But how was she found? Who found +her?' + +'Why, I believe I found Miss Dombey, Sir,' said Walter modestly, 'at +least I don't know that I can claim the merit of having exactly found +her, Sir, but I was the fortunate instrument of--' + +'What do you mean, Sir,' interrupted Mr Dombey, regarding the boy's +evident pride and pleasure in his share of the transaction with an +instinctive dislike, 'by not having exactly found my daughter, and by +being a fortunate instrument? Be plain and coherent, if you please.' + +It was quite out of Walter's power to be coherent; but he rendered +himself as explanatory as he could, in his breathless state, and stated +why he had come alone. + +'You hear this, girl?' said Mr Dombey sternly to the black-eyed. 'Take +what is necessary, and return immediately with this young man to fetch +Miss Florence home. Gay, you will be rewarded to-morrow.' + +'Oh! thank you, Sir,' said Walter. 'You are very kind. I'm sure I was +not thinking of any reward, Sir.' + +'You are a boy,' said Mr Dombey, suddenly and almost fiercely; 'and what +you think of, or affect to think of, is of little consequence. You +have done well, Sir. Don't undo it. Louisa, please to give the lad some +wine.' + +Mr Dombey's glance followed Walter Gay with sharp disfavour, as he left +the room under the pilotage of Mrs Chick; and it may be that his mind's +eye followed him with no greater relish, as he rode back to his Uncle's +with Miss Susan Nipper. + +There they found that Florence, much refreshed by sleep, had dined, and +greatly improved the acquaintance of Solomon Gills, with whom she was on +terms of perfect confidence and ease. The black-eyed (who had cried so +much that she might now be called the red-eyed, and who was very silent +and depressed) caught her in her arms without a word of contradiction or +reproach, and made a very hysterical meeting of it. Then converting the +parlour, for the nonce, into a private tiring room, she dressed her, +with great care, in proper clothes; and presently led her forth, as like +a Dombey as her natural disqualifications admitted of her being made. + +'Good-night!' said Florence, running up to Solomon. 'You have been very +good to me.' + +Old Sol was quite delighted, and kissed her like her grand-father. + +'Good-night, Walter! Good-bye!' said Florence. + +'Good-bye!' said Walter, giving both his hands. + +'I'll never forget you,' pursued Florence. 'No! indeed I never will. +Good-bye, Walter!' + +In the innocence of her grateful heart, the child lifted up her face to +his. Walter, bending down his own, raised it again, all red and burning; +and looked at Uncle Sol, quite sheepishly. + +'Where's Walter?' 'Good-night, Walter!' 'Good-bye, Walter!' 'Shake hands +once more, Walter!' This was still Florence's cry, after she was shut up +with her little maid, in the coach. And when the coach at length +moved off, Walter on the door-step gaily returned the waving of her +handkerchief, while the wooden Midshipman behind him seemed, like +himself, intent upon that coach alone, excluding all the other passing +coaches from his observation. + +In good time Mr Dombey's mansion was gained again, and again there was +a noise of tongues in the library. Again, too, the coach was ordered +to wait--'for Mrs Richards,' one of Susan's fellow-servants ominously +whispered, as she passed with Florence. + +The entrance of the lost child made a slight sensation, but not much. Mr +Dombey, who had never found her, kissed her once upon the forehead, and +cautioned her not to run away again, or wander anywhere with treacherous +attendants. Mrs Chick stopped in her lamentations on the corruption of +human nature, even when beckoned to the paths of virtue by a Charitable +Grinder; and received her with a welcome something short of the +reception due to none but perfect Dombeys. Miss Tox regulated her +feelings by the models before her. Richards, the culprit Richards, alone +poured out her heart in broken words of welcome, and bowed herself over +the little wandering head as if she really loved it. + +'Ah, Richards!' said Mrs Chick, with a sigh. 'It would have been much +more satisfactory to those who wish to think well of their fellow +creatures, and much more becoming in you, if you had shown some +proper feeling, in time, for the little child that is now going to be +prematurely deprived of its natural nourishment. + +'Cut off,' said Miss Tox, in a plaintive whisper, 'from one common +fountain!' + +'If it was my ungrateful case,' said Mrs Chick, solemnly, 'and I had your +reflections, Richards, I should feel as if the Charitable Grinders' +dress would blight my child, and the education choke him.' + +For the matter of that--but Mrs Chick didn't know it--he had been pretty +well blighted by the dress already; and as to the education, even its +retributive effect might be produced in time, for it was a storm of sobs +and blows. + +'Louisa!' said Mr Dombey. 'It is not necessary to prolong these +observations. The woman is discharged and paid. You leave this house, +Richards, for taking my son--my son,' said Mr Dombey, emphatically +repeating these two words, 'into haunts and into society which are not +to be thought of without a shudder. As to the accident which befel Miss +Florence this morning, I regard that as, in one great sense, a happy and +fortunate circumstance; inasmuch as, but for that occurrence, I never +could have known--and from your own lips too--of what you had been +guilty. I think, Louisa, the other nurse, the young person,' here Miss +Nipper sobbed aloud, 'being so much younger, and necessarily influenced +by Paul's nurse, may remain. Have the goodness to direct that this +woman's coach is paid to'--Mr Dombey stopped and winced--'to Staggs's +Gardens.' + +Polly moved towards the door, with Florence holding to her dress, and +crying to her in the most pathetic manner not to go away. It was a +dagger in the haughty father's heart, an arrow in his brain, to see how +the flesh and blood he could not disown clung to this obscure stranger, +and he sitting by. Not that he cared to whom his daughter turned, or +from whom turned away. The swift sharp agony struck through him, as he +thought of what his son might do. + +His son cried lustily that night, at all events. Sooth to say, poor Paul +had better reason for his tears than sons of that age often have, for he +had lost his second mother--his first, so far as he knew--by a stroke +as sudden as that natural affliction which had darkened the beginning of +his life. At the same blow, his sister too, who cried herself to sleep +so mournfully, had lost as good and true a friend. But that is quite +beside the question. Let us waste no words about it. + + + +CHAPTER 7. A Bird's-eye Glimpse of Miss Tox's Dwelling-place: also of +the State of Miss Tox's Affections + + +Miss Tox inhabited a dark little house that had been squeezed, at some +remote period of English History, into a fashionable neighbourhood +at the west end of the town, where it stood in the shade like a poor +relation of the great street round the corner, coldly looked down +upon by mighty mansions. It was not exactly in a court, and it was +not exactly in a yard; but it was in the dullest of No-Thoroughfares, +rendered anxious and haggard by distant double knocks. The name of this +retirement, where grass grew between the chinks in the stone pavement, +was Princess's Place; and in Princess's Place was Princess's Chapel, +with a tinkling bell, where sometimes as many as five-and-twenty people +attended service on a Sunday. The Princess's Arms was also there, and +much resorted to by splendid footmen. A sedan chair was kept inside the +railing before the Princess's Arms, but it had never come out within the +memory of man; and on fine mornings, the top of every rail (there were +eight-and-forty, as Miss Tox had often counted) was decorated with a +pewter-pot. + +There was another private house besides Miss Tox's in Princess's +Place: not to mention an immense Pair of gates, with an immense pair of +lion-headed knockers on them, which were never opened by any chance, and +were supposed to constitute a disused entrance to somebody's stables. +Indeed, there was a smack of stabling in the air of Princess's Place; +and Miss Tox's bedroom (which was at the back) commanded a vista of +Mews, where hostlers, at whatever sort of work engaged, were continually +accompanying themselves with effervescent noises; and where the most +domestic and confidential garments of coachmen and their wives and +families, usually hung, like Macbeth's banners, on the outward walls. + +At this other private house in Princess's Place, tenanted by a retired +butler who had married a housekeeper, apartments were let Furnished, to +a single gentleman: to wit, a wooden-featured, blue-faced Major, with +his eyes starting out of his head, in whom Miss Tox recognised, as she +herself expressed it, 'something so truly military;' and between whom +and herself, an occasional interchange of newspapers and pamphlets, +and such Platonic dalliance, was effected through the medium of a dark +servant of the Major's who Miss Tox was quite content to classify as a +'native,' without connecting him with any geographical idea whatever. + +Perhaps there never was a smaller entry and staircase, than the entry +and staircase of Miss Tox's house. Perhaps, taken altogether, from top +to bottom, it was the most inconvenient little house in England, and the +crookedest; but then, Miss Tox said, what a situation! There was very +little daylight to be got there in the winter: no sun at the best of +times: air was out of the question, and traffic was walled out. Still +Miss Tox said, think of the situation! So said the blue-faced Major, +whose eyes were starting out of his head: who gloried in Princess's +Place: and who delighted to turn the conversation at his club, whenever +he could, to something connected with some of the great people in the +great street round the corner, that he might have the satisfaction of +saying they were his neighbours. + +In short, with Miss Tox and the blue-faced Major, it was enough for +Princess's Place--as with a very small fragment of society, it is enough +for many a little hanger-on of another sort--to be well connected, and +to have genteel blood in its veins. It might be poor, mean, shabby, +stupid, dull. No matter. The great street round the corner trailed off +into Princess's Place; and that which of High Holborn would have become +a choleric word, spoken of Princess's Place became flat blasphemy. + +The dingy tenement inhabited by Miss Tox was her own; having been +devised and bequeathed to her by the deceased owner of the fishy eye +in the locket, of whom a miniature portrait, with a powdered head and +a pigtail, balanced the kettle-holder on opposite sides of the parlour +fireplace. The greater part of the furniture was of the powdered-head +and pig-tail period: comprising a plate-warmer, always languishing +and sprawling its four attenuated bow legs in somebody's way; and an +obsolete harpsichord, illuminated round the maker's name with a painted +garland of sweet peas. In any part of the house, visitors were usually +cognizant of a prevailing mustiness; and in warm weather Miss Tox +had been seen apparently writing in sundry chinks and crevices of +the wainscoat with the the wrong end of a pen dipped in spirits of +turpentine. + +Although Major Bagstock had arrived at what is called in polite +literature, the grand meridian of life, and was proceeding on his +journey downhill with hardly any throat, and a very rigid pair +of jaw-bones, and long-flapped elephantine ears, and his eyes and +complexion in the state of artificial excitement already mentioned, he +was mightily proud of awakening an interest in Miss Tox, and tickled his +vanity with the fiction that she was a splendid woman who had her eye +on him. This he had several times hinted at the club: in connexion with +little jocularities, of which old Joe Bagstock, old Joey Bagstock, old +J. Bagstock, old Josh Bagstock, or so forth, was the perpetual theme: +it being, as it were, the Major's stronghold and donjon-keep of light +humour, to be on the most familiar terms with his own name. + +'Joey B., Sir,' the Major would say, with a flourish of his +walking-stick, 'is worth a dozen of you. If you had a few more of the +Bagstock breed among you, Sir, you'd be none the worse for it. Old Joe, +Sir, needn't look far for a wife even now, if he was on the look-out; +but he's hard-hearted, Sir, is Joe--he's tough, Sir, tough, and +de-vilish sly!' After such a declaration, wheezing sounds would be +heard; and the Major's blue would deepen into purple, while his eyes +strained and started convulsively. + +Notwithstanding his very liberal laudation of himself, however, the +Major was selfish. It may be doubted whether there ever was a more +entirely selfish person at heart; or at stomach is perhaps a better +expression, seeing that he was more decidedly endowed with that latter +organ than with the former. He had no idea of being overlooked or +slighted by anybody; least of all, had he the remotest comprehension of +being overlooked and slighted by Miss Tox. + +And yet, Miss Tox, as it appeared, forgot him--gradually forgot him. She +began to forget him soon after her discovery of the Toodle family. She +continued to forget him up to the time of the christening. She went on +forgetting him with compound interest after that. Something or somebody +had superseded him as a source of interest. + +'Good morning, Ma'am,' said the Major, meeting Miss Tox in Princess's +Place, some weeks after the changes chronicled in the last chapter. + +'Good morning, Sir,' said Miss Tox; very coldly. + +'Joe Bagstock, Ma'am,' observed the Major, with his usual gallantry, +'has not had the happiness of bowing to you at your window, for a +considerable period. Joe has been hardly used, Ma'am. His sun has been +behind a cloud.' + +Miss Tox inclined her head; but very coldly indeed. + +'Joe's luminary has been out of town, Ma'am, perhaps,' inquired the +Major. + +'I? out of town? oh no, I have not been out of town,' said Miss Tox. +'I have been much engaged lately. My time is nearly all devoted to some +very intimate friends. I am afraid I have none to spare, even now. Good +morning, Sir!' + +As Miss Tox, with her most fascinating step and carriage, disappeared +from Princess's Place, the Major stood looking after her with a bluer +face than ever: muttering and growling some not at all complimentary +remarks. + +'Why, damme, Sir,' said the Major, rolling his lobster eyes round and +round Princess's Place, and apostrophizing its fragrant air, 'six months +ago, the woman loved the ground Josh Bagstock walked on. What's the +meaning of it?' + +The Major decided, after some consideration, that it meant mantraps; +that it meant plotting and snaring; that Miss Tox was digging pitfalls. +'But you won't catch Joe, Ma'am,' said the Major. 'He's tough, Ma'am, +tough, is J.B. Tough, and de-vilish sly!' over which reflection he +chuckled for the rest of the day. + +But still, when that day and many other days were gone and past, it +seemed that Miss Tox took no heed whatever of the Major, and thought +nothing at all about him. She had been wont, once upon a time, to look +out at one of her little dark windows by accident, and blushingly return +the Major's greeting; but now, she never gave the Major a chance, +and cared nothing at all whether he looked over the way or not. Other +changes had come to pass too. The Major, standing in the shade of his +own apartment, could make out that an air of greater smartness had +recently come over Miss Tox's house; that a new cage with gilded wires +had been provided for the ancient little canary bird; that divers +ornaments, cut out of coloured card-boards and paper, seemed to decorate +the chimney-piece and tables; that a plant or two had suddenly sprung up +in the windows; that Miss Tox occasionally practised on the harpsichord, +whose garland of sweet peas was always displayed ostentatiously, crowned +with the Copenhagen and Bird Waltzes in a Music Book of Miss Tox's own +copying. + +Over and above all this, Miss Tox had long been dressed with uncommon +care and elegance in slight mourning. But this helped the Major out of +his difficulty; and he determined within himself that she had come into +a small legacy, and grown proud. + +It was on the very next day after he had eased his mind by arriving +at this decision, that the Major, sitting at his breakfast, saw +an apparition so tremendous and wonderful in Miss Tox's little +drawing-room, that he remained for some time rooted to his chair; +then, rushing into the next room, returned with a double-barrelled +opera-glass, through which he surveyed it intently for some minutes. + +'It's a Baby, Sir,' said the Major, shutting up the glass again, 'for +fifty thousand pounds!' + +The Major couldn't forget it. He could do nothing but whistle, and stare +to that extent, that his eyes, compared with what they now became, had +been in former times quite cavernous and sunken. Day after day, two, +three, four times a week, this Baby reappeared. The Major continued to +stare and whistle. To all other intents and purposes he was alone in +Princess's Place. Miss Tox had ceased to mind what he did. He might have +been black as well as blue, and it would have been of no consequence to +her. + +The perseverance with which she walked out of Princess's Place to fetch +this baby and its nurse, and walked back with them, and walked home +with them again, and continually mounted guard over them; and the +perseverance with which she nursed it herself, and fed it, and played +with it, and froze its young blood with airs upon the harpsichord, was +extraordinary. At about this same period too, she was seized with a +passion for looking at a certain bracelet; also with a passion for +looking at the moon, of which she would take long observations from +her chamber window. But whatever she looked at; sun, moon, stars, or +bracelet; she looked no more at the Major. And the Major whistled, and +stared, and wondered, and dodged about his room, and could make nothing +of it. + +'You'll quite win my brother Paul's heart, and that's the truth, my +dear,' said Mrs Chick, one day. + +Miss Tox turned pale. + +'He grows more like Paul every day,' said Mrs Chick. + +Miss Tox returned no other reply than by taking the little Paul in her +arms, and making his cockade perfectly flat and limp with her caresses. + +'His mother, my dear,' said Miss Tox, 'whose acquaintance I was to have +made through you, does he at all resemble her?' + +'Not at all,' returned Louisa + +'She was--she was pretty, I believe?' faltered Miss Tox. + +'Why, poor dear Fanny was interesting,' said Mrs Chick, after some +judicial consideration. 'Certainly interesting. She had not that air +of commanding superiority which one would somehow expect, almost as +a matter of course, to find in my brother's wife; nor had she that +strength and vigour of mind which such a man requires.' + +Miss Tox heaved a deep sigh. + +'But she was pleasing:' said Mrs Chick: 'extremely so. And she +meant!--oh, dear, how well poor Fanny meant!' + +'You Angel!' cried Miss Tox to little Paul. 'You Picture of your own +Papa!' + +If the Major could have known how many hopes and ventures, what a +multitude of plans and speculations, rested on that baby head; and +could have seen them hovering, in all their heterogeneous confusion +and disorder, round the puckered cap of the unconscious little Paul; +he might have stared indeed. Then would he have recognised, among the +crowd, some few ambitious motes and beams belonging to Miss Tox; then +would he perhaps have understood the nature of that lady's faltering +investment in the Dombey Firm. + +If the child himself could have awakened in the night, and seen, +gathered about his cradle-curtains, faint reflections of the dreams that +other people had of him, they might have scared him, with good reason. +But he slumbered on, alike unconscious of the kind intentions of Miss +Tox, the wonder of the Major, the early sorrows of his sister, and +the stern visions of his father; and innocent that any spot of earth +contained a Dombey or a Son. + + + +CHAPTER 8. Paul's Further Progress, Growth and Character + + +Beneath the watching and attentive eyes of Time--so far another +Major--Paul's slumbers gradually changed. More and more light broke +in upon them; distincter and distincter dreams disturbed them; an +accumulating crowd of objects and impressions swarmed about his rest; +and so he passed from babyhood to childhood, and became a talking, +walking, wondering Dombey. + +On the downfall and banishment of Richards, the nursery may be said to +have been put into commission: as a Public Department is sometimes, when +no individual Atlas can be found to support it The Commissioners were, +of course, Mrs Chick and Miss Tox: who devoted themselves to their +duties with such astonishing ardour that Major Bagstock had every day +some new reminder of his being forsaken, while Mr Chick, bereft of +domestic supervision, cast himself upon the gay world, dined at clubs +and coffee-houses, smelt of smoke on three different occasions, went to +the play by himself, and in short, loosened (as Mrs Chick once told him) +every social bond, and moral obligation. + +Yet, in spite of his early promise, all this vigilance and care could +not make little Paul a thriving boy. Naturally delicate, perhaps, he +pined and wasted after the dismissal of his nurse, and, for a long time, +seemed but to wait his opportunity of gliding through their hands, and +seeking his lost mother. This dangerous ground in his steeple-chase +towards manhood passed, he still found it very rough riding, and was +grievously beset by all the obstacles in his course. Every tooth was a +break-neck fence, and every pimple in the measles a stone wall to him. +He was down in every fit of the hooping-cough, and rolled upon and +crushed by a whole field of small diseases, that came trooping on each +other's heels to prevent his getting up again. Some bird of prey got +into his throat instead of the thrush; and the very chickens turning +ferocious--if they have anything to do with that infant malady to which +they lend their name--worried him like tiger-cats. + +The chill of Paul's christening had struck home, perhaps to some +sensitive part of his nature, which could not recover itself in the cold +shade of his father; but he was an unfortunate child from that day. Mrs +Wickam often said she never see a dear so put upon. + +Mrs Wickam was a waiter's wife--which would seem equivalent to being any +other man's widow--whose application for an engagement in Mr Dombey's +service had been favourably considered, on account of the apparent +impossibility of her having any followers, or anyone to follow; and who, +from within a day or two of Paul's sharp weaning, had been engaged as +his nurse. Mrs Wickam was a meek woman, of a fair complexion, with her +eyebrows always elevated, and her head always drooping; who was always +ready to pity herself, or to be pitied, or to pity anybody else; and +who had a surprising natural gift of viewing all subjects in an utterly +forlorn and pitiable light, and bringing dreadful precedents to bear +upon them, and deriving the greatest consolation from the exercise of +that talent. + +It is hardly necessary to observe, that no touch of this quality ever +reached the magnificent knowledge of Mr Dombey. It would have been +remarkable, indeed, if any had; when no one in the house--not even Mrs +Chick or Miss Tox--dared ever whisper to him that there had, on any one +occasion, been the least reason for uneasiness in reference to little +Paul. He had settled, within himself, that the child must necessarily +pass through a certain routine of minor maladies, and that the sooner +he did so the better. If he could have bought him off, or provided a +substitute, as in the case of an unlucky drawing for the militia, he +would have been glad to do so, on liberal terms. But as this was not +feasible, he merely wondered, in his haughty manner, now and then, what +Nature meant by it; and comforted himself with the reflection that there +was another milestone passed upon the road, and that the great end of +the journey lay so much the nearer. For the feeling uppermost in his +mind, now and constantly intensifying, and increasing in it as Paul grew +older, was impatience. Impatience for the time to come, when his visions +of their united consequence and grandeur would be triumphantly realized. + +Some philosophers tell us that selfishness is at the root of our best +loves and affections. Mr Dombey's young child was, from the beginning, +so distinctly important to him as a part of his own greatness, or (which +is the same thing) of the greatness of Dombey and Son, that there is no +doubt his parental affection might have been easily traced, like many +a goodly superstructure of fair fame, to a very low foundation. But he +loved his son with all the love he had. If there were a warm place in +his frosty heart, his son occupied it; if its very hard surface could +receive the impression of any image, the image of that son was there; +though not so much as an infant, or as a boy, but as a grown man--the +'Son' of the Firm. Therefore he was impatient to advance into the +future, and to hurry over the intervening passages of his history. +Therefore he had little or no anxiety about them, in spite of his love; +feeling as if the boy had a charmed life, and must become the man with +whom he held such constant communication in his thoughts, and for whom +he planned and projected, as for an existing reality, every day. + +Thus Paul grew to be nearly five years old. He was a pretty little +fellow; though there was something wan and wistful in his small face, +that gave occasion to many significant shakes of Mrs Wickam's head, and +many long-drawn inspirations of Mrs Wickam's breath. His temper gave +abundant promise of being imperious in after-life; and he had as hopeful +an apprehension of his own importance, and the rightful subservience +of all other things and persons to it, as heart could desire. He was +childish and sportive enough at times, and not of a sullen disposition; +but he had a strange, old-fashioned, thoughtful way, at other times, of +sitting brooding in his miniature arm-chair, when he looked (and talked) +like one of those terrible little Beings in the Fairy tales, who, at a +hundred and fifty or two hundred years of age, fantastically represent +the children for whom they have been substituted. He would frequently +be stricken with this precocious mood upstairs in the nursery; and would +sometimes lapse into it suddenly, exclaiming that he was tired: even +while playing with Florence, or driving Miss Tox in single harness. +But at no time did he fall into it so surely, as when, his little chair +being carried down into his father's room, he sat there with him after +dinner, by the fire. They were the strangest pair at such a time that +ever firelight shone upon. Mr Dombey so erect and solemn, gazing at the +blare; his little image, with an old, old face, peering into the red +perspective with the fixed and rapt attention of a sage. Mr Dombey +entertaining complicated worldly schemes and plans; the little image +entertaining Heaven knows what wild fancies, half-formed thoughts, and +wandering speculations. Mr Dombey stiff with starch and arrogance; the +little image by inheritance, and in unconscious imitation. The two so +very much alike, and yet so monstrously contrasted. + +On one of these occasions, when they had both been perfectly quiet for +a long time, and Mr Dombey only knew that the child was awake by +occasionally glancing at his eye, where the bright fire was sparkling +like a jewel, little Paul broke silence thus: + +'Papa! what's money?' + +The abrupt question had such immediate reference to the subject of Mr +Dombey's thoughts, that Mr Dombey was quite disconcerted. + +'What is money, Paul?' he answered. 'Money?' + +'Yes,' said the child, laying his hands upon the elbows of his little +chair, and turning the old face up towards Mr Dombey's; 'what is money?' + +Mr Dombey was in a difficulty. He would have liked to give him +some explanation involving the terms circulating-medium, currency, +depreciation of currency, paper, bullion, rates of exchange, value of +precious metals in the market, and so forth; but looking down at the +little chair, and seeing what a long way down it was, he answered: +'Gold, and silver, and copper. Guineas, shillings, half-pence. You know +what they are?' + +'Oh yes, I know what they are,' said Paul. 'I don't mean that, Papa. I +mean what's money after all?' + +Heaven and Earth, how old his face was as he turned it up again towards +his father's! + +'What is money after all!' said Mr Dombey, backing his chair a little, +that he might the better gaze in sheer amazement at the presumptuous +atom that propounded such an inquiry. + +'I mean, Papa, what can it do?' returned Paul, folding his arms (they +were hardly long enough to fold), and looking at the fire, and up at +him, and at the fire, and up at him again. + +Mr Dombey drew his chair back to its former place, and patted him on the +head. 'You'll know better by-and-by, my man,' he said. 'Money, Paul, +can do anything.' He took hold of the little hand, and beat it softly +against one of his own, as he said so. + +But Paul got his hand free as soon as he could; and rubbing it gently to +and fro on the elbow of his chair, as if his wit were in the palm, and +he were sharpening it--and looking at the fire again, as though the fire +had been his adviser and prompter--repeated, after a short pause: + +'Anything, Papa?' + +'Yes. Anything--almost,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Anything means everything, don't it, Papa?' asked his son: not +observing, or possibly not understanding, the qualification. + +'It includes it: yes,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Why didn't money save me my Mama?' returned the child. 'It isn't cruel, +is it?' + +'Cruel!' said Mr Dombey, settling his neckcloth, and seeming to resent +the idea. 'No. A good thing can't be cruel.' + +'If it's a good thing, and can do anything,' said the little fellow, +thoughtfully, as he looked back at the fire, 'I wonder why it didn't +save me my Mama.' + +He didn't ask the question of his father this time. Perhaps he had +seen, with a child's quickness, that it had already made his father +uncomfortable. But he repeated the thought aloud, as if it were quite +an old one to him, and had troubled him very much; and sat with his chin +resting on his hand, still cogitating and looking for an explanation in +the fire. + +Mr Dombey having recovered from his surprise, not to say his alarm (for +it was the very first occasion on which the child had ever broached the +subject of his mother to him, though he had had him sitting by his side, +in this same manner, evening after evening), expounded to him how +that money, though a very potent spirit, never to be disparaged on any +account whatever, could not keep people alive whose time was come to +die; and how that we must all die, unfortunately, even in the City, +though we were never so rich. But how that money caused us to be +honoured, feared, respected, courted, and admired, and made us powerful +and glorious in the eyes of all men; and how that it could, very often, +even keep off death, for a long time together. How, for example, it had +secured to his Mama the services of Mr Pilkins, by which he, Paul, had +often profited himself; likewise of the great Doctor Parker Peps, whom +he had never known. And how it could do all, that could be done. This, +with more to the same purpose, Mr Dombey instilled into the mind of his +son, who listened attentively, and seemed to understand the greater part +of what was said to him. + +'It can't make me strong and quite well, either, Papa; can it?' asked +Paul, after a short silence; rubbing his tiny hands. + +'Why, you are strong and quite well,' returned Mr Dombey. 'Are you not?' + +Oh! the age of the face that was turned up again, with an expression, +half of melancholy, half of slyness, on it! + +'You are as strong and well as such little people usually are? Eh?' said +Mr Dombey. + +'Florence is older than I am, but I'm not as strong and well as +Florence, 'I know,' returned the child; 'and I believe that when +Florence was as little as me, she could play a great deal longer at a +time without tiring herself. I am so tired sometimes,' said little Paul, +warming his hands, and looking in between the bars of the grate, as if +some ghostly puppet-show were performing there, 'and my bones ache so +(Wickam says it's my bones), that I don't know what to do.' + +'Ay! But that's at night,' said Mr Dombey, drawing his own chair closer +to his son's, and laying his hand gently on his back; 'little people +should be tired at night, for then they sleep well.' + +'Oh, it's not at night, Papa,' returned the child, 'it's in the day; +and I lie down in Florence's lap, and she sings to me. At night I dream +about such cu-ri-ous things!' + +And he went on, warming his hands again, and thinking about them, like +an old man or a young goblin. + +Mr Dombey was so astonished, and so uncomfortable, and so perfectly at +a loss how to pursue the conversation, that he could only sit looking at +his son by the light of the fire, with his hand resting on his back, as +if it were detained there by some magnetic attraction. Once he advanced +his other hand, and turned the contemplative face towards his own for +a moment. But it sought the fire again as soon as he released it; +and remained, addressed towards the flickering blaze, until the nurse +appeared, to summon him to bed. + +'I want Florence to come for me,' said Paul. + +'Won't you come with your poor Nurse Wickam, Master Paul?' inquired that +attendant, with great pathos. + +'No, I won't,' replied Paul, composing himself in his arm-chair again, +like the master of the house. + +Invoking a blessing upon his innocence, Mrs Wickam withdrew, and +presently Florence appeared in her stead. The child immediately started +up with sudden readiness and animation, and raised towards his father in +bidding him good-night, a countenance so much brighter, so much younger, +and so much more child-like altogether, that Mr Dombey, while he felt +greatly reassured by the change, was quite amazed at it. + +After they had left the room together, he thought he heard a soft voice +singing; and remembering that Paul had said his sister sung to him, he +had the curiosity to open the door and listen, and look after them. She +was toiling up the great, wide, vacant staircase, with him in her arms; +his head was lying on her shoulder, one of his arms thrown negligently +round her neck. So they went, toiling up; she singing all the way, and +Paul sometimes crooning out a feeble accompaniment. Mr Dombey looked +after them until they reached the top of the staircase--not without +halting to rest by the way--and passed out of his sight; and then he +still stood gazing upwards, until the dull rays of the moon, glimmering +in a melancholy manner through the dim skylight, sent him back to his +room. + +Mrs Chick and Miss Tox were convoked in council at dinner next day; +and when the cloth was removed, Mr Dombey opened the proceedings by +requiring to be informed, without any gloss or reservation, whether +there was anything the matter with Paul, and what Mr Pilkins said about +him. + +'For the child is hardly,' said Mr Dombey, 'as stout as I could wish.' + +'My dear Paul,' returned Mrs Chick, 'with your usual happy +discrimination, which I am weak enough to envy you, every time I am in +your company; and so I think is Miss Tox.' + +'Oh my dear!' said Miss Tox, softly, 'how could it be otherwise? +Presumptuous as it is to aspire to such a level; still, if the bird of +night may--but I'll not trouble Mr Dombey with the sentiment. It merely +relates to the Bulbul.' + +Mr Dombey bent his head in stately recognition of the Bulbuls as an +old-established body. + +'With your usual happy discrimination, my dear Paul,' resumed Mrs Chick, +'you have hit the point at once. Our darling is altogether as stout as +we could wish. The fact is, that his mind is too much for him. His soul +is a great deal too large for his frame. I am sure the way in which +that dear child talks!' said Mrs Chick, shaking her head; 'no one would +believe. His expressions, Lucretia, only yesterday upon the subject of +Funerals!' + +'I am afraid,' said Mr Dombey, interrupting her testily, 'that some of +those persons upstairs suggest improper subjects to the child. He was +speaking to me last night about his--about his Bones,' said Mr Dombey, +laying an irritated stress upon the word. 'What on earth has anybody to +do with the--with the--Bones of my son? He is not a living skeleton, I +suppose.' + +'Very far from it,' said Mrs Chick, with unspeakable expression. + +'I hope so,' returned her brother. 'Funerals again! who talks to the +child of funerals? We are not undertakers, or mutes, or grave-diggers, I +believe.' + +'Very far from it,' interposed Mrs Chick, with the same profound +expression as before. + +'Then who puts such things into his head?' said Mr Dombey. 'Really I +was quite dismayed and shocked last night. Who puts such things into his +head, Louisa?' + +'My dear Paul,' said Mrs Chick, after a moment's silence, 'it is of no +use inquiring. I do not think, I will tell you candidly that Wickam is a +person of very cheerful spirit, or what one would call a--' + +'A daughter of Momus,' Miss Tox softly suggested. + +'Exactly so,' said Mrs Chick; 'but she is exceedingly attentive and +useful, and not at all presumptuous; indeed I never saw a more biddable +woman. I would say that for her, if I was put upon my trial before a +Court of Justice.' + +'Well! you are not put upon your trial before a Court of Justice, at +present, Louisa,' returned Mr Dombey, chafing, 'and therefore it don't +matter.' + +'My dear Paul,' said Mrs Chick, in a warning voice, 'I must be spoken +to kindly, or there is an end of me,' at the same time a premonitory +redness developed itself in Mrs Chick's eyelids which was an invariable +sign of rain, unless the weather changed directly. + +'I was inquiring, Louisa,' observed Mr Dombey, in an altered voice, and +after a decent interval, 'about Paul's health and actual state.' + +'If the dear child,' said Mrs Chick, in the tone of one who was summing +up what had been previously quite agreed upon, instead of saying it all +for the first time, 'is a little weakened by that last attack, and is +not in quite such vigorous health as we could wish; and if he has some +temporary weakness in his system, and does occasionally seem about to +lose, for the moment, the use of his--' + +Mrs Chick was afraid to say limbs, after Mr Dombey's recent objection to +bones, and therefore waited for a suggestion from Miss Tox, who, true to +her office, hazarded 'members.' + +'Members!' repeated Mr Dombey. + +'I think the medical gentleman mentioned legs this morning, my dear +Louisa, did he not?' said Miss Tox. + +'Why, of course he did, my love,' retorted Mrs Chick, mildly +reproachful. 'How can you ask me? You heard him. I say, if our dear Paul +should lose, for the moment, the use of his legs, these are casualties +common to many children at his time of life, and not to be prevented +by any care or caution. The sooner you understand that, Paul, and admit +that, the better. If you have any doubt as to the amount of care, and +caution, and affection, and self-sacrifice, that has been bestowed +upon little Paul, I should wish to refer the question to your medical +attendant, or to any of your dependants in this house. Call Towlinson,' +said Mrs Chick, 'I believe he has no prejudice in our favour; quite the +contrary. I should wish to hear what accusation Towlinson can make!' + +'Surely you must know, Louisa,' observed Mr Dombey, 'that I don't +question your natural devotion to, and regard for, the future head of my +house.' + +'I am glad to hear it, Paul,' said Mrs Chick; 'but really you are very +odd, and sometimes talk very strangely, though without meaning it, I +know. If your dear boy's soul is too much for his body, Paul, you should +remember whose fault that is--who he takes after, I mean--and make the +best of it. He's as like his Papa as he can be. People have noticed it +in the streets. The very beadle, I am informed, observed it, so long ago +as at his christening. He's a very respectable man, with children of his +own. He ought to know.' + +'Mr Pilkins saw Paul this morning, I believe?' said Mr Dombey. + +'Yes, he did,' returned his sister. 'Miss Tox and myself were present. +Miss Tox and myself are always present. We make a point of it. Mr +Pilkins has seen him for some days past, and a very clever man I believe +him to be. He says it is nothing to speak of; which I can confirm, +if that is any consolation; but he recommended, to-day, sea-air. Very +wisely, Paul, I feel convinced.' + +'Sea-air,' repeated Mr Dombey, looking at his sister. + +'There is nothing to be made uneasy by, in that,' said Mrs Chick. 'My +George and Frederick were both ordered sea-air, when they were about his +age; and I have been ordered it myself a great many times. I quite +agree with you, Paul, that perhaps topics may be incautiously mentioned +upstairs before him, which it would be as well for his little mind not +to expatiate upon; but I really don't see how that is to be helped, in +the case of a child of his quickness. If he were a common child, there +would be nothing in it. I must say I think, with Miss Tox, that a short +absence from this house, the air of Brighton, and the bodily and mental +training of so judicious a person as Mrs Pipchin for instance--' + +'Who is Mrs Pipchin, Louisa?' asked Mr Dombey; aghast at this familiar +introduction of a name he had never heard before. + +'Mrs Pipchin, my dear Paul,' returned his sister, 'is an elderly +lady--Miss Tox knows her whole history--who has for some time devoted +all the energies of her mind, with the greatest success, to the study +and treatment of infancy, and who has been extremely well connected. Her +husband broke his heart in--how did you say her husband broke his heart, +my dear? I forget the precise circumstances. + +'In pumping water out of the Peruvian Mines,' replied Miss Tox. + +'Not being a Pumper himself, of course,' said Mrs Chick, glancing at her +brother; and it really did seem necessary to offer the explanation, for +Miss Tox had spoken of him as if he had died at the handle; 'but having +invested money in the speculation, which failed. I believe that Mrs +Pipchin's management of children is quite astonishing. I have heard it +commended in private circles ever since I was--dear me--how high!' Mrs +Chick's eye wandered about the bookcase near the bust of Mr Pitt, which +was about ten feet from the ground. + +'Perhaps I should say of Mrs Pipchin, my dear Sir,' observed Miss Tox, +with an ingenuous blush, 'having been so pointedly referred to, that +the encomium which has been passed upon her by your sweet sister is +well merited. Many ladies and gentleman, now grown up to be interesting +members of society, have been indebted to her care. The humble +individual who addresses you was once under her charge. I believe +juvenile nobility itself is no stranger to her establishment.' + +'Do I understand that this respectable matron keeps an establishment, +Miss Tox?' the Mr Dombey, condescendingly. + +'Why, I really don't know,' rejoined that lady, 'whether I am justified +in calling it so. It is not a Preparatory School by any means. Should +I express my meaning,' said Miss Tox, with peculiar sweetness, 'if I +designated it an infantine Boarding-House of a very select description?' + +'On an exceedingly limited and particular scale,' suggested Mrs Chick, +with a glance at her brother. + +'Oh! Exclusion itself!' said Miss Tox. + +There was something in this. Mrs Pipchin's husband having broken his +heart of the Peruvian mines was good. It had a rich sound. Besides, Mr +Dombey was in a state almost amounting to consternation at the idea +of Paul remaining where he was one hour after his removal had been +recommended by the medical practitioner. It was a stoppage and delay +upon the road the child must traverse, slowly at the best, before the +goal was reached. Their recommendation of Mrs Pipchin had great weight +with him; for he knew that they were jealous of any interference with +their charge, and he never for a moment took it into account that they +might be solicitous to divide a responsibility, of which he had, as +shown just now, his own established views. Broke his heart of the +Peruvian mines, mused Mr Dombey. Well! a very respectable way of doing +It. + +'Supposing we should decide, on to-morrow's inquiries, to send Paul down +to Brighton to this lady, who would go with him?' inquired Mr Dombey, +after some reflection. + +'I don't think you could send the child anywhere at present without +Florence, my dear Paul,' returned his sister, hesitating. 'It's quite an +infatuation with him. He's very young, you know, and has his fancies.' + +Mr Dombey turned his head away, and going slowly to the bookcase, and +unlocking it, brought back a book to read. + +'Anybody else, Louisa?' he said, without looking up, and turning over +the leaves. + +'Wickam, of course. Wickam would be quite sufficient, I should say,' +returned his sister. 'Paul being in such hands as Mrs Pipchin's, you +could hardly send anybody who would be a further check upon her. You +would go down yourself once a week at least, of course.' + +'Of course,' said Mr Dombey; and sat looking at one page for an hour +afterwards, without reading one word. + +This celebrated Mrs Pipchin was a marvellous ill-favoured, +ill-conditioned old lady, of a stooping figure, with a mottled face, +like bad marble, a hook nose, and a hard grey eye, that looked as if it +might have been hammered at on an anvil without sustaining any injury. +Forty years at least had elapsed since the Peruvian mines had been the +death of Mr Pipchin; but his relict still wore black bombazeen, of such +a lustreless, deep, dead, sombre shade, that gas itself couldn't light +her up after dark, and her presence was a quencher to any number of +candles. She was generally spoken of as 'a great manager' of children; +and the secret of her management was, to give them everything that they +didn't like, and nothing that they did--which was found to sweeten their +dispositions very much. She was such a bitter old lady, that one was +tempted to believe there had been some mistake in the application of +the Peruvian machinery, and that all her waters of gladness and milk of +human kindness, had been pumped out dry, instead of the mines. + +The Castle of this ogress and child-queller was in a steep by-street +at Brighton; where the soil was more than usually chalky, flinty, and +sterile, and the houses were more than usually brittle and thin; where +the small front-gardens had the unaccountable property of producing +nothing but marigolds, whatever was sown in them; and where snails were +constantly discovered holding on to the street doors, and other +public places they were not expected to ornament, with the tenacity of +cupping-glasses. In the winter time the air couldn't be got out of the +Castle, and in the summer time it couldn't be got in. There was such +a continual reverberation of wind in it, that it sounded like a great +shell, which the inhabitants were obliged to hold to their ears +night and day, whether they liked it or no. It was not, naturally, a +fresh-smelling house; and in the window of the front parlour, which was +never opened, Mrs Pipchin kept a collection of plants in pots, which +imparted an earthy flavour of their own to the establishment. However +choice examples of their kind, too, these plants were of a kind +peculiarly adapted to the embowerment of Mrs Pipchin. There were +half-a-dozen specimens of the cactus, writhing round bits of lath, like +hairy serpents; another specimen shooting out broad claws, like a green +lobster; several creeping vegetables, possessed of sticky and adhesive +leaves; and one uncomfortable flower-pot hanging to the ceiling, which +appeared to have boiled over, and tickling people underneath with +its long green ends, reminded them of spiders--in which Mrs Pipchin's +dwelling was uncommonly prolific, though perhaps it challenged +competition still more proudly, in the season, in point of earwigs. + +Mrs Pipchin's scale of charges being high, however, to all who could +afford to pay, and Mrs Pipchin very seldom sweetening the equable +acidity of her nature in favour of anybody, she was held to be an old +'lady of remarkable firmness, who was quite scientific in her knowledge +of the childish character.' On this reputation, and on the broken heart +of Mr Pipchin, she had contrived, taking one year with another, to eke +out a tolerable sufficient living since her husband's demise. Within +three days after Mrs Chick's first allusion to her, this excellent old +lady had the satisfaction of anticipating a handsome addition to +her current receipts, from the pocket of Mr Dombey; and of receiving +Florence and her little brother Paul, as inmates of the Castle. + +Mrs Chick and Miss Tox, who had brought them down on the previous night +(which they all passed at an Hotel), had just driven away from the door, +on their journey home again; and Mrs Pipchin, with her back to the fire, +stood, reviewing the new-comers, like an old soldier. Mrs Pipchin's +middle-aged niece, her good-natured and devoted slave, but possessing a +gaunt and iron-bound aspect, and much afflicted with boils on her nose, +was divesting Master Bitherstone of the clean collar he had worn on +parade. Miss Pankey, the only other little boarder at present, had that +moment been walked off to the Castle Dungeon (an empty apartment at the +back, devoted to correctional purposes), for having sniffed thrice, in +the presence of visitors. + +'Well, Sir,' said Mrs Pipchin to Paul, 'how do you think you shall like +me?' + +'I don't think I shall like you at all,' replied Paul. 'I want to go +away. This isn't my house.' + +'No. It's mine,' retorted Mrs Pipchin. + +'It's a very nasty one,' said Paul. + +'There's a worse place in it than this though,' said Mrs Pipchin, 'where +we shut up our bad boys.' + +'Has he ever been in it?' asked Paul: pointing out Master Bitherstone. + +Mrs Pipchin nodded assent; and Paul had enough to do, for the rest +of that day, in surveying Master Bitherstone from head to foot, +and watching all the workings of his countenance, with the interest +attaching to a boy of mysterious and terrible experiences. + +At one o'clock there was a dinner, chiefly of the farinaceous and +vegetable kind, when Miss Pankey (a mild little blue-eyed morsel of a +child, who was shampoo'd every morning, and seemed in danger of being +rubbed away, altogether) was led in from captivity by the ogress +herself, and instructed that nobody who sniffed before visitors ever +went to Heaven. When this great truth had been thoroughly impressed upon +her, she was regaled with rice; and subsequently repeated the form of +grace established in the Castle, in which there was a special clause, +thanking Mrs Pipchin for a good dinner. Mrs Pipchin's niece, Berinthia, +took cold pork. Mrs Pipchin, whose constitution required warm +nourishment, made a special repast of mutton-chops, which were brought +in hot and hot, between two plates, and smelt very nice. + +As it rained after dinner, and they couldn't go out walking on the +beach, and Mrs Pipchin's constitution required rest after chops, they +went away with Berry (otherwise Berinthia) to the Dungeon; an empty room +looking out upon a chalk wall and a water-butt, and made ghastly by a +ragged fireplace without any stove in it. Enlivened by company, however, +this was the best place after all; for Berry played with them there, and +seemed to enjoy a game at romps as much as they did; until Mrs Pipchin +knocking angrily at the wall, like the Cock Lane Ghost revived, they +left off, and Berry told them stories in a whisper until twilight. + +For tea there was plenty of milk and water, and bread and butter, with +a little black tea-pot for Mrs Pipchin and Berry, and buttered toast +unlimited for Mrs Pipchin, which was brought in, hot and hot, like the +chops. Though Mrs Pipchin got very greasy, outside, over this dish, it +didn't seem to lubricate her internally, at all; for she was as fierce +as ever, and the hard grey eye knew no softening. + +After tea, Berry brought out a little work-box, with the Royal Pavilion +on the lid, and fell to working busily; while Mrs Pipchin, having put on +her spectacles and opened a great volume bound in green baize, began to +nod. And whenever Mrs Pipchin caught herself falling forward into the +fire, and woke up, she filliped Master Bitherstone on the nose for +nodding too. + +At last it was the children's bedtime, and after prayers they went to +bed. As little Miss Pankey was afraid of sleeping alone in the dark, +Mrs Pipchin always made a point of driving her upstairs herself, like a +sheep; and it was cheerful to hear Miss Pankey moaning long afterwards, +in the least eligible chamber, and Mrs Pipchin now and then going in +to shake her. At about half-past nine o'clock the odour of a warm +sweet-bread (Mrs Pipchin's constitution wouldn't go to sleep without +sweet-bread) diversified the prevailing fragrance of the house, which +Mrs Wickam said was 'a smell of building;' and slumber fell upon the +Castle shortly after. + +The breakfast next morning was like the tea over night, except that Mrs +Pipchin took her roll instead of toast, and seemed a little more irate +when it was over. Master Bitherstone read aloud to the rest a pedigree +from Genesis (judiciously selected by Mrs Pipchin), getting over the +names with the ease and clearness of a person tumbling up the treadmill. +That done, Miss Pankey was borne away to be shampoo'd; and Master +Bitherstone to have something else done to him with salt water, from +which he always returned very blue and dejected. Paul and Florence went +out in the meantime on the beach with Wickam--who was constantly in +tears--and at about noon Mrs Pipchin presided over some Early Readings. +It being a part of Mrs Pipchin's system not to encourage a child's mind +to develop and expand itself like a young flower, but to open it by +force like an oyster, the moral of these lessons was usually of a +violent and stunning character: the hero--a naughty boy--seldom, in the +mildest catastrophe, being finished off anything less than a lion, or a +bear. + +Such was life at Mrs Pipchin's. On Saturday Mr Dombey came down; and +Florence and Paul would go to his Hotel, and have tea They passed the +whole of Sunday with him, and generally rode out before dinner; and on +these occasions Mr Dombey seemed to grow, like Falstaff's assailants, +and instead of being one man in buckram, to become a dozen. Sunday +evening was the most melancholy evening in the week; for Mrs Pipchin +always made a point of being particularly cross on Sunday nights. Miss +Pankey was generally brought back from an aunt's at Rottingdean, in deep +distress; and Master Bitherstone, whose relatives were all in India, and +who was required to sit, between the services, in an erect position +with his head against the parlour wall, neither moving hand nor foot, +suffered so acutely in his young spirits that he once asked Florence, +on a Sunday night, if she could give him any idea of the way back to +Bengal. + +But it was generally said that Mrs Pipchin was a woman of system with +children; and no doubt she was. Certainly the wild ones went home tame +enough, after sojourning for a few months beneath her hospitable roof. +It was generally said, too, that it was highly creditable of Mrs Pipchin +to have devoted herself to this way of life, and to have made such +a sacrifice of her feelings, and such a resolute stand against her +troubles, when Mr Pipchin broke his heart in the Peruvian mines. + +At this exemplary old lady, Paul would sit staring in his little +arm-chair by the fire, for any length of time. He never seemed to know +what weariness was, when he was looking fixedly at Mrs Pipchin. He was +not fond of her; he was not afraid of her; but in those old, old moods +of his, she seemed to have a grotesque attraction for him. There he +would sit, looking at her, and warming his hands, and looking at her, +until he sometimes quite confounded Mrs Pipchin, Ogress as she was. Once +she asked him, when they were alone, what he was thinking about. + +'You,' said Paul, without the least reserve. + +'And what are you thinking about me?' asked Mrs Pipchin. + +'I'm thinking how old you must be,' said Paul. + +'You mustn't say such things as that, young gentleman,' returned the +dame. 'That'll never do.' + +'Why not?' asked Paul. + +'Because it's not polite,' said Mrs Pipchin, snappishly. + +'Not polite?' said Paul. + +'No.' + +'It's not polite,' said Paul, innocently, 'to eat all the mutton chops +and toast', Wickam says. + +'Wickam,' retorted Mrs Pipchin, colouring, 'is a wicked, impudent, +bold-faced hussy.' + +'What's that?' inquired Paul. + +'Never you mind, Sir,' retorted Mrs Pipchin. 'Remember the story of the +little boy that was gored to death by a mad bull for asking questions.' + +'If the bull was mad,' said Paul, 'how did he know that the boy had +asked questions? Nobody can go and whisper secrets to a mad bull. I +don't believe that story.' + +'You don't believe it, Sir?' repeated Mrs Pipchin, amazed. + +'No,' said Paul. + +'Not if it should happen to have been a tame bull, you little Infidel?' +said Mrs Pipchin. + +As Paul had not considered the subject in that light, and had founded +his conclusions on the alleged lunacy of the bull, he allowed himself +to be put down for the present. But he sat turning it over in his mind, +with such an obvious intention of fixing Mrs Pipchin presently, that +even that hardy old lady deemed it prudent to retreat until he should +have forgotten the subject. + +From that time, Mrs Pipchin appeared to have something of the same odd +kind of attraction towards Paul, as Paul had towards her. She would make +him move his chair to her side of the fire, instead of sitting opposite; +and there he would remain in a nook between Mrs Pipchin and the fender, +with all the light of his little face absorbed into the black bombazeen +drapery, studying every line and wrinkle of her countenance, and peering +at the hard grey eye, until Mrs Pipchin was sometimes fain to shut it, +on pretence of dozing. Mrs Pipchin had an old black cat, who generally +lay coiled upon the centre foot of the fender, purring egotistically, +and winking at the fire until the contracted pupils of his eyes were +like two notes of admiration. The good old lady might have been--not +to record it disrespectfully--a witch, and Paul and the cat her two +familiars, as they all sat by the fire together. It would have been +quite in keeping with the appearance of the party if they had all sprung +up the chimney in a high wind one night, and never been heard of any +more. + +This, however, never came to pass. The cat, and Paul, and Mrs Pipchin, +were constantly to be found in their usual places after dark; and Paul, +eschewing the companionship of Master Bitherstone, went on studying Mrs +Pipchin, and the cat, and the fire, night after night, as if they were a +book of necromancy, in three volumes. + +Mrs Wickam put her own construction on Paul's eccentricities; and being +confirmed in her low spirits by a perplexed view of chimneys from the +room where she was accustomed to sit, and by the noise of the wind, and +by the general dulness (gashliness was Mrs Wickam's strong expression) +of her present life, deduced the most dismal reflections from the +foregoing premises. It was a part of Mrs Pipchin's policy to prevent +her own 'young hussy'--that was Mrs Pipchin's generic name for female +servant--from communicating with Mrs Wickam: to which end she devoted +much of her time to concealing herself behind doors, and springing +out on that devoted maiden, whenever she made an approach towards Mrs +Wickam's apartment. But Berry was free to hold what converse she could +in that quarter, consistently with the discharge of the multifarious +duties at which she toiled incessantly from morning to night; and to +Berry Mrs Wickam unburdened her mind. + +'What a pretty fellow he is when he's asleep!' said Berry, stopping to +look at Paul in bed, one night when she took up Mrs Wickam's supper. + +'Ah!' sighed Mrs Wickam. 'He need be.' + +'Why, he's not ugly when he's awake,' observed Berry. + +'No, Ma'am. Oh, no. No more was my Uncle's Betsey Jane,' said Mrs +Wickam. + +Berry looked as if she would like to trace the connexion of ideas +between Paul Dombey and Mrs Wickam's Uncle's Betsey Jane. + +'My Uncle's wife,' Mrs Wickam went on to say, 'died just like his Mama. +My Uncle's child took on just as Master Paul do.' + +'Took on! You don't think he grieves for his Mama, sure?' argued Berry, +sitting down on the side of the bed. 'He can't remember anything about +her, you know, Mrs Wickam. It's not possible.' + +'No, Ma'am,' said Mrs Wickam 'No more did my Uncle's child. But my +Uncle's child said very strange things sometimes, and looked very +strange, and went on very strange, and was very strange altogether. My +Uncle's child made people's blood run cold, some times, she did!' + +'How?' asked Berry. + +'I wouldn't have sat up all night alone with Betsey Jane!' said Mrs +Wickam, 'not if you'd have put Wickam into business next morning for +himself. I couldn't have done it, Miss Berry. + +Miss Berry naturally asked why not? But Mrs Wickam, agreeably to the +usage of some ladies in her condition, pursued her own branch of the +subject, without any compunction. + +'Betsey Jane,' said Mrs Wickam, 'was as sweet a child as I could wish +to see. I couldn't wish to see a sweeter. Everything that a child could +have in the way of illnesses, Betsey Jane had come through. The cramps +was as common to her,' said Mrs Wickam, 'as biles is to yourself, Miss +Berry.' Miss Berry involuntarily wrinkled her nose. + +'But Betsey Jane,' said Mrs Wickam, lowering her voice, and looking +round the room, and towards Paul in bed, 'had been minded, in her +cradle, by her departed mother. I couldn't say how, nor I couldn't say +when, nor I couldn't say whether the dear child knew it or not, but +Betsey Jane had been watched by her mother, Miss Berry!' and Mrs Wickam, +with a very white face, and with watery eyes, and with a tremulous +voice, again looked fearfully round the room, and towards Paul in bed. + +'Nonsense!' cried Miss Berry--somewhat resentful of the idea. + +'You may say nonsense! I ain't offended, Miss. I hope you may be able +to think in your own conscience that it is nonsense; you'll find +your spirits all the better for it in this--you'll excuse my being so +free--in this burying-ground of a place; which is wearing of me down. +Master Paul's a little restless in his sleep. Pat his back, if you +please.' + +'Of course you think,' said Berry, gently doing what she was asked, +'that he has been nursed by his mother, too?' + +'Betsey Jane,' returned Mrs Wickam in her most solemn tones, 'was put +upon as that child has been put upon, and changed as that child has +changed. I have seen her sit, often and often, think, think, thinking, +like him. I have seen her look, often and often, old, old, old, like +him. I have heard her, many a time, talk just like him. I consider that +child and Betsey Jane on the same footing entirely, Miss Berry.' + +'Is your Uncle's child alive?' asked Berry. + +'Yes, Miss, she is alive,' returned Mrs Wickam with an air of triumph, +for it was evident. Miss Berry expected the reverse; 'and is married to +a silver-chaser. Oh yes, Miss, SHE is alive,' said Mrs Wickam, laying +strong stress on her nominative case. + +It being clear that somebody was dead, Mrs Pipchin's niece inquired who +it was. + +'I wouldn't wish to make you uneasy,' returned Mrs Wickam, pursuing her +supper. 'Don't ask me.' + +This was the surest way of being asked again. Miss Berry repeated her +question, therefore; and after some resistance, and reluctance, Mrs +Wickam laid down her knife, and again glancing round the room and at +Paul in bed, replied: + +'She took fancies to people; whimsical fancies, some of them; others, +affections that one might expect to see--only stronger than common. They +all died.' + +This was so very unexpected and awful to Mrs Pipchin's niece, that +she sat upright on the hard edge of the bedstead, breathing short, and +surveying her informant with looks of undisguised alarm. + +Mrs Wickam shook her left fore-finger stealthily towards the bed where +Florence lay; then turned it upside down, and made several emphatic +points at the floor; immediately below which was the parlour in which +Mrs Pipchin habitually consumed the toast. + +'Remember my words, Miss Berry,' said Mrs Wickam, 'and be thankful that +Master Paul is not too fond of you. I am, that he's not too fond of +me, I assure you; though there isn't much to live for--you'll excuse my +being so free--in this jail of a house!' + +Miss Berry's emotion might have led to her patting Paul too hard on the +back, or might have produced a cessation of that soothing monotony, but +he turned in his bed just now, and, presently awaking, sat up in it with +his hair hot and wet from the effects of some childish dream, and asked +for Florence. + +She was out of her own bed at the first sound of his voice; and bending +over his pillow immediately, sang him to sleep again. Mrs Wickam shaking +her head, and letting fall several tears, pointed out the little group +to Berry, and turned her eyes up to the ceiling. + +'He's asleep now, my dear,' said Mrs Wickam after a pause, 'you'd better +go to bed again. Don't you feel cold?' + +'No, nurse,' said Florence, laughing. 'Not at all.' + +'Ah!' sighed Mrs Wickam, and she shook her head again, expressing to the +watchful Berry, 'we shall be cold enough, some of us, by and by!' + +Berry took the frugal supper-tray, with which Mrs Wickam had by this +time done, and bade her good-night. + +'Good-night, Miss!' returned Wickam softly. 'Good-night! Your aunt is an +old lady, Miss Berry, and it's what you must have looked for, often.' + +This consolatory farewell, Mrs Wickam accompanied with a look of +heartfelt anguish; and being left alone with the two children again, and +becoming conscious that the wind was blowing mournfully, she indulged in +melancholy--that cheapest and most accessible of luxuries--until she was +overpowered by slumber. + +Although the niece of Mrs Pipchin did not expect to find that exemplary +dragon prostrate on the hearth-rug when she went downstairs, she was +relieved to find her unusually fractious and severe, and with every +present appearance of intending to live a long time to be a comfort to +all who knew her. Nor had she any symptoms of declining, in the course +of the ensuing week, when the constitutional viands still continued to +disappear in regular succession, notwithstanding that Paul studied her +as attentively as ever, and occupied his usual seat between the black +skirts and the fender, with unwavering constancy. + +But as Paul himself was no stronger at the expiration of that time than +he had been on his first arrival, though he looked much healthier in the +face, a little carriage was got for him, in which he could lie at his +ease, with an alphabet and other elementary works of reference, and be +wheeled down to the sea-side. Consistent in his odd tastes, the child +set aside a ruddy-faced lad who was proposed as the drawer of this +carriage, and selected, instead, his grandfather--a weazen, old, +crab-faced man, in a suit of battered oilskin, who had got tough and +stringy from long pickling in salt water, and who smelt like a weedy +sea-beach when the tide is out. + +With this notable attendant to pull him along, and Florence always +walking by his side, and the despondent Wickam bringing up the rear, he +went down to the margin of the ocean every day; and there he would sit +or lie in his carriage for hours together: never so distressed as by the +company of children--Florence alone excepted, always. + +'Go away, if you please,' he would say to any child who came to bear him +company. 'Thank you, but I don't want you.' + +Some small voice, near his ear, would ask him how he was, perhaps. + +'I am very well, I thank you,' he would answer. 'But you had better go +and play, if you please.' + +Then he would turn his head, and watch the child away, and say to +Florence, 'We don't want any others, do we? Kiss me, Floy.' + +He had even a dislike, at such times, to the company of Wickam, and was +well pleased when she strolled away, as she generally did, to pick up +shells and acquaintances. His favourite spot was quite a lonely one, far +away from most loungers; and with Florence sitting by his side at work, +or reading to him, or talking to him, and the wind blowing on his face, +and the water coming up among the wheels of his bed, he wanted nothing +more. + +'Floy,' he said one day, 'where's India, where that boy's friends live?' + +'Oh, it's a long, long distance off,' said Florence, raising her eyes +from her work. + +'Weeks off?' asked Paul. + +'Yes dear. Many weeks' journey, night and day.' + +'If you were in India, Floy,' said Paul, after being silent for a +minute, 'I should--what is it that Mama did? I forget.' + +'Loved me!' answered Florence. + +'No, no. Don't I love you now, Floy? What is it?--Died. If you were in +India, I should die, Floy.' + +She hurriedly put her work aside, and laid her head down on his pillow, +caressing him. And so would she, she said, if he were there. He would be +better soon. + +'Oh! I am a great deal better now!' he answered. 'I don't mean that. I +mean that I should die of being so sorry and so lonely, Floy!' + +Another time, in the same place, he fell asleep, and slept quietly for a +long time. Awaking suddenly, he listened, started up, and sat listening. + +Florence asked him what he thought he heard. + +'I want to know what it says,' he answered, looking steadily in her +face. 'The sea' Floy, what is it that it keeps on saying?' + +She told him that it was only the noise of the rolling waves. + +'Yes, yes,' he said. 'But I know that they are always saying something. +Always the same thing. What place is over there?' He rose up, looking +eagerly at the horizon. + +She told him that there was another country opposite, but he said he +didn't mean that: he meant further away--farther away! + +Very often afterwards, in the midst of their talk, he would break off, +to try to understand what it was that the waves were always saying; and +would rise up in his couch to look towards that invisible region, far +away. + + + +CHAPTER 9. In which the Wooden Midshipman gets into Trouble + + +That spice of romance and love of the marvellous, of which there was a +pretty strong infusion in the nature of young Walter Gay, and which the +guardianship of his Uncle, old Solomon Gills, had not very much weakened +by the waters of stern practical experience, was the occasion of his +attaching an uncommon and delightful interest to the adventure of +Florence with Good Mrs Brown. He pampered and cherished it in his +memory, especially that part of it with which he had been associated: +until it became the spoiled child of his fancy, and took its own way, +and did what it liked with it. + +The recollection of those incidents, and his own share in them, may have +been made the more captivating, perhaps, by the weekly dreamings of +old Sol and Captain Cuttle on Sundays. Hardly a Sunday passed, without +mysterious references being made by one or other of those worthy chums +to Richard Whittington; and the latter gentleman had even gone so far as +to purchase a ballad of considerable antiquity, that had long fluttered +among many others, chiefly expressive of maritime sentiments, on a dead +wall in the Commercial Road: which poetical performance set forth the +courtship and nuptials of a promising young coal-whipper with a certain +'lovely Peg,' the accomplished daughter of the master and part-owner of +a Newcastle collier. In this stirring legend, Captain Cuttle descried a +profound metaphysical bearing on the case of Walter and Florence; and it +excited him so much, that on very festive occasions, as birthdays and a +few other non-Dominical holidays, he would roar through the whole song +in the little back parlour; making an amazing shake on the word Pe-e-eg, +with which every verse concluded, in compliment to the heroine of the +piece. + +But a frank, free-spirited, open-hearted boy, is not much given to +analysing the nature of his own feelings, however strong their hold upon +him: and Walter would have found it difficult to decide this point. He +had a great affection for the wharf where he had encountered Florence, +and for the streets (albeit not enchanting in themselves) by which they +had come home. The shoes that had so often tumbled off by the way, he +preserved in his own room; and, sitting in the little back parlour of +an evening, he had drawn a whole gallery of fancy portraits of Good Mrs +Brown. It may be that he became a little smarter in his dress after that +memorable occasion; and he certainly liked in his leisure time to walk +towards that quarter of the town where Mr Dombey's house was situated, +on the vague chance of passing little Florence in the street. But the +sentiment of all this was as boyish and innocent as could be. Florence +was very pretty, and it is pleasant to admire a pretty face. Florence +was defenceless and weak, and it was a proud thought that he had been +able to render her any protection and assistance. Florence was the most +grateful little creature in the world, and it was delightful to see her +bright gratitude beaming in her face. Florence was neglected and coldly +looked upon, and his breast was full of youthful interest for the +slighted child in her dull, stately home. + +Thus it came about that, perhaps some half-a-dozen times in the course +of the year, Walter pulled off his hat to Florence in the street, +and Florence would stop to shake hands. Mrs Wickam (who, with a +characteristic alteration of his name, invariably spoke of him as +'Young Graves') was so well used to this, knowing the story of their +acquaintance, that she took no heed of it at all. Miss Nipper, on the +other hand, rather looked out for these occasions: her sensitive young +heart being secretly propitiated by Walter's good looks, and inclining +to the belief that its sentiments were responded to. + +In this way, Walter, so far from forgetting or losing sight of his +acquaintance with Florence, only remembered it better and better. As to +its adventurous beginning, and all those little circumstances which gave +it a distinctive character and relish, he took them into account, more +as a pleasant story very agreeable to his imagination, and not to be +dismissed from it, than as a part of any matter of fact with which he +was concerned. They set off Florence very much, to his fancy; but not +himself. Sometimes he thought (and then he walked very fast) what a +grand thing it would have been for him to have been going to sea on the +day after that first meeting, and to have gone, and to have done wonders +there, and to have stopped away a long time, and to have come back an +Admiral of all the colours of the dolphin, or at least a Post-Captain +with epaulettes of insupportable brightness, and have married Florence +(then a beautiful young woman) in spite of Mr Dombey's teeth, cravat, +and watch-chain, and borne her away to the blue shores of somewhere or +other, triumphantly. But these flights of fancy seldom burnished the +brass plate of Dombey and Son's Offices into a tablet of golden hope, or +shed a brilliant lustre on their dirty skylights; and when the Captain +and Uncle Sol talked about Richard Whittington and masters' daughters, +Walter felt that he understood his true position at Dombey and Son's, +much better than they did. + +So it was that he went on doing what he had to do from day to day, in +a cheerful, pains-taking, merry spirit; and saw through the sanguine +complexion of Uncle Sol and Captain Cuttle; and yet entertained a +thousand indistinct and visionary fancies of his own, to which theirs +were work-a-day probabilities. Such was his condition at the Pipchin +period, when he looked a little older than of yore, but not much; and +was the same light-footed, light-hearted, light-headed lad, as when +he charged into the parlour at the head of Uncle Sol and the imaginary +boarders, and lighted him to bring up the Madeira. + +'Uncle Sol,' said Walter, 'I don't think you're well. You haven't eaten +any breakfast. I shall bring a doctor to you, if you go on like this.' + +'He can't give me what I want, my boy,' said Uncle Sol. 'At least he is +in good practice if he can--and then he wouldn't.' + +'What is it, Uncle? Customers?' + +'Ay,' returned Solomon, with a sigh. 'Customers would do.' + +'Confound it, Uncle!' said Walter, putting down his breakfast cup with +a clatter, and striking his hand on the table: 'when I see the people +going up and down the street in shoals all day, and passing and +re-passing the shop every minute, by scores, I feel half tempted to rush +out, collar somebody, bring him in, and make him buy fifty pounds' worth +of instruments for ready money. What are you looking in at the door +for?--' continued Walter, apostrophizing an old gentleman with a +powdered head (inaudibly to him of course), who was staring at a ship's +telescope with all his might and main. 'That's no use. I could do that. +Come in and buy it!' + +The old gentleman, however, having satiated his curiosity, walked calmly +away. + +'There he goes!' said Walter. 'That's the way with 'em all. But, +Uncle--I say, Uncle Sol'--for the old man was meditating and had not +responded to his first appeal. 'Don't be cast down. Don't be out of +spirits, Uncle. When orders do come, they'll come in such a crowd, you +won't be able to execute 'em.' + +'I shall be past executing 'em, whenever they come, my boy,' returned +Solomon Gills. 'They'll never come to this shop again, till I am out of +t.' + +'I say, Uncle! You musn't really, you know!' urged Walter. 'Don't!' + +Old Sol endeavoured to assume a cheery look, and smiled across the +little table at him as pleasantly as he could. + +'There's nothing more than usual the matter; is there, Uncle?' said +Walter, leaning his elbows on the tea tray, and bending over, to speak +the more confidentially and kindly. 'Be open with me, Uncle, if there +is, and tell me all about it.' + +'No, no, no,' returned Old Sol. 'More than usual? No, no. What should +there be the matter more than usual?' + +Walter answered with an incredulous shake of his head. 'That's what I +want to know,' he said, 'and you ask me! I'll tell you what, Uncle, when +I see you like this, I am quite sorry that I live with you.' + +Old Sol opened his eyes involuntarily. + +'Yes. Though nobody ever was happier than I am and always have been with +you, I am quite sorry that I live with you, when I see you with anything +in your mind.' + +'I am a little dull at such times, I know,' observed Solomon, meekly +rubbing his hands. + +'What I mean, Uncle Sol,' pursued Walter, bending over a little more +to pat him on the shoulder, 'is, that then I feel you ought to have, +sitting here and pouring out the tea instead of me, a nice little +dumpling of a wife, you know,--a comfortable, capital, cosy old lady, +who was just a match for you, and knew how to manage you, and keep you +in good heart. Here am I, as loving a nephew as ever was (I am sure I +ought to be!) but I am only a nephew, and I can't be such a companion +to you when you're low and out of sorts as she would have made herself, +years ago, though I'm sure I'd give any money if I could cheer you up. +And so I say, when I see you with anything on your mind, that I feel +quite sorry you haven't got somebody better about you than a blundering +young rough-and-tough boy like me, who has got the will to console you, +Uncle, but hasn't got the way--hasn't got the way,' repeated Walter, +reaching over further yet, to shake his Uncle by the hand. + +'Wally, my dear boy,' said Solomon, 'if the cosy little old lady had +taken her place in this parlour five and forty years ago, I never could +have been fonder of her than I am of you.' + +'I know that, Uncle Sol,' returned Walter. 'Lord bless you, I know that. +But you wouldn't have had the whole weight of any uncomfortable secrets +if she had been with you, because she would have known how to relieve +you of 'em, and I don't.' + +'Yes, yes, you do,' returned the Instrument-maker. + +'Well then, what's the matter, Uncle Sol?' said Walter, coaxingly. +'Come! What's the matter?' + +Solomon Gills persisted that there was nothing the matter; and +maintained it so resolutely, that his nephew had no resource but to make +a very indifferent imitation of believing him. + +'All I can say is, Uncle Sol, that if there is--' + +'But there isn't,' said Solomon. + +'Very well,' said Walter. 'Then I've no more to say; and that's lucky, +for my time's up for going to business. I shall look in by-and-by when +I'm out, to see how you get on, Uncle. And mind, Uncle! I'll never +believe you again, and never tell you anything more about Mr Carker the +Junior, if I find out that you have been deceiving me!' + +Solomon Gills laughingly defied him to find out anything of the kind; +and Walter, revolving in his thoughts all sorts of impracticable ways +of making fortunes and placing the wooden Midshipman in a position of +independence, betook himself to the offices of Dombey and Son with a +heavier countenance than he usually carried there. + +There lived in those days, round the corner--in Bishopsgate Street +Without--one Brogley, sworn broker and appraiser, who kept a shop where +every description of second-hand furniture was exhibited in the most +uncomfortable aspect, and under circumstances and in combinations the +most completely foreign to its purpose. Dozens of chairs hooked on to +washing-stands, which with difficulty poised themselves on the shoulders +of sideboards, which in their turn stood upon the wrong side of +dining-tables, gymnastic with their legs upward on the tops of other +dining-tables, were among its most reasonable arrangements. A banquet +array of dish-covers, wine-glasses, and decanters was generally to +be seen, spread forth upon the bosom of a four-post bedstead, for the +entertainment of such genial company as half-a-dozen pokers, and a hall +lamp. A set of window curtains with no windows belonging to them, would +be seen gracefully draping a barricade of chests of drawers, loaded with +little jars from chemists' shops; while a homeless hearthrug severed +from its natural companion the fireside, braved the shrewd east wind +in its adversity, and trembled in melancholy accord with the shrill +complainings of a cabinet piano, wasting away, a string a day, and +faintly resounding to the noises of the street in its jangling and +distracted brain. Of motionless clocks that never stirred a finger, and +seemed as incapable of being successfully wound up, as the pecuniary +affairs of their former owners, there was always great choice in Mr +Brogley's shop; and various looking-glasses, accidentally placed at +compound interest of reflection and refraction, presented to the eye an +eternal perspective of bankruptcy and ruin. + +Mr Brogley himself was a moist-eyed, pink-complexioned, crisp-haired +man, of a bulky figure and an easy temper--for that class of Caius +Marius who sits upon the ruins of other people's Carthages, can keep up +his spirits well enough. He had looked in at Solomon's shop sometimes, +to ask a question about articles in Solomon's way of business; and +Walter knew him sufficiently to give him good day when they met in the +street. But as that was the extent of the broker's acquaintance with +Solomon Gills also, Walter was not a little surprised when he came back +in the course of the forenoon, agreeably to his promise, to find Mr +Brogley sitting in the back parlour with his hands in his pockets, and +his hat hanging up behind the door. + +'Well, Uncle Sol!' said Walter. The old man was sitting ruefully on the +opposite side of the table, with his spectacles over his eyes, for a +wonder, instead of on his forehead. 'How are you now?' + +Solomon shook his head, and waved one hand towards the broker, as +introducing him. + +'Is there anything the matter?' asked Walter, with a catching in his +breath. + +'No, no. There's nothing the matter, said Mr Brogley. 'Don't let it put +you out of the way.' + +Walter looked from the broker to his Uncle in mute +amazement. + +'The fact is,' said Mr Brogley, 'there's a little payment on a bond debt +--three hundred and seventy odd, overdue: and I'm in possession.' + +'In possession!' cried Walter, looking round at the shop. + +'Ah!' said Mr Brogley, in confidential assent, and nodding his head +as if he would urge the advisability of their all being comfortable +together. 'It's an execution. That's what it is. Don't let it put you +out of the way. I come myself, because of keeping it quiet and sociable. +You know me. It's quite private.' + +'Uncle Sol!' faltered Walter. + +'Wally, my boy,' returned his uncle. 'It's the first time. Such a +calamity never happened to me before. I'm an old man to begin.' Pushing +up his spectacles again (for they were useless any longer to conceal his +emotion), he covered his face with his hand, and sobbed aloud, and his +tears fell down upon his coffee-coloured waistcoat. + +'Uncle Sol! Pray! oh don't!' exclaimed Walter, who really felt a thrill +of terror in seeing the old man weep. 'For God's sake don't do that. Mr +Brogley, what shall I do?' + +'I should recommend you looking up a friend or so,' said Mr Brogley, +'and talking it over.' + +'To be sure!' cried Walter, catching at anything. 'Certainly! Thankee. +Captain Cuttle's the man, Uncle. Wait till I run to Captain Cuttle. +Keep your eye upon my Uncle, will you, Mr Brogley, and make him as +comfortable as you can while I am gone? Don't despair, Uncle Sol. Try +and keep a good heart, there's a dear fellow!' + +Saying this with great fervour, and disregarding the old man's broken +remonstrances, Walter dashed out of the shop again as hard as he could +go; and, having hurried round to the office to excuse himself on the +plea of his Uncle's sudden illness, set off, full speed, for Captain +Cuttle's residence. + +Everything seemed altered as he ran along the streets. There were the +usual entanglement and noise of carts, drays, omnibuses, waggons, +and foot passengers, but the misfortune that had fallen on the wooden +Midshipman made it strange and new. Houses and shops were different from +what they used to be, and bore Mr Brogley's warrant on their fronts +in large characters. The broker seemed to have got hold of the very +churches; for their spires rose into the sky with an unwonted air. Even +the sky itself was changed, and had an execution in it plainly. + +Captain Cuttle lived on the brink of a little canal near the India +Docks, where there was a swivel bridge which opened now and then to +let some wandering monster of a ship come roaming up the street like +a stranded leviathan. The gradual change from land to water, on the +approach to Captain Cuttle's lodgings, was curious. It began with the +erection of flagstaffs, as appurtenances to public-houses; then came +slop-sellers' shops, with Guernsey shirts, sou'wester hats, and canvas +pantaloons, at once the tightest and the loosest of their order, hanging +up outside. These were succeeded by anchor and chain-cable forges, where +sledgehammers were dinging upon iron all day long. Then came rows of +houses, with little vane-surmounted masts uprearing themselves from +among the scarlet beans. Then, ditches. Then, pollard willows. Then, +more ditches. Then, unaccountable patches of dirty water, hardly to be +descried, for the ships that covered them. Then, the air was perfumed +with chips; and all other trades were swallowed up in mast, oar, +and block-making, and boatbuilding. Then, the ground grew marshy and +unsettled. Then, there was nothing to be smelt but rum and sugar. Then, +Captain Cuttle's lodgings--at once a first floor and a top storey, in +Brig Place--were close before you. + +The Captain was one of those timber-looking men, suits of oak as well +as hearts, whom it is almost impossible for the liveliest imagination +to separate from any part of their dress, however insignificant. +Accordingly, when Walter knocked at the door, and the Captain instantly +poked his head out of one of his little front windows, and hailed him, +with the hard glared hat already on it, and the shirt-collar like a +sail, and the wide suit of blue, all standing as usual, Walter was as +fully persuaded that he was always in that state, as if the Captain had +been a bird and those had been his feathers. + +'Wal'r, my lad!' said Captain Cuttle. 'Stand by and knock again. Hard! +It's washing day.' + +Walter, in his impatience, gave a prodigious thump with the knocker. + +'Hard it is!' said Captain Cuttle, and immediately drew in his head, as +if he expected a squall. + +Nor was he mistaken: for a widow lady, with her sleeves rolled up to +her shoulders, and her arms frothy with soap-suds and smoking with hot +water, replied to the summons with startling rapidity. Before she looked +at Walter she looked at the knocker, and then, measuring him with her +eyes from head to foot, said she wondered he had left any of it. + +'Captain Cuttle's at home, I know,' said Walter with a conciliatory +smile. + +'Is he?' replied the widow lady. 'In-deed!' + +'He has just been speaking to me,' said Walter, in breathless +explanation. + +'Has he?' replied the widow lady. 'Then p'raps you'll give him Mrs +MacStinger's respects, and say that the next time he lowers himself and +his lodgings by talking out of the winder she'll thank him to come down +and open the door too.' Mrs MacStinger spoke loud, and listened for any +observations that might be offered from the first floor. + +'I'll mention it,' said Walter, 'if you'll have the goodness to let me +in, Ma'am.' + +For he was repelled by a wooden fortification extending across the +doorway, and put there to prevent the little MacStingers in their +moments of recreation from tumbling down the steps. + +'A boy that can knock my door down,' said Mrs MacStinger, +contemptuously, 'can get over that, I should hope!' But Walter, taking +this as a permission to enter, and getting over it, Mrs MacStinger +immediately demanded whether an Englishwoman's house was her castle +or not; and whether she was to be broke in upon by 'raff.' On these +subjects her thirst for information was still very importunate, +when Walter, having made his way up the little staircase through an +artificial fog occasioned by the washing, which covered the banisters +with a clammy perspiration, entered Captain Cuttle's room, and found +that gentleman in ambush behind the door. + +'Never owed her a penny, Wal'r,' said Captain Cuttle, in a low voice, +and with visible marks of trepidation on his countenance. 'Done her +a world of good turns, and the children too. Vixen at times, though. +Whew!' + +'I should go away, Captain Cuttle,' said Walter. + +'Dursn't do it, Wal'r,' returned the Captain. 'She'd find me out, +wherever I went. Sit down. How's Gills?' + +The Captain was dining (in his hat) off cold loin of mutton, porter, and +some smoking hot potatoes, which he had cooked himself, and took out of +a little saucepan before the fire as he wanted them. He unscrewed his +hook at dinner-time, and screwed a knife into its wooden socket instead, +with which he had already begun to peel one of these potatoes for +Walter. His rooms were very small, and strongly impregnated with +tobacco-smoke, but snug enough: everything being stowed away, as if +there were an earthquake regularly every half-hour. + +'How's Gills?' inquired the Captain. + +Walter, who had by this time recovered his breath, and lost his +spirits--or such temporary spirits as his rapid journey had given +him--looked at his questioner for a moment, said 'Oh, Captain Cuttle!' +and burst into tears. + +No words can describe the Captain's consternation at this sight Mrs +MacStinger faded into nothing before it. He dropped the potato and the +fork--and would have dropped the knife too if he could--and sat gazing +at the boy, as if he expected to hear next moment that a gulf had opened +in the City, which had swallowed up his old friend, coffee-coloured +suit, buttons, chronometer, spectacles, and all. + +But when Walter told him what was really the matter, Captain Cuttle, +after a moment's reflection, started up into full activity. He emptied +out of a little tin canister on the top shelf of the cupboard, his whole +stock of ready money (amounting to thirteen pounds and half-a-crown), +which he transferred to one of the pockets of his square blue coat; +further enriched that repository with the contents of his plate chest, +consisting of two withered atomies of tea-spoons, and an obsolete pair +of knock-knee'd sugar-tongs; pulled up his immense double-cased silver +watch from the depths in which it reposed, to assure himself that that +valuable was sound and whole; re-attached the hook to his right wrist; +and seizing the stick covered over with knobs, bade Walter come along. + +Remembering, however, in the midst of his virtuous excitement, that Mrs +MacStinger might be lying in wait below, Captain Cuttle hesitated at +last, not without glancing at the window, as if he had some thoughts +of escaping by that unusual means of egress, rather than encounter his +terrible enemy. He decided, however, in favour of stratagem. + +'Wal'r,' said the Captain, with a timid wink, 'go afore, my lad. Sing +out, "good-bye, Captain Cuttle," when you're in the passage, and shut +the door. Then wait at the corner of the street 'till you see me. + +These directions were not issued without a previous knowledge of the +enemy's tactics, for when Walter got downstairs, Mrs MacStinger glided +out of the little back kitchen, like an avenging spirit. But not gliding +out upon the Captain, as she had expected, she merely made a further +allusion to the knocker, and glided in again. + +Some five minutes elapsed before Captain Cuttle could summon courage +to attempt his escape; for Walter waited so long at the street corner, +looking back at the house, before there were any symptoms of the +hard glazed hat. At length the Captain burst out of the door with the +suddenness of an explosion, and coming towards him at a great pace, and +never once looking over his shoulder, pretended, as soon as they were +well out of the street, to whistle a tune. + +'Uncle much hove down, Wal'r?' inquired the Captain, as they were +walking along. + +'I am afraid so. If you had seen him this morning, you would never have +forgotten it.' + +'Walk fast, Wal'r, my lad,' returned the Captain, mending his pace; 'and +walk the same all the days of your life. Overhaul the catechism for that +advice, and keep it!' + +The Captain was too busy with his own thoughts of Solomon Gills, mingled +perhaps with some reflections on his late escape from Mrs MacStinger, to +offer any further quotations on the way for Walter's moral improvement +They interchanged no other word until they arrived at old Sol's door, +where the unfortunate wooden Midshipman, with his instrument at his eye, +seemed to be surveying the whole horizon in search of some friend to +help him out of his difficulty. + +'Gills!' said the Captain, hurrying into the back parlour, and taking +him by the hand quite tenderly. 'Lay your head well to the wind, and +we'll fight through it. All you've got to do,' said the Captain, with +the solemnity of a man who was delivering himself of one of the most +precious practical tenets ever discovered by human wisdom, 'is to lay +your head well to the wind, and we'll fight through it!' + +Old Sol returned the pressure of his hand, and thanked him. + +Captain Cuttle, then, with a gravity suitable to the nature of +the occasion, put down upon the table the two tea-spoons and the +sugar-tongs, the silver watch, and the ready money; and asked Mr +Brogley, the broker, what the damage was. + +'Come! What do you make of it?' said Captain Cuttle. + +'Why, Lord help you!' returned the broker; 'you don't suppose that +property's of any use, do you?' + +'Why not?' inquired the Captain. + +'Why? The amount's three hundred and seventy, odd,' replied the broker. + +'Never mind,' returned the Captain, though he was evidently dismayed by +the figures: 'all's fish that comes to your net, I suppose?' + +'Certainly,' said Mr Brogley. 'But sprats ain't whales, you know.' + +The philosophy of this observation seemed to strike the Captain. He +ruminated for a minute; eyeing the broker, meanwhile, as a deep genius; +and then called the Instrument-maker aside. + +'Gills,' said Captain Cuttle, 'what's the bearings of this business? +Who's the creditor?' + +'Hush!' returned the old man. 'Come away. Don't speak before Wally. It's +a matter of security for Wally's father--an old bond. I've paid a good +deal of it, Ned, but the times are so bad with me that I can't do more +just now. I've foreseen it, but I couldn't help it. Not a word before +Wally, for all the world.' + +'You've got some money, haven't you?' whispered the Captain. + +'Yes, yes--oh yes--I've got some,' returned old Sol, first putting his +hands into his empty pockets, and then squeezing his Welsh wig between +them, as if he thought he might wring some gold out of it; 'but I--the +little I have got, isn't convertible, Ned; it can't be got at. I have +been trying to do something with it for Wally, and I'm old fashioned, +and behind the time. It's here and there, and--and, in short, it's as +good as nowhere,' said the old man, looking in bewilderment about him. + +He had so much the air of a half-witted person who had been hiding his +money in a variety of places, and had forgotten where, that the Captain +followed his eyes, not without a faint hope that he might remember some +few hundred pounds concealed up the chimney, or down in the cellar. But +Solomon Gills knew better than that. + +'I'm behind the time altogether, my dear Ned,' said Sol, in resigned +despair, 'a long way. It's no use my lagging on so far behind it. The +stock had better be sold--it's worth more than this debt--and I had +better go and die somewhere, on the balance. I haven't any energy left. +I don't understand things. This had better be the end of it. Let 'em +sell the stock and take him down,' said the old man, pointing feebly to +the wooden Midshipman, 'and let us both be broken up together.' + +'And what d'ye mean to do with Wal'r?' said the Captain. 'There, there! +Sit ye down, Gills, sit ye down, and let me think o' this. If I warn't a +man on a small annuity, that was large enough till to-day, I hadn't need +to think of it. But you only lay your head well to the wind,' said the +Captain, again administering that unanswerable piece of consolation, +'and you're all right!' + +Old Sol thanked him from his heart, and went and laid it against the +back parlour fire-place instead. + +Captain Cuttle walked up and down the shop for some time, cogitating +profoundly, and bringing his bushy black eyebrows to bear so heavily on +his nose, like clouds setting on a mountain, that Walter was afraid to +offer any interruption to the current of his reflections. Mr Brogley, +who was averse to being any constraint upon the party, and who had +an ingenious cast of mind, went, softly whistling, among the stock; +rattling weather-glasses, shaking compasses as if they were physic, +catching up keys with loadstones, looking through telescopes, +endeavouring to make himself acquainted with the use of the globes, +setting parallel rulers astride on to his nose, and amusing himself with +other philosophical transactions. + +'Wal'r!' said the Captain at last. 'I've got it.' + +'Have you, Captain Cuttle?' cried Walter, with great animation. + +'Come this way, my lad,' said the Captain. 'The stock's the security. +I'm another. Your governor's the man to advance money.' + +'Mr Dombey!' faltered Walter. + +The Captain nodded gravely. 'Look at him,' he said. 'Look at Gills. +If they was to sell off these things now, he'd die of it. You know he +would. We mustn't leave a stone unturned--and there's a stone for you.' + +'A stone!--Mr Dombey!' faltered Walter. + +'You run round to the office, first of all, and see if he's there,' said +Captain Cuttle, clapping him on the back. 'Quick!' + +Walter felt he must not dispute the command--a glance at his Uncle would +have determined him if he had felt otherwise--and disappeared to execute +it. He soon returned, out of breath, to say that Mr Dombey was not +there. It was Saturday, and he had gone to Brighton. + +'I tell you what, Wal'r!' said the Captain, who seemed to have prepared +himself for this contingency in his absence. 'We'll go to Brighton. +I'll back you, my boy. I'll back you, Wal'r. We'll go to Brighton by the +afternoon's coach.' + +If the application must be made to Mr Dombey at all, which was awful +to think of, Walter felt that he would rather prefer it alone and +unassisted, than backed by the personal influence of Captain Cuttle, to +which he hardly thought Mr Dombey would attach much weight. But as the +Captain appeared to be of quite another opinion, and was bent upon it, +and as his friendship was too zealous and serious to be trifled with +by one so much younger than himself, he forbore to hint the least +objection. Cuttle, therefore, taking a hurried leave of Solomon Gills, +and returning the ready money, the teaspoons, the sugar-tongs, and +the silver watch, to his pocket--with a view, as Walter thought, with +horror, to making a gorgeous impression on Mr Dombey--bore him off to +the coach-office, without a minute's delay, and repeatedly assured +him, on the road, that he would stick by him to the last. + + + +CHAPTER 10. Containing the Sequel of the Midshipman's Disaster + + +Major Bagstock, after long and frequent observation of Paul, across +Princess's Place, through his double-barrelled opera-glass; and after +receiving many minute reports, daily, weekly, and monthly, on that +subject, from the native who kept himself in constant communication with +Miss Tox's maid for that purpose; came to the conclusion that Dombey, +Sir, was a man to be known, and that J. B. was the boy to make his +acquaintance. + +Miss Tox, however, maintaining her reserved behaviour, and frigidly +declining to understand the Major whenever he called (which he often +did) on any little fishing excursion connected with this project, the +Major, in spite of his constitutional toughness and slyness, was fain +to leave the accomplishment of his desire in some measure to chance, +'which,' as he was used to observe with chuckles at his club, 'has been +fifty to one in favour of Joey B., Sir, ever since his elder brother +died of Yellow Jack in the West Indies.' + +It was some time coming to his aid in the present instance, but it +befriended him at last. When the dark servant, with full particulars, +reported Miss Tox absent on Brighton service, the Major was suddenly +touched with affectionate reminiscences of his friend Bill Bitherstone +of Bengal, who had written to ask him, if he ever went that way, to +bestow a call upon his only son. But when the same dark servant reported +Paul at Mrs Pipchin's, and the Major, referring to the letter favoured +by Master Bitherstone on his arrival in England--to which he had +never had the least idea of paying any attention--saw the opening +that presented itself, he was made so rabid by the gout, with which +he happened to be then laid up, that he threw a footstool at the dark +servant in return for his intelligence, and swore he would be the death +of the rascal before he had done with him: which the dark servant was +more than half disposed to believe. + +At length the Major being released from his fit, went one Saturday +growling down to Brighton, with the native behind him; apostrophizing +Miss Tox all the way, and gloating over the prospect of carrying by +storm the distinguished friend to whom she attached so much mystery, and +for whom she had deserted him. + +'Would you, Ma'am, would you!' said the Major, straining with +vindictiveness, and swelling every already swollen vein in his head. +'Would you give Joey B. the go-by, Ma'am? Not yet, Ma'am, not yet! +Damme, not yet, Sir. Joe is awake, Ma'am. Bagstock is alive, Sir. J. B. +knows a move or two, Ma'am. Josh has his weather-eye open, Sir. You'll +find him tough, Ma'am. Tough, Sir, tough is Joseph. Tough, and de-vilish +sly!' + +And very tough indeed Master Bitherstone found him, when he took that +young gentleman out for a walk. But the Major, with his complexion +like a Stilton cheese, and his eyes like a prawn's, went roving about, +perfectly indifferent to Master Bitherstone's amusement, and dragging +Master Bitherstone along, while he looked about him high and low, for Mr +Dombey and his children. + +In good time the Major, previously instructed by Mrs Pipchin, spied +out Paul and Florence, and bore down upon them; there being a stately +gentleman (Mr Dombey, doubtless) in their company. Charging with Master +Bitherstone into the very heart of the little squadron, it fell out, of +course, that Master Bitherstone spoke to his fellow-sufferers. Upon that +the Major stopped to notice and admire them; remembered with amazement +that he had seen and spoken to them at his friend Miss Tox's in +Princess's Place; opined that Paul was a devilish fine fellow, and his +own little friend; inquired if he remembered Joey B. the Major; and +finally, with a sudden recollection of the conventionalities of life, +turned and apologised to Mr Dombey. + +'But my little friend here, Sir,' said the Major, 'makes a boy of me +again: An old soldier, Sir--Major Bagstock, at your service--is not +ashamed to confess it.' Here the Major lifted his hat. 'Damme, Sir,' +cried the Major with sudden warmth, 'I envy you.' Then he recollected +himself, and added, 'Excuse my freedom.' + +Mr Dombey begged he wouldn't mention it. + +'An old campaigner, Sir,' said the Major, 'a smoke-dried, sun-burnt, +used-up, invalided old dog of a Major, Sir, was not afraid of being +condemned for his whim by a man like Mr Dombey. I have the honour of +addressing Mr Dombey, I believe?' + +'I am the present unworthy representative of that name, Major,' returned +Mr Dombey. + +'By G--, Sir!' said the Major, 'it's a great name. It's a name, Sir,' +said the Major firmly, as if he defied Mr Dombey to contradict him, and +would feel it his painful duty to bully him if he did, 'that is known +and honoured in the British possessions abroad. It is a name, Sir, +that a man is proud to recognise. There is nothing adulatory in Joseph +Bagstock, Sir. His Royal Highness the Duke of York observed on more than +one occasion, "there is no adulation in Joey. He is a plain old soldier +is Joe. He is tough to a fault is Joseph:" but it's a great name, Sir. +By the Lord, it's a great name!' said the Major, solemnly. + +'You are good enough to rate it higher than it deserves, perhaps, +Major,' returned Mr Dombey. + +'No, Sir,' said the Major, in a severe tone. No, Mr Dombey, let us +understand each other. That is not the Bagstock vein, Sir. You don't +know Joseph B. He is a blunt old blade is Josh. No flattery in him, Sir. +Nothing like it.' + +Mr Dombey inclined his head, and said he believed him to be in earnest, +and that his high opinion was gratifying. + +'My little friend here, Sir,' croaked the Major, looking as amiably +as he could, on Paul, 'will certify for Joseph Bagstock that he is a +thorough-going, down-right, plain-spoken, old Trump, Sir, and nothing +more. That boy, Sir,' said the Major in a lower tone, 'will live in +history. That boy, Sir, is not a common production. Take care of him, Mr +Dombey.' + +Mr Dombey seemed to intimate that he would endeavour to do so. + +'Here is a boy here, Sir,' pursued the Major, confidentially, and +giving him a thrust with his cane. 'Son of Bitherstone of Bengal. Bill +Bitherstone formerly of ours. That boy's father and myself, Sir, were +sworn friends. Wherever you went, Sir, you heard of nothing but Bill +Bitherstone and Joe Bagstock. Am I blind to that boy's defects? By no +means. He's a fool, Sir.' + +Mr Dombey glanced at the libelled Master Bitherstone, of whom he knew at +least as much as the Major did, and said, in quite a complacent manner, +'Really?' + +'That is what he is, sir,' said the Major. 'He's a fool. Joe Bagstock +never minces matters. The son of my old friend Bill Bitherstone, of +Bengal, is a born fool, Sir.' Here the Major laughed till he was almost +black. 'My little friend is destined for a public school, I presume, +Mr Dombey?' said the Major when he had recovered. + +'I am not quite decided,' returned Mr Dombey. 'I think not. He is +delicate.' + +'If he's delicate, Sir,' said the Major, 'you are right. None but the +tough fellows could live through it, Sir, at Sandhurst. We put each +other to the torture there, Sir. We roasted the new fellows at a slow +fire, and hung 'em out of a three pair of stairs window, with their +heads downwards. Joseph Bagstock, Sir, was held out of the window by the +heels of his boots, for thirteen minutes by the college clock.' + +The Major might have appealed to his countenance in corroboration of +this story. It certainly looked as if he had hung out a little too long. + +'But it made us what we were, Sir,' said the Major, settling his shirt +frill. 'We were iron, Sir, and it forged us. Are you remaining here, Mr +Dombey?' + +'I generally come down once a week, Major,' returned that gentleman. 'I +stay at the Bedford.' + +'I shall have the honour of calling at the Bedford, Sir, if you'll +permit me,' said the Major. 'Joey B., Sir, is not in general a calling +man, but Mr Dombey's is not a common name. I am much indebted to my +little friend, Sir, for the honour of this introduction.' + +Mr Dombey made a very gracious reply; and Major Bagstock, having patted +Paul on the head, and said of Florence that her eyes would play the +Devil with the youngsters before long--'and the oldsters too, Sir, if +you come to that,' added the Major, chuckling very much--stirred up +Master Bitherstone with his walking-stick, and departed with that young +gentleman, at a kind of half-trot; rolling his head and coughing with +great dignity, as he staggered away, with his legs very wide asunder. + +In fulfilment of his promise, the Major afterwards called on Mr Dombey; +and Mr Dombey, having referred to the army list, afterwards called on +the Major. Then the Major called at Mr Dombey's house in town; and came +down again, in the same coach as Mr Dombey. In short, Mr Dombey and +the Major got on uncommonly well together, and uncommonly fast: and Mr +Dombey observed of the Major, to his sister, that besides being quite +a military man he was really something more, as he had a very admirable +idea of the importance of things unconnected with his own profession. + +At length Mr Dombey, bringing down Miss Tox and Mrs Chick to see the +children, and finding the Major again at Brighton, invited him to dinner +at the Bedford, and complimented Miss Tox highly, beforehand, on her +neighbour and acquaintance. + +'My dearest Louisa,' said Miss Tox to Mrs Chick, when they were alone +together, on the morning of the appointed day, 'if I should seem at all +reserved to Major Bagstock, or under any constraint with him, promise me +not to notice it.' + +'My dear Lucretia,' returned Mrs Chick, 'what mystery is involved in +this remarkable request? I must insist upon knowing.' + +'Since you are resolved to extort a confession from me, Louisa,' said +Miss Tox instantly, 'I have no alternative but to confide to you that +the Major has been particular.' + +'Particular!' repeated Mrs Chick. + +'The Major has long been very particular indeed, my love, in his +attentions,' said Miss Tox, 'occasionally they have been so very marked, +that my position has been one of no common difficulty.' + +'Is he in good circumstances?' inquired Mrs Chick. + +'I have every reason to believe, my dear--indeed I may say I know,' +returned Miss Tox, 'that he is wealthy. He is truly military, and full +of anecdote. I have been informed that his valour, when he was in active +service, knew no bounds. I am told that he did all sorts of things in +the Peninsula, with every description of fire-arm; and in the East and +West Indies, my love, I really couldn't undertake to say what he did not +do.' + +'Very creditable to him indeed,' said Mrs Chick, 'extremely so; and you +have given him no encouragement, my dear?' + +'If I were to say, Louisa,' replied Miss Tox, with every demonstration +of making an effort that rent her soul, 'that I never encouraged Major +Bagstock slightly, I should not do justice to the friendship which +exists between you and me. It is, perhaps, hardly in the nature of +woman to receive such attentions as the Major once lavished upon myself +without betraying some sense of obligation. But that is past--long past. +Between the Major and me there is now a yawning chasm, and I will not +feign to give encouragement, Louisa, where I cannot give my heart. My +affections,' said Miss Tox--'but, Louisa, this is madness!' and departed +from the room. + +All this Mrs Chick communicated to her brother before dinner: and it +by no means indisposed Mr Dombey to receive the Major with unwonted +cordiality. The Major, for his part, was in a state of plethoric +satisfaction that knew no bounds: and he coughed, and choked, and +chuckled, and gasped, and swelled, until the waiters seemed positively +afraid of him. + +'Your family monopolises Joe's light, Sir,' said the Major, when he had +saluted Miss Tox. 'Joe lives in darkness. Princess's Place is changed +into Kamschatka in the winter time. There is no ray of sun, Sir, for +Joey B., now.' + +'Miss Tox is good enough to take a great deal of interest in Paul, +Major,' returned Mr Dombey on behalf of that blushing virgin. + +'Damme Sir,' said the Major, 'I'm jealous of my little friend. I'm +pining away Sir. The Bagstock breed is degenerating in the forsaken +person of old Joe.' And the Major, becoming bluer and bluer and puffing +his cheeks further and further over the stiff ridge of his tight cravat, +stared at Miss Tox, until his eyes seemed as if he were at that moment +being overdone before the slow fire at the military college. + +Notwithstanding the palpitation of the heart which these allusions +occasioned her, they were anything but disagreeable to Miss Tox, as they +enabled her to be extremely interesting, and to manifest an occasional +incoherence and distraction which she was not at all unwilling to +display. The Major gave her abundant opportunities of exhibiting this +emotion: being profuse in his complaints, at dinner, of her desertion of +him and Princess's Place: and as he appeared to derive great enjoyment +from making them, they all got on very well. + +None the worse on account of the Major taking charge of the whole +conversation, and showing as great an appetite in that respect as in +regard of the various dainties on the table, among which he may +be almost said to have wallowed: greatly to the aggravation of his +inflammatory tendencies. Mr Dombey's habitual silence and reserve +yielding readily to this usurpation, the Major felt that he was coming +out and shining: and in the flow of spirits thus engendered, rang +such an infinite number of new changes on his own name that he quite +astonished himself. In a word, they were all very well pleased. The +Major was considered to possess an inexhaustible fund of conversation; +and when he took a late farewell, after a long rubber, Mr Dombey again +complimented the blushing Miss Tox on her neighbour and acquaintance. + +But all the way home to his own hotel, the Major incessantly said to +himself, and of himself, 'Sly, Sir--sly, Sir--de-vil-ish sly!' And +when he got there, sat down in a chair, and fell into a silent fit +of laughter, with which he was sometimes seized, and which was always +particularly awful. It held him so long on this occasion that the dark +servant, who stood watching him at a distance, but dared not for his +life approach, twice or thrice gave him over for lost. His whole form, +but especially his face and head, dilated beyond all former experience; +and presented to the dark man's view, nothing but a heaving mass of +indigo. At length he burst into a violent paroxysm of coughing, and when +that was a little better burst into such ejaculations as the following: + +'Would you, Ma'am, would you? Mrs Dombey, eh, Ma'am? I think not, Ma'am. +Not while Joe B. can put a spoke in your wheel, Ma'am. J. B.'s even +with you now, Ma'am. He isn't altogether bowled out, yet, Sir, isn't +Bagstock. She's deep, Sir, deep, but Josh is deeper. Wide awake is old +Joe--broad awake, and staring, Sir!' There was no doubt of this last +assertion being true, and to a very fearful extent; as it continued to +be during the greater part of that night, which the Major chiefly passed +in similar exclamations, diversified with fits of coughing and choking +that startled the whole house. + +It was on the day after this occasion (being Sunday) when, as Mr Dombey, +Mrs Chick, and Miss Tox were sitting at breakfast, still eulogising the +Major, Florence came running in: her face suffused with a bright colour, +and her eyes sparkling joyfully: and cried, + +'Papa! Papa! Here's Walter! and he won't come in.' + +'Who?' cried Mr Dombey. 'What does she mean? What is this?' + +'Walter, Papa!' said Florence timidly; sensible of having approached the +presence with too much familiarity. 'Who found me when I was lost.' + +'Does she mean young Gay, Louisa?' inquired Mr Dombey, knitting his +brows. 'Really, this child's manners have become very boisterous. She +cannot mean young Gay, I think. See what it is, will you?' + +Mrs Chick hurried into the passage, and returned with the information +that it was young Gay, accompanied by a very strange-looking person; and +that young Gay said he would not take the liberty of coming in, hearing +Mr Dombey was at breakfast, but would wait until Mr Dombey should +signify that he might approach. + +'Tell the boy to come in now,' said Mr Dombey. 'Now, Gay, what is the +matter? Who sent you down here? Was there nobody else to come?' + +'I beg your pardon, Sir,' returned Walter. 'I have not been sent. I have +been so bold as to come on my own account, which I hope you'll pardon +when I mention the cause. + +But Mr Dombey, without attending to what he said, was looking +impatiently on either side of him (as if he were a pillar in his way) at +some object behind. + +'What's that?' said Mr Dombey. 'Who is that? I think you have made some +mistake in the door, Sir.' + +'Oh, I'm very sorry to intrude with anyone, Sir,' cried Walter, hastily: +'but this is--this is Captain Cuttle, Sir.' + +'Wal'r, my lad,' observed the Captain in a deep voice: 'stand by!' + +At the same time the Captain, coming a little further in, brought out +his wide suit of blue, his conspicuous shirt-collar, and his knobby +nose in full relief, and stood bowing to Mr Dombey, and waving his hook +politely to the ladies, with the hard glazed hat in his one hand, and a +red equator round his head which it had newly imprinted there. + +Mr Dombey regarded this phenomenon with amazement and indignation, and +seemed by his looks to appeal to Mrs Chick and Miss Tox against it. +Little Paul, who had come in after Florence, backed towards Miss Tox as +the Captain waved his hook, and stood on the defensive. + +'Now, Gay,' said Mr Dombey. 'What have you got to say to me?' + +Again the Captain observed, as a general opening of the conversation +that could not fail to propitiate all parties, 'Wal'r, standby!' + +'I am afraid, Sir,' began Walter, trembling, and looking down at the +ground, 'that I take a very great liberty in coming--indeed, I am sure +I do. I should hardly have had the courage to ask to see you, Sir, even +after coming down, I am afraid, if I had not overtaken Miss Dombey, +and--' + +'Well!' said Mr Dombey, following his eyes as he glanced at the +attentive Florence, and frowning unconsciously as she encouraged him +with a smile. 'Go on, if you please.' + +'Ay, ay,' observed the Captain, considering it incumbent on him, as a +point of good breeding, to support Mr Dombey. 'Well said! Go on, Wal'r.' + +Captain Cuttle ought to have been withered by the look which Mr Dombey +bestowed upon him in acknowledgment of his patronage. But quite innocent +of this, he closed one eye in reply, and gave Mr Dombey to understand, +by certain significant motions of his hook, that Walter was a little +bashful at first, and might be expected to come out shortly. + +'It is entirely a private and personal matter, that has brought me here, +Sir,' continued Walter, faltering, 'and Captain Cuttle--' + +'Here!' interposed the Captain, as an assurance that he was at hand, and +might be relied upon. + +'Who is a very old friend of my poor Uncle's, and a most excellent man, +Sir,' pursued Walter, raising his eyes with a look of entreaty in the +Captain's behalf, 'was so good as to offer to come with me, which I +could hardly refuse.' + +'No, no, no;' observed the Captain complacently. 'Of course not. No call +for refusing. Go on, Wal'r.' + +'And therefore, Sir,' said Walter, venturing to meet Mr Dombey's eye, +and proceeding with better courage in the very desperation of the case, +now that there was no avoiding it, 'therefore I have come, with him, +Sir, to say that my poor old Uncle is in very great affliction and +distress. That, through the gradual loss of his business, and not being +able to make a payment, the apprehension of which has weighed very +heavily upon his mind, months and months, as indeed I know, Sir, he has +an execution in his house, and is in danger of losing all he has, and +breaking his heart. And that if you would, in your kindness, and in your +old knowledge of him as a respectable man, do anything to help him out +of his difficulty, Sir, we never could thank you enough for it.' + +Walter's eyes filled with tears as he spoke; and so did those of +Florence. Her father saw them glistening, though he appeared to look at +Walter only. + +'It is a very large sum, Sir,' said Walter. 'More than three hundred +pounds. My Uncle is quite beaten down by his misfortune, it lies so +heavy on him; and is quite unable to do anything for his own relief. He +doesn't even know yet, that I have come to speak to you. You would wish +me to say, Sir,' added Walter, after a moment's hesitation, 'exactly +what it is I want. I really don't know, Sir. There is my Uncle's stock, +on which I believe I may say, confidently, there are no other demands, +and there is Captain Cuttle, who would wish to be security too. I--I +hardly like to mention,' said Walter, 'such earnings as mine; but if +you would allow them--accumulate--payment--advance--Uncle--frugal, +honourable, old man.' Walter trailed off, through these broken +sentences, into silence: and stood with downcast head, before his +employer. + +Considering this a favourable moment for the display of the valuables, +Captain Cuttle advanced to the table; and clearing a space among the +breakfast-cups at Mr Dombey's elbow, produced the silver watch, the +ready money, the teaspoons, and the sugar-tongs; and piling them up into +a heap that they might look as precious as possible, delivered himself +of these words: + +'Half a loaf's better than no bread, and the same remark holds good with +crumbs. There's a few. Annuity of one hundred pound premium also ready +to be made over. If there is a man chock full of science in the world, +it's old Sol Gills. If there is a lad of promise--one flowing,' added +the Captain, in one of his happy quotations, 'with milk and honey--it's +his nevy!' + +The Captain then withdrew to his former place, where he stood arranging +his scattered locks with the air of a man who had given the finishing +touch to a difficult performance. + +When Walter ceased to speak, Mr Dombey's eyes were attracted to little +Paul, who, seeing his sister hanging down her head and silently weeping +in her commiseration for the distress she had heard described, went over +to her, and tried to comfort her: looking at Walter and his father as he +did so, with a very expressive face. After the momentary distraction of +Captain Cuttle's address, which he regarded with lofty indifference, Mr +Dombey again turned his eyes upon his son, and sat steadily regarding +the child, for some moments, in silence. + +'What was this debt contracted for?' asked Mr Dombey, at length. 'Who is +the creditor?' + +'He don't know,' replied the Captain, putting his hand on Walter's +shoulder. 'I do. It came of helping a man that's dead now, and that's +cost my friend Gills many a hundred pound already. More particulars in +private, if agreeable.' + +'People who have enough to do to hold their own way,' said Mr Dombey, +unobservant of the Captain's mysterious signs behind Walter, and still +looking at his son, 'had better be content with their own obligations +and difficulties, and not increase them by engaging for other men. It +is an act of dishonesty and presumption, too,' said Mr Dombey, sternly; +'great presumption; for the wealthy could do no more. Paul, come here!' + +The child obeyed: and Mr Dombey took him on his knee. + +'If you had money now--' said Mr Dombey. 'Look at me!' + +Paul, whose eyes had wandered to his sister, and to Walter, looked his +father in the face. + +'If you had money now,' said Mr Dombey; 'as much money as young Gay has +talked about; what would you do?' + +'Give it to his old Uncle,' returned Paul. + +'Lend it to his old Uncle, eh?' retorted Mr Dombey. 'Well! When you +are old enough, you know, you will share my money, and we shall use it +together.' + +'Dombey and Son,' interrupted Paul, who had been tutored early in the +phrase. + +'Dombey and Son,' repeated his father. 'Would you like to begin to be +Dombey and Son, now, and lend this money to young Gay's Uncle?' + +'Oh! if you please, Papa!' said Paul: 'and so would Florence.' + +'Girls,' said Mr Dombey, 'have nothing to do with Dombey and Son. Would +you like it?' + +'Yes, Papa, yes!' + +'Then you shall do it,' returned his father. 'And you see, Paul,' he +added, dropping his voice, 'how powerful money is, and how anxious +people are to get it. Young Gay comes all this way to beg for money, +and you, who are so grand and great, having got it, are going to let him +have it, as a great favour and obligation.' + +Paul turned up the old face for a moment, in which there was a sharp +understanding of the reference conveyed in these words: but it was a +young and childish face immediately afterwards, when he slipped down +from his father's knee, and ran to tell Florence not to cry any more, +for he was going to let young Gay have the money. + +Mr Dombey then turned to a side-table, and wrote a note and sealed it. +During the interval, Paul and Florence whispered to Walter, and +Captain Cuttle beamed on the three, with such aspiring and ineffably +presumptuous thoughts as Mr Dombey never could have believed in. The +note being finished, Mr Dombey turned round to his former place, and +held it out to Walter. + +'Give that,' he said, 'the first thing to-morrow morning, to Mr Carker. +He will immediately take care that one of my people releases your Uncle +from his present position, by paying the amount at issue; and that such +arrangements are made for its repayment as may be consistent with your +Uncle's circumstances. You will consider that this is done for you by +Master Paul.' + +Walter, in the emotion of holding in his hand the means of releasing his +good Uncle from his trouble, would have endeavoured to express something +of his gratitude and joy. But Mr Dombey stopped him short. + +'You will consider that it is done,' he repeated, 'by Master Paul. I +have explained that to him, and he understands it. I wish no more to be +said.' + +As he motioned towards the door, Walter could only bow his head and +retire. Miss Tox, seeing that the Captain appeared about to do the same, +interposed. + +'My dear Sir,' she said, addressing Mr Dombey, at whose munificence +both she and Mrs Chick were shedding tears copiously; 'I think you have +overlooked something. Pardon me, Mr Dombey, I think, in the nobility +of your character, and its exalted scope, you have omitted a matter of +detail.' + +'Indeed, Miss Tox!' said Mr Dombey. + +'The gentleman with the--Instrument,' pursued Miss Tox, glancing at +Captain Cuttle, 'has left upon the table, at your elbow--' + +'Good Heaven!' said Mr Dombey, sweeping the Captain's property from +him, as if it were so much crumb indeed. 'Take these things away. I am +obliged to you, Miss Tox; it is like your usual discretion. Have the +goodness to take these things away, Sir!' + +Captain Cuttle felt he had no alternative but to comply. But he was so +much struck by the magnanimity of Mr Dombey, in refusing treasures lying +heaped up to his hand, that when he had deposited the teaspoons and +sugar-tongs in one pocket, and the ready money in another, and had +lowered the great watch down slowly into its proper vault, he could not +refrain from seizing that gentleman's right hand in his own solitary +left, and while he held it open with his powerful fingers, bringing the +hook down upon its palm in a transport of admiration. At this touch of +warm feeling and cold iron, Mr Dombey shivered all over. + +Captain Cuttle then kissed his hook to the ladies several times, with +great elegance and gallantry; and having taken a particular leave of +Paul and Florence, accompanied Walter out of the room. Florence was +running after them in the earnestness of her heart, to send some message +to old Sol, when Mr Dombey called her back, and bade her stay where she +was. + +'Will you never be a Dombey, my dear child!' said Mrs Chick, with +pathetic reproachfulness. + +'Dear aunt,' said Florence. 'Don't be angry with me. I am so thankful to +Papa!' + +She would have run and thrown her arms about his neck if she had dared; +but as she did not dare, she glanced with thankful eyes towards him, as +he sat musing; sometimes bestowing an uneasy glance on her, but, for the +most part, watching Paul, who walked about the room with the new-blown +dignity of having let young Gay have the money. + +And young Gay--Walter--what of him? + +He was overjoyed to purge the old man's hearth from bailiffs and +brokers, and to hurry back to his Uncle with the good tidings. He was +overjoyed to have it all arranged and settled next day before noon; +and to sit down at evening in the little back parlour with old Sol and +Captain Cuttle; and to see the Instrument-maker already reviving, and +hopeful for the future, and feeling that the wooden Midshipman was his +own again. But without the least impeachment of his gratitude to Mr +Dombey, it must be confessed that Walter was humbled and cast down. It +is when our budding hopes are nipped beyond recovery by some rough wind, +that we are the most disposed to picture to ourselves what flowers they +might have borne, if they had flourished; and now, when Walter found +himself cut off from that great Dombey height, by the depth of a new +and terrible tumble, and felt that all his old wild fancies had been +scattered to the winds in the fall, he began to suspect that they might +have led him on to harmless visions of aspiring to Florence in the +remote distance of time. + +The Captain viewed the subject in quite a different light. He appeared +to entertain a belief that the interview at which he had assisted was so +very satisfactory and encouraging, as to be only a step or two removed +from a regular betrothal of Florence to Walter; and that the late +transaction had immensely forwarded, if not thoroughly established, +the Whittingtonian hopes. Stimulated by this conviction, and by the +improvement in the spirits of his old friend, and by his own consequent +gaiety, he even attempted, in favouring them with the ballad of 'Lovely +Peg' for the third time in one evening, to make an extemporaneous +substitution of the name 'Florence;' but finding this difficult, on +account of the word Peg invariably rhyming to leg (in which personal +beauty the original was described as having excelled all competitors), +he hit upon the happy thought of changing it to Fle-e-eg; which he +accordingly did, with an archness almost supernatural, and a voice quite +vociferous, notwithstanding that the time was close at hand when he must +seek the abode of the dreadful Mrs MacStinger. + +That same evening the Major was diffuse at his club, on the subject of +his friend Dombey in the City. 'Damme, Sir,' said the Major, 'he's a +prince, is my friend Dombey in the City. I tell you what, Sir. If you +had a few more men among you like old Joe Bagstock and my friend Dombey +in the City, Sir, you'd do!' + + + +CHAPTER 11. Paul's Introduction to a New Scene + + +Mrs Pipchin's constitution was made of such hard metal, in spite of its +liability to the fleshly weaknesses of standing in need of repose after +chops, and of requiring to be coaxed to sleep by the soporific agency +of sweet-breads, that it utterly set at naught the predictions of Mrs +Wickam, and showed no symptoms of decline. Yet, as Paul's rapt interest +in the old lady continued unbated, Mrs Wickam would not budge an inch +from the position she had taken up. Fortifying and entrenching herself +on the strong ground of her Uncle's Betsey Jane, she advised Miss Berry, +as a friend, to prepare herself for the worst; and forewarned her that +her aunt might, at any time, be expected to go off suddenly, like a +powder-mill. + +'I hope, Miss Berry,' Mrs Wickam would observe, 'that you'll come into +whatever little property there may be to leave. You deserve it, I am +sure, for yours is a trying life. Though there don't seem much worth +coming into--you'll excuse my being so open--in this dismal den.' + +Poor Berry took it all in good part, and drudged and slaved away +as usual; perfectly convinced that Mrs Pipchin was one of the most +meritorious persons in the world, and making every day innumerable +sacrifices of herself upon the altar of that noble old woman. But all +these immolations of Berry were somehow carried to the credit of +Mrs Pipchin by Mrs Pipchin's friends and admirers; and were made to +harmonise with, and carry out, that melancholy fact of the deceased Mr +Pipchin having broken his heart in the Peruvian mines. + +For example, there was an honest grocer and general dealer in the +retail line of business, between whom and Mrs Pipchin there was a small +memorandum book, with a greasy red cover, perpetually in question, and +concerning which divers secret councils and conferences were continually +being held between the parties to that register, on the mat in the +passage, and with closed doors in the parlour. Nor were there wanting +dark hints from Master Bitherstone (whose temper had been made +revengeful by the solar heats of India acting on his blood), of balances +unsettled, and of a failure, on one occasion within his memory, in the +supply of moist sugar at tea-time. This grocer being a bachelor and not +a man who looked upon the surface for beauty, had once made honourable +offers for the hand of Berry, which Mrs Pipchin had, with contumely and +scorn, rejected. Everybody said how laudable this was in Mrs Pipchin, +relict of a man who had died of the Peruvian mines; and what a staunch, +high, independent spirit the old lady had. But nobody said anything +about poor Berry, who cried for six weeks (being soundly rated by +her good aunt all the time), and lapsed into a state of hopeless +spinsterhood. + +'Berry's very fond of you, ain't she?' Paul once asked Mrs Pipchin when +they were sitting by the fire with the cat. + +'Yes,' said Mrs Pipchin. + +'Why?' asked Paul. + +'Why!' returned the disconcerted old lady. 'How can you ask such things, +Sir! why are you fond of your sister Florence?' + +'Because she's very good,' said Paul. 'There's nobody like Florence.' + +'Well!' retorted Mrs Pipchin, shortly, 'and there's nobody like me, I +suppose.' + +'Ain't there really though?' asked Paul, leaning forward in his chair, +and looking at her very hard. + +'No,' said the old lady. + +'I am glad of that,' observed Paul, rubbing his hands thoughtfully. +'That's a very good thing.' + +Mrs Pipchin didn't dare to ask him why, lest she should receive some +perfectly annihilating answer. But as a compensation to her wounded +feelings, she harassed Master Bitherstone to that extent until bed-time, +that he began that very night to make arrangements for an overland +return to India, by secreting from his supper a quarter of a round of +bread and a fragment of moist Dutch cheese, as the beginning of a stock +of provision to support him on the voyage. + +Mrs Pipchin had kept watch and ward over little Paul and his sister for +nearly twelve months. They had been home twice, but only for a few days; +and had been constant in their weekly visits to Mr Dombey at the hotel. +By little and little Paul had grown stronger, and had become able to +dispense with his carriage; though he still looked thin and delicate; +and still remained the same old, quiet, dreamy child that he had been +when first consigned to Mrs Pipchin's care. One Saturday afternoon, +at dusk, great consternation was occasioned in the Castle by the +unlooked-for announcement of Mr Dombey as a visitor to Mrs Pipchin. The +population of the parlour was immediately swept upstairs as on the wings +of a whirlwind, and after much slamming of bedroom doors, and trampling +overhead, and some knocking about of Master Bitherstone by Mrs Pipchin, +as a relief to the perturbation of her spirits, the black bombazeen +garments of the worthy old lady darkened the audience-chamber where Mr +Dombey was contemplating the vacant arm-chair of his son and heir. + +'Mrs Pipchin,' said Mr Dombey, 'How do you do?' + +'Thank you, Sir,' said Mrs Pipchin, 'I am pretty well, considering.' + +Mrs Pipchin always used that form of words. It meant, considering her +virtues, sacrifices, and so forth. + +'I can't expect, Sir, to be very well,' said Mrs Pipchin, taking a chair +and fetching her breath; 'but such health as I have, I am grateful for.' + +Mr Dombey inclined his head with the satisfied air of a patron, who felt +that this was the sort of thing for which he paid so much a quarter. +After a moment's silence he went on to say: + +'Mrs Pipchin, I have taken the liberty of calling, to consult you in +reference to my son. I have had it in my mind to do so for some time +past; but have deferred it from time to time, in order that his health +might be thoroughly re-established. You have no misgivings on that +subject, Mrs Pipchin?' + +'Brighton has proved very beneficial, Sir,' returned Mrs Pipchin. 'Very +beneficial, indeed.' + +'I purpose,' said Mr Dombey, 'his remaining at Brighton.' + +Mrs Pipchin rubbed her hands, and bent her grey eyes on the fire. + +'But,' pursued Mr Dombey, stretching out his forefinger, 'but possibly +that he should now make a change, and lead a different kind of life +here. In short, Mrs Pipchin, that is the object of my visit. My son is +getting on, Mrs Pipchin. Really, he is getting on.' + +There was something melancholy in the triumphant air with which Mr +Dombey said this. It showed how long Paul's childish life had been to +him, and how his hopes were set upon a later stage of his existence. +Pity may appear a strange word to connect with anyone so haughty and so +cold, and yet he seemed a worthy subject for it at that moment. + +'Six years old!' said Mr Dombey, settling his neckcloth--perhaps to hide +an irrepressible smile that rather seemed to strike upon the surface +of his face and glance away, as finding no resting-place, than to play +there for an instant. 'Dear me, six will be changed to sixteen, before +we have time to look about us.' + +'Ten years,' croaked the unsympathetic Pipchin, with a frosty glistening +of her hard grey eye, and a dreary shaking of her bent head, 'is a long +time.' + +'It depends on circumstances, returned Mr Dombey; 'at all events, Mrs +Pipchin, my son is six years old, and there is no doubt, I fear, that in +his studies he is behind many children of his age--or his youth,' said +Mr Dombey, quickly answering what he mistrusted was a shrewd twinkle of +the frosty eye, 'his youth is a more appropriate expression. Now, Mrs +Pipchin, instead of being behind his peers, my son ought to be before +them; far before them. There is an eminence ready for him to mount upon. +There is nothing of chance or doubt in the course before my son. His way +in life was clear and prepared, and marked out before he existed. The +education of such a young gentleman must not be delayed. It must not be +left imperfect. It must be very steadily and seriously undertaken, Mrs +Pipchin.' + +'Well, Sir,' said Mrs Pipchin, 'I can say nothing to the contrary.' + +'I was quite sure, Mrs Pipchin,' returned Mr Dombey, approvingly, 'that +a person of your good sense could not, and would not.' + +'There is a great deal of nonsense--and worse--talked about young people +not being pressed too hard at first, and being tempted on, and all the +rest of it, Sir,' said Mrs Pipchin, impatiently rubbing her hooked +nose. 'It never was thought of in my time, and it has no business to be +thought of now. My opinion is "keep 'em at it".' + +'My good madam,' returned Mr Dombey, 'you have not acquired your +reputation undeservedly; and I beg you to believe, Mrs Pipchin, that +I am more than satisfied with your excellent system of management, +and shall have the greatest pleasure in commending it whenever my poor +commendation--' Mr Dombey's loftiness when he affected to disparage his +own importance, passed all bounds--'can be of any service. I have been +thinking of Doctor Blimber's, Mrs Pipchin.' + +'My neighbour, Sir?' said Mrs Pipchin. 'I believe the Doctor's is an +excellent establishment. I've heard that it's very strictly conducted, +and there is nothing but learning going on from morning to night.' + +'And it's very expensive,' added Mr Dombey. + +'And it's very expensive, Sir,' returned Mrs Pipchin, catching at the +fact, as if in omitting that, she had omitted one of its leading merits. + +'I have had some communication with the Doctor, Mrs Pipchin,' said Mr +Dombey, hitching his chair anxiously a little nearer to the fire, 'and +he does not consider Paul at all too young for his purpose. He mentioned +several instances of boys in Greek at about the same age. If I have any +little uneasiness in my own mind, Mrs Pipchin, on the subject of this +change, it is not on that head. My son not having known a mother has +gradually concentrated much--too much--of his childish affection on +his sister. Whether their separation--' Mr Dombey said no more, but sat +silent. + +'Hoity-toity!' exclaimed Mrs Pipchin, shaking out her black bombazeen +skirts, and plucking up all the ogress within her. 'If she don't like +it, Mr Dombey, she must be taught to lump it.' The good lady apologised +immediately afterwards for using so common a figure of speech, but said +(and truly) that that was the way she reasoned with 'em. + +Mr Dombey waited until Mrs Pipchin had done bridling and shaking her +head, and frowning down a legion of Bitherstones and Pankeys; and then +said quietly, but correctively, 'He, my good madam, he.' + +Mrs Pipchin's system would have applied very much the same mode of cure +to any uneasiness on the part of Paul, too; but as the hard grey eye was +sharp enough to see that the recipe, however Mr Dombey might admit its +efficacy in the case of the daughter, was not a sovereign remedy for the +son, she argued the point; and contended that change, and new society, +and the different form of life he would lead at Doctor Blimber's, and +the studies he would have to master, would very soon prove sufficient +alienations. As this chimed in with Mr Dombey's own hope and belief, +it gave that gentleman a still higher opinion of Mrs Pipchin's +understanding; and as Mrs Pipchin, at the same time, bewailed the loss +of her dear little friend (which was not an overwhelming shock to her, +as she had long expected it, and had not looked, in the beginning, for +his remaining with her longer than three months), he formed an equally +good opinion of Mrs Pipchin's disinterestedness. It was plain that he +had given the subject anxious consideration, for he had formed a plan, +which he announced to the ogress, of sending Paul to the Doctor's as a +weekly boarder for the first half year, during which time Florence +would remain at the Castle, that she might receive her brother there, on +Saturdays. This would wean him by degrees, Mr Dombey said; possibly +with a recollection of his not having been weaned by degrees on a former +occasion. + +Mr Dombey finished the interview by expressing his hope that Mrs Pipchin +would still remain in office as general superintendent and overseer of +his son, pending his studies at Brighton; and having kissed Paul, and +shaken hands with Florence, and beheld Master Bitherstone in his collar +of state, and made Miss Pankey cry by patting her on the head (in which +region she was uncommonly tender, on account of a habit Mrs Pipchin had +of sounding it with her knuckles, like a cask), he withdrew to his hotel +and dinner: resolved that Paul, now that he was getting so old and well, +should begin a vigorous course of education forthwith, to qualify him +for the position in which he was to shine; and that Doctor Blimber +should take him in hand immediately. + +Whenever a young gentleman was taken in hand by Doctor Blimber, he +might consider himself sure of a pretty tight squeeze. The Doctor only +undertook the charge of ten young gentlemen, but he had, always ready, a +supply of learning for a hundred, on the lowest estimate; and it was at +once the business and delight of his life to gorge the unhappy ten with +it. + +In fact, Doctor Blimber's establishment was a great hot-house, in which +there was a forcing apparatus incessantly at work. All the boys blew +before their time. Mental green-peas were produced at Christmas, and +intellectual asparagus all the year round. Mathematical gooseberries +(very sour ones too) were common at untimely seasons, and from mere +sprouts of bushes, under Doctor Blimber's cultivation. Every description +of Greek and Latin vegetable was got off the driest twigs of boys, under +the frostiest circumstances. Nature was of no consequence at all. No +matter what a young gentleman was intended to bear, Doctor Blimber made +him bear to pattern, somehow or other. + +This was all very pleasant and ingenious, but the system of forcing was +attended with its usual disadvantages. There was not the right taste +about the premature productions, and they didn't keep well. Moreover, +one young gentleman, with a swollen nose and an excessively large head +(the oldest of the ten who had 'gone through' everything), suddenly left +off blowing one day, and remained in the establishment a mere stalk. And +people did say that the Doctor had rather overdone it with young Toots, +and that when he began to have whiskers he left off having brains. + +There young Toots was, at any rate; possessed of the gruffest of voices +and the shrillest of minds; sticking ornamental pins into his shirt, and +keeping a ring in his waistcoat pocket to put on his little finger by +stealth, when the pupils went out walking; constantly falling in love by +sight with nurserymaids, who had no idea of his existence; and looking +at the gas-lighted world over the little iron bars in the left-hand +corner window of the front three pairs of stairs, after bed-time, like a +greatly overgrown cherub who had sat up aloft much too long. + +The Doctor was a portly gentleman in a suit of black, with strings +at his knees, and stockings below them. He had a bald head, highly +polished; a deep voice; and a chin so very double, that it was a wonder +how he ever managed to shave into the creases. He had likewise a pair of +little eyes that were always half shut up, and a mouth that was always +half expanded into a grin, as if he had, that moment, posed a boy, and +were waiting to convict him from his own lips. Insomuch, that when the +Doctor put his right hand into the breast of his coat, and with his +other hand behind him, and a scarcely perceptible wag of his head, made +the commonest observation to a nervous stranger, it was like a sentiment +from the sphynx, and settled his business. + +The Doctor's was a mighty fine house, fronting the sea. Not a joyful +style of house within, but quite the contrary. Sad-coloured curtains, +whose proportions were spare and lean, hid themselves despondently +behind the windows. The tables and chairs were put away in rows, like +figures in a sum; fires were so rarely lighted in the rooms of ceremony, +that they felt like wells, and a visitor represented the bucket; the +dining-room seemed the last place in the world where any eating or +drinking was likely to occur; there was no sound through all the house +but the ticking of a great clock in the hall, which made itself audible +in the very garrets; and sometimes a dull cooing of young gentlemen +at their lessons, like the murmurings of an assemblage of melancholy +pigeons. + +Miss Blimber, too, although a slim and graceful maid, did no soft +violence to the gravity of the house. There was no light nonsense about +Miss Blimber. She kept her hair short and crisp, and wore spectacles. +She was dry and sandy with working in the graves of deceased languages. +None of your live languages for Miss Blimber. They must be dead--stone +dead--and then Miss Blimber dug them up like a Ghoul. + +Mrs Blimber, her Mama, was not learned herself, but she pretended to +be, and that did quite as well. She said at evening parties, that if she +could have known Cicero, she thought she could have died contented. It +was the steady joy of her life to see the Doctor's young gentlemen go +out walking, unlike all other young gentlemen, in the largest possible +shirt-collars, and the stiffest possible cravats. It was so classical, +she said. + +As to Mr Feeder, B.A., Doctor Blimber's assistant, he was a kind +of human barrel-organ, with a little list of tunes at which he was +continually working, over and over again, without any variation. He +might have been fitted up with a change of barrels, perhaps, in early +life, if his destiny had been favourable; but it had not been; and he +had only one, with which, in a monotonous round, it was his occupation +to bewilder the young ideas of Doctor Blimber's young gentlemen. The +young gentlemen were prematurely full of carking anxieties. They knew no +rest from the pursuit of stony-hearted verbs, savage noun-substantives, +inflexible syntactic passages, and ghosts of exercises that appeared +to them in their dreams. Under the forcing system, a young gentleman +usually took leave of his spirits in three weeks. He had all the cares +of the world on his head in three months. He conceived bitter sentiments +against his parents or guardians in four; he was an old misanthrope, in +five; envied Curtius that blessed refuge in the earth, in six; and at +the end of the first twelvemonth had arrived at the conclusion, from +which he never afterwards departed, that all the fancies of the poets, +and lessons of the sages, were a mere collection of words and grammar, +and had no other meaning in the world. + +But he went on blow, blow, blowing, in the Doctor's hothouse, all the +time; and the Doctor's glory and reputation were great, when he took his +wintry growth home to his relations and friends. + +Upon the Doctor's door-steps one day, Paul stood with a fluttering +heart, and with his small right hand in his father's. His other hand was +locked in that of Florence. How tight the tiny pressure of that one; and +how loose and cold the other! + +Mrs Pipchin hovered behind the victim, with her sable plumage and her +hooked beak, like a bird of ill-omen. She was out of breath--for +Mr Dombey, full of great thoughts, had walked fast--and she croaked +hoarsely as she waited for the opening of the door. + +'Now, Paul,' said Mr Dombey, exultingly. 'This is the way indeed to be +Dombey and Son, and have money. You are almost a man already.' + +'Almost,' returned the child. + +Even his childish agitation could not master the sly and quaint yet +touching look, with which he accompanied the reply. + +It brought a vague expression of dissatisfaction into Mr Dombey's face; +but the door being opened, it was quickly gone. + +'Doctor Blimber is at home, I believe?' said Mr Dombey. + +The man said yes; and as they passed in, looked at Paul as if he were a +little mouse, and the house were a trap. He was a weak-eyed young man, +with the first faint streaks or early dawn of a grin on his countenance. +It was mere imbecility; but Mrs Pipchin took it into her head that it +was impudence, and made a snap at him directly. + +'How dare you laugh behind the gentleman's back?' said Mrs Pipchin. 'And +what do you take me for?' + +'I ain't a laughing at nobody, and I'm sure I don't take you for +nothing, Ma'am,' returned the young man, in consternation. + +'A pack of idle dogs!' said Mrs Pipchin, 'only fit to be turnspits. Go +and tell your master that Mr Dombey's here, or it'll be worse for you!' + +The weak-eyed young man went, very meekly, to discharge himself of this +commission; and soon came back to invite them to the Doctor's study. + +'You're laughing again, Sir,' said Mrs Pipchin, when it came to her +turn, bringing up the rear, to pass him in the hall. + +'I ain't,' returned the young man, grievously oppressed. 'I never see +such a thing as this!' + +'What is the matter, Mrs Pipchin?' said Mr Dombey, looking round. +'Softly! Pray!' + +Mrs Pipchin, in her deference, merely muttered at the young man as she +passed on, and said, 'Oh! he was a precious fellow'--leaving the young +man, who was all meekness and incapacity, affected even to tears by the +incident. But Mrs Pipchin had a way of falling foul of all meek people; +and her friends said who could wonder at it, after the Peruvian mines! + +The Doctor was sitting in his portentous study, with a globe at each +knee, books all round him, Homer over the door, and Minerva on the +mantel-shelf. 'And how do you do, Sir?' he said to Mr Dombey, 'and how +is my little friend?' Grave as an organ was the Doctor's speech; and +when he ceased, the great clock in the hall seemed (to Paul at least) to +take him up, and to go on saying, 'how, is, my, lit, tle, friend? how, +is, my, lit, tle, friend?' over and over and over again. + +The little friend being something too small to be seen at all from where +the Doctor sat, over the books on his table, the Doctor made several +futile attempts to get a view of him round the legs; which Mr Dombey +perceiving, relieved the Doctor from his embarrassment by taking Paul up +in his arms, and sitting him on another little table, over against the +Doctor, in the middle of the room. + +'Ha!' said the Doctor, leaning back in his chair with his hand in his +breast. 'Now I see my little friend. How do you do, my little friend?' + +The clock in the hall wouldn't subscribe to this alteration in the form +of words, but continued to repeat how, is, my, lit, tle, friend? how, +is, my, lit, tle, friend?' + +'Very well, I thank you, Sir,' returned Paul, answering the clock quite +as much as the Doctor. + +'Ha!' said Doctor Blimber. 'Shall we make a man of him?' + +'Do you hear, Paul?' added Mr Dombey; Paul being silent. + +'Shall we make a man of him?' repeated the Doctor. + +'I had rather be a child,' replied Paul. + +'Indeed!' said the Doctor. 'Why?' + +The child sat on the table looking at him, with a curious expression of +suppressed emotion in his face, and beating one hand proudly on his +knee as if he had the rising tears beneath it, and crushed them. But +his other hand strayed a little way the while, a little farther--farther +from him yet--until it lighted on the neck of Florence. 'This is why,' +it seemed to say, and then the steady look was broken up and gone; the +working lip was loosened; and the tears came streaming forth. + +'Mrs Pipchin,' said his father, in a querulous manner, 'I am really very +sorry to see this.' + +'Come away from him, do, Miss Dombey,' quoth the matron. + +'Never mind,' said the Doctor, blandly nodding his head, to keep +Mrs Pipchin back. 'Never mind; we shall substitute new cares and new +impressions, Mr Dombey, very shortly. You would still wish my little +friend to acquire--' + +'Everything, if you please, Doctor,' returned Mr Dombey, firmly. + +'Yes,' said the Doctor, who, with his half-shut eyes, and his usual +smile, seemed to survey Paul with the sort of interest that might attach +to some choice little animal he was going to stuff. 'Yes, exactly. Ha! +We shall impart a great variety of information to our little friend, and +bring him quickly forward, I daresay. I daresay. Quite a virgin soil, I +believe you said, Mr Dombey?' + +'Except some ordinary preparation at home, and from this lady,' replied +Mr Dombey, introducing Mrs Pipchin, who instantly communicated a +rigidity to her whole muscular system, and snorted defiance beforehand, +in case the Doctor should disparage her; 'except so far, Paul has, as +yet, applied himself to no studies at all.' + +Doctor Blimber inclined his head, in gentle tolerance of such +insignificant poaching as Mrs Pipchin's, and said he was glad to hear +it. It was much more satisfactory, he observed, rubbing his hands, to +begin at the foundation. And again he leered at Paul, as if he would +have liked to tackle him with the Greek alphabet, on the spot. + +'That circumstance, indeed, Doctor Blimber,' pursued Mr Dombey, glancing +at his little son, 'and the interview I have already had the pleasure of +holding with you, renders any further explanation, and consequently, any +further intrusion on your valuable time, so unnecessary, that--' + +'Now, Miss Dombey!' said the acid Pipchin. + +'Permit me,' said the Doctor, 'one moment. Allow me to present Mrs +Blimber and my daughter; who will be associated with the domestic life +of our young Pilgrim to Parnassus Mrs Blimber,' for the lady, who had +perhaps been in waiting, opportunely entered, followed by her daughter, +that fair Sexton in spectacles, 'Mr Dombey. My daughter Cornelia, Mr +Dombey. Mr Dombey, my love,' pursued the Doctor, turning to his wife, +'is so confiding as to--do you see our little friend?' + +Mrs Blimber, in an excess of politeness, of which Mr Dombey was the +object, apparently did not, for she was backing against the little +friend, and very much endangering his position on the table. But, +on this hint, she turned to admire his classical and intellectual +lineaments, and turning again to Mr Dombey, said, with a sigh, that she +envied his dear son. + +'Like a bee, Sir,' said Mrs Blimber, with uplifted eyes, 'about to +plunge into a garden of the choicest flowers, and sip the sweets for the +first time Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Terence, Plautus, Cicero. What a world +of honey have we here. It may appear remarkable, Mr Dombey, in one who +is a wife--the wife of such a husband--' + +'Hush, hush,' said Doctor Blimber. 'Fie for shame.' + +'Mr Dombey will forgive the partiality of a wife,' said Mrs Blimber, +with an engaging smile. + +Mr Dombey answered 'Not at all:' applying those words, it is to be +presumed, to the partiality, and not to the forgiveness. + +'And it may seem remarkable in one who is a mother also,' resumed Mrs +Blimber. + +'And such a mother,' observed Mr Dombey, bowing with some confused idea +of being complimentary to Cornelia. + +'But really,' pursued Mrs Blimber, 'I think if I could have known +Cicero, and been his friend, and talked with him in his retirement at +Tusculum (beau-ti-ful Tusculum!), I could have died contented.' + +A learned enthusiasm is so very contagious, that Mr Dombey half believed +this was exactly his case; and even Mrs Pipchin, who was not, as we have +seen, of an accommodating disposition generally, gave utterance to a +little sound between a groan and a sigh, as if she would have said that +nobody but Cicero could have proved a lasting consolation under that +failure of the Peruvian Mines, but that he indeed would have been a very +Davy-lamp of refuge. + +Cornelia looked at Mr Dombey through her spectacles, as if she would +have liked to crack a few quotations with him from the authority in +question. But this design, if she entertained it, was frustrated by a +knock at the room-door. + +'Who is that?' said the Doctor. 'Oh! Come in, Toots; come in. Mr Dombey, +Sir.' Toots bowed. 'Quite a coincidence!' said Doctor Blimber. 'Here +we have the beginning and the end. Alpha and Omega. Our head boy, Mr +Dombey.' + +The Doctor might have called him their head and shoulders boy, for he +was at least that much taller than any of the rest. He blushed very much +at finding himself among strangers, and chuckled aloud. + +'An addition to our little Portico, Toots,' said the Doctor; 'Mr +Dombey's son.' + +Young Toots blushed again; and finding, from a solemn silence which +prevailed, that he was expected to say something, said to Paul, 'How are +you?' in a voice so deep, and a manner so sheepish, that if a lamb had +roared it couldn't have been more surprising. + +'Ask Mr Feeder, if you please, Toots,' said the Doctor, 'to prepare +a few introductory volumes for Mr Dombey's son, and to allot him a +convenient seat for study. My dear, I believe Mr Dombey has not seen the +dormitories.' + +'If Mr Dombey will walk upstairs,' said Mrs Blimber, 'I shall be more +than proud to show him the dominions of the drowsy god.' + +With that, Mrs Blimber, who was a lady of great suavity, and a wiry +figure, and who wore a cap composed of sky-blue materials, proceeded +upstairs with Mr Dombey and Cornelia; Mrs Pipchin following, and looking +out sharp for her enemy the footman. + +While they were gone, Paul sat upon the table, holding Florence by the +hand, and glancing timidly from the Doctor round and round the room, +while the Doctor, leaning back in his chair, with his hand in his breast +as usual, held a book from him at arm's length, and read. There +was something very awful in this manner of reading. It was such a +determined, unimpassioned, inflexible, cold-blooded way of going to +work. It left the Doctor's countenance exposed to view; and when the +Doctor smiled suspiciously at his author, or knit his brows, or shook +his head and made wry faces at him, as much as to say, 'Don't tell me, +Sir; I know better,' it was terrific. + +Toots, too, had no business to be outside the door, ostentatiously +examining the wheels in his watch, and counting his half-crowns. But +that didn't last long; for Doctor Blimber, happening to change the +position of his tight plump legs, as if he were going to get up, Toots +swiftly vanished, and appeared no more. + +Mr Dombey and his conductress were soon heard coming downstairs again, +talking all the way; and presently they re-entered the Doctor's study. + +'I hope, Mr Dombey,' said the Doctor, laying down his book, 'that the +arrangements meet your approval.' + +'They are excellent, Sir,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Very fair, indeed,' said Mrs Pipchin, in a low voice; never disposed to +give too much encouragement. + +'Mrs Pipchin,' said Mr Dombey, wheeling round, 'will, with your +permission, Doctor and Mrs Blimber, visit Paul now and then.' + +'Whenever Mrs Pipchin pleases,' observed the Doctor. + +'Always happy to see her,' said Mrs Blimber. + +'I think,' said Mr Dombey, 'I have given all the trouble I need, and may +take my leave. Paul, my child,' he went close to him, as he sat upon the +table. 'Good-bye.' + +'Good-bye, Papa.' + +The limp and careless little hand that Mr Dombey took in his, was +singularly out of keeping with the wistful face. But he had no part +in its sorrowful expression. It was not addressed to him. No, no. To +Florence--all to Florence. + +If Mr Dombey in his insolence of wealth, had ever made an enemy, hard +to appease and cruelly vindictive in his hate, even such an enemy might +have received the pang that wrung his proud heart then, as compensation +for his injury. + +He bent down, over his boy, and kissed him. If his sight were dimmed as +he did so, by something that for a moment blurred the little face, and +made it indistinct to him, his mental vision may have been, for that +short time, the clearer perhaps. + +'I shall see you soon, Paul. You are free on Saturdays and Sundays, you +know.' + +'Yes, Papa,' returned Paul: looking at his sister. 'On Saturdays and +Sundays.' + +'And you'll try and learn a great deal here, and be a clever man,' said +Mr Dombey; 'won't you?' + +'I'll try,' returned the child, wearily. + +'And you'll soon be grown up now!' said Mr Dombey. + +'Oh! very soon!' replied the child. Once more the old, old look passed +rapidly across his features like a strange light. It fell on Mrs +Pipchin, and extinguished itself in her black dress. That excellent +ogress stepped forward to take leave and to bear off Florence, which she +had long been thirsting to do. The move on her part roused Mr Dombey, +whose eyes were fixed on Paul. After patting him on the head, and +pressing his small hand again, he took leave of Doctor Blimber, Mrs +Blimber, and Miss Blimber, with his usual polite frigidity, and walked +out of the study. + +Despite his entreaty that they would not think of stirring, Doctor +Blimber, Mrs Blimber, and Miss Blimber all pressed forward to attend him +to the hall; and thus Mrs Pipchin got into a state of entanglement with +Miss Blimber and the Doctor, and was crowded out of the study before +she could clutch Florence. To which happy accident Paul stood afterwards +indebted for the dear remembrance, that Florence ran back to throw her +arms round his neck, and that hers was the last face in the doorway: +turned towards him with a smile of encouragement, the brighter for the +tears through which it beamed. + +It made his childish bosom heave and swell when it was gone; and sent +the globes, the books, blind Homer and Minerva, swimming round the room. +But they stopped, all of a sudden; and then he heard the loud clock in +the hall still gravely inquiring 'how, is, my, lit, tle, friend? how, +is, my, lit, tle, friend?' as it had done before. + +He sat, with folded hands, upon his pedestal, silently listening. But +he might have answered 'weary, weary! very lonely, very sad!' And there, +with an aching void in his young heart, and all outside so cold, and +bare, and strange, Paul sat as if he had taken life unfurnished, and the +upholsterer were never coming. + + + +CHAPTER 12. Paul's Education + + +After the lapse of some minutes, which appeared an immense time to +little Paul Dombey on the table, Doctor Blimber came back. The Doctor's +walk was stately, and calculated to impress the juvenile mind with +solemn feelings. It was a sort of march; but when the Doctor put out his +right foot, he gravely turned upon his axis, with a semi-circular sweep +towards the left; and when he put out his left foot, he turned in the +same manner towards the right. So that he seemed, at every stride he +took, to look about him as though he were saying, 'Can anybody have +the goodness to indicate any subject, in any direction, on which I am +uninformed? I rather think not.' + +Mrs Blimber and Miss Blimber came back in the Doctor's company; and the +Doctor, lifting his new pupil off the table, delivered him over to Miss +Blimber. + +'Cornelia,' said the Doctor, 'Dombey will be your charge at first. Bring +him on, Cornelia, bring him on.' + +Miss Blimber received her young ward from the Doctor's hands; and Paul, +feeling that the spectacles were surveying him, cast down his eyes. + +'How old are you, Dombey?' said Miss Blimber. + +'Six,' answered Paul, wondering, as he stole a glance at the young lady, +why her hair didn't grow long like Florence's, and why she was like a +boy. + +'How much do you know of your Latin Grammar, Dombey?' said Miss Blimber. + +'None of it,' answered Paul. Feeling that the answer was a shock to Miss +Blimber's sensibility, he looked up at the three faces that were looking +down at him, and said: + +'I haven't been well. I have been a weak child. I couldn't learn a +Latin Grammar when I was out, every day, with old Glubb. I wish you'd +tell old Glubb to come and see me, if you please.' + +'What a dreadfully low name' said Mrs Blimber. 'Unclassical to a degree! +Who is the monster, child?' + +'What monster?' inquired Paul. + +'Glubb,' said Mrs Blimber, with a great disrelish. + +'He's no more a monster than you are,' returned Paul. + +'What!' cried the Doctor, in a terrible voice. 'Ay, ay, ay? Aha! What's +that?' + +Paul was dreadfully frightened; but still he made a stand for the absent +Glubb, though he did it trembling. + +'He's a very nice old man, Ma'am,' he said. 'He used to draw my couch. +He knows all about the deep sea, and the fish that are in it, and the +great monsters that come and lie on rocks in the sun, and dive into the +water again when they're startled, blowing and splashing so, that they +can be heard for miles. There are some creatures, said Paul, warming +with his subject, 'I don't know how many yards long, and I forget their +names, but Florence knows, that pretend to be in distress; and when a +man goes near them, out of compassion, they open their great jaws, and +attack him. But all he has got to do,' said Paul, boldly tendering this +information to the very Doctor himself, 'is to keep on turning as he +runs away, and then, as they turn slowly, because they are so long, and +can't bend, he's sure to beat them. And though old Glubb don't know why +the sea should make me think of my Mama that's dead, or what it is that +it is always saying--always saying! he knows a great deal about it. And +I wish,' the child concluded, with a sudden falling of his countenance, +and failing in his animation, as he looked like one forlorn, upon the +three strange faces, 'that you'd let old Glubb come here to see me, for +I know him very well, and he knows me.' + +'Ha!' said the Doctor, shaking his head; 'this is bad, but study will do +much.' + +Mrs Blimber opined, with something like a shiver, that he was an +unaccountable child; and, allowing for the difference of visage, looked +at him pretty much as Mrs Pipchin had been used to do. + +'Take him round the house, Cornelia,' said the Doctor, 'and familiarise +him with his new sphere. Go with that young lady, Dombey.' + +Dombey obeyed; giving his hand to the abstruse Cornelia, and looking at +her sideways, with timid curiosity, as they went away together. For +her spectacles, by reason of the glistening of the glasses, made her +so mysterious, that he didn't know where she was looking, and was not +indeed quite sure that she had any eyes at all behind them. + +Cornelia took him first to the schoolroom, which was situated at the +back of the hall, and was approached through two baize doors, which +deadened and muffled the young gentlemen's voices. Here, there were +eight young gentlemen in various stages of mental prostration, all very +hard at work, and very grave indeed. Toots, as an old hand, had a desk +to himself in one corner: and a magnificent man, of immense age, he +looked, in Paul's young eyes, behind it. + +Mr Feeder, B.A., who sat at another little desk, had his Virgil stop +on, and was slowly grinding that tune to four young gentlemen. Of the +remaining four, two, who grasped their foreheads convulsively, were +engaged in solving mathematical problems; one with his face like a +dirty window, from much crying, was endeavouring to flounder through a +hopeless number of lines before dinner; and one sat looking at his +task in stony stupefaction and despair--which it seemed had been his +condition ever since breakfast time. + +The appearance of a new boy did not create the sensation that might have +been expected. Mr Feeder, B.A. (who was in the habit of shaving his head +for coolness, and had nothing but little bristles on it), gave him a +bony hand, and told him he was glad to see him--which Paul would have +been very glad to have told him, if he could have done so with the least +sincerity. Then Paul, instructed by Cornelia, shook hands with the four +young gentlemen at Mr Feeder's desk; then with the two young gentlemen +at work on the problems, who were very feverish; then with the young +gentleman at work against time, who was very inky; and lastly with the +young gentleman in a state of stupefaction, who was flabby and quite +cold. + +Paul having been already introduced to Toots, that pupil merely chuckled +and breathed hard, as his custom was, and pursued the occupation in +which he was engaged. It was not a severe one; for on account of his +having 'gone through' so much (in more senses than one), and also of his +having, as before hinted, left off blowing in his prime, Toots now had +licence to pursue his own course of study: which was chiefly to write +long letters to himself from persons of distinction, adds 'P. Toots, +Esquire, Brighton, Sussex,' and to preserve them in his desk with great +care. + +These ceremonies passed, Cornelia led Paul upstairs to the top of the +house; which was rather a slow journey, on account of Paul being obliged +to land both feet on every stair, before he mounted another. But they +reached their journey's end at last; and there, in a front room, looking +over the wild sea, Cornelia showed him a nice little bed with white +hangings, close to the window, on which there was already beautifully +written on a card in round text--down strokes very thick, and up strokes +very fine--DOMBEY; while two other little bedsteads in the same room +were announced, through like means, as respectively appertaining unto +BRIGGS and TOZER. + +Just as they got downstairs again into the hall, Paul saw the weak-eyed +young man who had given that mortal offence to Mrs Pipchin, suddenly +seize a very large drumstick, and fly at a gong that was hanging up, as +if he had gone mad, or wanted vengeance. Instead of receiving warning, +however, or being instantly taken into custody, the young man left off +unchecked, after having made a dreadful noise. Then Cornelia Blimber +said to Dombey that dinner would be ready in a quarter of an hour, and +perhaps he had better go into the schoolroom among his 'friends.' + +So Dombey, deferentially passing the great clock which was still as +anxious as ever to know how he found himself, opened the schoolroom door +a very little way, and strayed in like a lost boy: shutting it after +him with some difficulty. His friends were all dispersed about the +room except the stony friend, who remained immoveable. Mr Feeder was +stretching himself in his grey gown, as if, regardless of expense, he +were resolved to pull the sleeves off. + +'Heigh ho hum!' cried Mr Feeder, shaking himself like a cart-horse. 'Oh +dear me, dear me! Ya-a-a-ah!' + +Paul was quite alarmed by Mr Feeder's yawning; it was done on such a +great scale, and he was so terribly in earnest. All the boys too (Toots +excepted) seemed knocked up, and were getting ready for dinner--some +newly tying their neckcloths, which were very stiff indeed; and +others washing their hands or brushing their hair, in an adjoining +ante-chamber--as if they didn't think they should enjoy it at all. + +Young Toots who was ready beforehand, and had therefore nothing to do, +and had leisure to bestow upon Paul, said, with heavy good nature: + +'Sit down, Dombey.' + +'Thank you, Sir,' said Paul. + +His endeavouring to hoist himself on to a very high window-seat, and his +slipping down again, appeared to prepare Toots's mind for the reception +of a discovery. + +'You're a very small chap;' said Mr Toots. + +'Yes, Sir, I'm small,' returned Paul. 'Thank you, Sir.' + +For Toots had lifted him into the seat, and done it kindly too. + +'Who's your tailor?' inquired Toots, after looking at him for some +moments. + +'It's a woman that has made my clothes as yet,' said Paul. 'My sister's +dressmaker.' + +'My tailor's Burgess and Co.,' said Toots. 'Fash'nable. But very dear.' + +Paul had wit enough to shake his head, as if he would have said it was +easy to see that; and indeed he thought so. + +'Your father's regularly rich, ain't he?' inquired Mr Toots. + +'Yes, Sir,' said Paul. 'He's Dombey and Son.' + +'And which?' demanded Toots. + +'And Son, Sir,' replied Paul. + +Mr Toots made one or two attempts, in a low voice, to fix the Firm in +his mind; but not quite succeeding, said he would get Paul to mention +the name again to-morrow morning, as it was rather important. And indeed +he purposed nothing less than writing himself a private and confidential +letter from Dombey and Son immediately. + +By this time the other pupils (always excepting the stony boy) gathered +round. They were polite, but pale; and spoke low; and they were so +depressed in their spirits, that in comparison with the general tone of +that company, Master Bitherstone was a perfect Miller, or complete Jest +Book.' And yet he had a sense of injury upon him, too, had Bitherstone. + +'You sleep in my room, don't you?' asked a solemn young gentleman, whose +shirt-collar curled up the lobes of his ears. + +'Master Briggs?' inquired Paul. + +'Tozer,' said the young gentleman. + +Paul answered yes; and Tozer pointing out the stony pupil, said that was +Briggs. Paul had already felt certain that it must be either Briggs or +Tozer, though he didn't know why. + +'Is yours a strong constitution?' inquired Tozer. + +Paul said he thought not. Tozer replied that he thought not also, +judging from Paul's looks, and that it was a pity, for it need be. He +then asked Paul if he were going to begin with Cornelia; and on Paul +saying 'yes,' all the young gentlemen (Briggs excepted) gave a low +groan. + +It was drowned in the tintinnabulation of the gong, which sounding again +with great fury, there was a general move towards the dining-room; still +excepting Briggs the stony boy, who remained where he was, and as he +was; and on its way to whom Paul presently encountered a round of bread, +genteelly served on a plate and napkin, and with a silver fork lying +crosswise on the top of it. Doctor Blimber was already in his place in +the dining-room, at the top of the table, with Miss Blimber and Mrs +Blimber on either side of him. Mr Feeder in a black coat was at the +bottom. Paul's chair was next to Miss Blimber; but it being found, when +he sat in it, that his eyebrows were not much above the level of the +table-cloth, some books were brought in from the Doctor's study, on +which he was elevated, and on which he always sat from that time-- +carrying them in and out himself on after occasions, like a little +elephant and castle. + +Grace having been said by the Doctor, dinner began. There was some nice +soup; also roast meat, boiled meat, vegetables, pie, and cheese. Every +young gentleman had a massive silver fork, and a napkin; and all the +arrangements were stately and handsome. In particular, there was a +butler in a blue coat and bright buttons, who gave quite a winey flavour +to the table beer; he poured it out so superbly. + +Nobody spoke, unless spoken to, except Doctor Blimber, Mrs Blimber, and +Miss Blimber, who conversed occasionally. Whenever a young gentleman was +not actually engaged with his knife and fork or spoon, his eye, with an +irresistible attraction, sought the eye of Doctor Blimber, Mrs Blimber, +or Miss Blimber, and modestly rested there. Toots appeared to be the +only exception to this rule. He sat next Mr Feeder on Paul's side of the +table, and frequently looked behind and before the intervening boys to +catch a glimpse of Paul. + +Only once during dinner was there any conversation that included the +young gentlemen. It happened at the epoch of the cheese, when the +Doctor, having taken a glass of port wine, and hemmed twice or thrice, +said: + +'It is remarkable, Mr Feeder, that the Romans--' + +At the mention of this terrible people, their implacable enemies, every +young gentleman fastened his gaze upon the Doctor, with an assumption of +the deepest interest. One of the number who happened to be drinking, +and who caught the Doctor's eye glaring at him through the side of his +tumbler, left off so hastily that he was convulsed for some moments, and +in the sequel ruined Doctor Blimber's point. + +'It is remarkable, Mr Feeder,' said the Doctor, beginning again slowly, +'that the Romans, in those gorgeous and profuse entertainments of which +we read in the days of the Emperors, when luxury had attained a height +unknown before or since, and when whole provinces were ravaged to supply +the splendid means of one Imperial Banquet--' + +Here the offender, who had been swelling and straining, and waiting in +vain for a full stop, broke out violently. + +'Johnson,' said Mr Feeder, in a low reproachful voice, 'take some +water.' + +The Doctor, looking very stern, made a pause until the water was +brought, and then resumed: + +'And when, Mr Feeder--' + +But Mr Feeder, who saw that Johnson must break out again, and who knew +that the Doctor would never come to a period before the young gentlemen +until he had finished all he meant to say, couldn't keep his eye off +Johnson; and thus was caught in the fact of not looking at the Doctor, +who consequently stopped. + +'I beg your pardon, Sir,' said Mr Feeder, reddening. 'I beg your pardon, +Doctor Blimber.' + +'And when,' said the Doctor, raising his voice, 'when, Sir, as we +read, and have no reason to doubt--incredible as it may appear to the +vulgar--of our time--the brother of Vitellius prepared for him a feast, +in which were served, of fish, two thousand dishes--' + +'Take some water, Johnson--dishes, Sir,' said Mr Feeder. + +'Of various sorts of fowl, five thousand dishes.' + +'Or try a crust of bread,' said Mr Feeder. + +'And one dish,' pursued Doctor Blimber, raising his voice still higher +as he looked all round the table, 'called, from its enormous dimensions, +the Shield of Minerva, and made, among other costly ingredients, of the +brains of pheasants--' + +'Ow, ow, ow!' (from Johnson.) + +'Woodcocks--' + +'Ow, ow, ow!' + +'The sounds of the fish called scari--' + +'You'll burst some vessel in your head,' said Mr Feeder. 'You had better +let it come.' + +'And the spawn of the lamprey, brought from the Carpathian Sea,' +pursued the Doctor, in his severest voice; 'when we read of costly +entertainments such as these, and still remember, that we have a +Titus--' + +'What would be your mother's feelings if you died of apoplexy!' said Mr +Feeder. + +'A Domitian--' + +'And you're blue, you know,' said Mr Feeder. + +'A Nero, a Tiberius, a Caligula, a Heliogabalus, and many more, pursued +the Doctor; 'it is, Mr Feeder--if you are doing me the honour to +attend--remarkable; VERY remarkable, Sir--' + +But Johnson, unable to suppress it any longer, burst at that moment into +such an overwhelming fit of coughing, that although both his immediate +neighbours thumped him on the back, and Mr Feeder himself held a glass +of water to his lips, and the butler walked him up and down several +times between his own chair and the sideboard, like a sentry, it was a +full five minutes before he was moderately composed. Then there was a +profound silence. + +'Gentlemen,' said Doctor Blimber, 'rise for Grace! Cornelia, lift Dombey +down'--nothing of whom but his scalp was accordingly seen above +the tablecloth. 'Johnson will repeat to me tomorrow morning before +breakfast, without book, and from the Greek Testament, the first chapter +of the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians. We will resume our +studies, Mr Feeder, in half-an-hour.' + +The young gentlemen bowed and withdrew. Mr Feeder did likewise. +During the half-hour, the young gentlemen, broken into pairs, loitered +arm-in-arm up and down a small piece of ground behind the house, or +endeavoured to kindle a spark of animation in the breast of Briggs. But +nothing happened so vulgar as play. Punctually at the appointed time, +the gong was sounded, and the studies, under the joint auspices of +Doctor Blimber and Mr Feeder, were resumed. + +As the Olympic game of lounging up and down had been cut shorter than +usual that day, on Johnson's account, they all went out for a walk +before tea. Even Briggs (though he hadn't begun yet) partook of this +dissipation; in the enjoyment of which he looked over the cliff two or +three times darkly. Doctor Blimber accompanied them; and Paul had the +honour of being taken in tow by the Doctor himself: a distinguished +state of things, in which he looked very little and feeble. + +Tea was served in a style no less polite than the dinner; and after tea, +the young gentlemen rising and bowing as before, withdrew to fetch up +the unfinished tasks of that day, or to get up the already looming tasks +of to-morrow. In the meantime Mr Feeder withdrew to his own room; and +Paul sat in a corner wondering whether Florence was thinking of him, and +what they were all about at Mrs Pipchin's. + +Mr Toots, who had been detained by an important letter from the Duke of +Wellington, found Paul out after a time; and having looked at him for a +long while, as before, inquired if he was fond of waistcoats. + +Paul said 'Yes, Sir.' + +'So am I,' said Toots. + +No word more spoke Toots that night; but he stood looking at Paul as +if he liked him; and as there was company in that, and Paul was not +inclined to talk, it answered his purpose better than conversation. + +At eight o'clock or so, the gong sounded again for prayers in the +dining-room, where the butler afterwards presided over a side-table, on +which bread and cheese and beer were spread for such young gentlemen as +desired to partake of those refreshments. The ceremonies concluded by +the Doctor's saying, 'Gentlemen, we will resume our studies at seven +to-morrow;' and then, for the first time, Paul saw Cornelia Blimber's +eye, and saw that it was upon him. When the Doctor had said these words, +'Gentlemen, we will resume our studies at seven tomorrow,' the pupils +bowed again, and went to bed. + +In the confidence of their own room upstairs, Briggs said his head ached +ready to split, and that he should wish himself dead if it wasn't for +his mother, and a blackbird he had at home. Tozer didn't say much, but he +sighed a good deal, and told Paul to look out, for his turn would come +to-morrow. After uttering those prophetic words, he undressed himself +moodily, and got into bed. Briggs was in his bed too, and Paul in +his bed too, before the weak-eyed young man appeared to take away the +candle, when he wished them good-night and pleasant dreams. But +his benevolent wishes were in vain, as far as Briggs and Tozer were +concerned; for Paul, who lay awake for a long while, and often woke +afterwards, found that Briggs was ridden by his lesson as a nightmare: +and that Tozer, whose mind was affected in his sleep by similar causes, +in a minor degree talked unknown tongues, or scraps of Greek and +Latin--it was all one to Paul--which, in the silence of night, had an +inexpressibly wicked and guilty effect. + +Paul had sunk into a sweet sleep, and dreamed that he was walking hand +in hand with Florence through beautiful gardens, when they came to a +large sunflower which suddenly expanded itself into a gong, and began +to sound. Opening his eyes, he found that it was a dark, windy morning, +with a drizzling rain: and that the real gong was giving dreadful note +of preparation, down in the hall. + +So he got up directly, and found Briggs with hardly any eyes, for +nightmare and grief had made his face puffy, putting his boots on: while +Tozer stood shivering and rubbing his shoulders in a very bad humour. +Poor Paul couldn't dress himself easily, not being used to it, and asked +them if they would have the goodness to tie some strings for him; but as +Briggs merely said 'Bother!' and Tozer, 'Oh yes!' he went down when he +was otherwise ready, to the next storey, where he saw a pretty young +woman in leather gloves, cleaning a stove. The young woman seemed +surprised at his appearance, and asked him where his mother was. When +Paul told her she was dead, she took her gloves off, and did what he +wanted; and furthermore rubbed his hands to warm them; and gave him a +kiss; and told him whenever he wanted anything of that sort--meaning in +the dressing way--to ask for 'Melia; which Paul, thanking her very +much, said he certainly would. He then proceeded softly on his journey +downstairs, towards the room in which the young gentlemen resumed their +studies, when, passing by a door that stood ajar, a voice from within +cried, 'Is that Dombey?' On Paul replying, 'Yes, Ma'am:' for he knew the +voice to be Miss Blimber's: Miss Blimber said, 'Come in, Dombey.' And in +he went. + +Miss Blimber presented exactly the appearance she had presented +yesterday, except that she wore a shawl. Her little light curls were as +crisp as ever, and she had already her spectacles on, which made +Paul wonder whether she went to bed in them. She had a cool little +sitting-room of her own up there, with some books in it, and no fire But +Miss Blimber was never cold, and never sleepy. + +Now, Dombey,' said Miss Blimber, 'I am going out for a constitutional.' + +Paul wondered what that was, and why she didn't send the footman out to +get it in such unfavourable weather. But he made no observation on the +subject: his attention being devoted to a little pile of new books, on +which Miss Blimber appeared to have been recently engaged. + +'These are yours, Dombey,' said Miss Blimber. + +'All of 'em, Ma'am?' said Paul. + +'Yes,' returned Miss Blimber; 'and Mr Feeder will look you out some more +very soon, if you are as studious as I expect you will be, Dombey.' + +'Thank you, Ma'am,' said Paul. + +'I am going out for a constitutional,' resumed Miss Blimber; 'and while +I am gone, that is to say in the interval between this and breakfast, +Dombey, I wish you to read over what I have marked in these books, and +to tell me if you quite understand what you have got to learn. Don't +lose time, Dombey, for you have none to spare, but take them downstairs, +and begin directly.' + +'Yes, Ma'am,' answered Paul. + +There were so many of them, that although Paul put one hand under the +bottom book and his other hand and his chin on the top book, and hugged +them all closely, the middle book slipped out before he reached the +door, and then they all tumbled down on the floor. Miss Blimber said, +'Oh, Dombey, Dombey, this is really very careless!' and piled them up +afresh for him; and this time, by dint of balancing them with great +nicety, Paul got out of the room, and down a few stairs before two of +them escaped again. But he held the rest so tight, that he only left one +more on the first floor, and one in the passage; and when he had got the +main body down into the schoolroom, he set off upstairs again to collect +the stragglers. Having at last amassed the whole library, and climbed +into his place, he fell to work, encouraged by a remark from Tozer to +the effect that he 'was in for it now;' which was the only interruption +he received till breakfast time. At that meal, for which he had no +appetite, everything was quite as solemn and genteel as at the others; +and when it was finished, he followed Miss Blimber upstairs. + +'Now, Dombey,' said Miss Blimber. 'How have you got on with those +books?' + +They comprised a little English, and a deal of Latin--names of things, +declensions of articles and substantives, exercises thereon, and +preliminary rules--a trifle of orthography, a glance at ancient history, +a wink or two at modern ditto, a few tables, two or three weights and +measures, and a little general information. When poor Paul had spelt +out number two, he found he had no idea of number one; fragments whereof +afterwards obtruded themselves into number three, which slided into +number four, which grafted itself on to number two. So that whether +twenty Romuluses made a Remus, or hic haec hoc was troy weight, or +a verb always agreed with an ancient Briton, or three times four was +Taurus a bull, were open questions with him. + +'Oh, Dombey, Dombey!' said Miss Blimber, 'this is very shocking.' + +'If you please,' said Paul, 'I think if I might sometimes talk a little +to old Glubb, I should be able to do better.' + +'Nonsense, Dombey,' said Miss Blimber. 'I couldn't hear of it. This is +not the place for Glubbs of any kind. You must take the books down, +I suppose, Dombey, one by one, and perfect yourself in the day's +instalment of subject A, before you turn at all to subject B. I am +sorry to say, Dombey, that your education appears to have been very much +neglected.' + +'So Papa says,' returned Paul; 'but I told you--I have been a weak +child. Florence knows I have. So does Wickam.' + +'Who is Wickam?' asked Miss Blimber. + +'She has been my nurse,' Paul answered. + +'I must beg you not to mention Wickam to me, then,' said Miss Blimber. 'I +couldn't allow it'. + +'You asked me who she was,' said Paul. + +'Very well,' returned Miss Blimber; 'but this is all very different +indeed from anything of that sort, Dombey, and I couldn't think of +permitting it. As to having been weak, you must begin to be strong. And +now take away the top book, if you please, Dombey, and return when you +are master of the theme.' + +Miss Blimber expressed her opinions on the subject of Paul's +uninstructed state with a gloomy delight, as if she had expected +this result, and were glad to find that they must be in constant +communication. Paul withdrew with the top task, as he was told, and +laboured away at it, down below: sometimes remembering every word of it, +and sometimes forgetting it all, and everything else besides: until at +last he ventured upstairs again to repeat the lesson, when it was nearly +all driven out of his head before he began, by Miss Blimber's shutting +up the book, and saying, 'Go on, Dombey!' a proceeding so suggestive of +the knowledge inside of her, that Paul looked upon the young lady with +consternation, as a kind of learned Guy Fawkes, or artificial Bogle, +stuffed full of scholastic straw. + +He acquitted himself very well, nevertheless; and Miss Blimber, +commending him as giving promise of getting on fast, immediately +provided him with subject B; from which he passed to C, and even D +before dinner. It was hard work, resuming his studies, soon after +dinner; and he felt giddy and confused and drowsy and dull. But all the +other young gentlemen had similar sensations, and were obliged to resume +their studies too, if there were any comfort in that. It was a wonder +that the great clock in the hall, instead of being constant to its first +inquiry, never said, 'Gentlemen, we will now resume our studies,' for +that phrase was often enough repeated in its neighbourhood. The studies +went round like a mighty wheel, and the young gentlemen were always +stretched upon it. + +After tea there were exercises again, and preparations for next day +by candlelight. And in due course there was bed; where, but for that +resumption of the studies which took place in dreams, were rest and +sweet forgetfulness. + +Oh Saturdays! Oh happy Saturdays, when Florence always came at noon, and +never would, in any weather, stay away, though Mrs Pipchin snarled and +growled, and worried her bitterly. Those Saturdays were Sabbaths for at +least two little Christians among all the Jews, and did the holy Sabbath +work of strengthening and knitting up a brother's and a sister's love. + +Not even Sunday nights--the heavy Sunday nights, whose shadow darkened +the first waking burst of light on Sunday mornings--could mar those +precious Saturdays. Whether it was the great sea-shore, where they sat, +and strolled together; or whether it was only Mrs Pipchin's dull back +room, in which she sang to him so softly, with his drowsy head upon her +arm; Paul never cared. It was Florence. That was all he thought of. So, +on Sunday nights, when the Doctor's dark door stood agape to swallow him +up for another week, the time was come for taking leave of Florence; no +one else. + +Mrs Wickam had been drafted home to the house in town, and Miss Nipper, +now a smart young woman, had come down. To many a single combat with +Mrs Pipchin, did Miss Nipper gallantly devote herself, and if ever Mrs +Pipchin in all her life had found her match, she had found it now. +Miss Nipper threw away the scabbard the first morning she arose in Mrs +Pipchin's house. She asked and gave no quarter. She said it must be war, +and war it was; and Mrs Pipchin lived from that time in the midst of +surprises, harassings, and defiances, and skirmishing attacks that came +bouncing in upon her from the passage, even in unguarded moments of +chops, and carried desolation to her very toast. + +Miss Nipper had returned one Sunday night with Florence, from walking +back with Paul to the Doctor's, when Florence took from her bosom a +little piece of paper, on which she had pencilled down some words. + +'See here, Susan,' she said. 'These are the names of the little books +that Paul brings home to do those long exercises with, when he is so +tired. I copied them last night while he was writing.' + +'Don't show 'em to me, Miss Floy, if you please,' returned Nipper, 'I'd +as soon see Mrs Pipchin.' + +'I want you to buy them for me, Susan, if you will, tomorrow morning. I +have money enough,' said Florence. + +'Why, goodness gracious me, Miss Floy,' returned Miss Nipper, 'how +can you talk like that, when you have books upon books already, and +masterses and mississes a teaching of you everything continual, though +my belief is that your Pa, Miss Dombey, never would have learnt you +nothing, never would have thought of it, unless you'd asked him--when he +couldn't well refuse; but giving consent when asked, and offering when +unasked, Miss, is quite two things; I may not have my objections to a +young man's keeping company with me, and when he puts the question, may +say "yes," but that's not saying "would you be so kind as like me."' + +'But you can buy me the books, Susan; and you will, when you know why I +want them.' + +'Well, Miss, and why do you want 'em?' replied Nipper; adding, in +a lower voice, 'If it was to fling at Mrs Pipchin's head, I'd buy a +cart-load.' + +'Paul has a great deal too much to do, Susan,' said Florence, 'I am sure +of it.' + +'And well you may be, Miss,' returned her maid, 'and make your mind +quite easy that the willing dear is worked and worked away. If those is +Latin legs,' exclaimed Miss Nipper, with strong feeling--in allusion to +Paul's; 'give me English ones.' + +'I am afraid he feels lonely and lost at Doctor Blimber's, Susan,' +pursued Florence, turning away her face. + +'Ah,' said Miss Nipper, with great sharpness, 'Oh, them "Blimbers"' + +'Don't blame anyone,' said Florence. 'It's a mistake.' + +'I say nothing about blame, Miss,' cried Miss Nipper, 'for I know that +you object, but I may wish, Miss, that the family was set to work +to make new roads, and that Miss Blimber went in front and had the +pickaxe.' + +After this speech, Miss Nipper, who was perfectly serious, wiped her +eyes. + +'I think I could perhaps give Paul some help, Susan, if I had these +books,' said Florence, 'and make the coming week a little easier to +him. At least I want to try. So buy them for me, dear, and I will never +forget how kind it was of you to do it!' + +It must have been a harder heart than Susan Nipper's that could have +rejected the little purse Florence held out with these words, or the +gentle look of entreaty with which she seconded her petition. Susan put +the purse in her pocket without reply, and trotted out at once upon her +errand. + +The books were not easy to procure; and the answer at several shops was, +either that they were just out of them, or that they never kept them, or +that they had had a great many last month, or that they expected a great +many next week But Susan was not easily baffled in such an enterprise; +and having entrapped a white-haired youth, in a black calico apron, from +a library where she was known, to accompany her in her quest, she led +him such a life in going up and down, that he exerted himself to the +utmost, if it were only to get rid of her; and finally enabled her to +return home in triumph. + +With these treasures then, after her own daily lessons were over, +Florence sat down at night to track Paul's footsteps through the thorny +ways of learning; and being possessed of a naturally quick and sound +capacity, and taught by that most wonderful of masters, love, it was not +long before she gained upon Paul's heels, and caught and passed him. + +Not a word of this was breathed to Mrs Pipchin: but many a night when +they were all in bed, and when Miss Nipper, with her hair in papers and +herself asleep in some uncomfortable attitude, reposed unconscious by +her side; and when the chinking ashes in the grate were cold and grey; +and when the candles were burnt down and guttering out;--Florence tried +so hard to be a substitute for one small Dombey, that her fortitude and +perseverance might have almost won her a free right to bear the name +herself. + +And high was her reward, when one Saturday evening, as little Paul was +sitting down as usual to 'resume his studies,' she sat down by his side, +and showed him all that was so rough, made smooth, and all that was so +dark, made clear and plain, before him. It was nothing but a startled +look in Paul's wan face--a flush--a smile--and then a close embrace--but +God knows how her heart leapt up at this rich payment for her trouble. + +'Oh, Floy!' cried her brother, 'how I love you! How I love you, Floy!' + +'And I you, dear!' + +'Oh! I am sure of that, Floy.' + +He said no more about it, but all that evening sat close by her, very +quiet; and in the night he called out from his little room within hers, +three or four times, that he loved her. + +Regularly, after that, Florence was prepared to sit down with Paul on +Saturday night, and patiently assist him through so much as they could +anticipate together of his next week's work. The cheering thought that +he was labouring on where Florence had just toiled before him, would, of +itself, have been a stimulant to Paul in the perpetual resumption of his +studies; but coupled with the actual lightening of his load, consequent +on this assistance, it saved him, possibly, from sinking underneath the +burden which the fair Cornelia Blimber piled upon his back. + +It was not that Miss Blimber meant to be too hard upon him, or that +Doctor Blimber meant to bear too heavily on the young gentlemen in +general. Cornelia merely held the faith in which she had been bred; and +the Doctor, in some partial confusion of his ideas, regarded the young +gentlemen as if they were all Doctors, and were born grown up. Comforted +by the applause of the young gentlemen's nearest relations, and urged +on by their blind vanity and ill-considered haste, it would have been +strange if Doctor Blimber had discovered his mistake, or trimmed his +swelling sails to any other tack. + +Thus in the case of Paul. When Doctor Blimber said he made great +progress and was naturally clever, Mr Dombey was more bent than ever on +his being forced and crammed. In the case of Briggs, when Doctor Blimber +reported that he did not make great progress yet, and was not naturally +clever, Briggs senior was inexorable in the same purpose. In short, +however high and false the temperature at which the Doctor kept his +hothouse, the owners of the plants were always ready to lend a helping +hand at the bellows, and to stir the fire. + +Such spirits as he had in the outset, Paul soon lost of course. But he +retained all that was strange, and old, and thoughtful in his character: +and under circumstances so favourable to the development of those +tendencies, became even more strange, and old, and thoughtful, than +before. + +The only difference was, that he kept his character to himself. He grew +more thoughtful and reserved, every day; and had no such curiosity +in any living member of the Doctor's household, as he had had in Mrs +Pipchin. He loved to be alone; and in those short intervals when he was +not occupied with his books, liked nothing so well as wandering about +the house by himself, or sitting on the stairs, listening to the great +clock in the hall. He was intimate with all the paperhanging in the +house; saw things that no one else saw in the patterns; found out +miniature tigers and lions running up the bedroom walls, and squinting +faces leering in the squares and diamonds of the floor-cloth. + +The solitary child lived on, surrounded by this arabesque work of his +musing fancy, and no one understood him. Mrs Blimber thought him 'odd,' +and sometimes the servants said among themselves that little Dombey +'moped;' but that was all. + +Unless young Toots had some idea on the subject, to the expression of +which he was wholly unequal. Ideas, like ghosts (according to the common +notion of ghosts), must be spoken to a little before they will explain +themselves; and Toots had long left off asking any questions of his own +mind. Some mist there may have been, issuing from that leaden casket, +his cranium, which, if it could have taken shape and form, would have +become a genie; but it could not; and it only so far followed the +example of the smoke in the Arabian story, as to roll out in a thick +cloud, and there hang and hover. But it left a little figure visible +upon a lonely shore, and Toots was always staring at it. + +'How are you?' he would say to Paul, fifty times a day. 'Quite well, +Sir, thank you,' Paul would answer. 'Shake hands,' would be Toots's next +advance. + +Which Paul, of course, would immediately do. Mr Toots generally said +again, after a long interval of staring and hard breathing, 'How are +you?' To which Paul again replied, 'Quite well, Sir, thank you.' + +One evening Mr Toots was sitting at his desk, oppressed by +correspondence, when a great purpose seemed to flash upon him. He laid +down his pen, and went off to seek Paul, whom he found at last, after a +long search, looking through the window of his little bedroom. + +'I say!' cried Toots, speaking the moment he entered the room, lest he +should forget it; 'what do you think about?' + +'Oh! I think about a great many things,' replied Paul. + +'Do you, though?' said Toots, appearing to consider that fact in itself +surprising. 'If you had to die,' said Paul, looking up into his face--Mr +Toots started, and seemed much disturbed. + +'Don't you think you would rather die on a moonlight night, when the sky +was quite clear, and the wind blowing, as it did last night?' + +Mr Toots said, looking doubtfully at Paul, and shaking his head, that he +didn't know about that. + +'Not blowing, at least,' said Paul, 'but sounding in the air like the +sea sounds in the shells. It was a beautiful night. When I had listened +to the water for a long time, I got up and looked out. There was a boat +over there, in the full light of the moon; a boat with a sail.' + +The child looked at him so steadfastly, and spoke so earnestly, that +Mr Toots, feeling himself called upon to say something about this boat, +said, 'Smugglers.' But with an impartial remembrance of there being two +sides to every question, he added, 'or Preventive.' + +'A boat with a sail,' repeated Paul, 'in the full light of the moon. The +sail like an arm, all silver. It went away into the distance, and what +do you think it seemed to do as it moved with the waves?' + +'Pitch,' said Mr Toots. + +'It seemed to beckon,' said the child, 'to beckon me to come!--There she +is! There she is!' + +Toots was almost beside himself with dismay at this sudden exclamation, +after what had gone before, and cried 'Who?' + +'My sister Florence!' cried Paul, 'looking up here, and waving her hand. +She sees me--she sees me! Good-night, dear, good-night, good-night.' + +His quick transition to a state of unbounded pleasure, as he stood at +his window, kissing and clapping his hands: and the way in which the +light retreated from his features as she passed out of his view, and +left a patient melancholy on the little face: were too remarkable wholly +to escape even Toots's notice. Their interview being interrupted at this +moment by a visit from Mrs Pipchin, who usually brought her black skirts +to bear upon Paul just before dusk, once or twice a week, Toots had +no opportunity of improving the occasion: but it left so marked an +impression on his mind that he twice returned, after having exchanged +the usual salutations, to ask Mrs Pipchin how she did. This the +irascible old lady conceived to be a deeply devised and long-meditated +insult, originating in the diabolical invention of the weak-eyed young +man downstairs, against whom she accordingly lodged a formal complaint +with Doctor Blimber that very night; who mentioned to the young man that +if he ever did it again, he should be obliged to part with him. + +The evenings being longer now, Paul stole up to his window every evening +to look out for Florence. She always passed and repassed at a certain +time, until she saw him; and their mutual recognition was a gleam of +sunshine in Paul's daily life. Often after dark, one other figure walked +alone before the Doctor's house. He rarely joined them on the Saturdays +now. He could not bear it. He would rather come unrecognised, and look +up at the windows where his son was qualifying for a man; and wait, and +watch, and plan, and hope. + +Oh! could he but have seen, or seen as others did, the slight spare boy +above, watching the waves and clouds at twilight, with his earnest eyes, +and breasting the window of his solitary cage when birds flew by, as if +he would have emulated them, and soared away! + + + +CHAPTER 13. Shipping Intelligence and Office Business + + +Mr Dombey's offices were in a court where there was an old-established +stall of choice fruit at the corner: where perambulating merchants, of +both sexes, offered for sale at any time between the hours of ten and +five, slippers, pocket-books, sponges, dogs' collars, and Windsor soap; +and sometimes a pointer or an oil-painting. + +The pointer always came that way, with a view to the Stock Exchange, +where a sporting taste (originating generally in bets of new hats) +is much in vogue. The other commodities were addressed to the general +public; but they were never offered by the vendors to Mr Dombey. When +he appeared, the dealers in those wares fell off respectfully. The +principal slipper and dogs' collar man--who considered himself a public +character, and whose portrait was screwed on to an artist's door in +Cheapside--threw up his forefinger to the brim of his hat as Mr Dombey +went by. The ticket-porter, if he were not absent on a job, always ran +officiously before, to open Mr Dombey's office door as wide as possible, +and hold it open, with his hat off, while he entered. + +The clerks within were not a whit behind-hand in their demonstrations of +respect. A solemn hush prevailed, as Mr Dombey passed through the outer +office. The wit of the Counting-House became in a moment as mute as the +row of leathern fire-buckets hanging up behind him. Such vapid and flat +daylight as filtered through the ground-glass windows and skylights, +leaving a black sediment upon the panes, showed the books and papers, +and the figures bending over them, enveloped in a studious gloom, and as +much abstracted in appearance, from the world without, as if they were +assembled at the bottom of the sea; while a mouldy little strong room in +the obscure perspective, where a shaded lamp was always burning, might +have represented the cavern of some ocean monster, looking on with a red +eye at these mysteries of the deep. + +When Perch the messenger, whose place was on a little bracket, like a +timepiece, saw Mr Dombey come in--or rather when he felt that he was +coming, for he had usually an instinctive sense of his approach--he +hurried into Mr Dombey's room, stirred the fire, carried fresh coals +from the bowels of the coal-box, hung the newspaper to air upon the +fender, put the chair ready, and the screen in its place, and was +round upon his heel on the instant of Mr Dombey's entrance, to take his +great-coat and hat, and hang them up. Then Perch took the newspaper, +and gave it a turn or two in his hands before the fire, and laid it, +deferentially, at Mr Dombey's elbow. And so little objection had Perch +to being deferential in the last degree, that if he might have laid +himself at Mr Dombey's feet, or might have called him by some such title +as used to be bestowed upon the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, he would have +been all the better pleased. + +As this honour would have been an innovation and an experiment, Perch +was fain to content himself by expressing as well as he could, in his +manner, You are the light of my Eyes. You are the Breath of my Soul. You +are the commander of the Faithful Perch! With this imperfect happiness +to cheer him, he would shut the door softly, walk away on tiptoe, and +leave his great chief to be stared at, through a dome-shaped window in +the leads, by ugly chimney-pots and backs of houses, and especially by +the bold window of a hair-cutting saloon on a first floor, where a waxen +effigy, bald as a Mussulman in the morning, and covered, after eleven +o'clock in the day, with luxuriant hair and whiskers in the latest +Christian fashion, showed him the wrong side of its head for ever. + +Between Mr Dombey and the common world, as it was accessible through +the medium of the outer office--to which Mr Dombey's presence in his own +room may be said to have struck like damp, or cold air--there were two +degrees of descent. Mr Carker in his own office was the first step; +Mr Morfin, in his own office, was the second. Each of these gentlemen +occupied a little chamber like a bath-room, opening from the passage +outside Mr Dombey's door. Mr Carker, as Grand Vizier, inhabited the room +that was nearest to the Sultan. Mr Morfin, as an officer of inferior +state, inhabited the room that was nearest to the clerks. + +The gentleman last mentioned was a cheerful-looking, hazel-eyed elderly +bachelor: gravely attired, as to his upper man, in black; and as to his +legs, in pepper-and-salt colour. His dark hair was just touched here and +there with specks of gray, as though the tread of Time had splashed +it; and his whiskers were already white. He had a mighty respect for Mr +Dombey, and rendered him due homage; but as he was of a genial temper +himself, and never wholly at his ease in that stately presence, he was +disquieted by no jealousy of the many conferences enjoyed by Mr Carker, +and felt a secret satisfaction in having duties to discharge, which +rarely exposed him to be singled out for such distinction. He was a +great musical amateur in his way--after business; and had a paternal +affection for his violoncello, which was once in every week transported +from Islington, his place of abode, to a certain club-room hard by the +Bank, where quartettes of the most tormenting and excruciating nature +were executed every Wednesday evening by a private party. + +Mr Carker was a gentleman thirty-eight or forty years old, of a florid +complexion, and with two unbroken rows of glistening teeth, whose +regularity and whiteness were quite distressing. It was impossible to +escape the observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke; +and bore so wide a smile upon his countenance (a smile, however, very +rarely, indeed, extending beyond his mouth), that there was something in +it like the snarl of a cat. He affected a stiff white cravat, after the +example of his principal, and was always closely buttoned up and tightly +dressed. His manner towards Mr Dombey was deeply conceived and perfectly +expressed. He was familiar with him, in the very extremity of his sense +of the distance between them. 'Mr Dombey, to a man in your position +from a man in mine, there is no show of subservience compatible with the +transaction of business between us, that I should think sufficient. I +frankly tell you, Sir, I give it up altogether. I feel that I could +not satisfy my own mind; and Heaven knows, Mr Dombey, you can afford to +dispense with the endeavour.' If he had carried these words about with +him printed on a placard, and had constantly offered it to Mr Dombey's +perusal on the breast of his coat, he could not have been more explicit +than he was. + +This was Carker the Manager. Mr Carker the Junior, Walter's friend, was +his brother; two or three years older than he, but widely removed in +station. The younger brother's post was on the top of the official +ladder; the elder brother's at the bottom. The elder brother never +gained a stave, or raised his foot to mount one. Young men passed above +his head, and rose and rose; but he was always at the bottom. He was +quite resigned to occupy that low condition: never complained of it: and +certainly never hoped to escape from it. + +'How do you do this morning?' said Mr Carker the Manager, entering Mr +Dombey's room soon after his arrival one day: with a bundle of papers in +his hand. + +'How do you do, Carker?' said Mr Dombey. + +'Coolish!' observed Carker, stirring the fire. + +'Rather,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Any news of the young gentleman who is so important to us all?' asked +Carker, with his whole regiment of teeth on parade. + +'Yes--not direct news--I hear he's very well,' said Mr Dombey. Who had +come from Brighton over-night. But no one knew It. + +'Very well, and becoming a great scholar, no doubt?' observed the +Manager. + +'I hope so,' returned Mr Dombey. + +'Egad!' said Mr Carker, shaking his head, 'Time flies!' + +'I think so, sometimes,' returned Mr Dombey, glancing at his newspaper. + +'Oh! You! You have no reason to think so,' observed Carker. 'One who +sits on such an elevation as yours, and can sit there, unmoved, in all +seasons--hasn't much reason to know anything about the flight of +time. It's men like myself, who are low down and are not superior in +circumstances, and who inherit new masters in the course of Time, that +have cause to look about us. I shall have a rising sun to worship, +soon.' + +'Time enough, time enough, Carker!' said Mr Dombey, rising from his +chair, and standing with his back to the fire. 'Have you anything there +for me?' + +'I don't know that I need trouble you,' returned Carker, turning over +the papers in his hand. 'You have a committee today at three, you know.' + +'And one at three, three-quarters,' added Mr Dombey. + +'Catch you forgetting anything!' exclaimed Carker, still turning over +his papers. 'If Mr Paul inherits your memory, he'll be a troublesome +customer in the House. One of you is enough.' + +'You have an accurate memory of your own,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Oh! I!' returned the manager. 'It's the only capital of a man like me.' + +Mr Dombey did not look less pompous or at all displeased, as he stood +leaning against the chimney-piece, surveying his (of course unconscious) +clerk, from head to foot. The stiffness and nicety of Mr Carker's dress, +and a certain arrogance of manner, either natural to him or imitated +from a pattern not far off, gave great additional effect to his +humility. He seemed a man who would contend against the power that +vanquished him, if he could, but who was utterly borne down by the +greatness and superiority of Mr Dombey. + +'Is Morfin here?' asked Mr Dombey after a short pause, during which Mr +Carker had been fluttering his papers, and muttering little abstracts of +their contents to himself. + +'Morfin's here,' he answered, looking up with his widest and almost +sudden smile; 'humming musical recollections--of his last night's +quartette party, I suppose--through the walls between us, and driving +me half mad. I wish he'd make a bonfire of his violoncello, and burn his +music-books in it.' + +'You respect nobody, Carker, I think,' said Mr Dombey. + +'No?' inquired Carker, with another wide and most feline show of his +teeth. 'Well! Not many people, I believe. I wouldn't answer perhaps,' he +murmured, as if he were only thinking it, 'for more than one.' + +A dangerous quality, if real; and a not less dangerous one, if feigned. +But Mr Dombey hardly seemed to think so, as he still stood with his back +to the fire, drawn up to his full height, and looking at his head-clerk +with a dignified composure, in which there seemed to lurk a stronger +latent sense of power than usual. + +'Talking of Morfin,' resumed Mr Carker, taking out one paper from the +rest, 'he reports a junior dead in the agency at Barbados, and proposes +to reserve a passage in the Son and Heir--she'll sail in a month or +so--for the successor. You don't care who goes, I suppose? We have +nobody of that sort here.' + +Mr Dombey shook his head with supreme indifference. + +'It's no very precious appointment,' observed Mr Carker, taking up a +pen, with which to endorse a memorandum on the back of the paper. 'I +hope he may bestow it on some orphan nephew of a musical friend. It may +perhaps stop his fiddle-playing, if he has a gift that way. Who's that? +Come in!' + +'I beg your pardon, Mr Carker. I didn't know you were here, Sir,' +answered Walter; appearing with some letters in his hand, unopened, and +newly arrived. 'Mr Carker the junior, Sir--' + +At the mention of this name, Mr Carker the Manager was or affected to +be, touched to the quick with shame and humiliation. He cast his eyes +full on Mr Dombey with an altered and apologetic look, abased them on +the ground, and remained for a moment without speaking. + +'I thought, Sir,' he said suddenly and angrily, turning on Walter, 'that +you had been before requested not to drag Mr Carker the Junior into your +conversation.' + +'I beg your pardon,' returned Walter. 'I was only going to say that Mr +Carker the Junior had told me he believed you were gone out, or I should +not have knocked at the door when you were engaged with Mr Dombey. These +are letters for Mr Dombey, Sir.' + +'Very well, Sir,' returned Mr Carker the Manager, plucking them sharply +from his hand. 'Go about your business.' + +But in taking them with so little ceremony, Mr Carker dropped one on the +floor, and did not see what he had done; neither did Mr Dombey observe +the letter lying near his feet. Walter hesitated for a moment, thinking +that one or other of them would notice it; but finding that neither did, +he stopped, came back, picked it up, and laid it himself on Mr Dombey's +desk. The letters were post-letters; and it happened that the one in +question was Mrs Pipchin's regular report, directed as usual--for Mrs +Pipchin was but an indifferent penwoman--by Florence. Mr Dombey, having +his attention silently called to this letter by Walter, started, and +looked fiercely at him, as if he believed that he had purposely selected +it from all the rest. + +'You can leave the room, Sir!' said Mr Dombey, haughtily. + +He crushed the letter in his hand; and having watched Walter out at the +door, put it in his pocket without breaking the seal. + +'These continual references to Mr Carker the Junior,' Mr Carker +the Manager began, as soon as they were alone, 'are, to a man in my +position, uttered before one in yours, so unspeakably distressing--' + +'Nonsense, Carker,' Mr Dombey interrupted. 'You are too sensitive.' + +'I am sensitive,' he returned. 'If one in your position could by any +possibility imagine yourself in my place: which you cannot: you would be +so too.' + +As Mr Dombey's thoughts were evidently pursuing some other subject, his +discreet ally broke off here, and stood with his teeth ready to present +to him, when he should look up. + +'You want somebody to send to the West Indies, you were saying,' +observed Mr Dombey, hurriedly. + +'Yes,' replied Carker. + +'Send young Gay.' + +'Good, very good indeed. Nothing easier,' said Mr Carker, without any +show of surprise, and taking up the pen to re-endorse the letter, as +coolly as he had done before. '"Send young Gay."' + +'Call him back,' said Mr Dombey. + +Mr Carker was quick to do so, and Walter was quick to return. + +'Gay,' said Mr Dombey, turning a little to look at him over his +shoulder. 'Here is a--' + +'An opening,' said Mr Carker, with his mouth stretched to the utmost. + +'In the West Indies. At Barbados. I am going to send you,' said +Mr Dombey, scorning to embellish the bare truth, 'to fill a junior +situation in the counting-house at Barbados. Let your Uncle know from +me, that I have chosen you to go to the West Indies.' + +Walter's breath was so completely taken away by his astonishment, +that he could hardly find enough for the repetition of the words 'West +Indies.' + +'Somebody must go,' said Mr Dombey, 'and you are young and healthy, and +your Uncle's circumstances are not good. Tell your Uncle that you are +appointed. You will not go yet. There will be an interval of a month--or +two perhaps.' + +'Shall I remain there, Sir?' inquired Walter. + +'Will you remain there, Sir!' repeated Mr Dombey, turning a little more +round towards him. 'What do you mean? What does he mean, Carker?' + +'Live there, Sir,' faltered Walter. + +'Certainly,' returned Mr Dombey. + +Walter bowed. + +'That's all,' said Mr Dombey, resuming his letters. 'You will explain to +him in good time about the usual outfit and so forth, Carker, of course. +He needn't wait, Carker.' + +'You needn't wait, Gay,' observed Mr Carker: bare to the gums. + +'Unless,' said Mr Dombey, stopping in his reading without looking off +the letter, and seeming to listen. 'Unless he has anything to say.' + +'No, Sir,' returned Walter, agitated and confused, and almost stunned, +as an infinite variety of pictures presented themselves to his +mind; among which Captain Cuttle, in his glazed hat, transfixed with +astonishment at Mrs MacStinger's, and his uncle bemoaning his loss in +the little back parlour, held prominent places. 'I hardly know--I--I am +much obliged, Sir.' + +'He needn't wait, Carker,' said Mr Dombey. + +And as Mr Carker again echoed the words, and also collected his papers +as if he were going away too, Walter felt that his lingering any longer +would be an unpardonable intrusion--especially as he had nothing to +say--and therefore walked out quite confounded. + +Going along the passage, with the mingled consciousness and helplessness +of a dream, he heard Mr Dombey's door shut again, as Mr Carker came out: +and immediately afterwards that gentleman called to him. + +'Bring your friend Mr Carker the Junior to my room, Sir, if you please.' + +Walter went to the outer office and apprised Mr Carker the Junior of his +errand, who accordingly came out from behind a partition where he sat +alone in one corner, and returned with him to the room of Mr Carker the +Manager. + +That gentleman was standing with his back to the fire, and his hands +under his coat-tails, looking over his white cravat, as unpromisingly as +Mr Dombey himself could have looked. He received them without any change +in his attitude or softening of his harsh and black expression: merely +signing to Walter to close the door. + +'John Carker,' said the Manager, when this was done, turning suddenly +upon his brother, with his two rows of teeth bristling as if he would +have bitten him, 'what is the league between you and this young man, in +virtue of which I am haunted and hunted by the mention of your name? Is +it not enough for you, John Carker, that I am your near relation, and +can't detach myself from that--' + +'Say disgrace, James,' interposed the other in a low voice, finding that +he stammered for a word. 'You mean it, and have reason, say disgrace.' + +'From that disgrace,' assented his brother with keen emphasis, 'but is +the fact to be blurted out and trumpeted, and proclaimed continually +in the presence of the very House! In moments of confidence too? Do you +think your name is calculated to harmonise in this place with trust and +confidence, John Carker?' + +'No,' returned the other. 'No, James. God knows I have no such thought.' + +'What is your thought, then?' said his brother, 'and why do you thrust +yourself in my way? Haven't you injured me enough already?' + +'I have never injured you, James, wilfully.' + +'You are my brother,' said the Manager. 'That's injury enough.' + +'I wish I could undo it, James.' + +'I wish you could and would.' + +During this conversation, Walter had looked from one brother to the +other, with pain and amazement. He who was the Senior in years, and +Junior in the House, stood, with his eyes cast upon the ground, and +his head bowed, humbly listening to the reproaches of the other. Though +these were rendered very bitter by the tone and look with which they +were accompanied, and by the presence of Walter whom they so much +surprised and shocked, he entered no other protest against them than by +slightly raising his right hand in a deprecatory manner, as if he would +have said, 'Spare me!' So, had they been blows, and he a brave man, +under strong constraint, and weakened by bodily suffering, he might have +stood before the executioner. + +Generous and quick in all his emotions, and regarding himself as the +innocent occasion of these taunts, Walter now struck in, with all the +earnestness he felt. + +'Mr Carker,' he said, addressing himself to the Manager. 'Indeed, +indeed, this is my fault solely. In a kind of heedlessness, for which I +cannot blame myself enough, I have, I have no doubt, mentioned Mr Carker +the Junior much oftener than was necessary; and have allowed his name +sometimes to slip through my lips, when it was against your expressed +wish. But it has been my own mistake, Sir. We have never exchanged one +word upon the subject--very few, indeed, on any subject. And it has not +been,' added Walter, after a moment's pause, 'all heedlessness on my +part, Sir; for I have felt an interest in Mr Carker ever since I have +been here, and have hardly been able to help speaking of him sometimes, +when I have thought of him so much!' + +Walter said this from his soul, and with the very breath of honour. For +he looked upon the bowed head, and the downcast eyes, and upraised hand, +and thought, 'I have felt it; and why should I not avow it in behalf of +this unfriended, broken man!' + +Mr Carker the Manager looked at him, as he spoke, and when he had +finished speaking, with a smile that seemed to divide his face into two +parts. + +'You are an excitable youth, Gay,' he said; 'and should endeavour to +cool down a little now, for it would be unwise to encourage feverish +predispositions. Be as cool as you can, Gay. Be as cool as you can. +You might have asked Mr John Carker himself (if you have not done so) +whether he claims to be, or is, an object of such strong interest.' + +'James, do me justice,' said his brother. 'I have claimed nothing; and I +claim nothing. Believe me, on my--' + +'Honour?' said his brother, with another smile, as he warmed himself +before the fire. + +'On my Me--on my fallen life!' returned the other, in the same low +voice, but with a deeper stress on his words than he had yet seemed +capable of giving them. 'Believe me, I have held myself aloof, and kept +alone. This has been unsought by me. I have avoided him and everyone. + +'Indeed, you have avoided me, Mr Carker,' said Walter, with the tears +rising to his eyes; so true was his compassion. 'I know it, to my +disappointment and regret. When I first came here, and ever since, I +am sure I have tried to be as much your friend, as one of my age could +presume to be; but it has been of no use. + +'And observe,' said the Manager, taking him up quickly, 'it will be of +still less use, Gay, if you persist in forcing Mr John Carker's name on +people's attention. That is not the way to befriend Mr John Carker. Ask +him if he thinks it is.' + +'It is no service to me,' said the brother. 'It only leads to such a +conversation as the present, which I need not say I could have well +spared. No one can be a better friend to me:' he spoke here very +distinctly, as if he would impress it upon Walter: 'than in forgetting +me, and leaving me to go my way, unquestioned and unnoticed.' + +'Your memory not being retentive, Gay, of what you are told by others,' +said Mr Carker the Manager, warming himself with great and increased +satisfaction, 'I thought it well that you should be told this from the +best authority,' nodding towards his brother. 'You are not likely to +forget it now, I hope. That's all, Gay. You can go.' + +Walter passed out at the door, and was about to close it after him, +when, hearing the voices of the brothers again, and also the mention of +his own name, he stood irresolutely, with his hand upon the lock, and +the door ajar, uncertain whether to return or go away. In this position +he could not help overhearing what followed. + +'Think of me more leniently, if you can, James,' said John Carker, 'when +I tell you I have had--how could I help having, with my history, written +here'--striking himself upon the breast--'my whole heart awakened by +my observation of that boy, Walter Gay. I saw in him when he first came +here, almost my other self.' + +'Your other self!' repeated the Manager, disdainfully. + +'Not as I am, but as I was when I first came here too; as sanguine, +giddy, youthful, inexperienced; flushed with the same restless and +adventurous fancies; and full of the same qualities, fraught with the +same capacity of leading on to good or evil.' + +'I hope not,' said his brother, with some hidden and sarcastic meaning +in his tone. + +'You strike me sharply; and your hand is steady, and your thrust is very +deep,' returned the other, speaking (or so Walter thought) as if some +cruel weapon actually stabbed him as he spoke. 'I imagined all this when +he was a boy. I believed it. It was a truth to me. I saw him lightly +walking on the edge of an unseen gulf where so many others walk with +equal gaiety, and from which--' + +'The old excuse,' interrupted his brother, as he stirred the fire. 'So +many. Go on. Say, so many fall.' + +'From which ONE traveller fell,' returned the other, 'who set forward, +on his way, a boy like him, and missed his footing more and more, and +slipped a little and a little lower; and went on stumbling still, until +he fell headlong and found himself below a shattered man. Think what I +suffered, when I watched that boy.' + +'You have only yourself to thank for it,' returned the brother. + +'Only myself,' he assented with a sigh. 'I don't seek to divide the +blame or shame.' + +'You have divided the shame,' James Carker muttered through his teeth. +And, through so many and such close teeth, he could mutter well. + +'Ah, James,' returned his brother, speaking for the first time in an +accent of reproach, and seeming, by the sound of his voice, to have +covered his face with his hands, 'I have been, since then, a useful foil +to you. You have trodden on me freely in your climbing up. Don't spurn +me with your heel!' + +A silence ensued. After a time, Mr Carker the Manager was heard rustling +among his papers, as if he had resolved to bring the interview to a +conclusion. At the same time his brother withdrew nearer to the door. + +'That's all,' he said. 'I watched him with such trembling and such fear, +as was some little punishment to me, until he passed the place where I +first fell; and then, though I had been his father, I believe I never +could have thanked God more devoutly. I didn't dare to warn him, and +advise him; but if I had seen direct cause, I would have shown him my +example. I was afraid to be seen speaking with him, lest it should be +thought I did him harm, and tempted him to evil, and corrupted him: or +lest I really should. There may be such contagion in me; I don't know. +Piece out my history, in connexion with young Walter Gay, and what he +has made me feel; and think of me more leniently, James, if you can.' + +With these words he came out to where Walter was standing. He turned a +little paler when he saw him there, and paler yet when Walter caught him +by the hand, and said in a whisper: + +'Mr Carker, pray let me thank you! Let me say how much I feel for you! +How sorry I am, to have been the unhappy cause of all this! How I almost +look upon you now as my protector and guardian! How very, very much, +I feel obliged to you and pity you!' said Walter, squeezing both his +hands, and hardly knowing, in his agitation, what he did or said. + +Mr Morfin's room being close at hand and empty, and the door wide open, +they moved thither by one accord: the passage being seldom free from +someone passing to or fro. When they were there, and Walter saw in Mr +Carker's face some traces of the emotion within, he almost felt as if he +had never seen the face before; it was so greatly changed. + +'Walter,' he said, laying his hand on his shoulder. 'I am far removed +from you, and may I ever be. Do you know what I am?' + +'What you are!' appeared to hang on Walter's lips, as he regarded him +attentively. + +'It was begun,' said Carker, 'before my twenty-first birthday--led up +to, long before, but not begun till near that time. I had robbed them +when I came of age. I robbed them afterwards. Before my twenty-second +birthday, it was all found out; and then, Walter, from all men's +society, I died.' + +Again his last few words hung trembling upon Walter's lips, but he could +neither utter them, nor any of his own. + +'The House was very good to me. May Heaven reward the old man for his +forbearance! This one, too, his son, who was then newly in the Firm, +where I had held great trust! I was called into that room which is now +his--I have never entered it since--and came out, what you know me. For +many years I sat in my present seat, alone as now, but then a known +and recognised example to the rest. They were all merciful to me, and +I lived. Time has altered that part of my poor expiation; and I think, +except the three heads of the House, there is no one here who knows my +story rightly. Before the little boy grows up, and has it told to him, +my corner may be vacant. I would rather that it might be so! This is the +only change to me since that day, when I left all youth, and hope, and +good men's company, behind me in that room. God bless you, Walter! Keep +you, and all dear to you, in honesty, or strike them dead!' + +Some recollection of his trembling from head to foot, as if with +excessive cold, and of his bursting into tears, was all that Walter +could add to this, when he tried to recall exactly what had passed +between them. + +When Walter saw him next, he was bending over his desk in his old +silent, drooping, humbled way. Then, observing him at his work, and +feeling how resolved he evidently was that no further intercourse should +arise between them, and thinking again and again on all he had seen and +heard that morning in so short a time, in connexion with the history of +both the Carkers, Walter could hardly believe that he was under orders +for the West Indies, and would soon be lost to Uncle Sol, and Captain +Cuttle, and to glimpses few and far between of Florence Dombey--no, he +meant Paul--and to all he loved, and liked, and looked for, in his daily +life. + +But it was true, and the news had already penetrated to the outer +office; for while he sat with a heavy heart, pondering on these things, +and resting his head upon his arm, Perch the messenger, descending from +his mahogany bracket, and jogging his elbow, begged his pardon, but +wished to say in his ear, Did he think he could arrange to send home to +England a jar of preserved Ginger, cheap, for Mrs Perch's own eating, in +the course of her recovery from her next confinement? + + + +CHAPTER 14. Paul grows more and more Old-fashioned, and goes Home for +the Holidays + + +When the Midsummer vacation approached, no indecent manifestations +of joy were exhibited by the leaden-eyed young gentlemen assembled at +Doctor Blimber's. Any such violent expression as 'breaking up,' would +have been quite inapplicable to that polite establishment. The young +gentlemen oozed away, semi-annually, to their own homes; but they never +broke up. They would have scorned the action. + +Tozer, who was constantly galled and tormented by a starched white +cambric neckerchief, which he wore at the express desire of Mrs Tozer, +his parent, who, designing him for the Church, was of opinion that he +couldn't be in that forward state of preparation too soon--Tozer said, +indeed, that choosing between two evils, he thought he would rather stay +where he was, than go home. However inconsistent this declaration might +appear with that passage in Tozer's Essay on the subject, wherein he had +observed 'that the thoughts of home and all its recollections, awakened +in his mind the most pleasing emotions of anticipation and delight,' +and had also likened himself to a Roman General, flushed with a recent +victory over the Iceni, or laden with Carthaginian spoil, advancing +within a few hours' march of the Capitol, presupposed, for the purposes +of the simile, to be the dwelling-place of Mrs Tozer, still it was very +sincerely made. For it seemed that Tozer had a dreadful Uncle, who +not only volunteered examinations of him, in the holidays, on abstruse +points, but twisted innocent events and things, and wrenched them to the +same fell purpose. So that if this Uncle took him to the Play, or, on a +similar pretence of kindness, carried him to see a Giant, or a Dwarf, +or a Conjuror, or anything, Tozer knew he had read up some classical +allusion to the subject beforehand, and was thrown into a state of +mortal apprehension: not foreseeing where he might break out, or what +authority he might not quote against him. + +As to Briggs, his father made no show of artifice about it. He never +would leave him alone. So numerous and severe were the mental trials of +that unfortunate youth in vacation time, that the friends of the family +(then resident near Bayswater, London) seldom approached the ornamental +piece of water in Kensington Gardens, without a vague expectation of +seeing Master Briggs's hat floating on the surface, and an unfinished +exercise lying on the bank. Briggs, therefore, was not at all sanguine +on the subject of holidays; and these two sharers of little Paul's +bedroom were so fair a sample of the young gentlemen in general, that +the most elastic among them contemplated the arrival of those festive +periods with genteel resignation. + +It was far otherwise with little Paul. The end of these first holidays +was to witness his separation from Florence, but who ever looked forward +to the end of holidays whose beginning was not yet come! Not Paul, +assuredly. As the happy time drew near, the lions and tigers climbing up +the bedroom walls became quite tame and frolicsome. The grim sly faces +in the squares and diamonds of the floor-cloth, relaxed and peeped out +at him with less wicked eyes. The grave old clock had more of personal +interest in the tone of its formal inquiry; and the restless sea went +rolling on all night, to the sounding of a melancholy strain--yet it was +pleasant too--that rose and fell with the waves, and rocked him, as it +were, to sleep. + +Mr Feeder, B.A., seemed to think that he, too, would enjoy the holidays +very much. Mr Toots projected a life of holidays from that time forth; +for, as he regularly informed Paul every day, it was his 'last half' at +Doctor Blimber's, and he was going to begin to come into his property +directly. + +It was perfectly understood between Paul and Mr Toots, that they were +intimate friends, notwithstanding their distance in point of years and +station. As the vacation approached, and Mr Toots breathed harder and +stared oftener in Paul's society, than he had done before, Paul knew +that he meant he was sorry they were going to lose sight of each other, +and felt very much obliged to him for his patronage and good opinion. + +It was even understood by Doctor Blimber, Mrs Blimber, and Miss Blimber, +as well as by the young gentlemen in general, that Toots had somehow +constituted himself protector and guardian of Dombey, and the +circumstance became so notorious, even to Mrs Pipchin, that the good old +creature cherished feelings of bitterness and jealousy against Toots; +and, in the sanctuary of her own home, repeatedly denounced him as a +'chuckle-headed noodle.' Whereas the innocent Toots had no more idea +of awakening Mrs Pipchin's wrath, than he had of any other definite +possibility or proposition. On the contrary, he was disposed to consider +her rather a remarkable character, with many points of interest about +her. For this reason he smiled on her with so much urbanity, and asked +her how she did, so often, in the course of her visits to little Paul, +that at last she one night told him plainly, she wasn't used to it, +whatever he might think; and she could not, and she would not bear +it, either from himself or any other puppy then existing: at which +unexpected acknowledgment of his civilities, Mr Toots was so alarmed +that he secreted himself in a retired spot until she had gone. Nor did +he ever again face the doughty Mrs Pipchin, under Doctor Blimber's roof. + +They were within two or three weeks of the holidays, when, one day, +Cornelia Blimber called Paul into her room, and said, 'Dombey, I am +going to send home your analysis.' + +'Thank you, Ma'am,' returned Paul. + +'You know what I mean, do you, Dombey?' inquired Miss Blimber, looking +hard at him, through the spectacles. + +'No, Ma'am,' said Paul. + +'Dombey, Dombey,' said Miss Blimber, 'I begin to be afraid you are a +sad boy. When you don't know the meaning of an expression, why don't you +seek for information?' + +'Mrs Pipchin told me I wasn't to ask questions,' returned Paul. + +'I must beg you not to mention Mrs Pipchin to me, on any account, +Dombey,' returned Miss Blimber. 'I couldn't think of allowing it. The +course of study here, is very far removed from anything of that sort. A +repetition of such allusions would make it necessary for me to request +to hear, without a mistake, before breakfast-time to-morrow morning, +from Verbum personale down to simillimia cygno.' + +'I didn't mean, Ma'am--' began little Paul. + +'I must trouble you not to tell me that you didn't mean, if you please, +Dombey,' said Miss Blimber, who preserved an awful politeness in +her admonitions. 'That is a line of argument I couldn't dream of +permitting.' + +Paul felt it safest to say nothing at all, so he only looked at Miss +Blimber's spectacles. Miss Blimber having shaken her head at him +gravely, referred to a paper lying before her. + +'"Analysis of the character of P. Dombey." If my recollection serves +me,' said Miss Blimber breaking off, 'the word analysis as opposed to +synthesis, is thus defined by Walker. "The resolution of an object, +whether of the senses or of the intellect, into its first elements." +As opposed to synthesis, you observe. Now you know what analysis is, +Dombey.' + +Dombey didn't seem to be absolutely blinded by the light let in upon his +intellect, but he made Miss Blimber a little bow. + +'"Analysis,"' resumed Miss Blimber, casting her eye over the paper, '"of +the character of P. Dombey." I find that the natural capacity of Dombey +is extremely good; and that his general disposition to study may be +stated in an equal ratio. Thus, taking eight as our standard and +highest number, I find these qualities in Dombey stated each at six +three-fourths!' + +Miss Blimber paused to see how Paul received this news. Being undecided +whether six three-fourths meant six pounds fifteen, or sixpence three +farthings, or six foot three, or three quarters past six, or six +somethings that he hadn't learnt yet, with three unknown something elses +over, Paul rubbed his hands and looked straight at Miss Blimber. It +happened to answer as well as anything else he could have done; and +Cornelia proceeded. + +'"Violence two. Selfishness two. Inclination to low company, as evinced +in the case of a person named Glubb, originally seven, but since +reduced. Gentlemanly demeanour four, and improving with advancing +years." Now what I particularly wish to call your attention to, Dombey, +is the general observation at the close of this analysis.' + +Paul set himself to follow it with great care. + +'"It may be generally observed of Dombey,"' said Miss Blimber, reading +in a loud voice, and at every second word directing her spectacles +towards the little figure before her: '"that his abilities and +inclinations are good, and that he has made as much progress as under +the circumstances could have been expected. But it is to be lamented +of this young gentleman that he is singular (what is usually termed +old-fashioned) in his character and conduct, and that, without +presenting anything in either which distinctly calls for reprobation, +he is often very unlike other young gentlemen of his age and social +position." Now, Dombey,' said Miss Blimber, laying down the paper, 'do +you understand that?' + +'I think I do, Ma'am,' said Paul. + +'This analysis, you see, Dombey,' Miss Blimber continued, 'is going to +be sent home to your respected parent. It will naturally be very painful +to him to find that you are singular in your character and conduct. It +is naturally painful to us; for we can't like you, you know, Dombey, as +well as we could wish.' + +She touched the child upon a tender point. He had secretly become more +and more solicitous from day to day, as the time of his departure drew +more near, that all the house should like him. From some hidden reason, +very imperfectly understood by himself--if understood at all--he felt a +gradually increasing impulse of affection, towards almost everything and +everybody in the place. He could not bear to think that they would be +quite indifferent to him when he was gone. He wanted them to remember +him kindly; and he had made it his business even to conciliate a +great hoarse shaggy dog, chained up at the back of the house, who had +previously been the terror of his life: that even he might miss him when +he was no longer there. + +Little thinking that in this, he only showed again the difference +between himself and his compeers, poor tiny Paul set it forth to Miss +Blimber as well as he could, and begged her, in despite of the official +analysis, to have the goodness to try and like him. To Mrs Blimber, +who had joined them, he preferred the same petition: and when that lady +could not forbear, even in his presence, from giving utterance to her +often-repeated opinion, that he was an odd child, Paul told her that he +was sure she was quite right; that he thought it must be his bones, but +he didn't know; and that he hoped she would overlook it, for he was fond +of them all. + +'Not so fond,' said Paul, with a mixture of timidity and perfect +frankness, which was one of the most peculiar and most engaging +qualities of the child, 'not so fond as I am of Florence, of course; +that could never be. You couldn't expect that, could you, Ma'am?' + +'Oh! the old-fashioned little soul!' cried Mrs Blimber, in a whisper. + +'But I like everybody here very much,' pursued Paul, 'and I should +grieve to go away, and think that anyone was glad that I was gone, or +didn't care.' + +Mrs Blimber was now quite sure that Paul was the oddest child in the +world; and when she told the Doctor what had passed, the Doctor did not +controvert his wife's opinion. But he said, as he had said before, when +Paul first came, that study would do much; and he also said, as he had +said on that occasion, 'Bring him on, Cornelia! Bring him on!' + +Cornelia had always brought him on as vigorously as she could; and Paul +had had a hard life of it. But over and above the getting through his +tasks, he had long had another purpose always present to him, and to +which he still held fast. It was, to be a gentle, useful, quiet little +fellow, always striving to secure the love and attachment of the rest; +and though he was yet often to be seen at his old post on the stairs, or +watching the waves and clouds from his solitary window, he was oftener +found, too, among the other boys, modestly rendering them some little +voluntary service. Thus it came to pass, that even among those rigid and +absorbed young anchorites, who mortified themselves beneath the roof of +Doctor Blimber, Paul was an object of general interest; a fragile little +plaything that they all liked, and that no one would have thought of +treating roughly. But he could not change his nature, or rewrite the +analysis; and so they all agreed that Dombey was old-fashioned. + +There were some immunities, however, attaching to the character enjoyed +by no one else. They could have better spared a newer-fashioned child, +and that alone was much. When the others only bowed to Doctor Blimber +and family on retiring for the night, Paul would stretch out his morsel +of a hand, and boldly shake the Doctor's; also Mrs Blimber's; also +Cornelia's. If anybody was to be begged off from impending punishment, +Paul was always the delegate. The weak-eyed young man himself had once +consulted him, in reference to a little breakage of glass and china. And +it was darkly rumoured that the butler, regarding him with favour such +as that stern man had never shown before to mortal boy, had sometimes +mingled porter with his table-beer to make him strong. + +Over and above these extensive privileges, Paul had free right of entry +to Mr Feeder's room, from which apartment he had twice led Mr Toots +into the open air in a state of faintness, consequent on an unsuccessful +attempt to smoke a very blunt cigar: one of a bundle which that young +gentleman had covertly purchased on the shingle from a most desperate +smuggler, who had acknowledged, in confidence, that two hundred pounds +was the price set upon his head, dead or alive, by the Custom House. It +was a snug room, Mr Feeder's, with his bed in another little room inside +of it; and a flute, which Mr Feeder couldn't play yet, but was going to +make a point of learning, he said, hanging up over the fireplace. There +were some books in it, too, and a fishing-rod; for Mr Feeder said he +should certainly make a point of learning to fish, when he could find +time. Mr Feeder had amassed, with similar intentions, a beautiful little +curly secondhand key-bugle, a chess-board and men, a Spanish Grammar, +a set of sketching materials, and a pair of boxing-gloves. The art +of self-defence Mr Feeder said he should undoubtedly make a point of +learning, as he considered it the duty of every man to do; for it might +lead to the protection of a female in distress. + +But Mr Feeder's great possession was a large green jar of snuff, which Mr +Toots had brought down as a present, at the close of the last vacation; +and for which he had paid a high price, having been the genuine property +of the Prince Regent. Neither Mr Toots nor Mr Feeder could partake of +this or any other snuff, even in the most stinted and moderate degree, +without being seized with convulsions of sneezing. Nevertheless it was +their great delight to moisten a box-full with cold tea, stir it up on a +piece of parchment with a paper-knife, and devote themselves to its +consumption then and there. In the course of which cramming of their +noses, they endured surprising torments with the constancy of martyrs: +and, drinking table-beer at intervals, felt all the glories of +dissipation. + +To little Paul sitting silent in their company, and by the side of +his chief patron, Mr Toots, there was a dread charm in these reckless +occasions: and when Mr Feeder spoke of the dark mysteries of London, and +told Mr Toots that he was going to observe it himself closely in all its +ramifications in the approaching holidays, and for that purpose had +made arrangements to board with two old maiden ladies at Peckham, Paul +regarded him as if he were the hero of some book of travels or wild +adventure, and was almost afraid of such a slashing person. + +Going into this room one evening, when the holidays were very near, Paul +found Mr Feeder filling up the blanks in some printed letters, while +some others, already filled up and strewn before him, were being folded +and sealed by Mr Toots. Mr Feeder said, 'Aha, Dombey, there you are, are +you?'--for they were always kind to him, and glad to see him--and then +said, tossing one of the letters towards him, 'And there you are, too, +Dombey. That's yours.' + +'Mine, Sir?' said Paul. + +'Your invitation,' returned Mr Feeder. + +Paul, looking at it, found, in copper-plate print, with the exception +of his own name and the date, which were in Mr Feeder's penmanship, that +Doctor and Mrs Blimber requested the pleasure of Mr P. Dombey's company +at an early party on Wednesday Evening the Seventeenth Instant; and +that the hour was half-past seven o'clock; and that the object was +Quadrilles. Mr Toots also showed him, by holding up a companion sheet of +paper, that Doctor and Mrs Blimber requested the pleasure of Mr Toots's +company at an early party on Wednesday Evening the Seventeenth Instant, +when the hour was half-past seven o'clock, and when the object was +Quadrilles. He also found, on glancing at the table where Mr Feeder sat, +that the pleasure of Mr Briggs's company, and of Mr Tozer's company, +and of every young gentleman's company, was requested by Doctor and Mrs +Blimber on the same genteel Occasion. + +Mr Feeder then told him, to his great joy, that his sister was invited, +and that it was a half-yearly event, and that, as the holidays began +that day, he could go away with his sister after the party, if he liked, +which Paul interrupted him to say he would like, very much. Mr Feeder +then gave him to understand that he would be expected to inform Doctor +and Mrs Blimber, in superfine small-hand, that Mr P. Dombey would be +happy to have the honour of waiting on them, in accordance with their +polite invitation. Lastly, Mr Feeder said, he had better not refer to +the festive occasion, in the hearing of Doctor and Mrs Blimber; as these +preliminaries, and the whole of the arrangements, were conducted on +principles of classicality and high breeding; and that Doctor and Mrs +Blimber on the one hand, and the young gentlemen on the other, were +supposed, in their scholastic capacities, not to have the least idea of +what was in the wind. + +Paul thanked Mr Feeder for these hints, and pocketing his invitation, +sat down on a stool by the side of Mr Toots, as usual. But Paul's head, +which had long been ailing more or less, and was sometimes very heavy +and painful, felt so uneasy that night, that he was obliged to support +it on his hand. And yet it dropped so, that by little and little it sunk +on Mr Toots's knee, and rested there, as if it had no care to be ever +lifted up again. + +That was no reason why he should be deaf; but he must have been, he +thought, for, by and by, he heard Mr Feeder calling in his ear, and +gently shaking him to rouse his attention. And when he raised his head, +quite scared, and looked about him, he found that Doctor Blimber had +come into the room; and that the window was open, and that his forehead +was wet with sprinkled water; though how all this had been done without +his knowledge, was very curious indeed. + +'Ah! Come, come! That's well! How is my little friend now?' said Doctor +Blimber, encouragingly. + +'Oh, quite well, thank you, Sir,' said Paul. + +But there seemed to be something the matter with the floor, for he +couldn't stand upon it steadily; and with the walls too, for they were +inclined to turn round and round, and could only be stopped by being +looked at very hard indeed. Mr Toots's head had the appearance of being +at once bigger and farther off than was quite natural; and when he took +Paul in his arms, to carry him upstairs, Paul observed with astonishment +that the door was in quite a different place from that in which he had +expected to find it, and almost thought, at first, that Mr Toots was +going to walk straight up the chimney. + +It was very kind of Mr Toots to carry him to the top of the house so +tenderly; and Paul told him that it was. But Mr Toots said he would do +a great deal more than that, if he could; and indeed he did more as +it was: for he helped Paul to undress, and helped him to bed, in the +kindest manner possible, and then sat down by the bedside and chuckled +very much; while Mr Feeder, B.A., leaning over the bottom of the +bedstead, set all the little bristles on his head bolt upright with his +bony hands, and then made believe to spar at Paul with great science, on +account of his being all right again, which was so uncommonly facetious, +and kind too in Mr Feeder, that Paul, not being able to make up his mind +whether it was best to laugh or cry at him, did both at once. + +How Mr Toots melted away, and Mr Feeder changed into Mrs Pipchin, Paul +never thought of asking; neither was he at all curious to know; but +when he saw Mrs Pipchin standing at the bottom of the bed, instead of Mr +Feeder, he cried out, 'Mrs Pipchin, don't tell Florence!' + +'Don't tell Florence what, my little Paul?' said Mrs Pipchin, coming +round to the bedside, and sitting down in the chair. + +'About me,' said Paul. + +'No, no,' said Mrs Pipchin. + +'What do you think I mean to do when I grow up, Mrs Pipchin?' inquired +Paul, turning his face towards her on his pillow, and resting his chin +wistfully on his folded hands. + +Mrs Pipchin couldn't guess. + +'I mean,' said Paul, 'to put my money all together in one Bank, never +try to get any more, go away into the country with my darling Florence, +have a beautiful garden, fields, and woods, and live there with her all +my life!' + +'Indeed!' cried Mrs Pipchin. + +'Yes,' said Paul. 'That's what I mean to do, when I--' He stopped, and +pondered for a moment. + +Mrs Pipchin's grey eye scanned his thoughtful face. + +'If I grow up,' said Paul. Then he went on immediately to tell Mrs +Pipchin all about the party, about Florence's invitation, about the +pride he would have in the admiration that would be felt for her by all +the boys, about their being so kind to him and fond of him, about his +being so fond of them, and about his being so glad of it. Then he +told Mrs Pipchin about the analysis, and about his being certainly +old-fashioned, and took Mrs Pipchin's opinion on that point, and whether +she knew why it was, and what it meant. Mrs Pipchin denied the fact +altogether, as the shortest way of getting out of the difficulty; but +Paul was far from satisfied with that reply, and looked so searchingly +at Mrs Pipchin for a truer answer, that she was obliged to get up and +look out of the window to avoid his eyes. + +There was a certain calm Apothecary, who attended at the establishment +when any of the young gentlemen were ill, and somehow he got into the +room and appeared at the bedside, with Mrs Blimber. How they came there, +or how long they had been there, Paul didn't know; but when he saw them, +he sat up in bed, and answered all the Apothecary's questions at full +length, and whispered to him that Florence was not to know anything +about it, if he pleased, and that he had set his mind upon her coming +to the party. He was very chatty with the Apothecary, and they parted +excellent friends. Lying down again with his eyes shut, he heard the +Apothecary say, out of the room and quite a long way off--or he dreamed +it--that there was a want of vital power (what was that, Paul wondered!) +and great constitutional weakness. That as the little fellow had set his +heart on parting with his school-mates on the seventeenth, it would be +better to indulge the fancy if he grew no worse. That he was glad to +hear from Mrs Pipchin, that the little fellow would go to his friends +in London on the eighteenth. That he would write to Mr Dombey, when he +should have gained a better knowledge of the case, and before that day. +That there was no immediate cause for--what? Paul lost that word. And +that the little fellow had a fine mind, but was an old-fashioned boy. + +What old fashion could that be, Paul wondered with a palpitating heart, +that was so visibly expressed in him; so plainly seen by so many people! + +He could neither make it out, nor trouble himself long with the effort. +Mrs Pipchin was again beside him, if she had ever been away (he thought +she had gone out with the Doctor, but it was all a dream perhaps), +and presently a bottle and glass got into her hands magically, and +she poured out the contents for him. After that, he had some real good +jelly, which Mrs Blimber brought to him herself; and then he was so +well, that Mrs Pipchin went home, at his urgent solicitation, and Briggs +and Tozer came to bed. Poor Briggs grumbled terribly about his own +analysis, which could hardly have discomposed him more if it had been a +chemical process; but he was very good to Paul, and so was Tozer, and so +were all the rest, for they every one looked in before going to bed, +and said, 'How are you now, Dombey?' 'Cheer up, little Dombey!' and +so forth. After Briggs had got into bed, he lay awake for a long time, +still bemoaning his analysis, and saying he knew it was all wrong, and +they couldn't have analysed a murderer worse, and--how would Doctor +Blimber like it if his pocket-money depended on it? It was very easy, +Briggs said, to make a galley-slave of a boy all the half-year, and then +score him up idle; and to crib two dinners a-week out of his board, and +then score him up greedy; but that wasn't going to be submitted to, he +believed, was it? Oh! Ah! + +Before the weak-eyed young man performed on the gong next morning, he +came upstairs to Paul and told him he was to lie still, which Paul very +gladly did. Mrs Pipchin reappeared a little before the Apothecary, and a +little after the good young woman whom Paul had seen cleaning the stove +on that first morning (how long ago it seemed now!) had brought him his +breakfast. There was another consultation a long way off, or else Paul +dreamed it again; and then the Apothecary, coming back with Doctor and +Mrs Blimber, said: + +'Yes, I think, Doctor Blimber, we may release this young gentleman from +his books just now; the vacation being so very near at hand.' + +'By all means,' said Doctor Blimber. 'My love, you will inform Cornelia, +if you please.' + +'Assuredly,' said Mrs Blimber. + +The Apothecary bending down, looked closely into Paul's eyes, and felt +his head, and his pulse, and his heart, with so much interest and care, +that Paul said, 'Thank you, Sir.' + +'Our little friend,' observed Doctor Blimber, 'has never complained.' + +'Oh no!' replied the Apothecary. 'He was not likely to complain.' + +'You find him greatly better?' said Doctor Blimber. + +'Oh! he is greatly better, Sir,' returned the Apothecary. + +Paul had begun to speculate, in his own odd way, on the subject that +might occupy the Apothecary's mind just at that moment; so musingly +had he answered the two questions of Doctor Blimber. But the Apothecary +happening to meet his little patient's eyes, as the latter set off on +that mental expedition, and coming instantly out of his abstraction with +a cheerful smile, Paul smiled in return and abandoned it. + +He lay in bed all that day, dozing and dreaming, and looking at Mr +Toots; but got up on the next, and went downstairs. Lo and behold, there +was something the matter with the great clock; and a workman on a pair +of steps had taken its face off, and was poking instruments into the +works by the light of a candle! This was a great event for Paul, who sat +down on the bottom stair, and watched the operation attentively: now +and then glancing at the clock face, leaning all askew, against the wall +hard by, and feeling a little confused by a suspicion that it was ogling +him. + +The workman on the steps was very civil; and as he said, when he +observed Paul, 'How do you do, Sir?' Paul got into conversation with +him, and told him he hadn't been quite well lately. The ice being thus +broken, Paul asked him a multitude of questions about chimes and clocks: +as, whether people watched up in the lonely church steeples by night +to make them strike, and how the bells were rung when people died, and +whether those were different bells from wedding bells, or only sounded +dismal in the fancies of the living. Finding that his new acquaintance +was not very well informed on the subject of the Curfew Bell of ancient +days, Paul gave him an account of that institution; and also asked +him, as a practical man, what he thought about King Alfred's idea of +measuring time by the burning of candles; to which the workman replied, +that he thought it would be the ruin of the clock trade if it was +to come up again. In fine, Paul looked on, until the clock had quite +recovered its familiar aspect, and resumed its sedate inquiry; when the +workman, putting away his tools in a long basket, bade him good day, +and went away. Though not before he had whispered something, on +the door-mat, to the footman, in which there was the phrase +'old-fashioned'--for Paul heard it. + +What could that old fashion be, that seemed to make the people sorry! +What could it be! + +Having nothing to learn now, he thought of this frequently; though not +so often as he might have done, if he had had fewer things to think of. +But he had a great many; and was always thinking, all day long. + +First, there was Florence coming to the party. Florence would see that +the boys were fond of him; and that would make her happy. This was his +great theme. Let Florence once be sure that they were gentle and good to +him, and that he had become a little favourite among them, and then the +would always think of the time he had passed there, without being very +sorry. Florence might be all the happier too for that, perhaps, when he +came back. + +When he came back! Fifty times a day, his noiseless little feet went up +the stairs to his own room, as he collected every book, and scrap, and +trifle that belonged to him, and put them all together there, down to +the minutest thing, for taking home! There was no shade of coming back +on little Paul; no preparation for it, or other reference to it, grew +out of anything he thought or did, except this slight one in connexion +with his sister. On the contrary, he had to think of everything familiar +to him, in his contemplative moods and in his wanderings about the +house, as being to be parted with; and hence the many things he had to +think of, all day long. + +He had to peep into those rooms upstairs, and think how solitary they +would be when he was gone, and wonder through how many silent days, +weeks, months, and years, they would continue just as grave and +undisturbed. He had to think--would any other child (old-fashioned, like +himself) stray there at any time, to whom the same grotesque distortions +of pattern and furniture would manifest themselves; and would anybody +tell that boy of little Dombey, who had been there once? + +He had to think of a portrait on the stairs, which always looked +earnestly after him as he went away, eyeing it over his shoulder; and +which, when he passed it in the company of anyone, still seemed to gaze +at him, and not at his companion. He had much to think of, in +association with a print that hung up in another place, where, in the +centre of a wondering group, one figure that he knew, a figure with a +light about its head--benignant, mild, and merciful--stood pointing +upward. + +At his own bedroom window, there were crowds of thoughts that mixed +with these, and came on, one upon another, like the rolling waves. Where +those wild birds lived, that were always hovering out at sea in troubled +weather; where the clouds rose and first began; whence the wind issued +on its rushing flight, and where it stopped; whether the spot where +he and Florence had so often sat, and watched, and talked about these +things, could ever be exactly as it used to be without them; whether it +could ever be the same to Florence, if he were in some distant place, +and she were sitting there alone. + +He had to think, too, of Mr Toots, and Mr Feeder, B.A., of all the boys; +and of Doctor Blimber, Mrs Blimber, and Miss Blimber; of home, and of +his aunt and Miss Tox; of his father; Dombey and Son, Walter with the +poor old Uncle who had got the money he wanted, and that gruff-voiced +Captain with the iron hand. Besides all this, he had a number of little +visits to pay, in the course of the day; to the schoolroom, to Doctor +Blimber's study, to Mrs Blimber's private apartment, to Miss Blimber's, +and to the dog. For he was free of the whole house now, to range it +as he chose; and, in his desire to part with everybody on affectionate +terms, he attended, in his way, to them all. Sometimes he found places +in books for Briggs, who was always losing them; sometimes he looked up +words in dictionaries for other young gentlemen who were in extremity; +sometimes he held skeins of silk for Mrs Blimber to wind; sometimes he +put Cornelia's desk to rights; sometimes he would even creep into the +Doctor's study, and, sitting on the carpet near his learned feet, turn +the globes softly, and go round the world, or take a flight among the +far-off stars. + +In those days immediately before the holidays, in short, when the +other young gentlemen were labouring for dear life through a general +resumption of the studies of the whole half-year, Paul was such a +privileged pupil as had never been seen in that house before. He could +hardly believe it himself; but his liberty lasted from hour to hour, +and from day to day; and little Dombey was caressed by everyone. Doctor +Blimber was so particular about him, that he requested Johnson to retire +from the dinner-table one day, for having thoughtlessly spoken to him as +'poor little Dombey;' which Paul thought rather hard and severe, though +he had flushed at the moment, and wondered why Johnson should pity him. +It was the more questionable justice, Paul thought, in the Doctor, from +his having certainly overheard that great authority give his assent on +the previous evening, to the proposition (stated by Mrs Blimber) that +poor dear little Dombey was more old-fashioned than ever. And now it +was that Paul began to think it must surely be old-fashioned to be +very thin, and light, and easily tired, and soon disposed to lie down +anywhere and rest; for he couldn't help feeling that these were more and +more his habits every day. + +At last the party-day arrived; and Doctor Blimber said at breakfast, +'Gentlemen, we will resume our studies on the twenty-fifth of next +month.' Mr Toots immediately threw off his allegiance, and put on +his ring: and mentioning the Doctor in casual conversation shortly +afterwards, spoke of him as 'Blimber'! This act of freedom inspired +the older pupils with admiration and envy; but the younger spirits were +appalled, and seemed to marvel that no beam fell down and crushed him. + +Not the least allusion was made to the ceremonies of the evening, either +at breakfast or at dinner; but there was a bustle in the house all day, +and in the course of his perambulations, Paul made acquaintance with +various strange benches and candlesticks, and met a harp in a green +greatcoat standing on the landing outside the drawing-room door. There +was something queer, too, about Mrs Blimber's head at dinner-time, as if +she had screwed her hair up too tight; and though Miss Blimber showed +a graceful bunch of plaited hair on each temple, she seemed to have her +own little curls in paper underneath, and in a play-bill too; for +Paul read 'Theatre Royal' over one of her sparkling spectacles, and +'Brighton' over the other. + +There was a grand array of white waistcoats and cravats in the young +gentlemen's bedrooms as evening approached; and such a smell of singed +hair, that Doctor Blimber sent up the footman with his compliments, and +wished to know if the house was on fire. But it was only the hairdresser +curling the young gentlemen, and over-heating his tongs in the ardour of +business. + +When Paul was dressed--which was very soon done, for he felt unwell and +drowsy, and was not able to stand about it very long--he went down into +the drawing-room; where he found Doctor Blimber pacing up and down the +room full dressed, but with a dignified and unconcerned demeanour, as +if he thought it barely possible that one or two people might drop in by +and by. Shortly afterwards, Mrs Blimber appeared, looking lovely, Paul +thought; and attired in such a number of skirts that it was quite an +excursion to walk round her. Miss Blimber came down soon after her Mama; +a little squeezed in appearance, but very charming. + +Mr Toots and Mr Feeder were the next arrivals. Each of these gentlemen +brought his hat in his hand, as if he lived somewhere else; and when +they were announced by the butler, Doctor Blimber said, 'Ay, ay, ay! God +bless my soul!' and seemed extremely glad to see them. Mr Toots was +one blaze of jewellery and buttons; and he felt the circumstance so +strongly, that when he had shaken hands with the Doctor, and had bowed +to Mrs Blimber and Miss Blimber, he took Paul aside, and said, 'What do +you think of this, Dombey?' + +But notwithstanding this modest confidence in himself, Mr Toots appeared +to be involved in a good deal of uncertainty whether, on the whole, it +was judicious to button the bottom button of his waistcoat, and whether, +on a calm revision of all the circumstances, it was best to wear his +waistbands turned up or turned down. Observing that Mr Feeder's were +turned up, Mr Toots turned his up; but the waistbands of the next +arrival being turned down, Mr Toots turned his down. The differences +in point of waistcoat-buttoning, not only at the bottom, but at the top +too, became so numerous and complicated as the arrivals thickened, that +Mr Toots was continually fingering that article of dress, as if he +were performing on some instrument; and appeared to find the incessant +execution it demanded, quite bewildering. + +All the young gentlemen, tightly cravatted, curled, and pumped, and with +their best hats in their hands, having been at different times announced +and introduced, Mr Baps, the dancing-master, came, accompanied by Mrs +Baps, to whom Mrs Blimber was extremely kind and condescending. Mr Baps +was a very grave gentleman, with a slow and measured manner of speaking; +and before he had stood under the lamp five minutes, he began to talk to +Toots (who had been silently comparing pumps with him) about what you +were to do with your raw materials when they came into your ports in +return for your drain of gold. Mr Toots, to whom the question seemed +perplexing, suggested 'Cook 'em.' But Mr Baps did not appear to think +that would do. + +Paul now slipped away from the cushioned corner of a sofa, which had +been his post of observation, and went downstairs into the tea-room to +be ready for Florence, whom he had not seen for nearly a fortnight, as +he had remained at Doctor Blimber's on the previous Saturday and Sunday, +lest he should take cold. Presently she came: looking so beautiful in +her simple ball dress, with her fresh flowers in her hand, that when she +knelt down on the ground to take Paul round the neck and kiss him (for +there was no one there, but his friend and another young woman waiting +to serve out the tea), he could hardly make up his mind to let her go +again, or to take away her bright and loving eyes from his face. + +'But what is the matter, Floy?' asked Paul, almost sure that he saw a +tear there. + +'Nothing, darling; nothing,' returned Florence. + +Paul touched her cheek gently with his finger--and it was a tear! 'Why, +Floy!' said he. + +'We'll go home together, and I'll nurse you, love,' said Florence. + +'Nurse me!' echoed Paul. + +Paul couldn't understand what that had to do with it, nor why the two +young women looked on so seriously, nor why Florence turned away her +face for a moment, and then turned it back, lighted up again with +smiles. + +'Floy,' said Paul, holding a ringlet of her dark hair in his hand. 'Tell +me, dear, Do you think I have grown old-fashioned?' + +His sister laughed, and fondled him, and told him 'No.' + +'Because I know they say so,' returned Paul, 'and I want to know what +they mean, Floy.' + +But a loud double knock coming at the door, and Florence hurrying to the +table, there was no more said between them. Paul wondered again when he +saw his friend whisper to Florence, as if she were comforting her; but a +new arrival put that out of his head speedily. + +It was Sir Barnet Skettles, Lady Skettles, and Master Skettles. Master +Skettles was to be a new boy after the vacation, and Fame had been busy, +in Mr Feeder's room, with his father, who was in the House of Commons, +and of whom Mr Feeder had said that when he did catch the Speaker's +eye (which he had been expected to do for three or four years), it was +anticipated that he would rather touch up the Radicals. + +'And what room is this now, for instance?' said Lady Skettles to Paul's +friend, 'Melia. + +'Doctor Blimber's study, Ma'am,' was the reply. + +Lady Skettles took a panoramic survey of it through her glass, and said +to Sir Barnet Skettles, with a nod of approval, 'Very good.' Sir Barnet +assented, but Master Skettles looked suspicious and doubtful. + +'And this little creature, now,' said Lady Skettles, turning to Paul. +'Is he one of the--' + +'Young gentlemen, Ma'am; yes, Ma'am,' said Paul's friend. + +'And what is your name, my pale child?' said Lady Skettles. + +'Dombey,' answered Paul. + +Sir Barnet Skettles immediately interposed, and said that he had had the +honour of meeting Paul's father at a public dinner, and that he hoped +he was very well. Then Paul heard him say to Lady Skettles, 'City--very +rich--most respectable--Doctor mentioned it.' And then he said to Paul, +'Will you tell your good Papa that Sir Barnet Skettles rejoiced to hear +that he was very well, and sent him his best compliments?' + +'Yes, Sir,' answered Paul. + +'That is my brave boy,' said Sir Barnet Skettles. 'Barnet,' to Master +Skettles, who was revenging himself for the studies to come, on the +plum-cake, 'this is a young gentleman you ought to know. This is a +young gentleman you may know, Barnet,' said Sir Barnet Skettles, with an +emphasis on the permission. + +'What eyes! What hair! What a lovely face!' exclaimed Lady Skettles +softly, as she looked at Florence through her glass. + +'My sister,' said Paul, presenting her. + +The satisfaction of the Skettleses was now complete. And as Lady Skettles +had conceived, at first sight, a liking for Paul, they all went upstairs +together: Sir Barnet Skettles taking care of Florence, and young Barnet +following. + +Young Barnet did not remain long in the background after they had +reached the drawing-room, for Dr Blimber had him out in no time, dancing +with Florence. He did not appear to Paul to be particularly happy, or +particularly anything but sulky, or to care much what he was about; but +as Paul heard Lady Skettles say to Mrs Blimber, while she beat time with +her fan, that her dear boy was evidently smitten to death by that angel +of a child, Miss Dombey, it would seem that Skettles Junior was in a +state of bliss, without showing it. + +Little Paul thought it a singular coincidence that nobody had occupied +his place among the pillows; and that when he came into the room again, +they should all make way for him to go back to it, remembering it was +his. Nobody stood before him either, when they observed that he liked to +see Florence dancing, but they left the space in front quite clear, so +that he might follow her with his eyes. They were so kind, too, even +the strangers, of whom there were soon a great many, that they came and +spoke to him every now and then, and asked him how he was, and if his +head ached, and whether he was tired. He was very much obliged to them +for all their kindness and attention, and reclining propped up in +his corner, with Mrs Blimber and Lady Skettles on the same sofa, and +Florence coming and sitting by his side as soon as every dance was +ended, he looked on very happily indeed. + +Florence would have sat by him all night, and would not have danced at +all of her own accord, but Paul made her, by telling her how much +it pleased him. And he told her the truth, too; for his small heart +swelled, and his face glowed, when he saw how much they all admired her, +and how she was the beautiful little rosebud of the room. + +From his nest among the pillows, Paul could see and hear almost +everything that passed as if the whole were being done for his +amusement. Among other little incidents that he observed, he observed Mr +Baps the dancing-master get into conversation with Sir Barnet Skettles, +and very soon ask him, as he had asked Mr Toots, what you were to do +with your raw materials, when they came into your ports in return for +your drain of gold--which was such a mystery to Paul that he was quite +desirous to know what ought to be done with them. Sir Barnet Skettles +had much to say upon the question, and said it; but it did not appear +to solve the question, for Mr Baps retorted, Yes, but supposing Russia +stepped in with her tallows; which struck Sir Barnet almost dumb, for +he could only shake his head after that, and say, Why then you must fall +back upon your cottons, he supposed. + +Sir Barnet Skettles looked after Mr Baps when he went to cheer up +Mrs Baps (who, being quite deserted, was pretending to look over the +music-book of the gentleman who played the harp), as if he thought him a +remarkable kind of man; and shortly afterwards he said so in those words +to Doctor Blimber, and inquired if he might take the liberty of asking +who he was, and whether he had ever been in the Board of Trade. +Doctor Blimber answered no, he believed not; and that in fact he was a +Professor of--' + +'Of something connected with statistics, I'll swear?' observed Sir +Barnet Skettles. + +'Why no, Sir Barnet,' replied Doctor Blimber, rubbing his chin. 'No, not +exactly.' + +'Figures of some sort, I would venture a bet,' said Sir Barnet Skettles. + +'Why yes,' said Doctor Blimber, yes, but not of that sort. Mr Baps is a +very worthy sort of man, Sir Barnet, and--in fact he's our Professor of +dancing.' + +Paul was amazed to see that this piece of information quite altered Sir +Barnet Skettles's opinion of Mr Baps, and that Sir Barnet flew into +a perfect rage, and glowered at Mr Baps over on the other side of the +room. He even went so far as to D-- Mr Baps to Lady Skettles, in telling +her what had happened, and to say that it was like his most con-sum-mate +and con-foun-ded impudence. + +There was another thing that Paul observed. Mr Feeder, after imbibing +several custard-cups of negus, began to enjoy himself. The dancing in +general was ceremonious, and the music rather solemn--a little like +church music in fact--but after the custard-cups, Mr Feeder told Mr +Toots that he was going to throw a little spirit into the thing. After +that, Mr Feeder not only began to dance as if he meant dancing and +nothing else, but secretly to stimulate the music to perform wild tunes. +Further, he became particular in his attentions to the ladies; and +dancing with Miss Blimber, whispered to her--whispered to her!--though +not so softly but that Paul heard him say this remarkable poetry, + + 'Had I a heart for falsehood framed, + I ne'er could injure You!' + +This, Paul heard him repeat to four young ladies, in succession. Well +might Mr Feeder say to Mr Toots, that he was afraid he should be the +worse for it to-morrow! + +Mrs Blimber was a little alarmed by this--comparatively +speaking--profligate behaviour; and especially by the alteration in the +character of the music, which, beginning to comprehend low melodies that +were popular in the streets, might not unnaturally be supposed to give +offence to Lady Skettles. But Lady Skettles was so very kind as to beg +Mrs Blimber not to mention it; and to receive her explanation that +Mr Feeder's spirits sometimes betrayed him into excesses on these +occasions, with the greatest courtesy and politeness; observing, that +he seemed a very nice sort of person for his situation, and that she +particularly liked the unassuming style of his hair--which (as already +hinted) was about a quarter of an inch long. + +Once, when there was a pause in the dancing, Lady Skettles told Paul +that he seemed very fond of music. Paul replied, that he was; and if +she was too, she ought to hear his sister, Florence, sing. Lady Skettles +presently discovered that she was dying with anxiety to have that +gratification; and though Florence was at first very much frightened at +being asked to sing before so many people, and begged earnestly to be +excused, yet, on Paul calling her to him, and saying, 'Do, Floy! Please! +For me, my dear!' she went straight to the piano, and began. When they +all drew a little away, that Paul might see her; and when he saw her +sitting there all alone, so young, and good, and beautiful, and kind +to him; and heard her thrilling voice, so natural and sweet, and such +a golden link between him and all his life's love and happiness, rising +out of the silence; he turned his face away, and hid his tears. Not, +as he told them when they spoke to him, not that the music was too +plaintive or too sorrowful, but it was so dear to him. + +They all loved Florence. How could they help it! Paul had known +beforehand that they must and would; and sitting in his cushioned +corner, with calmly folded hands; and one leg loosely doubled under him, +few would have thought what triumph and delight expanded his childish +bosom while he watched her, or what a sweet tranquillity he felt. Lavish +encomiums on 'Dombey's sister' reached his ears from all the boys: +admiration of the self-possessed and modest little beauty was on every +lip: reports of her intelligence and accomplishments floated past him, +constantly; and, as if borne in upon the air of the summer night, there +was a half intelligible sentiment diffused around, referring to Florence +and himself, and breathing sympathy for both, that soothed and touched +him. + +He did not know why. For all that the child observed, and felt, and +thought, that night--the present and the absent; what was then and +what had been--were blended like the colours in the rainbow, or in +the plumage of rich birds when the sun is shining on them, or in the +softening sky when the same sun is setting. The many things he had had +to think of lately, passed before him in the music; not as claiming +his attention over again, or as likely evermore to occupy it, but as +peacefully disposed of and gone. A solitary window, gazed through years +ago, looked out upon an ocean, miles and miles away; upon its waters, +fancies, busy with him only yesterday, were hushed and lulled to rest +like broken waves. The same mysterious murmur he had wondered at, when +lying on his couch upon the beach, he thought he still heard sounding +through his sister's song, and through the hum of voices, and the tread +of feet, and having some part in the faces flitting by, and even in the +heavy gentleness of Mr Toots, who frequently came up to shake him by +the hand. Through the universal kindness he still thought he heard it, +speaking to him; and even his old-fashioned reputation seemed to be +allied to it, he knew not how. Thus little Paul sat musing, listening, +looking on, and dreaming; and was very happy. + +Until the time arrived for taking leave: and then, indeed, there was a +sensation in the party. Sir Barnet Skettles brought up Skettles Junior +to shake hands with him, and asked him if he would remember to tell his +good Papa, with his best compliments, that he, Sir Barnet Skettles, +had said he hoped the two young gentlemen would become intimately +acquainted. Lady Skettles kissed him, and patted his hair upon his brow, +and held him in her arms; and even Mrs Baps--poor Mrs Baps! Paul was +glad of that--came over from beside the music-book of the gentleman who +played the harp, and took leave of him quite as heartily as anybody in +the room. + +'Good-bye, Doctor Blimber,' said Paul, stretching out his hand. + +'Good-bye, my little friend,' returned the Doctor. + +'I'm very much obliged to you, Sir,' said Paul, looking innocently up +into his awful face. 'Ask them to take care of Diogenes, if you please.' + +Diogenes was the dog: who had never in his life received a friend into +his confidence, before Paul. The Doctor promised that every attention +should be paid to Diogenes in Paul's absence, and Paul having again +thanked him, and shaken hands with him, bade adieu to Mrs Blimber and +Cornelia with such heartfelt earnestness that Mrs Blimber forgot from +that moment to mention Cicero to Lady Skettles, though she had fully +intended it all the evening. Cornelia, taking both Paul's hands in hers, +said, 'Dombey, Dombey, you have always been my favourite pupil. God bless +you!' And it showed, Paul thought, how easily one might do injustice to +a person; for Miss Blimber meant it--though she was a Forcer--and felt +it. + +A buzz then went round among the young gentlemen, of 'Dombey's going!' +'Little Dombey's going!' and there was a general move after Paul and +Florence down the staircase and into the hall, in which the whole +Blimber family were included. Such a circumstance, Mr Feeder said aloud, +as had never happened in the case of any former young gentleman within +his experience; but it would be difficult to say if this were sober fact +or custard-cups. The servants, with the butler at their head, had all an +interest in seeing Little Dombey go; and even the weak-eyed young man, +taking out his books and trunks to the coach that was to carry him and +Florence to Mrs Pipchin's for the night, melted visibly. + +Not even the influence of the softer passion on the young gentlemen--and +they all, to a boy, doted on Florence--could restrain them from taking +quite a noisy leave of Paul; waving hats after him, pressing downstairs +to shake hands with him, crying individually 'Dombey, don't forget me!' +and indulging in many such ebullitions of feeling, uncommon among those +young Chesterfields. Paul whispered Florence, as she wrapped him up +before the door was opened, Did she hear them? Would she ever forget +it? Was she glad to know it? And a lively delight was in his eyes as he +spoke to her. + +Once, for a last look, he turned and gazed upon the faces thus addressed +to him, surprised to see how shining and how bright, and numerous they +were, and how they were all piled and heaped up, as faces are at crowded +theatres. They swam before him as he looked, like faces in an agitated +glass; and next moment he was in the dark coach outside, holding close +to Florence. From that time, whenever he thought of Doctor Blimber's, it +came back as he had seen it in this last view; and it never seemed to be +a real place again, but always a dream, full of eyes. + +This was not quite the last of Doctor Blimber's, however. There was +something else. There was Mr Toots. Who, unexpectedly letting down +one of the coach-windows, and looking in, said, with a most egregious +chuckle, 'Is Dombey there?' and immediately put it up again, without +waiting for an answer. Nor was this quite the last of Mr Toots, even; +for before the coachman could drive off, he as suddenly let down the +other window, and looking in with a precisely similar chuckle, said in +a precisely similar tone of voice, 'Is Dombey there?' and disappeared +precisely as before. + +How Florence laughed! Paul often remembered it, and laughed himself +whenever he did so. + +But there was much, soon afterwards--next day, and after that--which +Paul could only recollect confusedly. As, why they stayed at Mrs +Pipchin's days and nights, instead of going home; why he lay in bed, +with Florence sitting by his side; whether that had been his father in +the room, or only a tall shadow on the wall; whether he had heard his +doctor say, of someone, that if they had removed him before the occasion +on which he had built up fancies, strong in proportion to his own +weakness, it was very possible he might have pined away. + +He could not even remember whether he had often said to Florence, 'Oh +Floy, take me home, and never leave me!' but he thought he had. He +fancied sometimes he had heard himself repeating, 'Take me home, Floy! +take me home!' + +But he could remember, when he got home, and was carried up the +well-remembered stairs, that there had been the rumbling of a coach for +many hours together, while he lay upon the seat, with Florence still +beside him, and old Mrs Pipchin sitting opposite. He remembered his old +bed too, when they laid him down in it: his aunt, Miss Tox, and Susan: +but there was something else, and recent too, that still perplexed him. + +'I want to speak to Florence, if you please,' he said. 'To Florence by +herself, for a moment!' + +She bent down over him, and the others stood away. + +'Floy, my pet, wasn't that Papa in the hall, when they brought me from +the coach?' + +'Yes, dear.' + +'He didn't cry, and go into his room, Floy, did he, when he saw me +coming in?' + +Florence shook her head, and pressed her lips against his cheek. + +'I'm very glad he didn't cry,' said little Paul. 'I thought he did. +Don't tell them that I asked.' + + + +CHAPTER 15. Amazing Artfulness of Captain Cuttle, and a new Pursuit for +Walter Gay + + +Walter could not, for several days, decide what to do in the Barbados +business; and even cherished some faint hope that Mr Dombey might not +have meant what he had said, or that he might change his mind, and tell +him he was not to go. But as nothing occurred to give this idea (which +was sufficiently improbable in itself) any touch of confirmation, and as +time was slipping by, and he had none to lose, he felt that he must act, +without hesitating any longer. + +Walter's chief difficulty was, how to break the change in his affairs to +Uncle Sol, to whom he was sensible it would be a terrible blow. He +had the greater difficulty in dashing Uncle Sol's spirits with such an +astounding piece of intelligence, because they had lately recovered +very much, and the old man had become so cheerful, that the little back +parlour was itself again. Uncle Sol had paid the first appointed portion +of the debt to Mr Dombey, and was hopeful of working his way through +the rest; and to cast him down afresh, when he had sprung up so manfully +from his troubles, was a very distressing necessity. + +Yet it would never do to run away from him. He must know of it +beforehand; and how to tell him was the point. As to the question of +going or not going, Walter did not consider that he had any power of +choice in the matter. Mr Dombey had truly told him that he was young, +and that his Uncle's circumstances were not good; and Mr Dombey had +plainly expressed, in the glance with which he had accompanied that +reminder, that if he declined to go he might stay at home if he chose, +but not in his counting-house. His Uncle and he lay under a great +obligation to Mr Dombey, which was of Walter's own soliciting. He might +have begun in secret to despair of ever winning that gentleman's favour, +and might have thought that he was now and then disposed to put a slight +upon him, which was hardly just. But what would have been duty without +that, was still duty with it--or Walter thought so--and duty must be +done. + +When Mr Dombey had looked at him, and told him he was young, and that +his Uncle's circumstances were not good, there had been an expression of +disdain in his face; a contemptuous and disparaging assumption that he +would be quite content to live idly on a reduced old man, which stung +the boy's generous soul. Determined to assure Mr Dombey, in so far as it +was possible to give him the assurance without expressing it in words, +that indeed he mistook his nature, Walter had been anxious to show even +more cheerfulness and activity after the West Indian interview than he +had shown before: if that were possible, in one of his quick and zealous +disposition. He was too young and inexperienced to think, that possibly +this very quality in him was not agreeable to Mr Dombey, and that it +was no stepping-stone to his good opinion to be elastic and hopeful of +pleasing under the shadow of his powerful displeasure, whether it were +right or wrong. But it may have been--it may have been--that the great +man thought himself defied in this new exposition of an honest spirit, +and purposed to bring it down. + +'Well! at last and at least, Uncle Sol must be told,' thought Walter, +with a sigh. And as Walter was apprehensive that his voice might perhaps +quaver a little, and that his countenance might not be quite as hopeful +as he could wish it to be, if he told the old man himself, and saw the +first effects of his communication on his wrinkled face, he resolved to +avail himself of the services of that powerful mediator, Captain Cuttle. +Sunday coming round, he set off therefore, after breakfast, once more to +beat up Captain Cuttle's quarters. + +It was not unpleasant to remember, on the way thither, that Mrs +MacStinger resorted to a great distance every Sunday morning, to attend +the ministry of the Reverend Melchisedech Howler, who, having been one +day discharged from the West India Docks on a false suspicion (got up +expressly against him by the general enemy) of screwing gimlets into +puncheons, and applying his lips to the orifice, had announced the +destruction of the world for that day two years, at ten in the morning, +and opened a front parlour for the reception of ladies and gentlemen +of the Ranting persuasion, upon whom, on the first occasion of their +assemblage, the admonitions of the Reverend Melchisedech had produced +so powerful an effect, that, in their rapturous performance of a sacred +jig, which closed the service, the whole flock broke through into a +kitchen below, and disabled a mangle belonging to one of the fold. + +This the Captain, in a moment of uncommon conviviality, had confided +to Walter and his Uncle, between the repetitions of lovely Peg, on the +night when Brogley the broker was paid out. The Captain himself was +punctual in his attendance at a church in his own neighbourhood, which +hoisted the Union Jack every Sunday morning; and where he was good +enough--the lawful beadle being infirm--to keep an eye upon the boys, +over whom he exercised great power, in virtue of his mysterious hook. +Knowing the regularity of the Captain's habits, Walter made all the +haste he could, that he might anticipate his going out; and he made such +good speed, that he had the pleasure, on turning into Brig Place, to +behold the broad blue coat and waistcoat hanging out of the Captain's +open window, to air in the sun. + +It appeared incredible that the coat and waistcoat could be seen by +mortal eyes without the Captain; but he certainly was not in them, +otherwise his legs--the houses in Brig Place not being lofty--would have +obstructed the street door, which was perfectly clear. Quite wondering +at this discovery, Walter gave a single knock. + +'Stinger,' he distinctly heard the Captain say, up in his room, as if +that were no business of his. Therefore Walter gave two knocks. + +'Cuttle,' he heard the Captain say upon that; and immediately afterwards +the Captain, in his clean shirt and braces, with his neckerchief hanging +loosely round his throat like a coil of rope, and his glazed hat +on, appeared at the window, leaning out over the broad blue coat and +waistcoat. + +'Wal'r!' cried the Captain, looking down upon him in amazement. + +'Ay, ay, Captain Cuttle,' returned Walter, 'only me' + +'What's the matter, my lad?' inquired the Captain, with great concern. +'Gills an't been and sprung nothing again?' + +'No, no,' said Walter. 'My Uncle's all right, Captain Cuttle.' + +The Captain expressed his gratification, and said he would come down +below and open the door, which he did. + +'Though you're early, Wal'r,' said the Captain, eyeing him still +doubtfully, when they got upstairs: + +'Why, the fact is, Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, sitting down, 'I was +afraid you would have gone out, and I want to benefit by your friendly +counsel.' + +'So you shall,' said the Captain; 'what'll you take?' + +'I want to take your opinion, Captain Cuttle,' returned Walter, smiling. +'That's the only thing for me.' + +'Come on then,' said the Captain. 'With a will, my lad!' + +Walter related to him what had happened; and the difficulty in which he +felt respecting his Uncle, and the relief it would be to him if Captain +Cuttle, in his kindness, would help him to smooth it away; Captain +Cuttle's infinite consternation and astonishment at the prospect +unfolded to him, gradually swallowing that gentleman up, until it left +his face quite vacant, and the suit of blue, the glazed hat, and the +hook, apparently without an owner. + +'You see, Captain Cuttle,' pursued Walter, 'for myself, I am young, as +Mr Dombey said, and not to be considered. I am to fight my way through +the world, I know; but there are two points I was thinking, as I came +along, that I should be very particular about, in respect to my Uncle. +I don't mean to say that I deserve to be the pride and delight of his +life--you believe me, I know--but I am. Now, don't you think I am?' + +The Captain seemed to make an endeavour to rise from the depths of +his astonishment, and get back to his face; but the effort being +ineffectual, the glazed hat merely nodded with a mute, unutterable +meaning. + +'If I live and have my health,' said Walter, 'and I am not afraid of +that, still, when I leave England I can hardly hope to see my Uncle +again. He is old, Captain Cuttle; and besides, his life is a life of +custom--' + +'Steady, Wal'r! Of a want of custom?' said the Captain, suddenly +reappearing. + +'Too true,' returned Walter, shaking his head: 'but I meant a life of +habit, Captain Cuttle--that sort of custom. And if (as you very truly +said, I am sure) he would have died the sooner for the loss of the +stock, and all those objects to which he has been accustomed for so many +years, don't you think he might die a little sooner for the loss of--' + +'Of his Nevy,' interposed the Captain. 'Right!' + +'Well then,' said Walter, trying to speak gaily, 'we must do our best to +make him believe that the separation is but a temporary one, after all; +but as I know better, or dread that I know better, Captain Cuttle, and +as I have so many reasons for regarding him with affection, and duty, +and honour, I am afraid I should make but a very poor hand at that, if +I tried to persuade him of it. That's my great reason for wishing you to +break it out to him; and that's the first point.' + +'Keep her off a point or so!' observed the Captain, in a comtemplative +voice. + +'What did you say, Captain Cuttle?' inquired Walter. + +'Stand by!' returned the Captain, thoughtfully. + +Walter paused to ascertain if the Captain had any particular information +to add to this, but as he said no more, went on. + +'Now, the second point, Captain Cuttle. I am sorry to say, I am not a +favourite with Mr Dombey. I have always tried to do my best, and I have +always done it; but he does not like me. He can't help his likings and +dislikings, perhaps. I say nothing of that. I only say that I am certain +he does not like me. He does not send me to this post as a good one; he +disclaims to represent it as being better than it is; and I doubt very +much if it will ever lead me to advancement in the House--whether it +does not, on the contrary, dispose of me for ever, and put me out of the +way. Now, we must say nothing of this to my Uncle, Captain Cuttle, but +must make it out to be as favourable and promising as we can; and when I +tell you what it really is, I only do so, that in case any means should +ever arise of lending me a hand, so far off, I may have one friend at +home who knows my real situation. + +'Wal'r, my boy,' replied the Captain, 'in the Proverbs of Solomon you +will find the following words, "May we never want a friend in need, nor +a bottle to give him!" When found, make a note of.' + +Here the Captain stretched out his hand to Walter, with an air of +downright good faith that spoke volumes; at the same time repeating (for +he felt proud of the accuracy and pointed application of his quotation), +'When found, make a note of.' + +'Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, taking the immense fist extended to him +by the Captain in both his hands, which it completely filled, next to +my Uncle Sol, I love you. There is no one on earth in whom I can more +safely trust, I am sure. As to the mere going away, Captain Cuttle, I +don't care for that; why should I care for that! If I were free to seek +my own fortune--if I were free to go as a common sailor--if I were free +to venture on my own account to the farthest end of the world--I would +gladly go! I would have gladly gone, years ago, and taken my chance of +what might come of it. But it was against my Uncle's wishes, and against +the plans he had formed for me; and there was an end of that. But what I +feel, Captain Cuttle, is that we have been a little mistaken all along, +and that, so far as any improvement in my prospects is concerned, I +am no better off now than I was when I first entered Dombey's +House--perhaps a little worse, for the House may have been kindly +inclined towards me then, and it certainly is not now.' + +'Turn again, Whittington,' muttered the disconsolate Captain, after +looking at Walter for some time. + +'Ay,' replied Walter, laughing, 'and turn a great many times, too, +Captain Cuttle, I'm afraid, before such fortune as his ever turns +up again. Not that I complain,' he added, in his lively, animated, +energetic way. 'I have nothing to complain of. I am provided for. I can +live. When I leave my Uncle, I leave him to you; and I can leave him +to no one better, Captain Cuttle. I haven't told you all this because +I despair, not I; it's to convince you that I can't pick and choose in +Dombey's House, and that where I am sent, there I must go, and what I +am offered, that I must take. It's better for my Uncle that I should +be sent away; for Mr Dombey is a valuable friend to him, as he proved +himself, you know when, Captain Cuttle; and I am persuaded he won't be +less valuable when he hasn't me there, every day, to awaken his dislike. +So hurrah for the West Indies, Captain Cuttle! How does that tune go +that the sailors sing? + + 'For the Port of Barbados, Boys! + + Cheerily! + + Leaving old England behind us, Boys! + + Cheerily!' +Here the Captain roared in chorus-- + + 'Oh cheerily, cheerily! + + Oh cheer-i-ly!' + +The last line reaching the quick ears of an ardent skipper not quite +sober, who lodged opposite, and who instantly sprung out of bed, threw +up his window, and joined in, across the street, at the top of his +voice, produced a fine effect. When it was impossible to sustain the +concluding note any longer, the skipper bellowed forth a terrific +'ahoy!' intended in part as a friendly greeting, and in part to show +that he was not at all breathed. That done, he shut down his window, and +went to bed again. + +'And now, Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, handing him the blue coat and +waistcoat, and bustling very much, 'if you'll come and break the news to +Uncle Sol (which he ought to have known, days upon days ago, by +rights), I'll leave you at the door, you know, and walk about until the +afternoon.' + +The Captain, however, scarcely appeared to relish the commission, or to +be by any means confident of his powers of executing it. He had arranged +the future life and adventures of Walter so very differently, and so +entirely to his own satisfaction; he had felicitated himself so often on +the sagacity and foresight displayed in that arrangement, and had found +it so complete and perfect in all its parts; that to suffer it to go +to pieces all at once, and even to assist in breaking it up, required a +great effort of his resolution. The Captain, too, found it difficult to +unload his old ideas upon the subject, and to take a perfectly new +cargo on board, with that rapidity which the circumstances required, +or without jumbling and confounding the two. Consequently, instead of +putting on his coat and waistcoat with anything like the impetuosity +that could alone have kept pace with Walter's mood, he declined to +invest himself with those garments at all at present; and informed +Walter that on such a serious matter, he must be allowed to 'bite his +nails a bit'. + +'It's an old habit of mine, Wal'r,' said the Captain, 'any time these +fifty year. When you see Ned Cuttle bite his nails, Wal'r, then you may +know that Ned Cuttle's aground.' + +Thereupon the Captain put his iron hook between his teeth, as if it +were a hand; and with an air of wisdom and profundity that was the very +concentration and sublimation of all philosophical reflection and grave +inquiry, applied himself to the consideration of the subject in its +various branches. + +'There's a friend of mine,' murmured the Captain, in an absent manner, +'but he's at present coasting round to Whitby, that would deliver such +an opinion on this subject, or any other that could be named, as would +give Parliament six and beat 'em. Been knocked overboard, that man,' +said the Captain, 'twice, and none the worse for it. Was beat in his +apprenticeship, for three weeks (off and on), about the head with a +ring-bolt. And yet a clearer-minded man don't walk.' + +In spite of his respect for Captain Cuttle, Walter could not help +inwardly rejoicing at the absence of this sage, and devoutly hoping that +his limpid intellect might not be brought to bear on his difficulties +until they were quite settled. + +'If you was to take and show that man the buoy at the Nore,' said +Captain Cuttle in the same tone, 'and ask him his opinion of it, Wal'r, +he'd give you an opinion that was no more like that buoy than your +Uncle's buttons are. There ain't a man that walks--certainly not on two +legs--that can come near him. Not near him!' + +'What's his name, Captain Cuttle?' inquired Walter, determined to be +interested in the Captain's friend. + +'His name's Bunsby,' said the Captain. 'But Lord, it might be anything +for the matter of that, with such a mind as his!' + +The exact idea which the Captain attached to this concluding piece of +praise, he did not further elucidate; neither did Walter seek to draw +it forth. For on his beginning to review, with the vivacity natural to +himself and to his situation, the leading points in his own affairs, he +soon discovered that the Captain had relapsed into his former profound +state of mind; and that while he eyed him steadfastly from beneath his +bushy eyebrows, he evidently neither saw nor heard him, but remained +immersed in cogitation. + +In fact, Captain Cuttle was labouring with such great designs, that far +from being aground, he soon got off into the deepest of water, and could +find no bottom to his penetration. By degrees it became perfectly plain +to the Captain that there was some mistake here; that it was undoubtedly +much more likely to be Walter's mistake than his; that if there were +really any West India scheme afoot, it was a very different one from +what Walter, who was young and rash, supposed; and could only be some +new device for making his fortune with unusual celerity. 'Or if there +should be any little hitch between 'em,' thought the Captain, meaning +between Walter and Mr Dombey, 'it only wants a word in season from a +friend of both parties, to set it right and smooth, and make all taut +again.' Captain Cuttle's deduction from these considerations was, that +as he already enjoyed the pleasure of knowing Mr Dombey, from having +spent a very agreeable half-hour in his company at Brighton (on the +morning when they borrowed the money); and that, as a couple of men of +the world, who understood each other, and were mutually disposed to make +things comfortable, could easily arrange any little difficulty of this +sort, and come at the real facts; the friendly thing for him to do would +be, without saying anything about it to Walter at present, just to step +up to Mr Dombey's house--say to the servant 'Would ye be so good, my +lad, as report Cap'en Cuttle here?'--meet Mr Dombey in a confidential +spirit--hook him by the button-hole--talk it over--make it all +right--and come away triumphant! + +As these reflections presented themselves to the Captain's mind, and +by slow degrees assumed this shape and form, his visage cleared like +a doubtful morning when it gives place to a bright noon. His eyebrows, +which had been in the highest degree portentous, smoothed their rugged +bristling aspect, and became serene; his eyes, which had been nearly +closed in the severity of his mental exercise, opened freely; a smile +which had been at first but three specks--one at the right-hand corner +of his mouth, and one at the corner of each eye--gradually overspread +his whole face, and, rippling up into his forehead, lifted the glazed +hat: as if that too had been aground with Captain Cuttle, and were now, +like him, happily afloat again. + +Finally, the Captain left off biting his nails, and said, 'Now, Wal'r, +my boy, you may help me on with them slops.' By which the Captain meant +his coat and waistcoat. + +Walter little imagined why the Captain was so particular in the +arrangement of his cravat, as to twist the pendent ends into a sort of +pigtail, and pass them through a massive gold ring with a picture of +a tomb upon it, and a neat iron railing, and a tree, in memory of some +deceased friend. Nor why the Captain pulled up his shirt-collar to +the utmost limits allowed by the Irish linen below, and by so doing +decorated himself with a complete pair of blinkers; nor why he changed +his shoes, and put on an unparalleled pair of ankle-jacks, which he only +wore on extraordinary occasions. The Captain being at length attired to +his own complete satisfaction, and having glanced at himself from +head to foot in a shaving-glass which he removed from a nail for that +purpose, took up his knotted stick, and said he was ready. + +The Captain's walk was more complacent than usual when they got out +into the street; but this Walter supposed to be the effect of the +ankle-jacks, and took little heed of. Before they had gone very far, +they encountered a woman selling flowers; when the Captain stopping +short, as if struck by a happy idea, made a purchase of the largest +bundle in her basket: a most glorious nosegay, fan-shaped, some two feet +and a half round, and composed of all the jolliest-looking flowers that +blow. + +Armed with this little token which he designed for Mr Dombey, Captain +Cuttle walked on with Walter until they reached the Instrument-maker's +door, before which they both paused. + +'You're going in?' said Walter. + +'Yes,' returned the Captain, who felt that Walter must be got rid +of before he proceeded any further, and that he had better time his +projected visit somewhat later in the day. + +'And you won't forget anything?' + +'No,' returned the Captain. + +'I'll go upon my walk at once,' said Walter, 'and then I shall be out of +the way, Captain Cuttle.' + +'Take a good long 'un, my lad!' replied the Captain, calling after him. +Walter waved his hand in assent, and went his way. + +His way was nowhere in particular; but he thought he would go out into +the fields, where he could reflect upon the unknown life before him, and +resting under some tree, ponder quietly. He knew no better fields than +those near Hampstead, and no better means of getting at them than by +passing Mr Dombey's house. + +It was as stately and as dark as ever, when he went by and glanced up +at its frowning front. The blinds were all pulled down, but the upper +windows stood wide open, and the pleasant air stirring those curtains +and waving them to and fro was the only sign of animation in the whole +exterior. Walter walked softly as he passed, and was glad when he had +left the house a door or two behind. + +He looked back then; with the interest he had always felt for the place +since the adventure of the lost child, years ago; and looked especially +at those upper windows. While he was thus engaged, a chariot drove to +the door, and a portly gentleman in black, with a heavy watch-chain, +alighted, and went in. When he afterwards remembered this gentleman and +his equipage together, Walter had no doubt he was a physician; and then +he wondered who was ill; but the discovery did not occur to him until he +had walked some distance, thinking listlessly of other things. + +Though still, of what the house had suggested to him; for Walter +pleased himself with thinking that perhaps the time might come, when the +beautiful child who was his old friend and had always been so grateful +to him and so glad to see him since, might interest her brother in his +behalf and influence his fortunes for the better. He liked to imagine +this--more, at that moment, for the pleasure of imagining her continued +remembrance of him, than for any worldly profit he might gain: but +another and more sober fancy whispered to him that if he were alive +then, he would be beyond the sea and forgotten; she married, rich, +proud, happy. There was no more reason why she should remember him with +any interest in such an altered state of things, than any plaything she +ever had. No, not so much. + +Yet Walter so idealised the pretty child whom he had found wandering in +the rough streets, and so identified her with her innocent gratitude +of that night and the simplicity and truth of its expression, that he +blushed for himself as a libeller when he argued that she could ever +grow proud. On the other hand, his meditations were of that fantastic +order that it seemed hardly less libellous in him to imagine her grown a +woman: to think of her as anything but the same artless, gentle, winning +little creature, that she had been in the days of Good Mrs Brown. In +a word, Walter found out that to reason with himself about Florence at +all, was to become very unreasonable indeed; and that he could do +no better than preserve her image in his mind as something precious, +unattainable, unchangeable, and indefinite--indefinite in all but its +power of giving him pleasure, and restraining him like an angel's hand +from anything unworthy. + +It was a long stroll in the fields that Walter took that day, listening +to the birds, and the Sunday bells, and the softened murmur of the +town--breathing sweet scents; glancing sometimes at the dim horizon +beyond which his voyage and his place of destination lay; then looking +round on the green English grass and the home landscape. But he hardly +once thought, even of going away, distinctly; and seemed to put off +reflection idly, from hour to hour, and from minute to minute, while he +yet went on reflecting all the time. + +Walter had left the fields behind him, and was plodding homeward in +the same abstracted mood, when he heard a shout from a man, and then +a woman's voice calling to him loudly by name. Turning quickly in his +surprise, he saw that a hackney-coach, going in the contrary direction, +had stopped at no great distance; that the coachman was looking back +from his box and making signals to him with his whip; and that a young +woman inside was leaning out of the window, and beckoning with immense +energy. Running up to this coach, he found that the young woman was +Miss Nipper, and that Miss Nipper was in such a flutter as to be almost +beside herself. + +'Staggs's Gardens, Mr Walter!' said Miss Nipper; 'if you please, oh do!' + +'Eh?' cried Walter; 'what is the matter?' + +'Oh, Mr Walter, Staggs's Gardens, if you please!' said Susan. + +'There!' cried the coachman, appealing to Walter, with a sort of +exalting despair; 'that's the way the young lady's been a goin' on +for up'ards of a mortal hour, and me continivally backing out of no +thoroughfares, where she would drive up. I've had a many fares in this +coach, first and last, but never such a fare as her.' + +'Do you want to go to Staggs's Gardens, Susan?' inquired Walter. + +'Ah! She wants to go there! WHERE IS IT?' growled the coachman. + +'I don't know where it is!' exclaimed Susan, wildly. 'Mr Walter, I was +there once myself, along with Miss Floy and our poor darling Master +Paul, on the very day when you found Miss Floy in the City, for we lost +her coming home, Mrs Richards and me, and a mad bull, and Mrs Richards's +eldest, and though I went there afterwards, I can't remember where it +is, I think it's sunk into the ground. Oh, Mr Walter, don't desert +me, Staggs's Gardens, if you please! Miss Floy's darling--all our +darlings--little, meek, meek Master Paul! Oh Mr Walter!' + +'Good God!' cried Walter. 'Is he very ill?' + +'The pretty flower!' cried Susan, wringing her hands, 'has took the +fancy that he'd like to see his old nurse, and I've come to bring her to +his bedside, Mrs Staggs, of Polly Toodle's Gardens, someone pray!' + +Greatly moved by what he heard, and catching Susan's earnestness +immediately, Walter, now that he understood the nature of her errand, +dashed into it with such ardour that the coachman had enough to do +to follow closely as he ran before, inquiring here and there and +everywhere, the way to Staggs's Gardens. + +There was no such place as Staggs's Gardens. It had vanished from the +earth. Where the old rotten summer-houses once had stood, palaces now +reared their heads, and granite columns of gigantic girth opened a +vista to the railway world beyond. The miserable waste ground, where the +refuse-matter had been heaped of yore, was swallowed up and gone; and in +its frowsy stead were tiers of warehouses, crammed with rich goods and +costly merchandise. The old by-streets now swarmed with passengers and +vehicles of every kind: the new streets that had stopped disheartened +in the mud and waggon-ruts, formed towns within themselves, originating +wholesome comforts and conveniences belonging to themselves, and never +tried nor thought of until they sprung into existence. Bridges that had +led to nothing, led to villas, gardens, churches, healthy public walks. +The carcasses of houses, and beginnings of new thoroughfares, had +started off upon the line at steam's own speed, and shot away into the +country in a monster train. + +As to the neighbourhood which had hesitated to acknowledge the railroad +in its straggling days, that had grown wise and penitent, as any +Christian might in such a case, and now boasted of its powerful and +prosperous relation. There were railway patterns in its drapers' shops, +and railway journals in the windows of its newsmen. There were railway +hotels, office-houses, lodging-houses, boarding-houses; railway plans, +maps, views, wrappers, bottles, sandwich-boxes, and time-tables; +railway hackney-coach and stands; railway omnibuses, railway streets and +buildings, railway hangers-on and parasites, and flatterers out of all +calculation. There was even railway time observed in clocks, as if +the sun itself had given in. Among the vanquished was the master +chimney-sweeper, whilom incredulous at Staggs's Gardens, who now lived +in a stuccoed house three stories high, and gave himself out, with +golden flourishes upon a varnished board, as contractor for the +cleansing of railway chimneys by machinery. + +To and from the heart of this great change, all day and night, throbbing +currents rushed and returned incessantly like its life's blood. Crowds +of people and mountains of goods, departing and arriving scores upon +scores of times in every four-and-twenty hours, produced a fermentation +in the place that was always in action. The very houses seemed disposed +to pack up and take trips. Wonderful Members of Parliament, who, little +more than twenty years before, had made themselves merry with the wild +railroad theories of engineers, and given them the liveliest rubs in +cross-examination, went down into the north with their watches in their +hands, and sent on messages before by the electric telegraph, to say +that they were coming. Night and day the conquering engines rumbled at +their distant work, or, advancing smoothly to their journey's end, and +gliding like tame dragons into the allotted corners grooved out to the +inch for their reception, stood bubbling and trembling there, making the +walls quake, as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great +powers yet unsuspected in them, and strong purposes not yet achieved. + +But Staggs's Gardens had been cut up root and branch. Oh woe the day +when 'not a rood of English ground'--laid out in Staggs's Gardens--is +secure! + +At last, after much fruitless inquiry, Walter, followed by the coach and +Susan, found a man who had once resided in that vanished land, and who +was no other than the master sweep before referred to, grown stout, +and knocking a double knock at his own door. He knowed Toodle, he said, +well. Belonged to the Railroad, didn't he? + +'Yes sir, yes!' cried Susan Nipper from the coach window. + +Where did he live now? hastily inquired Walter. + +He lived in the Company's own Buildings, second turning to the right, +down the yard, cross over, and take the second on the right again. It +was number eleven; they couldn't mistake it; but if they did, they had +only to ask for Toodle, Engine Fireman, and any one would show them +which was his house. At this unexpected stroke of success Susan Nipper +dismounted from the coach with all speed, took Walter's arm, and set +off at a breathless pace on foot; leaving the coach there to await their +return. + +'Has the little boy been long ill, Susan?' inquired Walter, as they +hurried on. + +'Ailing for a deal of time, but no one knew how much,' said Susan; +adding, with excessive sharpness, 'Oh, them Blimbers!' + +'Blimbers?' echoed Walter. + +'I couldn't forgive myself at such a time as this, Mr Walter,' said +Susan, 'and when there's so much serious distress to think about, if +I rested hard on anyone, especially on them that little darling Paul +speaks well of, but I may wish that the family was set to work in a +stony soil to make new roads, and that Miss Blimber went in front, and +had the pickaxe!' + +Miss Nipper then took breath, and went on faster than before, as if this +extraordinary aspiration had relieved her. Walter, who had by this time +no breath of his own to spare, hurried along without asking any more +questions; and they soon, in their impatience, burst in at a little door +and came into a clean parlour full of children. + +'Where's Mrs Richards?' exclaimed Susan Nipper, looking round. 'Oh Mrs +Richards, Mrs Richards, come along with me, my dear creetur!' + +'Why, if it ain't Susan!' cried Polly, rising with her honest face and +motherly figure from among the group, in great surprise. + +'Yes, Mrs Richards, it's me,' said Susan, 'and I wish it wasn't, though +I may not seem to flatter when I say so, but little Master Paul is very +ill, and told his Pa today that he would like to see the face of his +old nurse, and him and Miss Floy hope you'll come along with me--and Mr +Walter, Mrs Richards--forgetting what is past, and do a kindness to the +sweet dear that is withering away. Oh, Mrs Richards, withering away!' +Susan Nipper crying, Polly shed tears to see her, and to hear what she +had said; and all the children gathered round (including numbers of new +babies); and Mr Toodle, who had just come home from Birmingham, and was +eating his dinner out of a basin, laid down his knife and fork, and put +on his wife's bonnet and shawl for her, which were hanging up behind the +door; then tapped her on the back; and said, with more fatherly feeling +than eloquence, 'Polly! cut away!' + +So they got back to the coach, long before the coachman expected them; +and Walter, putting Susan and Mrs Richards inside, took his seat on the +box himself that there might be no more mistakes, and deposited them +safely in the hall of Mr Dombey's house--where, by the bye, he saw a +mighty nosegay lying, which reminded him of the one Captain Cuttle had +purchased in his company that morning. He would have lingered to know +more of the young invalid, or waited any length of time to see if +he could render the least service; but, painfully sensible that such +conduct would be looked upon by Mr Dombey as presumptuous and forward, +he turned slowly, sadly, anxiously, away. + +He had not gone five minutes' walk from the door, when a man came +running after him, and begged him to return. Walter retraced his steps +as quickly as he could, and entered the gloomy house with a sorrowful +foreboding. + + + +CHAPTER 16. What the Waves were always saying + + +Paul had never risen from his little bed. He lay there, listening to +the noises in the street, quite tranquilly; not caring much how the time +went, but watching it and watching everything about him with observing +eyes. + +When the sunbeams struck into his room through the rustling blinds, and +quivered on the opposite wall like golden water, he knew that evening +was coming on, and that the sky was red and beautiful. As the reflection +died away, and a gloom went creeping up the wall, he watched it deepen, +deepen, deepen, into night. Then he thought how the long streets were +dotted with lamps, and how the peaceful stars were shining overhead. His +fancy had a strange tendency to wander to the river, which he knew was +flowing through the great city; and now he thought how black it was, +and how deep it would look, reflecting the hosts of stars--and more than +all, how steadily it rolled away to meet the sea. + +As it grew later in the night, and footsteps in the street became so +rare that he could hear them coming, count them as they passed, and lose +them in the hollow distance, he would lie and watch the many-coloured +ring about the candle, and wait patiently for day. His only trouble was, +the swift and rapid river. He felt forced, sometimes, to try to stop +it--to stem it with his childish hands--or choke its way with sand--and +when he saw it coming on, resistless, he cried out! But a word from +Florence, who was always at his side, restored him to himself; and +leaning his poor head upon her breast, he told Floy of his dream, and +smiled. + +When day began to dawn again, he watched for the sun; and when +its cheerful light began to sparkle in the room, he pictured to +himself--pictured! he saw--the high church towers rising up into the +morning sky, the town reviving, waking, starting into life once more, +the river glistening as it rolled (but rolling fast as ever), and the +country bright with dew. Familiar sounds and cries came by degrees into +the street below; the servants in the house were roused and busy; faces +looked in at the door, and voices asked his attendants softly how he +was. Paul always answered for himself, 'I am better. I am a great deal +better, thank you! Tell Papa so!' + +By little and little, he got tired of the bustle of the day, the noise +of carriages and carts, and people passing and repassing; and would fall +asleep, or be troubled with a restless and uneasy sense again--the +child could hardly tell whether this were in his sleeping or his waking +moments--of that rushing river. 'Why, will it never stop, Floy?' he +would sometimes ask her. 'It is bearing me away, I think!' + +But Floy could always soothe and reassure him; and it was his daily +delight to make her lay her head down on his pillow, and take some rest. + +'You are always watching me, Floy, let me watch you, now!' They would +prop him up with cushions in a corner of his bed, and there he would +recline the while she lay beside him: bending forward oftentimes to kiss +her, and whispering to those who were near that she was tired, and how +she had sat up so many nights beside him. + +Thus, the flush of the day, in its heat and light, would gradually +decline; and again the golden water would be dancing on the wall. + +He was visited by as many as three grave doctors--they used to assemble +downstairs, and come up together--and the room was so quiet, and Paul +was so observant of them (though he never asked of anybody what they +said), that he even knew the difference in the sound of their watches. +But his interest centred in Sir Parker Peps, who always took his seat +on the side of the bed. For Paul had heard them say long ago, that that +gentleman had been with his Mama when she clasped Florence in her arms, +and died. And he could not forget it, now. He liked him for it. He was +not afraid. + +The people round him changed as unaccountably as on that first night at +Doctor Blimber's--except Florence; Florence never changed--and what had +been Sir Parker Peps, was now his father, sitting with his head upon +his hand. Old Mrs Pipchin dozing in an easy chair, often changed to Miss +Tox, or his aunt; and Paul was quite content to shut his eyes again, and +see what happened next, without emotion. But this figure with its head +upon its hand returned so often, and remained so long, and sat so still +and solemn, never speaking, never being spoken to, and rarely lifting up +its face, that Paul began to wonder languidly, if it were real; and in +the night-time saw it sitting there, with fear. + +'Floy!' he said. 'What is that?' + +'Where, dearest?' + +'There! at the bottom of the bed.' + +'There's nothing there, except Papa!' + +The figure lifted up its head, and rose, and coming to the bedside, +said: 'My own boy! Don't you know me?' + +Paul looked it in the face, and thought, was this his father? But the +face so altered to his thinking, thrilled while he gazed, as if it were +in pain; and before he could reach out both his hands to take it between +them, and draw it towards him, the figure turned away quickly from the +little bed, and went out at the door. + +Paul looked at Florence with a fluttering heart, but he knew what she +was going to say, and stopped her with his face against her lips. The +next time he observed the figure sitting at the bottom of the bed, he +called to it. + +'Don't be sorry for me, dear Papa! Indeed I am quite happy!' + +His father coming and bending down to him--which he did quickly, and +without first pausing by the bedside--Paul held him round the neck, and +repeated those words to him several times, and very earnestly; and Paul +never saw him in his room again at any time, whether it were day or +night, but he called out, 'Don't be sorry for me! Indeed I am quite +happy!' This was the beginning of his always saying in the morning that +he was a great deal better, and that they were to tell his father so. + +How many times the golden water danced upon the wall; how many nights +the dark, dark river rolled towards the sea in spite of him; Paul never +counted, never sought to know. If their kindness, or his sense of it, +could have increased, they were more kind, and he more grateful every +day; but whether they were many days or few, appeared of little moment +now, to the gentle boy. + +One night he had been thinking of his mother, and her picture in the +drawing-room downstairs, and thought she must have loved sweet Florence +better than his father did, to have held her in her arms when she felt +that she was dying--for even he, her brother, who had such dear love +for her, could have no greater wish than that. The train of thought +suggested to him to inquire if he had ever seen his mother? for he could +not remember whether they had told him, yes or no, the river running +very fast, and confusing his mind. + +'Floy, did I ever see Mama?' + +'No, darling, why?' + +'Did I ever see any kind face, like Mama's, looking at me when I was a +baby, Floy?' + +He asked, incredulously, as if he had some vision of a face before him. + +'Oh yes, dear!' + +'Whose, Floy?' + +'Your old nurse's. Often.' + +'And where is my old nurse?' said Paul. 'Is she dead too? Floy, are we +all dead, except you?' + +There was a hurry in the room, for an instant--longer, perhaps; but it +seemed no more--then all was still again; and Florence, with her face +quite colourless, but smiling, held his head upon her arm. Her arm +trembled very much. + +'Show me that old nurse, Floy, if you please!' + +'She is not here, darling. She shall come to-morrow.' + +'Thank you, Floy!' + +Paul closed his eyes with those words, and fell asleep. When he awoke, +the sun was high, and the broad day was clear and warm. He lay a little, +looking at the windows, which were open, and the curtains rustling in +the air, and waving to and fro: then he said, 'Floy, is it tomorrow? Is +she come?' + +Someone seemed to go in quest of her. Perhaps it was Susan. Paul thought +he heard her telling him when he had closed his eyes again, that she +would soon be back; but he did not open them to see. She kept her +word--perhaps she had never been away--but the next thing that happened +was a noise of footsteps on the stairs, and then Paul woke--woke mind +and body--and sat upright in his bed. He saw them now about him. There +was no grey mist before them, as there had been sometimes in the night. +He knew them every one, and called them by their names. + +'And who is this? Is this my old nurse?' said the child, regarding with +a radiant smile, a figure coming in. + +Yes, yes. No other stranger would have shed those tears at sight of +him, and called him her dear boy, her pretty boy, her own poor blighted +child. No other woman would have stooped down by his bed, and taken up +his wasted hand, and put it to her lips and breast, as one who had some +right to fondle it. No other woman would have so forgotten everybody +there but him and Floy, and been so full of tenderness and pity. + +'Floy! this is a kind good face!' said Paul. 'I am glad to see it again. +Don't go away, old nurse! Stay here.' + +His senses were all quickened, and he heard a name he knew. + +'Who was that, who said "Walter"?' he asked, looking round. 'Someone +said Walter. Is he here? I should like to see him very much.' + +Nobody replied directly; but his father soon said to Susan, 'Call him +back, then: let him come up!' Alter a short pause of expectation, during +which he looked with smiling interest and wonder, on his nurse, and saw +that she had not forgotten Floy, Walter was brought into the room. +His open face and manner, and his cheerful eyes, had always made him a +favourite with Paul; and when Paul saw him' he stretched Out his hand, +and said 'Good-bye!' + +'Good-bye, my child!' said Mrs Pipchin, hurrying to his bed's head. 'Not +good-bye?' + +For an instant, Paul looked at her with the wistful face with which he +had so often gazed upon her in his corner by the fire. 'Yes,' he said +placidly, 'good-bye! Walter dear, good-bye!'--turning his head to where +he stood, and putting out his hand again. 'Where is Papa?' + +He felt his father's breath upon his cheek, before the words had parted +from his lips. + +'Remember Walter, dear Papa,' he whispered, looking in his face. +'Remember Walter. I was fond of Walter!' The feeble hand waved in the +air, as if it cried 'good-bye!' to Walter once again. + +'Now lay me down,' he said, 'and, Floy, come close to me, and let me see +you!' + +Sister and brother wound their arms around each other, and the golden +light came streaming in, and fell upon them, locked together. + +'How fast the river runs, between its green banks and the rushes, Floy! +But it's very near the sea. I hear the waves! They always said so!' + +Presently he told her the motion of the boat upon the stream was lulling +him to rest. How green the banks were now, how bright the flowers +growing on them, and how tall the rushes! Now the boat was out at sea, +but gliding smoothly on. And now there was a shore before him. Who stood +on the bank?-- + +He put his hands together, as he had been used to do at his prayers. He +did not remove his arms to do it; but they saw him fold them so, behind +her neck. + +'Mama is like you, Floy. I know her by the face! But tell them that the +print upon the stairs at school is not divine enough. The light about +the head is shining on me as I go!' + + +The golden ripple on the wall came back again, and nothing else stirred +in the room. The old, old fashion! The fashion that came in with our +first garments, and will last unchanged until our race has run its +course, and the wide firmament is rolled up like a scroll. The old, old +fashion--Death! + +Oh thank GOD, all who see it, for that older fashion yet, of +Immortality! And look upon us, angels of young children, with regards +not quite estranged, when the swift river bears us to the ocean! + +'Dear me, dear me! To think,' said Miss Tox, bursting out afresh that +night, as if her heart were broken, 'that Dombey and Son should be a +Daughter after all!' + + + +CHAPTER 17. Captain Cuttle does a little Business for the Young People + + +Captain Cuttle, in the exercise of that surprising talent for deep-laid +and unfathomable scheming, with which (as is not unusual in men of +transparent simplicity) he sincerely believed himself to be endowed by +nature, had gone to Mr Dombey's house on the eventful Sunday, winking +all the way as a vent for his superfluous sagacity, and had presented +himself in the full lustre of the ankle-jacks before the eyes of +Towlinson. Hearing from that individual, to his great concern, of the +impending calamity, Captain Cuttle, in his delicacy, sheered off +again confounded; merely handing in the nosegay as a small mark of his +solicitude, and leaving his respectful compliments for the family in +general, which he accompanied with an expression of his hope that they +would lay their heads well to the wind under existing circumstances, and +a friendly intimation that he would 'look up again' to-morrow. + +The Captain's compliments were never heard of any more. The Captain's +nosegay, after lying in the hall all night, was swept into the dust-bin +next morning; and the Captain's sly arrangement, involved in one +catastrophe with greater hopes and loftier designs, was crushed to +pieces. So, when an avalanche bears down a mountain-forest, twigs and +bushes suffer with the trees, and all perish together. + +When Walter returned home on the Sunday evening from his long walk, and +its memorable close, he was too much occupied at first by the tidings he +had to give them, and by the emotions naturally awakened in his breast +by the scene through which he had passed, to observe either that his +Uncle was evidently unacquainted with the intelligence the Captain had +undertaken to impart, or that the Captain made signals with his hook, +warning him to avoid the subject. Not that the Captain's signals were +calculated to have proved very comprehensible, however attentively +observed; for, like those Chinese sages who are said in their +conferences to write certain learned words in the air that are wholly +impossible of pronunciation, the Captain made such waves and flourishes +as nobody without a previous knowledge of his mystery, would have been +at all likely to understand. + +Captain Cuttle, however, becoming cognisant of what had happened, +relinquished these attempts, as he perceived the slender chance that now +existed of his being able to obtain a little easy chat with Mr Dombey +before the period of Walter's departure. But in admitting to himself, +with a disappointed and crestfallen countenance, that Sol Gills must +be told, and that Walter must go--taking the case for the present as he +found it, and not having it enlightened or improved beforehand by the +knowing management of a friend--the Captain still felt an unabated +confidence that he, Ned Cuttle, was the man for Mr Dombey; and that, to +set Walter's fortunes quite square, nothing was wanted but that they two +should come together. For the Captain never could forget how well he and +Mr Dombey had got on at Brighton; with what nicety each of them had put +in a word when it was wanted; how exactly they had taken one another's +measure; nor how Ned Cuttle had pointed out that resources in the first +extremity, and had brought the interview to the desired termination. On +all these grounds the Captain soothed himself with thinking that though +Ned Cuttle was forced by the pressure of events to 'stand by' almost +useless for the present, Ned would fetch up with a wet sail in good +time, and carry all before him. + +Under the influence of this good-natured delusion, Captain Cuttle even +went so far as to revolve in his own bosom, while he sat looking at +Walter and listening with a tear on his shirt-collar to what he related, +whether it might not be at once genteel and politic to give Mr Dombey a +verbal invitation, whenever they should meet, to come and cut his mutton +in Brig Place on some day of his own naming, and enter on the question +of his young friend's prospects over a social glass. But the uncertain +temper of Mrs MacStinger, and the possibility of her setting up her rest +in the passage during such an entertainment, and there delivering +some homily of an uncomplimentary nature, operated as a check on the +Captain's hospitable thoughts, and rendered him timid of giving them +encouragement. + +One fact was quite clear to the Captain, as Walter, sitting thoughtfully +over his untasted dinner, dwelt on all that had happened; namely, that +however Walter's modesty might stand in the way of his perceiving it +himself, he was, as one might say, a member of Mr Dombey's family. +He had been, in his own person, connected with the incident he so +pathetically described; he had been by name remembered and commended +in close association with it; and his fortunes must have a particular +interest in his employer's eyes. If the Captain had any lurking doubt +whatever of his own conclusions, he had not the least doubt that they +were good conclusions for the peace of mind of the Instrument-maker. +Therefore he availed himself of so favourable a moment for breaking +the West Indian intelligence to his friend, as a piece of extraordinary +preferment; declaring that for his part he would freely give a hundred +thousand pounds (if he had it) for Walter's gain in the long-run, and +that he had no doubt such an investment would yield a handsome premium. + +Solomon Gills was at first stunned by the communication, which fell +upon the little back-parlour like a thunderbolt, and tore up the hearth +savagely. But the Captain flashed such golden prospects before his dim +sight: hinted so mysteriously at Whittingtonian consequences; laid such +emphasis on what Walter had just now told them: and appealed to it so +confidently as a corroboration of his predictions, and a great advance +towards the realisation of the romantic legend of Lovely Peg: that he +bewildered the old man. Walter, for his part, feigned to be so full of +hope and ardour, and so sure of coming home again soon, and backed up +the Captain with such expressive shakings of his head and rubbings of +his hands, that Solomon, looking first at him then at Captain Cuttle, +began to think he ought to be transported with joy. + +'But I'm behind the time, you understand,' he observed in apology, +passing his hand nervously down the whole row of bright buttons on his +coat, and then up again, as if they were beads and he were telling +them twice over: 'and I would rather have my dear boy here. It's +an old-fashioned notion, I daresay. He was always fond of the sea +He's'--and he looked wistfully at Walter--'he's glad to go.' + +'Uncle Sol!' cried Walter, quickly, 'if you say that, I won't go. No, +Captain Cuttle, I won't. If my Uncle thinks I could be glad to leave +him, though I was going to be made Governor of all the Islands in the +West Indies, that's enough. I'm a fixture.' + +'Wal'r, my lad,' said the Captain. 'Steady! Sol Gills, take an +observation of your nevy.' + +Following with his eyes the majestic action of the Captain's hook, the +old man looked at Walter. + +'Here is a certain craft,' said the Captain, with a magnificent sense of +the allegory into which he was soaring, 'a-going to put out on a certain +voyage. What name is wrote upon that craft indelibly? Is it The Gay? +or,' said the Captain, raising his voice as much as to say, observe the +point of this, 'is it The Gills?' + +'Ned,' said the old man, drawing Walter to his side, and taking his +arm tenderly through his, 'I know. I know. Of course I know that Wally +considers me more than himself always. That's in my mind. When I say +he is glad to go, I mean I hope he is. Eh? look you, Ned and you too, +Wally, my dear, this is new and unexpected to me; and I'm afraid my +being behind the time, and poor, is at the bottom of it. Is it really +good fortune for him, do you tell me, now?' said the old man, looking +anxiously from one to the other. 'Really and truly? Is it? I can +reconcile myself to almost anything that advances Wally, but I won't +have Wally putting himself at any disadvantage for me, or keeping +anything from me. You, Ned Cuttle!' said the old man, fastening on the +Captain, to the manifest confusion of that diplomatist; 'are you dealing +plainly by your old friend? Speak out, Ned Cuttle. Is there anything +behind? Ought he to go? How do you know it first, and why?' + +As it was a contest of affection and self-denial, Walter struck in +with infinite effect, to the Captain's relief; and between them they +tolerably reconciled old Sol Gills, by continued talking, to the +project; or rather so confused him, that nothing, not even the pain of +separation, was distinctly clear to his mind. + +He had not much time to balance the matter; for on the very next day, +Walter received from Mr Carker the Manager, the necessary credentials +for his passage and outfit, together with the information that the Son +and Heir would sail in a fortnight, or within a day or two afterwards at +latest. In the hurry of preparation: which Walter purposely enhanced as +much as possible: the old man lost what little self-possession he ever +had; and so the time of departure drew on rapidly. + +The Captain, who did not fail to make himself acquainted with all that +passed, through inquiries of Walter from day to day, found the time +still tending on towards his going away, without any occasion offering +itself, or seeming likely to offer itself, for a better understanding +of his position. It was after much consideration of this fact, and much +pondering over such an unfortunate combination of circumstances, that +a bright idea occurred to the Captain. Suppose he made a call on Mr +Carker, and tried to find out from him how the land really lay! + +Captain Cuttle liked this idea very much. It came upon him in a moment +of inspiration, as he was smoking an early pipe in Brig Place after +breakfast; and it was worthy of the tobacco. It would quiet his +conscience, which was an honest one, and was made a little uneasy by +what Walter had confided to him, and what Sol Gills had said; and it +would be a deep, shrewd act of friendship. He would sound Mr Carker +carefully, and say much or little, just as he read that gentleman's +character, and discovered that they got on well together or the reverse. + +Accordingly, without the fear of Walter before his eyes (who he knew +was at home packing), Captain Cuttle again assumed his ankle-jacks +and mourning brooch, and issued forth on this second expedition. He +purchased no propitiatory nosegay on the present occasion, as he was +going to a place of business; but he put a small sunflower in his +button-hole to give himself an agreeable relish of the country; and +with this, and the knobby stick, and the glazed hat, bore down upon the +offices of Dombey and Son. + +After taking a glass of warm rum-and-water at a tavern close by, to +collect his thoughts, the Captain made a rush down the court, lest its +good effects should evaporate, and appeared suddenly to Mr Perch. + +'Matey,' said the Captain, in persuasive accents. 'One of your Governors +is named Carker.' + +Mr Perch admitted it; but gave him to understand, as in official duty +bound, that all his Governors were engaged, and never expected to be +disengaged any more. + +'Look'ee here, mate,' said the Captain in his ear; 'my name's Cap'en +Cuttle.' + +The Captain would have hooked Perch gently to him, but Mr Perch eluded +the attempt; not so much in design, as in starting at the sudden thought +that such a weapon unexpectedly exhibited to Mrs Perch might, in her +then condition, be destructive to that lady's hopes. + +'If you'll be so good as just report Cap'en Cuttle here, when you get a +chance,' said the Captain, 'I'll wait.' + +Saying which, the Captain took his seat on Mr Perch's bracket, and +drawing out his handkerchief from the crown of the glazed hat which he +jammed between his knees (without injury to its shape, for nothing human +could bend it), rubbed his head well all over, and appeared refreshed. +He subsequently arranged his hair with his hook, and sat looking round +the office, contemplating the clerks with a serene respect. + +The Captain's equanimity was so impenetrable, and he was altogether so +mysterious a being, that Perch the messenger was daunted. + +'What name was it you said?' asked Mr Perch, bending down over him as he +sat on the bracket. + +'Cap'en,' in a deep hoarse whisper. + +'Yes,' said Mr Perch, keeping time with his head. + +'Cuttle.' + +'Oh!' said Mr Perch, in the same tone, for he caught it, and couldn't +help it; the Captain, in his diplomacy, was so impressive. 'I'll see if +he's disengaged now. I don't know. Perhaps he may be for a minute.' + +'Ay, ay, my lad, I won't detain him longer than a minute,' said the +Captain, nodding with all the weighty importance that he felt within +him. Perch, soon returning, said, 'Will Captain Cuttle walk this way?' + +Mr Carker the Manager, standing on the hearth-rug before the empty +fireplace, which was ornamented with a castellated sheet of brown paper, +looked at the Captain as he came in, with no very special encouragement. + +'Mr Carker?' said Captain Cuttle. + +'I believe so,' said Mr Carker, showing all his teeth. + +The Captain liked his answering with a smile; it looked pleasant. 'You +see,' began the Captain, rolling his eyes slowly round the little +room, and taking in as much of it as his shirt-collar permitted; 'I'm a +seafaring man myself, Mr Carker, and Wal'r, as is on your books here, is +almost a son of mine.' + +'Walter Gay?' said Mr Carker, showing all his teeth again. + +'Wal'r Gay it is,' replied the Captain, 'right!' The Captain's manner +expressed a warm approval of Mr Carker's quickness of perception. 'I'm a +intimate friend of his and his Uncle's. Perhaps,' said the Captain, 'you +may have heard your head Governor mention my name?--Captain Cuttle.' + +'No!' said Mr Carker, with a still wider demonstration than before. + +'Well,' resumed the Captain, 'I've the pleasure of his acquaintance. +I waited upon him down on the Sussex coast there, with my young friend +Wal'r, when--in short, when there was a little accommodation wanted.' +The Captain nodded his head in a manner that was at once comfortable, +easy, and expressive. 'You remember, I daresay?' + +'I think,' said Mr Carker, 'I had the honour of arranging the business.' + +'To be sure!' returned the Captain. 'Right again! you had. Now I've took +the liberty of coming here-- + +'Won't you sit down?' said Mr Carker, smiling. + +'Thank'ee,' returned the Captain, availing himself of the offer. 'A man +does get more way upon himself, perhaps, in his conversation, when he +sits down. Won't you take a cheer yourself?' + +'No thank you,' said the Manager, standing, perhaps from the force of +winter habit, with his back against the chimney-piece, and looking down +upon the Captain with an eye in every tooth and gum. 'You have taken the +liberty, you were going to say--though it's none--' + +'Thank'ee kindly, my lad,' returned the Captain: 'of coming here, on +account of my friend Wal'r. Sol Gills, his Uncle, is a man of science, +and in science he may be considered a clipper; but he ain't what I +should altogether call a able seaman--not man of practice. Wal'r is as +trim a lad as ever stepped; but he's a little down by the head in one +respect, and that is, modesty. Now what I should wish to put to +you,' said the Captain, lowering his voice, and speaking in a kind of +confidential growl, 'in a friendly way, entirely between you and me, and +for my own private reckoning, 'till your head Governor has wore round a +bit, and I can come alongside of him, is this.--Is everything right and +comfortable here, and is Wal'r out'ard bound with a pretty fair wind?' + +'What do you think now, Captain Cuttle?' returned Carker, gathering up +his skirts and settling himself in his position. 'You are a practical +man; what do you think?' + +The acuteness and the significance of the Captain's eye as he cocked +it in reply, no words short of those unutterable Chinese words before +referred to could describe. + +'Come!' said the Captain, unspeakably encouraged, 'what do you say? Am I +right or wrong?' + +So much had the Captain expressed in his eye, emboldened and incited +by Mr Carker's smiling urbanity, that he felt himself in as fair a +condition to put the question, as if he had expressed his sentiments +with the utmost elaboration. + +'Right,' said Mr Carker, 'I have no doubt.' + +'Out'ard bound with fair weather, then, I say,' cried Captain Cuttle. + +Mr Carker smiled assent. + +'Wind right astarn, and plenty of it,' pursued the Captain. + +Mr Carker smiled assent again. + +'Ay, ay!' said Captain Cuttle, greatly relieved and pleased. 'I know'd +how she headed, well enough; I told Wal'r so. Thank'ee, thank'ee.' + +'Gay has brilliant prospects,' observed Mr Carker, stretching his mouth +wider yet: 'all the world before him.' + +'All the world and his wife too, as the saying is,' returned the +delighted Captain. + +At the word 'wife' (which he had uttered without design), the Captain +stopped, cocked his eye again, and putting the glazed hat on the top +of the knobby stick, gave it a twirl, and looked sideways at his always +smiling friend. + +'I'd bet a gill of old Jamaica,' said the Captain, eyeing him +attentively, 'that I know what you're a smiling at.' + +Mr Carker took his cue, and smiled the more. + +'It goes no farther?' said the Captain, making a poke at the door with +the knobby stick to assure himself that it was shut. + +'Not an inch,' said Mr Carker. + +'You're thinking of a capital F perhaps?' said the Captain. + +Mr Carker didn't deny it. + +'Anything about a L,' said the Captain, 'or a O?' + +Mr Carker still smiled. + +'Am I right, again?' inquired the Captain in a whisper, with the scarlet +circle on his forehead swelling in his triumphant joy. + +Mr Carker, in reply, still smiling, and now nodding assent, Captain +Cuttle rose and squeezed him by the hand, assuring him, warmly, that +they were on the same tack, and that as for him (Cuttle) he had laid his +course that way all along. 'He know'd her first,' said the Captain, with +all the secrecy and gravity that the subject demanded, 'in an uncommon +manner--you remember his finding her in the street when she was a'most +a babby--he has liked her ever since, and she him, as much as two +youngsters can. We've always said, Sol Gills and me, that they was cut +out for each other.' + +A cat, or a monkey, or a hyena, or a death's-head, could not have shown +the Captain more teeth at one time, than Mr Carker showed him at this +period of their interview. + +'There's a general indraught that way,' observed the happy Captain. +'Wind and water sets in that direction, you see. Look at his being +present t'other day!' + +'Most favourable to his hopes,' said Mr Carker. + +'Look at his being towed along in the wake of that day!' pursued the +Captain. 'Why what can cut him adrift now?' + +'Nothing,' replied Mr Carker. + +'You're right again,' returned the Captain, giving his hand another +squeeze. 'Nothing it is. So! steady! There's a son gone: pretty little +creetur. Ain't there?' + +'Yes, there's a son gone,' said the acquiescent Carker. + +'Pass the word, and there's another ready for you,' quoth the Captain. +'Nevy of a scientific Uncle! Nevy of Sol Gills! Wal'r! Wal'r, as is +already in your business! And'--said the Captain, rising gradually to +a quotation he was preparing for a final burst, 'who--comes from Sol +Gills's daily, to your business, and your buzzums.' + +The Captain's complacency as he gently jogged Mr Carker with his elbow, +on concluding each of the foregoing short sentences, could be surpassed +by nothing but the exultation with which he fell back and eyed him when +he had finished this brilliant display of eloquence and sagacity; his +great blue waistcoat heaving with the throes of such a masterpiece, and +his nose in a state of violent inflammation from the same cause. + +'Am I right?' said the Captain. + +'Captain Cuttle,' said Mr Carker, bending down at the knees, for a +moment, in an odd manner, as if he were falling together to hug the +whole of himself at once, 'your views in reference to Walter Gay are +thoroughly and accurately right. I understand that we speak together in +confidence. + +'Honour!' interposed the Captain. 'Not a word.' + +'To him or anyone?' pursued the Manager. + +Captain Cuttle frowned and shook his head. + +'But merely for your own satisfaction and guidance--and guidance, of +course,' repeated Mr Carker, 'with a view to your future proceedings.' + +'Thank'ee kindly, I am sure,' said the Captain, listening with great +attention. + +'I have no hesitation in saying, that's the fact. You have hit the +probabilities exactly.' + +'And with regard to your head Governor,' said the Captain, 'why an +interview had better come about nat'ral between us. There's time +enough.' + +Mr Carker, with his mouth from ear to ear, repeated, 'Time enough.' Not +articulating the words, but bowing his head affably, and forming them +with his tongue and lips. + +'And as I know--it's what I always said--that Wal'r's in a way to make +his fortune,' said the Captain. + +'To make his fortune,' Mr Carker repeated, in the same dumb manner. + +'And as Wal'r's going on this little voyage is, as I may say, in his +day's work, and a part of his general expectations here,' said the +Captain. + +'Of his general expectations here,' assented Mr Carker, dumbly as +before. + +'Why, so long as I know that,' pursued the Captain, 'there's no hurry, +and my mind's at ease. + +Mr Carker still blandly assenting in the same voiceless manner, Captain +Cuttle was strongly confirmed in his opinion that he was one of the most +agreeable men he had ever met, and that even Mr Dombey might improve +himself on such a model. With great heartiness, therefore, the Captain +once again extended his enormous hand (not unlike an old block in +colour), and gave him a grip that left upon his smoother flesh a proof +impression of the chinks and crevices with which the Captain's palm was +liberally tattooed. + +'Farewell!' said the Captain. 'I ain't a man of many words, but I take +it very kind of you to be so friendly, and above-board. You'll excuse me +if I've been at all intruding, will you?' said the Captain. + +'Not at all,' returned the other. + +'Thank'ee. My berth ain't very roomy,' said the Captain, turning back +again, 'but it's tolerably snug; and if you was to find yourself near +Brig Place, number nine, at any time--will you make a note of it?--and +would come upstairs, without minding what was said by the person at the +door, I should be proud to see you. + +With that hospitable invitation, the Captain said 'Good day!' and walked +out and shut the door; leaving Mr Carker still reclining against the +chimney-piece. In whose sly look and watchful manner; in whose false +mouth, stretched but not laughing; in whose spotless cravat and very +whiskers; even in whose silent passing of his soft hand over his white +linen and his smooth face; there was something desperately cat-like. + +The unconscious Captain walked out in a state of self-glorification that +imparted quite a new cut to the broad blue suit. 'Stand by, Ned!' +said the Captain to himself. 'You've done a little business for the +youngsters today, my lad!' + +In his exultation, and in his familiarity, present and prospective, +with the House, the Captain, when he reached the outer office, could +not refrain from rallying Mr Perch a little, and asking him whether he +thought everybody was still engaged. But not to be bitter on a man who +had done his duty, the Captain whispered in his ear, that if he felt +disposed for a glass of rum-and-water, and would follow, he would be +happy to bestow the same upon him. + +Before leaving the premises, the Captain, somewhat to the astonishment +of the clerks, looked round from a central point of view, and took a +general survey of the officers part and parcel of a project in which his +young friend was nearly interested. The strong-room excited his especial +admiration; but, that he might not appear too particular, he limited +himself to an approving glance, and, with a graceful recognition of the +clerks as a body, that was full of politeness and patronage, passed +out into the court. Being promptly joined by Mr Perch, he conveyed that +gentleman to the tavern, and fulfilled his pledge--hastily, for Perch's +time was precious. + +'I'll give you for a toast,' said the Captain, 'Wal'r!' + +'Who?' submitted Mr Perch. + +'Wal'r!' repeated the Captain, in a voice of thunder. + +Mr Perch, who seemed to remember having heard in infancy that there was +once a poet of that name, made no objection; but he was much astonished +at the Captain's coming into the City to propose a poet; indeed, if +he had proposed to put a poet's statue up--say Shakespeare's for +example--in a civic thoroughfare, he could hardly have done a greater +outrage to Mr Perch's experience. On the whole, he was such a mysterious +and incomprehensible character, that Mr Perch decided not to mention +him to Mrs Perch at all, in case of giving rise to any disagreeable +consequences. + +Mysterious and incomprehensible, the Captain, with that lively sense +upon him of having done a little business for the youngsters, remained +all day, even to his most intimate friends; and but that Walter +attributed his winks and grins, and other such pantomimic reliefs of +himself, to his satisfaction in the success of their innocent deception +upon old Sol Gills, he would assuredly have betrayed himself before +night. As it was, however, he kept his own secret; and went home late +from the Instrument-maker's house, wearing the glazed hat so much on +one side, and carrying such a beaming expression in his eyes, that Mrs +MacStinger (who might have been brought up at Doctor Blimber's, she was +such a Roman matron) fortified herself, at the first glimpse of +him, behind the open street door, and refused to come out to the +contemplation of her blessed infants, until he was securely lodged in +his own room. + + + +CHAPTER 18. Father and Daughter + + +There is a hush through Mr Dombey's house. Servants gliding up and +down stairs rustle, but make no sound of footsteps. They talk together +constantly, and sit long at meals, making much of their meat and drink, +and enjoying themselves after a grim unholy fashion. Mrs Wickam, with +her eyes suffused with tears, relates melancholy anecdotes; and tells +them how she always said at Mrs Pipchin's that it would be so, and takes +more table-ale than usual, and is very sorry but sociable. Cook's state +of mind is similar. She promises a little fry for supper, and struggles +about equally against her feelings and the onions. Towlinson begins to +think there's a fate in it, and wants to know if anybody can tell him +of any good that ever came of living in a corner house. It seems to all +of them as having happened a long time ago; though yet the child lies, +calm and beautiful, upon his little bed. + +After dark there come some visitors--noiseless visitors, with shoes of +felt--who have been there before; and with them comes that bed of +rest which is so strange a one for infant sleepers. All this time, the +bereaved father has not been seen even by his attendant; for he sits +in an inner corner of his own dark room when anyone is there, and never +seems to move at other times, except to pace it to and fro. But in the +morning it is whispered among the household that he was heard to go +upstairs in the dead night, and that he stayed there--in the room--until +the sun was shining. + +At the offices in the City, the ground-glass windows are made more +dim by shutters; and while the lighted lamps upon the desks are half +extinguished by the day that wanders in, the day is half extinguished +by the lamps, and an unusual gloom prevails. There is not much business +done. The clerks are indisposed to work; and they make assignations to +eat chops in the afternoon, and go up the river. Perch, the messenger, +stays long upon his errands; and finds himself in bars of public-houses, +invited thither by friends, and holding forth on the uncertainty of +human affairs. He goes home to Ball's Pond earlier in the evening than +usual, and treats Mrs Perch to a veal cutlet and Scotch ale. Mr Carker +the Manager treats no one; neither is he treated; but alone in his +own room he shows his teeth all day; and it would seem that there is +something gone from Mr Carker's path--some obstacle removed--which +clears his way before him. + +Now the rosy children living opposite to Mr Dombey's house, peep from +their nursery windows down into the street; for there are four black +horses at his door, with feathers on their heads; and feathers tremble +on the carriage that they draw; and these, and an array of men with +scarves and staves, attract a crowd. The juggler who was going to twirl +the basin, puts his loose coat on again over his fine dress; and his +trudging wife, one-sided with her heavy baby in her arms, loiters to +see the company come out. But closer to her dingy breast she presses her +baby, when the burden that is so easily carried is borne forth; and +the youngest of the rosy children at the high window opposite, needs +no restraining hand to check her in her glee, when, pointing with her +dimpled finger, she looks into her nurse's face, and asks 'What's that?' + +And now, among the knot of servants dressed in mourning, and the weeping +women, Mr Dombey passes through the hall to the other carriage that is +waiting to receive him. He is not 'brought down,' these observers think, +by sorrow and distress of mind. His walk is as erect, his bearing is as +stiff as ever it has been. He hides his face behind no handkerchief, and +looks before him. But that his face is something sunk and rigid, and is +pale, it bears the same expression as of old. He takes his place within +the carriage, and three other gentlemen follow. Then the grand funeral +moves slowly down the street. The feathers are yet nodding in the +distance, when the juggler has the basin spinning on a cane, and has the +same crowd to admire it. But the juggler's wife is less alert than +usual with the money-box, for a child's burial has set her thinking that +perhaps the baby underneath her shabby shawl may not grow up to be a +man, and wear a sky-blue fillet round his head, and salmon-coloured +worsted drawers, and tumble in the mud. + +The feathers wind their gloomy way along the streets, and come within +the sound of a church bell. In this same church, the pretty boy received +all that will soon be left of him on earth--a name. All of him that is +dead, they lay there, near the perishable substance of his mother. It +is well. Their ashes lie where Florence in her walks--oh lonely, lonely +walks!--may pass them any day. + +The service over, and the clergyman withdrawn, Mr Dombey looks round, +demanding in a low voice, whether the person who has been requested to +attend to receive instructions for the tablet, is there? + +Someone comes forward, and says 'Yes.' + +Mr Dombey intimates where he would have it placed; and shows him, with +his hand upon the wall, the shape and size; and how it is to follow +the memorial to the mother. Then, with his pencil, he writes out the +inscription, and gives it to him: adding, 'I wish to have it done at +once. + +'It shall be done immediately, Sir.' + +'There is really nothing to inscribe but name and age, you see.' + +The man bows, glancing at the paper, but appears to hesitate. Mr Dombey +not observing his hesitation, turns away, and leads towards the porch. + +'I beg your pardon, Sir;' a touch falls gently on his mourning cloak; +'but as you wish it done immediately, and it may be put in hand when I +get back--' + +'Well?' + +'Will you be so good as read it over again? I think there's a mistake.' + +'Where?' + +The statuary gives him back the paper, and points out, with his pocket +rule, the words, 'beloved and only child.' + +'It should be, "son," I think, Sir?' + +'You are right. Of course. Make the correction.' + +The father, with a hastier step, pursues his way to the coach. When the +other three, who follow closely, take their seats, his face is hidden +for the first time--shaded by his cloak. Nor do they see it any more +that day. He alights first, and passes immediately into his own room. +The other mourners (who are only Mr Chick, and two of the medical +attendants) proceed upstairs to the drawing-room, to be received by +Mrs Chick and Miss Tox. And what the face is, in the shut-up chamber +underneath: or what the thoughts are: what the heart is, what the +contest or the suffering: no one knows. + +The chief thing that they know, below stairs, in the kitchen, is that +'it seems like Sunday.' They can hardly persuade themselves but that +there is something unbecoming, if not wicked, in the conduct of the +people out of doors, who pursue their ordinary occupations, and wear +their everyday attire. It is quite a novelty to have the blinds up, and +the shutters open; and they make themselves dismally comfortable over +bottles of wine, which are freely broached as on a festival. They are +much inclined to moralise. Mr Towlinson proposes with a sigh, 'Amendment +to us all!' for which, as Cook says with another sigh, 'There's room +enough, God knows.' In the evening, Mrs Chick and Miss Tox take to +needlework again. In the evening also, Mr Towlinson goes out to take the +air, accompanied by the housemaid, who has not yet tried her mourning +bonnet. They are very tender to each other at dusky street-corners, and +Towlinson has visions of leading an altered and blameless existence as a +serious greengrocer in Oxford Market. + +There is sounder sleep and deeper rest in Mr Dombey's house tonight, +than there has been for many nights. The morning sun awakens the old +household, settled down once more in their old ways. The rosy children +opposite run past with hoops. There is a splendid wedding in the church. +The juggler's wife is active with the money-box in another quarter of +the town. The mason sings and whistles as he chips out P-A-U-L in the +marble slab before him. + +And can it be that in a world so full and busy, the loss of one weak +creature makes a void in any heart, so wide and deep that nothing but +the width and depth of vast eternity can fill it up! Florence, in her +innocent affliction, might have answered, 'Oh my brother, oh my dearly +loved and loving brother! Only friend and companion of my slighted +childhood! Could any less idea shed the light already dawning on your +early grave, or give birth to the softened sorrow that is springing into +life beneath this rain of tears!' + +'My dear child,' said Mrs Chick, who held it as a duty incumbent on her, +to improve the occasion, 'when you are as old as I am--' + +'Which will be the prime of life,' observed Miss Tox. + +'You will then,' pursued Mrs Chick, gently squeezing Miss Tox's hand +in acknowledgment of her friendly remark, 'you will then know that all +grief is unavailing, and that it is our duty to submit.' + +'I will try, dear aunt I do try,' answered Florence, sobbing. + +'I am glad to hear it,' said Mrs Chick, 'because; my love, as our dear +Miss Tox--of whose sound sense and excellent judgment, there cannot +possibly be two opinions--' + +'My dear Louisa, I shall really be proud, soon,' said Miss Tox. + +'--will tell you, and confirm by her experience,' pursued Mrs Chick, +'we are called upon on all occasions to make an effort It is required of +us. If any--my dear,' turning to Miss Tox, 'I want a word. Mis--Mis-' + +'Demeanour?' suggested Miss Tox. + +'No, no, no,' said Mrs Chic 'How can you! Goodness me, it's on, the end +of my tongue. Mis-' + +'Placed affection?' suggested Miss Tox, timidly. + +'Good gracious, Lucretia!' returned Mrs Chick 'How very monstrous! +Misanthrope, is the word I want. The idea! Misplaced affection! I say, +if any misanthrope were to put, in my presence, the question "Why were +we born?" I should reply, "To make an effort".' + +'Very good indeed,' said Miss Tox, much impressed by the originality of +the sentiment 'Very good.' + +'Unhappily,' pursued Mrs Chick, 'we have a warning under our own eyes. +We have but too much reason to suppose, my dear child, that if an effort +had been made in time, in this family, a train of the most trying and +distressing circumstances might have been avoided. Nothing shall ever +persuade me,' observed the good matron, with a resolute air, 'but that +if that effort had been made by poor dear Fanny, the poor dear darling +child would at least have had a stronger constitution.' + +Mrs Chick abandoned herself to her feelings for half a moment; but, as a +practical illustration of her doctrine, brought herself up short, in the +middle of a sob, and went on again. + +'Therefore, Florence, pray let us see that you have some strength of +mind, and do not selfishly aggravate the distress in which your poor +Papa is plunged.' + +'Dear aunt!' said Florence, kneeling quickly down before her, that she +might the better and more earnestly look into her face. 'Tell me more +about Papa. Pray tell me about him! Is he quite heartbroken?' + +Miss Tox was of a tender nature, and there was something in this appeal +that moved her very much. Whether she saw it in a succession, on the +part of the neglected child, to the affectionate concern so often +expressed by her dead brother--or a love that sought to twine itself +about the heart that had loved him, and that could not bear to be shut +out from sympathy with such a sorrow, in such sad community of love and +grief--or whether she only recognised the earnest and devoted spirit +which, although discarded and repulsed, was wrung with tenderness long +unreturned, and in the waste and solitude of this bereavement cried +to him to seek a comfort in it, and to give some, by some small +response--whatever may have been her understanding of it, it moved Miss +Tox. For the moment she forgot the majesty of Mrs Chick, and, patting +Florence hastily on the cheek, turned aside and suffered the tears to +gush from her eyes, without waiting for a lead from that wise matron. + +Mrs Chick herself lost, for a moment, the presence of mind on which +she so much prided herself; and remained mute, looking on the beautiful +young face that had so long, so steadily, and patiently, been turned +towards the little bed. But recovering her voice--which was synonymous +with her presence of mind, indeed they were one and the same thing--she +replied with dignity: + +'Florence, my dear child, your poor Papa is peculiar at times; and to +question me about him, is to question me upon a subject which I really +do not pretend to understand. I believe I have as much influence with +your Papa as anybody has. Still, all I can say is, that he has said very +little to me; and that I have only seen him once or twice for a minute +at a time, and indeed have hardly seen him then, for his room has been +dark. I have said to your Papa, "Paul!"--that is the exact expression +I used--"Paul! why do you not take something stimulating?" Your Papa's +reply has always been, "Louisa, have the goodness to leave me. I +want nothing. I am better by myself." If I was to be put upon my oath +to-morrow, Lucretia, before a magistrate,' said Mrs Chick, 'I have no +doubt I could venture to swear to those identical words.' + +Miss Tox expressed her admiration by saying, 'My Louisa is ever +methodical!' + +'In short, Florence,' resumed her aunt, 'literally nothing has passed +between your poor Papa and myself, until to-day; when I mentioned to +your Papa that Sir Barnet and Lady Skettles had written exceedingly kind +notes--our sweet boy! Lady Skettles loved him like a--where's my pocket +handkerchief?' + +Miss Tox produced one. + +'Exceedingly kind notes, proposing that you should visit them for change +of scene. Mentioning to your Papa that I thought Miss Tox and myself +might now go home (in which he quite agreed), I inquired if he had any +objection to your accepting this invitation. He said, "No, Louisa, not +the least!"' + +Florence raised her tearful eye. + +'At the same time, if you would prefer staying here, Florence, to paying +this visit at present, or to going home with me--' + +'I should much prefer it, aunt,' was the faint rejoinder. + +'Why then, child,' said Mrs Chick, 'you can. It's a strange choice, I +must say. But you always were strange. Anybody else at your time of +life, and after what has passed--my dear Miss Tox, I have lost my pocket +handkerchief again--would be glad to leave here, one would suppose.' + +'I should not like to feel,' said Florence, 'as if the house was +avoided. I should not like to think that the--his--the rooms upstairs +were quite empty and dreary, aunt. I would rather stay here, for the +present. Oh my brother! oh my brother!' + +It was a natural emotion, not to be suppressed; and it would make way +even between the fingers of the hands with which she covered up her +face. The overcharged and heavy-laden breast must some times have that +vent, or the poor wounded solitary heart within it would have fluttered +like a bird with broken wings, and sunk down in the dust. + +'Well, child!' said Mrs Chick, after a pause 'I wouldn't on any account +say anything unkind to you, and that I'm sure you know. You will remain +here, then, and do exactly as you like. No one will interfere with you, +Florence, or wish to interfere with you, I'm sure.' + +Florence shook her head in sad assent. + +'I had no sooner begun to advise your poor Papa that he really ought to +seek some distraction and restoration in a temporary change,' said Mrs +Chick, 'than he told me he had already formed the intention of going +into the country for a short time. I'm sure I hope he'll go very +soon. He can't go too soon. But I suppose there are some arrangements +connected with his private papers and so forth, consequent on the +affliction that has tried us all so much--I can't think what's become of +mine: Lucretia, lend me yours, my dear--that may occupy him for one or +two evenings in his own room. Your Papa's a Dombey, child, if ever there +was one,' said Mrs Chick, drying both her eyes at once with great care +on opposite corners of Miss Tox's handkerchief 'He'll make an effort. +There's no fear of him.' + +'Is there nothing, aunt,' said Florence, trembling, 'I might do to--' + +'Lord, my dear child,' interposed Mrs Chick, hastily, 'what are you +talking about? If your Papa said to Me--I have given you his exact +words, "Louisa, I want nothing; I am better by myself"--what do you +think he'd say to you? You mustn't show yourself to him, child. Don't +dream of such a thing.' + +'Aunt,' said Florence, 'I will go and lie down on my bed.' + +Mrs Chick approved of this resolution, and dismissed her with a +kiss. But Miss Tox, on a faint pretence of looking for the mislaid +handkerchief, went upstairs after her; and tried in a few stolen minutes +to comfort her, in spite of great discouragement from Susan Nipper. For +Miss Nipper, in her burning zeal, disparaged Miss Tox as a crocodile; +yet her sympathy seemed genuine, and had at least the vantage-ground of +disinterestedness--there was little favour to be won by it. + +And was there no one nearer and dearer than Susan, to uphold the +striving heart in its anguish? Was there no other neck to clasp; no +other face to turn to? no one else to say a soothing word to such deep +sorrow? Was Florence so alone in the bleak world that nothing else +remained to her? Nothing. Stricken motherless and brotherless at +once--for in the loss of little Paul, that first and greatest loss fell +heavily upon her--this was the only help she had. Oh, who can tell how +much she needed help at first! + +At first, when the house subsided into its accustomed course, and they +had all gone away, except the servants, and her father shut up in his +own rooms, Florence could do nothing but weep, and wander up and down, +and sometimes, in a sudden pang of desolate remembrance, fly to her +own chamber, wring her hands, lay her face down on her bed, and know +no consolation: nothing but the bitterness and cruelty of grief. +This commonly ensued upon the recognition of some spot or object very +tenderly associated with him; and it made the miserable house, at first, +a place of agony. + +But it is not in the nature of pure love to burn so fiercely and +unkindly long. The flame that in its grosser composition has the taint +of earth may prey upon the breast that gives it shelter; but the fire +from heaven is as gentle in the heart, as when it rested on the heads +of the assembled twelve, and showed each man his brother, brightened and +unhurt. The image conjured up, there soon returned the placid face, the +softened voice, the loving looks, the quiet trustfulness and peace; and +Florence, though she wept still, wept more tranquilly, and courted the +remembrance. + +It was not very long before the golden water, dancing on the wall, in +the old place, at the old serene time, had her calm eye fixed upon it +as it ebbed away. It was not very long before that room again knew +her, often; sitting there alone, as patient and as mild as when she had +watched beside the little bed. When any sharp sense of its being empty +smote upon her, she could kneel beside it, and pray GOD--it was the +pouring out of her full heart--to let one angel love her and remember +her. + +It was not very long before, in the midst of the dismal house so +wide and dreary, her low voice in the twilight, slowly and stopping +sometimes, touched the old air to which he had so often listened, with +his drooping head upon her arm. And after that, and when it was quite +dark, a little strain of music trembled in the room: so softly played +and sung, that it was more like the mournful recollection of what she +had done at his request on that last night, than the reality repeated. +But it was repeated, often--very often, in the shadowy solitude; and +broken murmurs of the strain still trembled on the keys, when the sweet +voice was hushed in tears. + +Thus she gained heart to look upon the work with which her fingers had +been busy by his side on the sea-shore; and thus it was not very long +before she took to it again--with something of a human love for it, as +if it had been sentient and had known him; and, sitting in a window, +near her mother's picture, in the unused room so long deserted, wore +away the thoughtful hours. + +Why did the dark eyes turn so often from this work to where the rosy +children lived? They were not immediately suggestive of her loss; for +they were all girls: four little sisters. But they were motherless like +her--and had a father. + +It was easy to know when he had gone out and was expected home, for the +elder child was always dressed and waiting for him at the drawing-room +window, or on the balcony; and when he appeared, her expectant face +lighted up with joy, while the others at the high window, and always on +the watch too, clapped their hands, and drummed them on the sill, and +called to him. The elder child would come down to the hall, and put +her hand in his, and lead him up the stairs; and Florence would see her +afterwards sitting by his side, or on his knee, or hanging coaxingly +about his neck and talking to him: and though they were always gay +together, he would often watch her face as if he thought her like her +mother that was dead. Florence would sometimes look no more at this, +and bursting into tears would hide behind the curtain as if she were +frightened, or would hurry from the window. Yet she could not help +returning; and her work would soon fall unheeded from her hands again. + +It was the house that had been empty, years ago. It had remained so for +a long time. At last, and while she had been away from home, this family +had taken it; and it was repaired and newly painted; and there were +birds and flowers about it; and it looked very different from its old +self. But she never thought of the house. The children and their father +were all in all. + +When he had dined, she could see them, through the open windows, go down +with their governess or nurse, and cluster round the table; and in +the still summer weather, the sound of their childish voices and clear +laughter would come ringing across the street, into the drooping air of +the room in which she sat. Then they would climb and clamber upstairs +with him, and romp about him on the sofa, or group themselves at his +knee, a very nosegay of little faces, while he seemed to tell them +some story. Or they would come running out into the balcony; and then +Florence would hide herself quickly, lest it should check them in their +joy, to see her in her black dress, sitting there alone. + +The elder child remained with her father when the rest had gone away, +and made his tea for him--happy little house-keeper she was then!--and +sat conversing with him, sometimes at the window, sometimes in the room, +until the candles came. He made her his companion, though she was some +years younger than Florence; and she could be as staid and pleasantly +demure, with her little book or work-box, as a woman. When they had +candles, Florence from her own dark room was not afraid to look again. +But when the time came for the child to say 'Good-night, Papa,' and go +to bed, Florence would sob and tremble as she raised her face to him, +and could look no more. + +Though still she would turn, again and again, before going to bed +herself from the simple air that had lulled him to rest so often, long +ago, and from the other low soft broken strain of music, back to that +house. But that she ever thought of it, or watched it, was a secret +which she kept within her own young breast. + +And did that breast of Florence--Florence, so ingenuous and true--so +worthy of the love that he had borne her, and had whispered in his last +faint words--whose guileless heart was mirrored in the beauty of her +face, and breathed in every accent of her gentle voice--did that young +breast hold any other secret? Yes. One more. + +When no one in the house was stirring, and the lights were all +extinguished, she would softly leave her own room, and with noiseless +feet descend the staircase, and approach her father's door. Against +it, scarcely breathing, she would rest her face and head, and press +her lips, in the yearning of her love. She crouched upon the cold stone +floor outside it, every night, to listen even for his breath; and in +her one absorbing wish to be allowed to show him some affection, to be a +consolation to him, to win him over to the endurance of some tenderness +from her, his solitary child, she would have knelt down at his feet, if +she had dared, in humble supplication. + +No one knew it. No one thought of it. The door was ever closed, and he +shut up within. He went out once or twice, and it was said in the house +that he was very soon going on his country journey; but he lived in +those rooms, and lived alone, and never saw her, or inquired for her. +Perhaps he did not even know that she was in the house. + +One day, about a week after the funeral, Florence was sitting at her +work, when Susan appeared, with a face half laughing and half crying, to +announce a visitor. + +'A visitor! To me, Susan!' said Florence, looking up in astonishment. + +'Well, it is a wonder, ain't it now, Miss Floy?' said Susan; 'but I wish +you had a many visitors, I do, indeed, for you'd be all the better for +it, and it's my opinion that the sooner you and me goes even to them old +Skettleses, Miss, the better for both, I may not wish to live in crowds, +Miss Floy, but still I'm not a oyster.' + +To do Miss Nipper justice, she spoke more for her young mistress than +herself; and her face showed it. + +'But the visitor, Susan,' said Florence. + +Susan, with an hysterical explosion that was as much a laugh as a sob, +and as much a sob as a laugh, answered, + +'Mr Toots!' + +The smile that appeared on Florence's face passed from it in a moment, +and her eyes filled with tears. But at any rate it was a smile, and that +gave great satisfaction to Miss Nipper. + +'My own feelings exactly, Miss Floy,' said Susan, putting her apron to +her eyes, and shaking her head. 'Immediately I see that Innocent in the +Hall, Miss Floy, I burst out laughing first, and then I choked.' + +Susan Nipper involuntarily proceeded to do the like again on the +spot. In the meantime Mr Toots, who had come upstairs after her, all +unconscious of the effect he produced, announced himself with his +knuckles on the door, and walked in very briskly. + +'How d'ye do, Miss Dombey?' said Mr Toots. 'I'm very well, I thank you; +how are you?' + +Mr Toots--than whom there were few better fellows in the world, though +there may have been one or two brighter spirits--had laboriously +invented this long burst of discourse with the view of relieving the +feelings both of Florence and himself. But finding that he had +run through his property, as it were, in an injudicious manner, by +squandering the whole before taking a chair, or before Florence had +uttered a word, or before he had well got in at the door, he deemed it +advisable to begin again. + +'How d'ye do, Miss Dombey?' said Mr Toots. 'I'm very well, I thank you; +how are you?' + +Florence gave him her hand, and said she was very well. + +'I'm very well indeed,' said Mr Toots, taking a chair. 'Very well +indeed, I am. I don't remember,' said Mr Toots, after reflecting a +little, 'that I was ever better, thank you.' + +'It's very kind of you to come,' said Florence, taking up her work, 'I +am very glad to see you.' + +Mr Toots responded with a chuckle. Thinking that might be too lively, +he corrected it with a sigh. Thinking that might be too melancholy, he +corrected it with a chuckle. Not thoroughly pleasing himself with either +mode of reply, he breathed hard. + +'You were very kind to my dear brother,' said Florence, obeying her +own natural impulse to relieve him by saying so. 'He often talked to me +about you.' + +'Oh it's of no consequence,' said Mr Toots hastily. 'Warm, ain't it?' + +'It is beautiful weather,' replied Florence. + +'It agrees with me!' said Mr Toots. 'I don't think I ever was so well as +I find myself at present, I'm obliged to you. + +After stating this curious and unexpected fact, Mr Toots fell into a +deep well of silence. + +'You have left Dr Blimber's, I think?' said Florence, trying to help him +out. + +'I should hope so,' returned Mr Toots. And tumbled in again. + +He remained at the bottom, apparently drowned, for at least ten minutes. +At the expiration of that period, he suddenly floated, and said, + +'Well! Good morning, Miss Dombey.' + +'Are you going?' asked Florence, rising. + +'I don't know, though. No, not just at present,' said Mr Toots, sitting +down again, most unexpectedly. 'The fact is--I say, Miss Dombey!' + +'Don't be afraid to speak to me,' said Florence, with a quiet smile, 'I +should be very glad if you would talk about my brother.' + +'Would you, though?' retorted Mr Toots, with sympathy in every fibre +of his otherwise expressionless face. 'Poor Dombey! I'm sure I never +thought that Burgess and Co.--fashionable tailors (but very dear), +that we used to talk about--would make this suit of clothes for such a +purpose.' Mr Toots was dressed in mourning. 'Poor Dombey! I say! Miss +Dombey!' blubbered Toots. + +'Yes,' said Florence. + +'There's a friend he took to very much at last. I thought you'd lIke to +have him, perhaps, as a sort of keepsake. You remember his remembering +Diogenes?' + +'Oh yes! oh yes' cried Florence. + +'Poor Dombey! So do I,' said Mr Toots. + +Mr Toots, seeing Florence in tears, had great difficulty in getting +beyond this point, and had nearly tumbled into the well again. But a +chuckle saved him on the brink. + +'I say,' he proceeded, 'Miss Dombey! I could have had him stolen for ten +shillings, if they hadn't given him up: and I would: but they were glad +to get rid of him, I think. If you'd like to have him, he's at the door. +I brought him on purpose for you. He ain't a lady's dog, you know,' said +Mr Toots, 'but you won't mind that, will you?' + +In fact, Diogenes was at that moment, as they presently ascertained from +looking down into the street, staring through the window of a hackney +cabriolet, into which, for conveyance to that spot, he had been +ensnared, on a false pretence of rats among the straw. Sooth to say, he +was as unlike a lady's dog as might be; and in his gruff anxiety to get +out, presented an appearance sufficiently unpromising, as he gave short +yelps out of one side of his mouth, and overbalancing himself by the +intensity of every one of those efforts, tumbled down into the straw, +and then sprung panting up again, putting out his tongue, as if he had +come express to a Dispensary to be examined for his health. + +But though Diogenes was as ridiculous a dog as one would meet with on +a summer's day; a blundering, ill-favoured, clumsy, bullet-headed +dog, continually acting on a wrong idea that there was an enemy in the +neighbourhood, whom it was meritorious to bark at; and though he was far +from good-tempered, and certainly was not clever, and had hair all over +his eyes, and a comic nose, and an inconsistent tail, and a gruff voice; +he was dearer to Florence, in virtue of that parting remembrance of him, +and that request that he might be taken care of, than the most valuable +and beautiful of his kind. So dear, indeed, was this same ugly Diogenes, +and so welcome to her, that she took the jewelled hand of Mr Toots and +kissed it in her gratitude. And when Diogenes, released, came tearing +up the stairs and bouncing into the room (such a business as there was, +first, to get him out of the cabriolet!), dived under all the furniture, +and wound a long iron chain, that dangled from his neck, round legs +of chairs and tables, and then tugged at it until his eyes became +unnaturally visible, in consequence of their nearly starting out of his +head; and when he growled at Mr Toots, who affected familiarity; and +went pell-mell at Towlinson, morally convinced that he was the enemy +whom he had barked at round the corner all his life and had never seen +yet; Florence was as pleased with him as if he had been a miracle of +discretion. + +Mr Toots was so overjoyed by the success of his present, and was so +delighted to see Florence bending down over Diogenes, smoothing his +coarse back with her little delicate hand--Diogenes graciously allowing +it from the first moment of their acquaintance--that he felt it +difficult to take leave, and would, no doubt, have been a much longer +time in making up his mind to do so, if he had not been assisted by +Diogenes himself, who suddenly took it into his head to bay Mr Toots, +and to make short runs at him with his mouth open. Not exactly seeing +his way to the end of these demonstrations, and sensible that they +placed the pantaloons constructed by the art of Burgess and Co. in +jeopardy, Mr Toots, with chuckles, lapsed out at the door: by which, +after looking in again two or three times, without any object at all, +and being on each occasion greeted with a fresh run from Diogenes, he +finally took himself off and got away. + +'Come, then, Di! Dear Di! Make friends with your new mistress. Let us +love each other, Di!' said Florence, fondling his shaggy head. And Di, +the rough and gruff, as if his hairy hide were pervious to the tear that +dropped upon it, and his dog's heart melted as it fell, put his nose up +to her face, and swore fidelity. + +Diogenes the man did not speak plainer to Alexander the Great than +Diogenes the dog spoke to Florence. He subscribed to the offer of +his little mistress cheerfully, and devoted himself to her service. A +banquet was immediately provided for him in a corner; and when he had +eaten and drunk his fill, he went to the window where Florence was +sitting, looking on, rose up on his hind legs, with his awkward fore +paws on her shoulders, licked her face and hands, nestled his great +head against her heart, and wagged his tail till he was tired. Finally, +Diogenes coiled himself up at her feet and went to sleep. + +Although Miss Nipper was nervous in regard of dogs, and felt it +necessary to come into the room with her skirts carefully collected +about her, as if she were crossing a brook on stepping-stones; also +to utter little screams and stand up on chairs when Diogenes stretched +himself, she was in her own manner affected by the kindness of Mr Toots, +and could not see Florence so alive to the attachment and society +of this rude friend of little Paul's, without some mental comments +thereupon that brought the water to her eyes. Mr Dombey, as a part of +her reflections, may have been, in the association of ideas, connected +with the dog; but, at any rate, after observing Diogenes and his +mistress all the evening, and after exerting herself with much good-will +to provide Diogenes a bed in an ante-chamber outside his mistress's +door, she said hurriedly to Florence, before leaving her for the night: + +'Your Pa's a going off, Miss Floy, tomorrow morning.' + +'To-morrow morning, Susan?' + +'Yes, Miss; that's the orders. Early.' + +'Do you know,' asked Florence, without looking at her, 'where Papa is +going, Susan?' + +'Not exactly, Miss. He's going to meet that precious Major first, and +I must say if I was acquainted with any Major myself (which Heavens +forbid), it shouldn't be a blue one!' + +'Hush, Susan!' urged Florence gently. + +'Well, Miss Floy,' returned Miss Nipper, who was full of burning +indignation, and minded her stops even less than usual. 'I can't help +it, blue he is, and while I was a Christian, although humble, I would +have natural-coloured friends, or none.' + +It appeared from what she added and had gleaned downstairs, that Mrs +Chick had proposed the Major for Mr Dombey's companion, and that Mr +Dombey, after some hesitation, had invited him. + +'Talk of him being a change, indeed!' observed Miss Nipper to herself +with boundless contempt. 'If he's a change, give me a constancy.' + +'Good-night, Susan,' said Florence. + +'Good-night, my darling dear Miss Floy.' + +Her tone of commiseration smote the chord so often roughly touched, but +never listened to while she or anyone looked on. Florence left alone, +laid her head upon her hand, and pressing the other over her swelling +heart, held free communication with her sorrows. + +It was a wet night; and the melancholy rain fell pattering and dropping +with a weary sound. A sluggish wind was blowing, and went moaning round +the house, as if it were in pain or grief. A shrill noise quivered +through the trees. While she sat weeping, it grew late, and dreary +midnight tolled out from the steeples. + +Florence was little more than a child in years--not yet fourteen--and the +loneliness and gloom of such an hour in the great house where Death +had lately made its own tremendous devastation, might have set an older +fancy brooding on vague terrors. But her innocent imagination was too +full of one theme to admit them. Nothing wandered in her thoughts but +love--a wandering love, indeed, and castaway--but turning always to her +father. + +There was nothing in the dropping of the rain, the moaning of the wind, +the shuddering of the trees, the striking of the solemn clocks, that +shook this one thought, or diminished its interest. Her recollections of +the dear dead boy--and they were never absent--were itself, the same +thing. And oh, to be shut out: to be so lost: never to have looked into +her father's face or touched him, since that hour! + +She could not go to bed, poor child, and never had gone yet, since then, +without making her nightly pilgrimage to his door. It would have been +a strange sad sight, to see her now, stealing lightly down the stairs +through the thick gloom, and stopping at it with a beating heart, and +blinded eyes, and hair that fell down loosely and unthought of; and +touching it outside with her wet cheek. But the night covered it, and no +one knew. + +The moment that she touched the door on this night, Florence found +that it was open. For the first time it stood open, though by but a +hair's-breadth: and there was a light within. The first impulse of the +timid child--and she yielded to it--was to retire swiftly. Her next, to +go back, and to enter; and this second impulse held her in irresolution +on the staircase. + +In its standing open, even by so much as that chink, there seemed to +be hope. There was encouragement in seeing a ray of light from within, +stealing through the dark stern doorway, and falling in a thread upon +the marble floor. She turned back, hardly knowing what she did, but +urged on by the love within her, and the trial they had undergone +together, but not shared: and with her hands a little raised and +trembling, glided in. + +Her father sat at his old table in the middle room. He had been +arranging some papers, and destroying others, and the latter lay in +fragile ruins before him. The rain dripped heavily upon the glass panes +in the outer room, where he had so often watched poor Paul, a baby; and +the low complainings of the wind were heard without. + +But not by him. He sat with his eyes fixed on the table, so immersed in +thought, that a far heavier tread than the light foot of his child could +make, might have failed to rouse him. His face was turned towards +her. By the waning lamp, and at that haggard hour, it looked worn and +dejected; and in the utter loneliness surrounding him, there was an +appeal to Florence that struck home. + +'Papa! Papa! speak to me, dear Papa!' + +He started at her voice, and leaped up from his seat. She was close +before him with extended arms, but he fell back. + +'What is the matter?' he said, sternly. 'Why do you come here? What has +frightened you?' + +If anything had frightened her, it was the face he turned upon her. The +glowing love within the breast of his young daughter froze before it, +and she stood and looked at him as if stricken into stone. + +There was not one touch of tenderness or pity in it. There was not one +gleam of interest, parental recognition, or relenting in it. There was +a change in it, but not of that kind. The old indifference and cold +constraint had given place to something: what, she never thought and did +not dare to think, and yet she felt it in its force, and knew it well +without a name: that as it looked upon her, seemed to cast a shadow on +her head. + +Did he see before him the successful rival of his son, in health and +life? Did he look upon his own successful rival in that son's affection? +Did a mad jealousy and withered pride, poison sweet remembrances that +should have endeared and made her precious to him? Could it be possible +that it was gall to him to look upon her in her beauty and her promise: +thinking of his infant boy! + +Florence had no such thoughts. But love is quick to know when it is +spurned and hopeless: and hope died out of hers, as she stood looking in +her father's face. + +'I ask you, Florence, are you frightened? Is there anything the matter, +that you come here?' + +'I came, Papa--' + +'Against my wishes. Why?' + +She saw he knew why: it was written broadly on his face: and dropped her +head upon her hands with one prolonged low cry. + +Let him remember it in that room, years to come. It has faded from +the air, before he breaks the silence. It may pass as quickly from his +brain, as he believes, but it is there. Let him remember it in that +room, years to come! + +He took her by the arm. His hand was cold, and loose, and scarcely +closed upon her. + +'You are tired, I daresay,' he said, taking up the light, and leading +her towards the door, 'and want rest. We all want rest. Go, Florence. +You have been dreaming.' + +The dream she had had, was over then, God help her! and she felt that it +could never more come back. + +'I will remain here to light you up the stairs. The whole house is +yours above there,' said her father, slowly. 'You are its mistress now. +Good-night!' + +Still covering her face, she sobbed, and answered 'Good-night, dear +Papa,' and silently ascended. Once she looked back as if she would have +returned to him, but for fear. It was a momentary thought, too +hopeless to encourage; and her father stood there with the light--hard, +unresponsive, motionless--until the fluttering dress of his fair child +was lost in the darkness. + +Let him remember it in that room, years to come. The rain that +falls upon the roof: the wind that mourns outside the door: may have +foreknowledge in their melancholy sound. Let him remember it in that +room, years to come! + +The last time he had watched her, from the same place, winding up those +stairs, she had had her brother in her arms. It did not move his heart +towards her now, it steeled it: but he went into his room, and locked +his door, and sat down in his chair, and cried for his lost boy. + +Diogenes was broad awake upon his post, and waiting for his little +mistress. + +'Oh, Di! Oh, dear Di! Love me for his sake!' + +Diogenes already loved her for her own, and didn't care how much he +showed it. So he made himself vastly ridiculous by performing a variety +of uncouth bounces in the ante-chamber, and concluded, when poor +Florence was at last asleep, and dreaming of the rosy children opposite, +by scratching open her bedroom door: rolling up his bed into a pillow: +lying down on the boards, at the full length of his tether, with his +head towards her: and looking lazily at her, upside down, out of the +tops of his eyes, until from winking and winking he fell asleep himself, +and dreamed, with gruff barks, of his enemy. + + + +CHAPTER 19. Walter goes away + + +The wooden Midshipman at the Instrument-maker's door, like the +hard-hearted little Midshipman he was, remained supremely indifferent to +Walter's going away, even when the very last day of his sojourn in the +back parlour was on the decline. With his quadrant at his round black +knob of an eye, and his figure in its old attitude of indomitable +alacrity, the Midshipman displayed his elfin small-clothes to the best +advantage, and, absorbed in scientific pursuits, had no sympathy with +worldly concerns. He was so far the creature of circumstances, that a +dry day covered him with dust, and a misty day peppered him with little +bits of soot, and a wet day brightened up his tarnished uniform for +the moment, and a very hot day blistered him; but otherwise he was a +callous, obdurate, conceited Midshipman, intent on his own discoveries, +and caring as little for what went on about him, terrestrially, as +Archimedes at the taking of Syracuse. + +Such a Midshipman he seemed to be, at least, in the then position of +domestic affairs. Walter eyed him kindly many a time in passing in and +out; and poor old Sol, when Walter was not there, would come and lean +against the doorpost, resting his weary wig as near the shoe-buckles +of the guardian genius of his trade and shop as he could. But no fierce +idol with a mouth from ear to ear, and a murderous visage made of +parrot's feathers, was ever more indifferent to the appeals of its +savage votaries, than was the Midshipman to these marks of attachment. + +Walter's heart felt heavy as he looked round his old bedroom, up among +the parapets and chimney-pots, and thought that one more night already +darkening would close his acquaintance with it, perhaps for ever. +Dismantled of his little stock of books and pictures, it looked +coldly and reproachfully on him for his desertion, and had already a +foreshadowing upon it of its coming strangeness. 'A few hours more,' +thought Walter, 'and no dream I ever had here when I was a schoolboy +will be so little mine as this old room. The dream may come back in my +sleep, and I may return waking to this place, it may be: but the dream +at least will serve no other master, and the room may have a score, and +every one of them may change, neglect, misuse it.' + +But his Uncle was not to be left alone in the little back parlour, where +he was then sitting by himself; for Captain Cuttle, considerate in his +roughness, stayed away against his will, purposely that they should have +some talk together unobserved: so Walter, newly returned home from his +last day's bustle, descended briskly, to bear him company. + +'Uncle,' he said gaily, laying his hand upon the old man's shoulder, +'what shall I send you home from Barbados?' + +'Hope, my dear Wally. Hope that we shall meet again, on this side of the +grave. Send me as much of that as you can.' + +'So I will, Uncle: I have enough and to spare, and I'll not be chary of +it! And as to lively turtles, and limes for Captain Cuttle's punch, and +preserves for you on Sundays, and all that sort of thing, why I'll send +you ship-loads, Uncle: when I'm rich enough.' + +Old Sol wiped his spectacles, and faintly smiled. + +'That's right, Uncle!' cried Walter, merrily, and clapping him half a +dozen times more upon the shoulder. 'You cheer up me! I'll cheer up +you! We'll be as gay as larks to-morrow morning, Uncle, and we'll fly as +high! As to my anticipations, they are singing out of sight now.' + +'Wally, my dear boy,' returned the old man, 'I'll do my best, I'll do my +best.' + +'And your best, Uncle,' said Walter, with his pleasant laugh, 'is the +best best that I know. You'll not forget what you're to send me, Uncle?' + +'No, Wally, no,' replied the old man; 'everything I hear about Miss +Dombey, now that she is left alone, poor lamb, I'll write. I fear it +won't be much though, Wally.' + +'Why, I'll tell you what, Uncle,' said Walter, after a moment's +hesitation, 'I have just been up there.' + +'Ay, ay, ay?' murmured the old man, raising his eyebrows, and his +spectacles with them. + +'Not to see her,' said Walter, 'though I could have seen her, I daresay, +if I had asked, Mr Dombey being out of town: but to say a parting word +to Susan. I thought I might venture to do that, you know, under the +circumstances, and remembering when I saw Miss Dombey last.' + +'Yes, my boy, yes,' replied his Uncle, rousing himself from a temporary +abstraction. + +'So I saw her,' pursued Walter, 'Susan, I mean: and I told her I was +off and away to-morrow. And I said, Uncle, that you had always had an +interest in Miss Dombey since that night when she was here, and always +wished her well and happy, and always would be proud and glad to serve +her in the least: I thought I might say that, you know, under the +circumstances. Don't you think so?' + +'Yes, my boy, yes,' replied his Uncle, in the tone as before. + +'And I added,' pursued Walter, 'that if she--Susan, I mean--could ever +let you know, either through herself, or Mrs Richards, or anybody else +who might be coming this way, that Miss Dombey was well and happy, you +would take it very kindly, and would write so much to me, and I should +take it very kindly too. There! Upon my word, Uncle,' said Walter, 'I +scarcely slept all last night through thinking of doing this; and could +not make up my mind when I was out, whether to do it or not; and yet I +am sure it is the true feeling of my heart, and I should have been quite +miserable afterwards if I had not relieved it.' + +His honest voice and manner corroborated what he said, and quite +established its ingenuousness. + +'So, if you ever see her, Uncle,' said Walter, 'I mean Miss Dombey +now--and perhaps you may, who knows!--tell her how much I felt for her; +how much I used to think of her when I was here; how I spoke of her, +with the tears in my eyes, Uncle, on this last night before I went away. +Tell her that I said I never could forget her gentle manner, or her +beautiful face, or her sweet kind disposition that was better than all. +And as I didn't take them from a woman's feet, or a young lady's: only +a little innocent child's,' said Walter: 'tell her, if you don't mind, +Uncle, that I kept those shoes--she'll remember how often they fell off, +that night--and took them away with me as a remembrance!' + +They were at that very moment going out at the door in one of Walter's +trunks. A porter carrying off his baggage on a truck for shipment at the +docks on board the Son and Heir, had got possession of them; and wheeled +them away under the very eye of the insensible Midshipman before their +owner had well finished speaking. + +But that ancient mariner might have been excused his insensibility to +the treasure as it rolled away. For, under his eye at the same moment, +accurately within his range of observation, coming full into the sphere +of his startled and intensely wide-awake look-out, were Florence and +Susan Nipper: Florence looking up into his face half timidly, and +receiving the whole shock of his wooden ogling! + +More than this, they passed into the shop, and passed in at the parlour +door before they were observed by anybody but the Midshipman. And +Walter, having his back to the door, would have known nothing of their +apparition even then, but for seeing his Uncle spring out of his own +chair, and nearly tumble over another. + +'Why, Uncle!' exclaimed Walter. 'What's the matter?' + +Old Solomon replied, 'Miss Dombey!' + +'Is it possible?' cried Walter, looking round and starting up in his +turn. 'Here!' + +Why, It was so possible and so actual, that, while the words were on his +lips, Florence hurried past him; took Uncle Sol's snuff-coloured lapels, +one in each hand; kissed him on the cheek; and turning, gave her hand to +Walter with a simple truth and earnestness that was her own, and no one +else's in the world! + +'Going away, Walter?' said Florence. + +'Yes, Miss Dombey,' he replied, but not so hopefully as he endeavoured: +'I have a voyage before me.' + +'And your Uncle,' said Florence, looking back at Solomon. 'He is sorry +you are going, I am sure. Ah! I see he is! Dear Walter, I am very sorry +too.' + +'Goodness knows,' exclaimed Miss Nipper, 'there's a many we could spare +instead, if numbers is a object, Mrs Pipchin as a overseer would come +cheap at her weight in gold, and if a knowledge of black slavery should +be required, them Blimbers is the very people for the sitiwation.' + +With that Miss Nipper untied her bonnet strings, and after looking +vacantly for some moments into a little black teapot that was set forth +with the usual homely service on the table, shook her head and a tin +canister, and began unasked to make the tea. + +In the meantime Florence had turned again to the Instrument-maker, who +was as full of admiration as surprise. 'So grown!' said old Sol. 'So +improved! And yet not altered! Just the same!' + +'Indeed!' said Florence. + +'Ye--yes,' returned old Sol, rubbing his hands slowly, and considering +the matter half aloud, as something pensive in the bright eyes looking +at him arrested his attention. 'Yes, that expression was in the younger +face, too!' + +'You remember me,' said Florence with a smile, 'and what a little +creature I was then?' + +'My dear young lady,' returned the Instrument-maker, 'how could I forget +you, often as I have thought of you and heard of you since! At the very +moment, indeed, when you came in, Wally was talking about you to me, and +leaving messages for you, and--' + +'Was he?' said Florence. 'Thank you, Walter! Oh thank you, Walter! I was +afraid you might be going away and hardly thinking of me;' and again she +gave him her little hand so freely and so faithfully that Walter held it +for some moments in his own, and could not bear to let it go. + +Yet Walter did not hold it as he might have held it once, nor did its +touch awaken those old day-dreams of his boyhood that had floated past +him sometimes even lately, and confused him with their indistinct and +broken shapes. The purity and innocence of her endearing manner, and +its perfect trustfulness, and the undisguised regard for him that lay +so deeply seated in her constant eyes, and glowed upon her fair face +through the smile that shaded--for alas! it was a smile too sad to +brighten--it, were not of their romantic race. They brought back to his +thoughts the early death-bed he had seen her tending, and the love the +child had borne her; and on the wings of such remembrances she seemed to +rise up, far above his idle fancies, into clearer and serener air. + +'I--I am afraid I must call you Walter's Uncle, Sir,' said Florence to +the old man, 'if you'll let me.' + +'My dear young lady,' cried old Sol. 'Let you! Good gracious!' + +'We always knew you by that name, and talked of you,' said Florence, +glancing round, and sighing gently. 'The nice old parlour! Just the +same! How well I recollect it!' + +Old Sol looked first at her, then at his nephew, and then rubbed his +hands, and rubbed his spectacles, and said below his breath, 'Ah! time, +time, time!' + +There was a short silence; during which Susan Nipper skilfully impounded +two extra cups and saucers from the cupboard, and awaited the drawing of +the tea with a thoughtful air. + +'I want to tell Walter's Uncle,' said Florence, laying her hand timidly +upon the old man's as it rested on the table, to bespeak his attention, +'something that I am anxious about. He is going to be left alone, and +if he will allow me--not to take Walter's place, for that I couldn't +do, but to be his true friend and help him if I ever can while Walter +is away, I shall be very much obliged to him indeed. Will you? May I, +Walter's Uncle?' + +The Instrument-maker, without speaking, put her hand to his lips, +and Susan Nipper, leaning back with her arms crossed, in the chair of +presidency into which she had voted herself, bit one end of her bonnet +strings, and heaved a gentle sigh as she looked up at the skylight. + +'You will let me come to see you,' said Florence, 'when I can; and you +will tell me everything about yourself and Walter; and you will have no +secrets from Susan when she comes and I do not, but will confide in us, +and trust us, and rely upon us. And you'll try to let us be a comfort to +you? Will you, Walter's Uncle?' + +The sweet face looking into his, the gentle pleading eyes, the soft +voice, and the light touch on his arm made the more winning by a child's +respect and honour for his age, that gave to all an air of graceful +doubt and modest hesitation--these, and her natural earnestness, so +overcame the poor old Instrument-maker, that he only answered: + +'Wally! say a word for me, my dear. I'm very grateful.' + +'No, Walter,' returned Florence with her quiet smile. 'Say nothing for +him, if you please. I understand him very well, and we must learn to +talk together without you, dear Walter.' + +The regretful tone in which she said these latter words, touched Walter +more than all the rest. + +'Miss Florence,' he replied, with an effort to recover the cheerful +manner he had preserved while talking with his Uncle, 'I know no more +than my Uncle, what to say in acknowledgment of such kindness, I am +sure. But what could I say, after all, if I had the power of talking for +an hour, except that it is like you?' + +Susan Nipper began upon a new part of her bonnet string, and nodded at +the skylight, in approval of the sentiment expressed. + +'Oh! but, Walter,' said Florence, 'there is something that I wish to say +to you before you go away, and you must call me Florence, if you please, +and not speak like a stranger.' + +'Like a stranger!' returned Walter, 'No. I couldn't speak so. I am sure, +at least, I couldn't feel like one.' + +'Ay, but that is not enough, and is not what I mean. For, Walter,' added +Florence, bursting into tears, 'he liked you very much, and said before +he died that he was fond of you, and said "Remember Walter!" and if +you'll be a brother to me, Walter, now that he is gone and I have none +on earth, I'll be your sister all my life, and think of you like one +wherever we may be! This is what I wished to say, dear Walter, but I +cannot say it as I would, because my heart is full.' + +And in its fulness and its sweet simplicity, she held out both her hands +to him. Walter taking them, stooped down and touched the tearful face +that neither shrunk nor turned away, nor reddened as he did so, but +looked up at him with confidence and truth. In that one moment, every +shadow of doubt or agitation passed away from Walter's soul. It seemed +to him that he responded to her innocent appeal, beside the dead child's +bed: and, in the solemn presence he had seen there, pledged himself to +cherish and protect her very image, in his banishment, with brotherly +regard; to garner up her simple faith, inviolate; and hold himself +degraded if he breathed upon it any thought that was not in her own +breast when she gave it to him. + +Susan Nipper, who had bitten both her bonnet strings at once, and +imparted a great deal of private emotion to the skylight, during this +transaction, now changed the subject by inquiring who took milk and who +took sugar; and being enlightened on these points, poured out the tea. +They all four gathered socially about the little table, and took tea +under that young lady's active superintendence; and the presence of +Florence in the back parlour, brightened the Tartar frigate on the wall. + +Half an hour ago Walter, for his life, would have hardly called her by +her name. But he could do so now when she entreated him. He could think +of her being there, without a lurking misgiving that it would have been +better if she had not come. He could calmly think how beautiful she was, +how full of promise, what a home some happy man would find in such a +heart one day. He could reflect upon his own place in that heart, with +pride; and with a brave determination, if not to deserve it--he still +thought that far above him--never to deserve it less. + +Some fairy influence must surely have hovered round the hands of Susan +Nipper when she made the tea, engendering the tranquil air that reigned +in the back parlour during its discussion. Some counter-influence must +surely have hovered round the hands of Uncle Sol's chronometer, and +moved them faster than the Tartar frigate ever went before the wind. Be +this as it may, the visitors had a coach in waiting at a quiet corner +not far off; and the chronometer, on being incidentally referred to, +gave such a positive opinion that it had been waiting a long time, that +it was impossible to doubt the fact, especially when stated on such +unimpeachable authority. If Uncle Sol had been going to be hanged by his +own time, he never would have allowed that the chronometer was too fast, +by the least fraction of a second. + +Florence at parting recapitulated to the old man all that she had said +before, and bound him to their compact. Uncle Sol attended her lovingly +to the legs of the wooden Midshipman, and there resigned her to Walter, +who was ready to escort her and Susan Nipper to the coach. + +'Walter,' said Florence by the way, 'I have been afraid to ask before +your Uncle. Do you think you will be absent very long?' + +'Indeed,' said Walter, 'I don't know. I fear so. Mr Dombey signified as +much, I thought, when he appointed me.' + +'Is it a favour, Walter?' inquired Florence, after a moment's +hesitation, and looking anxiously in his face. + +'The appointment?' returned Walter. + +'Yes.' + +Walter would have given anything to have answered in the affirmative, +but his face answered before his lips could, and Florence was too +attentive to it not to understand its reply. + +'I am afraid you have scarcely been a favourite with Papa,' she said, +timidly. + +'There is no reason,' replied Walter, smiling, 'why I should be.' + +'No reason, Walter!' + +'There was no reason,' said Walter, understanding what she meant. 'There +are many people employed in the House. Between Mr Dombey and a young man +like me, there's a wide space of separation. If I do my duty, I do what +I ought, and do no more than all the rest.' + +Had Florence any misgiving of which she was hardly conscious: any +misgiving that had sprung into an indistinct and undefined existence +since that recent night when she had gone down to her father's room: +that Walter's accidental interest in her, and early knowledge of her, +might have involved him in that powerful displeasure and dislike? Had +Walter any such idea, or any sudden thought that it was in her mind at +that moment? Neither of them hinted at it. Neither of them spoke at all, +for some short time. Susan, walking on the other side of Walter, eyed +them both sharply; and certainly Miss Nipper's thoughts travelled in +that direction, and very confidently too. + +'You may come back very soon,' said Florence, 'perhaps, Walter.' + +'I may come back,' said Walter, 'an old man, and find you an old lady. +But I hope for better things.' + +'Papa,' said Florence, after a moment, 'will--will recover from his +grief, and--speak more freely to me one day, perhaps; and if he should, +I will tell him how much I wish to see you back again, and ask him to +recall you for my sake.' + +There was a touching modulation in these words about her father, that +Walter understood too well. + +The coach being close at hand, he would have left her without speaking, +for now he felt what parting was; but Florence held his hand when she +was seated, and then he found there was a little packet in her own. + +'Walter,' she said, looking full upon him with her affectionate eyes, +'like you, I hope for better things. I will pray for them, and believe +that they will arrive. I made this little gift for Paul. Pray take it +with my love, and do not look at it until you are gone away. And now, +God bless you, Walter! never forget me. You are my brother, dear!' + +He was glad that Susan Nipper came between them, or he might have left +her with a sorrowful remembrance of him. He was glad too that she +did not look out of the coach again, but waved the little hand to him +instead, as long as he could see it. + +In spite of her request, he could not help opening the packet that night +when he went to bed. It was a little purse: and there was was money in +it. + +Bright rose the sun next morning, from his absence in strange countries +and up rose Walter with it to receive the Captain, who was already at +the door: having turned out earlier than was necessary, in order to +get under weigh while Mrs MacStinger was still slumbering. The Captain +pretended to be in tip-top spirits, and brought a very smoky tongue in +one of the pockets of the broad blue coat for breakfast. + +'And, Wal'r,' said the Captain, when they took their seats at table, if +your Uncle's the man I think him, he'll bring out the last bottle of the +Madeira on the present occasion.' + +'No, no, Ned,' returned the old man. 'No! That shall be opened when +Walter comes home again.' + +'Well said!' cried the Captain. 'Hear him!' + +'There it lies,' said Sol Gills, 'down in the little cellar, covered +with dirt and cobwebs. There may be dirt and cobwebs over you and me +perhaps, Ned, before it sees the light.' + +'Hear him!' cried the Captain. 'Good morality! Wal'r, my lad. Train up +a fig-tree in the way it should go, and when you are old sit under the +shade on it. Overhaul the--Well,' said the Captain on second thoughts, +'I ain't quite certain where that's to be found, but when found, make a +note of. Sol Gills, heave ahead again!' + +'But there or somewhere, it shall lie, Ned, until Wally comes back to +claim it,' said the old man. 'That's all I meant to say.' + +'And well said too,' returned the Captain; 'and if we three don't crack +that bottle in company, I'll give you two leave to.' + +Notwithstanding the Captain's excessive joviality, he made but a poor +hand at the smoky tongue, though he tried very hard, when anybody looked +at him, to appear as if he were eating with a vast appetite. He was +terribly afraid, likewise, of being left alone with either Uncle or +nephew; appearing to consider that his only chance of safety as to +keeping up appearances, was in there being always three together. +This terror on the part of the Captain, reduced him to such ingenious +evasions as running to the door, when Solomon went to put his coat on, +under pretence of having seen an extraordinary hackney-coach pass: and +darting out into the road when Walter went upstairs to take leave of the +lodgers, on a feint of smelling fire in a neighbouring chimney. These +artifices Captain Cuttle deemed inscrutable by any uninspired observer. + +Walter was coming down from his parting expedition upstairs, and was +crossing the shop to go back to the little parlour, when he saw a faded +face he knew, looking in at the door, and darted towards it. + +'Mr Carker!' cried Walter, pressing the hand of John Carker the Junior. +'Pray come in! This is kind of you, to be here so early to say good-bye +to me. You knew how glad it would make me to shake hands with you, once, +before going away. I cannot say how glad I am to have this opportunity. +Pray come in.' + +'It is not likely that we may ever meet again, Walter,' returned +the other, gently resisting his invitation, 'and I am glad of this +opportunity too. I may venture to speak to you, and to take you by the +hand, on the eve of separation. I shall not have to resist your frank +approaches, Walter, any more.' + +There was a melancholy in his smile as he said it, that showed he had +found some company and friendship for his thoughts even in that. + +'Ah, Mr Carker!' returned Walter. 'Why did you resist them? You could +have done me nothing but good, I am very sure.' + +He shook his head. 'If there were any good,' he said, 'I could do on +this earth, I would do it, Walter, for you. The sight of you from day to +day, has been at once happiness and remorse to me. But the pleasure has +outweighed the pain. I know that, now, by knowing what I lose.' + +'Come in, Mr Carker, and make acquaintance with my good old Uncle,' +urged Walter. 'I have often talked to him about you, and he will be glad +to tell you all he hears from me. I have not,' said Walter, noticing his +hesitation, and speaking with embarrassment himself: 'I have not told +him anything about our last conversation, Mr Carker; not even him, +believe me. + +The grey Junior pressed his hand, and tears rose in his eyes. + +'If I ever make acquaintance with him, Walter,' he returned, 'it will be +that I may hear tidings of you. Rely on my not wronging your forbearance +and consideration. It would be to wrong it, not to tell him all the +truth, before I sought a word of confidence from him. But I have no +friend or acquaintance except you: and even for your sake, am little +likely to make any.' + +'I wish,' said Walter, 'you had suffered me to be your friend indeed. I +always wished it, Mr Carker, as you know; but never half so much as now, +when we are going to part.' + +'It is enough replied the other, 'that you have been the friend of my +own breast, and that when I have avoided you most, my heart inclined the +most towards you, and was fullest of you. Walter, good-bye!' + +'Good-bye, Mr Carker. Heaven be with you, Sir!' cried Walter with +emotion. + +'If,' said the other, retaining his hand while he spoke; 'if when you +come back, you miss me from my old corner, and should hear from anyone +where I am lying, come and look upon my grave. Think that I might have +been as honest and as happy as you! And let me think, when I know time +is coming on, that some one like my former self may stand there, for a +moment, and remember me with pity and forgiveness! Walter, good-bye!' + +His figure crept like a shadow down the bright, sun-lighted street, so +cheerful yet so solemn in the early summer morning; and slowly passed +away. + +The relentless chronometer at last announced that Walter must turn his +back upon the wooden Midshipman: and away they went, himself, his Uncle, +and the Captain, in a hackney-coach to a wharf, where they were to take +steam-boat for some Reach down the river, the name of which, as the +Captain gave it out, was a hopeless mystery to the ears of landsmen. +Arrived at this Reach (whither the ship had repaired by last night's +tide), they were boarded by various excited watermen, and among others +by a dirty Cyclops of the Captain's acquaintance, who, with his one +eye, had made the Captain out some mile and a half off, and had been +exchanging unintelligible roars with him ever since. Becoming the lawful +prize of this personage, who was frightfully hoarse and constitutionally +in want of shaving, they were all three put aboard the Son and Heir. And +the Son and Heir was in a pretty state of confusion, with sails lying +all bedraggled on the wet decks, loose ropes tripping people up, men in +red shirts running barefoot to and fro, casks blockading every foot of +space, and, in the thickest of the fray, a black cook in a black caboose +up to his eyes in vegetables and blinded with smoke. + +The Captain immediately drew Walter into a corner, and with a great +effort, that made his face very red, pulled up the silver watch, which +was so big, and so tight in his pocket, that it came out like a bung. + +'Wal'r,' said the Captain, handing it over, and shaking him heartily +by the hand, 'a parting gift, my lad. Put it back half an hour every +morning, and about another quarter towards the arternoon, and it's a +watch that'll do you credit.' + +'Captain Cuttle! I couldn't think of it!' cried Walter, detaining him, +for he was running away. 'Pray take it back. I have one already.' + +'Then, Wal'r,' said the Captain, suddenly diving into one of his pockets +and bringing up the two teaspoons and the sugar-tongs, with which he +had armed himself to meet such an objection, 'take this here trifle of +plate, instead.' + +'No, no, I couldn't indeed!' cried Walter, 'a thousand thanks! Don't +throw them away, Captain Cuttle!' for the Captain was about to jerk them +overboard. 'They'll be of much more use to you than me. Give me your +stick. I have often thought I should like to have it. There! Good-bye, +Captain Cuttle! Take care of my Uncle! Uncle Sol, God bless you!' + +They were over the side in the confusion, before Walter caught another +glimpse of either; and when he ran up to the stern, and looked after +them, he saw his Uncle hanging down his head in the boat, and Captain +Cuttle rapping him on the back with the great silver watch (it must have +been very painful), and gesticulating hopefully with the teaspoons +and sugar-tongs. Catching sight of Walter, Captain Cuttle dropped the +property into the bottom of the boat with perfect unconcern, being +evidently oblivious of its existence, and pulling off the glazed hat +hailed him lustily. The glazed hat made quite a show in the sun with its +glistening, and the Captain continued to wave it until he could be +seen no longer. Then the confusion on board, which had been rapidly +increasing, reached its height; two or three other boats went away with +a cheer; the sails shone bright and full above, as Walter watched +them spread their surface to the favourable breeze; the water flew in +sparkles from the prow; and off upon her voyage went the Son and Heir, +as hopefully and trippingly as many another son and heir, gone down, had +started on his way before her. + +Day after day, old Sol and Captain Cuttle kept her reckoning in the +little hack parlour and worked out her course, with the chart spread +before them on the round table. At night, when old Sol climbed upstairs, +so lonely, to the attic where it sometimes blew great guns, he looked +up at the stars and listened to the wind, and kept a longer watch than +would have fallen to his lot on board the ship. The last bottle of the +old Madeira, which had had its cruising days, and known its dangers of +the deep, lay silently beneath its dust and cobwebs, in the meanwhile, +undisturbed. + + + +CHAPTER 20. Mr Dombey goes upon a Journey + + +'Mr Dombey, Sir,' said Major Bagstock, 'Joey' B. is not in general a man +of sentiment, for Joseph is tough. But Joe has his feelings, Sir, and +when they are awakened--Damme, Mr Dombey,' cried the Major with sudden +ferocity, 'this is weakness, and I won't submit to it!' + +Major Bagstock delivered himself of these expressions on receiving +Mr Dombey as his guest at the head of his own staircase in Princess's +Place. Mr Dombey had come to breakfast with the Major, previous to their +setting forth on their trip; and the ill-starved Native had already +undergone a world of misery arising out of the muffins, while, in +connexion with the general question of boiled eggs, life was a burden to +him. + +'It is not for an old soldier of the Bagstock breed,' observed the +Major, relapsing into a mild state, 'to deliver himself up, a prey to +his own emotions; but--damme, Sir,' cried the Major, in another spasm of +ferocity, 'I condole with you!' + +The Major's purple visage deepened in its hue, and the Major's lobster +eyes stood out in bolder relief, as he shook Mr Dombey by the hand, +imparting to that peaceful action as defiant a character as if it had +been the prelude to his immediately boxing Mr Dombey for a thousand +pounds a side and the championship of England. With a rotatory motion +of his head, and a wheeze very like the cough of a horse, the Major +then conducted his visitor to the sitting-room, and there welcomed him +(having now composed his feelings) with the freedom and frankness of a +travelling companion. + +'Dombey,' said the Major, 'I'm glad to see you. I'm proud to see you. +There are not many men in Europe to whom J. Bagstock would say that--for +Josh is blunt. Sir: it's his nature--but Joey B. is proud to see you, +Dombey.' + +'Major,' returned Mr Dombey, 'you are very obliging.' + +'No, Sir,' said the Major, 'Devil a bit! That's not my character. +If that had been Joe's character, Joe might have been, by this time, +Lieutenant-General Sir Joseph Bagstock, K.C.B., and might have received +you in very different quarters. You don't know old Joe yet, I find. But +this occasion, being special, is a source of pride to me. By the Lord, +Sir,' said the Major resolutely, 'it's an honour to me!' + +Mr Dombey, in his estimation of himself and his money, felt that +this was very true, and therefore did not dispute the point. But the +instinctive recognition of such a truth by the Major, and his plain +avowal of it, were very able. It was a confirmation to Mr Dombey, if +he had required any, of his not being mistaken in the Major. It was +an assurance to him that his power extended beyond his own immediate +sphere; and that the Major, as an officer and a gentleman, had a no less +becoming sense of it, than the beadle of the Royal Exchange. + +And if it were ever consolatory to know this, or the like of this, it +was consolatory then, when the impotence of his will, the instability +of his hopes, the feebleness of wealth, had been so direfully impressed +upon him. What could it do, his boy had asked him. Sometimes, thinking +of the baby question, he could hardly forbear inquiring, himself, what +could it do indeed: what had it done? + +But these were lonely thoughts, bred late at night in the sullen +despondency and gloom of his retirement, and pride easily found its +reassurance in many testimonies to the truth, as unimpeachable and +precious as the Major's. Mr Dombey, in his friendlessness, inclined to +the Major. It cannot be said that he warmed towards him, but he thawed +a little, The Major had had some part--and not too much--in the days by +the seaside. He was a man of the world, and knew some great people. He +talked much, and told stories; and Mr Dombey was disposed to regard him +as a choice spirit who shone in society, and who had not that poisonous +ingredient of poverty with which choice spirits in general are too much +adulterated. His station was undeniable. Altogether the Major was a +creditable companion, well accustomed to a life of leisure, and to +such places as that they were about to visit, and having an air of +gentlemanly ease about him that mixed well enough with his own City +character, and did not compete with it at all. If Mr Dombey had any +lingering idea that the Major, as a man accustomed, in the way of his +calling, to make light of the ruthless hand that had lately crushed his +hopes, might unconsciously impart some useful philosophy to him, and +scare away his weak regrets, he hid it from himself, and left it lying +at the bottom of his pride, unexamined. + +'Where is my scoundrel?' said the Major, looking wrathfully round the +room. + +The Native, who had no particular name, but answered to any vituperative +epithet, presented himself instantly at the door and ventured to come no +nearer. + +'You villain!' said the choleric Major, 'where's the breakfast?' + +The dark servant disappeared in search of it, and was quickly heard +reascending the stairs in such a tremulous state, that the plates and +dishes on the tray he carried, trembling sympathetically as he came, +rattled again, all the way up. + +'Dombey,' said the Major, glancing at the Native as he arranged the +table, and encouraging him with an awful shake of his fist when he upset +a spoon, 'here is a devilled grill, a savoury pie, a dish of kidneys, +and so forth. Pray sit down. Old Joe can give you nothing but camp fare, +you see.' + +'Very excellent fare, Major,' replied his guest; and not in mere +politeness either; for the Major always took the best possible care of +himself, and indeed ate rather more of rich meats than was good for him, +insomuch that his Imperial complexion was mainly referred by the faculty +to that circumstance. + +'You have been looking over the way, Sir,' observed the Major. 'Have you +seen our friend?' + +'You mean Miss Tox,' retorted Mr Dombey. 'No.' + +'Charming woman, Sir,' said the Major, with a fat laugh rising in his +short throat, and nearly suffocating him. + +'Miss Tox is a very good sort of person, I believe,' replied Mr Dombey. + +The haughty coldness of the reply seemed to afford Major Bagstock +infinite delight. He swelled and swelled, exceedingly: and even laid +down his knife and fork for a moment, to rub his hands. + +'Old Joe, Sir,' said the Major, 'was a bit of a favourite in +that quarter once. But Joe has had his day. J. Bagstock is +extinguished--outrivalled--floored, Sir.' + +'I should have supposed,' Mr Dombey replied, 'that the lady's day for +favourites was over: but perhaps you are jesting, Major.' + +'Perhaps you are jesting, Dombey?' was the Major's rejoinder. + +There never was a more unlikely possibility. It was so clearly expressed +in Mr Dombey's face, that the Major apologised. + +'I beg your pardon,' he said. 'I see you are in earnest. I tell you +what, Dombey.' The Major paused in his eating, and looked mysteriously +indignant. 'That's a de-vilish ambitious woman, Sir.' + +Mr Dombey said 'Indeed?' with frigid indifference: mingled perhaps with +some contemptuous incredulity as to Miss Tox having the presumption to +harbour such a superior quality. + +'That woman, Sir,' said the Major, 'is, in her way, a Lucifer. Joey +B. has had his day, Sir, but he keeps his eyes. He sees, does Joe. His +Royal Highness the late Duke of York observed of Joey, at a levee, that +he saw.' + +The Major accompanied this with such a look, and, between eating, +drinking, hot tea, devilled grill, muffins, and meaning, was altogether +so swollen and inflamed about the head, that even Mr Dombey showed some +anxiety for him. + +'That ridiculous old spectacle, Sir,' pursued the Major, 'aspires. She +aspires sky-high, Sir. Matrimonially, Dombey.' + +'I am sorry for her,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Don't say that, Dombey,' returned the Major in a warning voice. + +'Why should I not, Major?' said Mr Dombey. + +The Major gave no answer but the horse's cough, and went on eating +vigorously. + +'She has taken an interest in your household,' said the Major, stopping +short again, 'and has been a frequent visitor at your house for some +time now.' + +'Yes,' replied Mr Dombey with great stateliness, 'Miss Tox was +originally received there, at the time of Mrs Dombey's death, as a +friend of my sister's; and being a well-behaved person, and showing a +liking for the poor infant, she was permitted--may I say encouraged--to +repeat her visits with my sister, and gradually to occupy a kind of +footing of familiarity in the family. I have,' said Mr Dombey, in the +tone of a man who was making a great and valuable concession, 'I have a +respect for Miss Tox. She his been so obliging as to render many little +services in my house: trifling and insignificant services perhaps, +Major, but not to be disparaged on that account: and I hope I have had +the good fortune to be enabled to acknowledge them by such attention and +notice as it has been in my power to bestow. I hold myself indebted to +Miss Tox, Major,' added Mr Dombey, with a slight wave of his hand, 'for +the pleasure of your acquaintance.' + +'Dombey,' said the Major, warmly: 'no! No, Sir! Joseph Bagstock can +never permit that assertion to pass uncontradicted. Your knowledge of +old Joe, Sir, such as he is, and old Joe's knowledge of you, Sir, had +its origin in a noble fellow, Sir--in a great creature, Sir. Dombey!' +said the Major, with a struggle which it was not very difficult to +parade, his whole life being a struggle against all kinds of apoplectic +symptoms, 'we knew each other through your boy.' + +Mr Dombey seemed touched, as it is not improbable the Major designed he +should be, by this allusion. He looked down and sighed: and the Major, +rousing himself fiercely, again said, in reference to the state of mind +into which he felt himself in danger of falling, that this was weakness, +and nothing should induce him to submit to it. + +'Our friend had a remote connexion with that event,' said the Major, +'and all the credit that belongs to her, J. B. is willing to give her, +Sir. Notwithstanding which, Ma'am,' he added, raising his eyes from his +plate, and casting them across Princess's Place, to where Miss Tox was +at that moment visible at her window watering her flowers, 'you're +a scheming jade, Ma'am, and your ambition is a piece of monstrous +impudence. If it only made yourself ridiculous, Ma'am,' said the Major, +rolling his head at the unconscious Miss Tox, while his starting eyes +appeared to make a leap towards her, 'you might do that to your heart's +content, Ma'am, without any objection, I assure you, on the part of +Bagstock.' Here the Major laughed frightfully up in the tips of his ears +and in the veins of his head. 'But when, Ma'am,' said the Major, 'you +compromise other people, and generous, unsuspicious people too, as a +repayment for their condescension, you stir the blood of old Joe in his +body.' + +'Major,' said Mr Dombey, reddening, 'I hope you do not hint at anything +so absurd on the part of Miss Tox as--' + +'Dombey,' returned the Major, 'I hint at nothing. But Joey B. has lived +in the world, Sir: lived in the world with his eyes open, Sir, and his +ears cocked: and Joe tells you, Dombey, that there's a devilish artful +and ambitious woman over the way.' + +Mr Dombey involuntarily glanced over the way; and an angry glance he +sent in that direction, too. + +'That's all on such a subject that shall pass the lips of Joseph +Bagstock,' said the Major firmly. 'Joe is not a tale-bearer, but there +are times when he must speak, when he will speak!--confound your arts, +Ma'am,' cried the Major, again apostrophising his fair neighbour, +with great ire,--'when the provocation is too strong to admit of his +remaining silent.' + +The emotion of this outbreak threw the Major into a paroxysm of horse's +coughs, which held him for a long time. On recovering he added: + +'And now, Dombey, as you have invited Joe--old Joe, who has no other +merit, Sir, but that he is tough and hearty--to be your guest and guide +at Leamington, command him in any way you please, and he is wholly +yours. I don't know, Sir,' said the Major, wagging his double chin with +a jocose air, 'what it is you people see in Joe to make you hold him in +such great request, all of you; but this I know, Sir, that if he wasn't +pretty tough, and obstinate in his refusals, you'd kill him among you +with your invitations and so forth, in double-quick time.' + +Mr Dombey, in a few words, expressed his sense of the preference he +received over those other distinguished members of society who were +clamouring for the possession of Major Bagstock. But the Major cut him +short by giving him to understand that he followed his own inclinations, +and that they had risen up in a body and said with one accord, 'J. B., +Dombey is the man for you to choose as a friend.' + +The Major being by this time in a state of repletion, with essence of +savoury pie oozing out at the corners of his eyes, and devilled grill +and kidneys tightening his cravat: and the time moreover approaching for +the departure of the railway train to Birmingham, by which they were +to leave town: the Native got him into his great-coat with immense +difficulty, and buttoned him up until his face looked staring and +gasping, over the top of that garment, as if he were in a barrel. The +Native then handed him separately, and with a decent interval between +each supply, his washleather gloves, his thick stick, and his hat; which +latter article the Major wore with a rakish air on one side of his head, +by way of toning down his remarkable visage. The Native had previously +packed, in all possible and impossible parts of Mr Dombey's chariot, +which was in waiting, an unusual quantity of carpet-bags and small +portmanteaus, no less apoplectic in appearance than the Major himself: +and having filled his own pockets with Seltzer water, East India sherry, +sandwiches, shawls, telescopes, maps, and newspapers, any or all of +which light baggage the Major might require at any instant of the +journey, he announced that everything was ready. To complete the +equipment of this unfortunate foreigner (currently believed to be a +prince in his own country), when he took his seat in the rumble by the +side of Mr Towlinson, a pile of the Major's cloaks and great-coats was +hurled upon him by the landlord, who aimed at him from the pavement +with those great missiles like a Titan, and so covered him up, that he +proceeded, in a living tomb, to the railroad station. + +But before the carriage moved away, and while the Native was in the +act of sepulture, Miss Tox appearing at her window, waved a lilywhite +handkerchief. Mr Dombey received this parting salutation very +coldly--very coldly even for him--and honouring her with the slightest +possible inclination of his head, leaned back in the carriage with a +very discontented look. His marked behaviour seemed to afford the +Major (who was all politeness in his recognition of Miss Tox) unbounded +satisfaction; and he sat for a long time afterwards, leering, and +choking, like an over-fed Mephistopheles. + +During the bustle of preparation at the railway, Mr Dombey and the Major +walked up and down the platform side by side; the former taciturn and +gloomy, and the latter entertaining him, or entertaining himself, with +a variety of anecdotes and reminiscences, in most of which Joe Bagstock +was the principal performer. Neither of the two observed that in the +course of these walks, they attracted the attention of a working man who +was standing near the engine, and who touched his hat every time they +passed; for Mr Dombey habitually looked over the vulgar herd, not at +them; and the Major was looking, at the time, into the core of one of +his stories. At length, however, this man stepped before them as they +turned round, and pulling his hat off, and keeping it off, ducked his +head to Mr Dombey. + +'Beg your pardon, Sir,' said the man, 'but I hope you're a doin' pretty +well, Sir.' + +He was dressed in a canvas suit abundantly besmeared with coal-dust and +oil, and had cinders in his whiskers, and a smell of half-slaked ashes +all over him. He was not a bad-looking fellow, nor even what could be +fairly called a dirty-looking fellow, in spite of this; and, in short, +he was Mr Toodle, professionally clothed. + +'I shall have the honour of stokin' of you down, Sir,' said Mr Toodle. +'Beg your pardon, Sir.--I hope you find yourself a coming round?' + +Mr Dombey looked at him, in return for his tone of interest, as if a man +like that would make his very eyesight dirty. + +''Scuse the liberty, Sir,' said Toodle, seeing he was not clearly +remembered, 'but my wife Polly, as was called Richards in your family--' + +A change in Mr Dombey's face, which seemed to express recollection of +him, and so it did, but it expressed in a much stronger degree an angry +sense of humiliation, stopped Mr Toodle short. + +'Your wife wants money, I suppose,' said Mr Dombey, putting his hand in +his pocket, and speaking (but that he always did) haughtily. + +'No thank'ee, Sir,' returned Toodle, 'I can't say she does. I don't.' + +Mr Dombey was stopped short now in his turn: and awkwardly: with his +hand in his pocket. + +'No, Sir,' said Toodle, turning his oilskin cap round and round; 'we're +a doin' pretty well, Sir; we haven't no cause to complain in the worldly +way, Sir. We've had four more since then, Sir, but we rubs on.' + +Mr Dombey would have rubbed on to his own carriage, though in so doing +he had rubbed the stoker underneath the wheels; but his attention was +arrested by something in connexion with the cap still going slowly round +and round in the man's hand. + +'We lost one babby,' observed Toodle, 'there's no denyin'.' + +'Lately,' added Mr Dombey, looking at the cap. + +'No, Sir, up'ard of three years ago, but all the rest is hearty. And in +the matter o readin', Sir,' said Toodle, ducking again, as if to remind +Mr Dombey of what had passed between them on that subject long ago, +'them boys o' mine, they learned me, among 'em, arter all. They've made +a wery tolerable scholar of me, Sir, them boys.' + +'Come, Major!' said Mr Dombey. + +'Beg your pardon, Sir,' resumed Toodle, taking a step before them and +deferentially stopping them again, still cap in hand: 'I wouldn't have +troubled you with such a pint except as a way of gettin' in the name +of my son Biler--christened Robin--him as you was so good as to make a +Charitable Grinder on.' + +'Well, man,' said Mr Dombey in his severest manner. 'What about him?' + +'Why, Sir,' returned Toodle, shaking his head with a face of great +anxiety and distress, 'I'm forced to say, Sir, that he's gone wrong.' + +'He has gone wrong, has he?' said Mr Dombey, with a hard kind of +satisfaction. + +'He has fell into bad company, you see, genelmen,' pursued the father, +looking wistfully at both, and evidently taking the Major into the +conversation with the hope of having his sympathy. 'He has got into bad +ways. God send he may come to again, genelmen, but he's on the wrong +track now! You could hardly be off hearing of it somehow, Sir,' said +Toodle, again addressing Mr Dombey individually; 'and it's better I +should out and say my boy's gone rather wrong. Polly's dreadful down +about it, genelmen,' said Toodle with the same dejected look, and +another appeal to the Major. + +'A son of this man's whom I caused to be educated, Major,' said Mr +Dombey, giving him his arm. 'The usual return!' + +'Take advice from plain old Joe, and never educate that sort of people, +Sir,' returned the Major. 'Damme, Sir, it never does! It always fails!' + +The simple father was beginning to submit that he hoped his son, the +quondam Grinder, huffed and cuffed, and flogged and badged, and taught, +as parrots are, by a brute jobbed into his place of schoolmaster with as +much fitness for it as a hound, might not have been educated on quite +a right plan in some undiscovered respect, when Mr Dombey angrily +repeating 'The usual return!' led the Major away. And the Major being +heavy to hoist into Mr Dombey's carriage, elevated in mid-air, and +having to stop and swear that he would flay the Native alive, and break +every bone in his skin, and visit other physical torments upon him, +every time he couldn't get his foot on the step, and fell back on that +dark exile, had barely time before they started to repeat hoarsely that +it would never do: that it always failed: and that if he were to educate +'his own vagabond,' he would certainly be hanged. + +Mr Dombey assented bitterly; but there was something more in his +bitterness, and in his moody way of falling back in the carriage, and +looking with knitted brows at the changing objects without, than the +failure of that noble educational system administered by the Grinders' +Company. He had seen upon the man's rough cap a piece of new crape, and +he had assured himself, from his manner and his answers, that he wore it +for his son. + +Sol from high to low, at home or abroad, from Florence in his great +house to the coarse churl who was feeding the fire then smoking before +them, everyone set up some claim or other to a share in his dead boy, +and was a bidder against him! Could he ever forget how that woman had +wept over his pillow, and called him her own child! or how he, waking +from his sleep, had asked for her, and had raised himself in his bed and +brightened when she came in! + +To think of this presumptuous raker among coals and ashes going on +before there, with his sign of mourning! To think that he dared +to enter, even by a common show like that, into the trial and +disappointment of a proud gentleman's secret heart! To think that +this lost child, who was to have divided with him his riches, and his +projects, and his power, and allied with whom he was to have shut out +all the world as with a double door of gold, should have let in such a +herd to insult him with their knowledge of his defeated hopes, and their +boasts of claiming community of feeling with himself, so far removed: +if not of having crept into the place wherein he would have lorded it, +alone! + +He found no pleasure or relief in the journey. Tortured by these +thoughts he carried monotony with him, through the rushing landscape, +and hurried headlong, not through a rich and varied country, but a +wilderness of blighted plans and gnawing jealousies. The very speed at +which the train was whirled along, mocked the swift course of the young +life that had been borne away so steadily and so inexorably to its +foredoomed end. The power that forced itself upon its iron way--its +own--defiant of all paths and roads, piercing through the heart of +every obstacle, and dragging living creatures of all classes, ages, and +degrees behind it, was a type of the triumphant monster, Death. + +Away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, from the town, burrowing +among the dwellings of men and making the streets hum, flashing out into +the meadows for a moment, mining in through the damp earth, booming +on in darkness and heavy air, bursting out again into the sunny day so +bright and wide; away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, through +the fields, through the woods, through the corn, through the hay, +through the chalk, through the mould, through the clay, through the +rock, among objects close at hand and almost in the grasp, ever flying +from the traveller, and a deceitful distance ever moving slowly within +him: like as in the track of the remorseless monster, Death! + +Through the hollow, on the height, by the heath, by the orchard, by the +park, by the garden, over the canal, across the river, where the sheep +are feeding, where the mill is going, where the barge is floating, where +the dead are lying, where the factory is smoking, where the stream is +running, where the village clusters, where the great cathedral rises, +where the bleak moor lies, and the wild breeze smooths or ruffles it at +its inconstant will; away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, and +no trace to leave behind but dust and vapour: like as in the track of +the remorseless monster, Death! + +Breasting the wind and light, the shower and sunshine, away, and still +away, it rolls and roars, fierce and rapid, smooth and certain, and +great works and massive bridges crossing up above, fall like a beam of +shadow an inch broad, upon the eye, and then are lost. Away, and still +away, onward and onward ever: glimpses of cottage-homes, of houses, +mansions, rich estates, of husbandry and handicraft, of people, of old +roads and paths that look deserted, small, and insignificant as they are +left behind: and so they do, and what else is there but such glimpses, +in the track of the indomitable monster, Death! + +Away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, plunging down into the +earth again, and working on in such a storm of energy and perseverance, +that amidst the darkness and whirlwind the motion seems reversed, and +to tend furiously backward, until a ray of light upon the wet wall shows +its surface flying past like a fierce stream. Away once more into the +day, and through the day, with a shrill yell of exultation, roaring, +rattling, tearing on, spurning everything with its dark breath, +sometimes pausing for a minute where a crowd of faces are, that in a +minute more are not; sometimes lapping water greedily, and before the +spout at which it drinks has ceased to drip upon the ground, shrieking, +roaring, rattling through the purple distance! + +Louder and louder yet, it shrieks and cries as it comes tearing on +resistless to the goal: and now its way, still like the way of Death, +is strewn with ashes thickly. Everything around is blackened. There are +dark pools of water, muddy lanes, and miserable habitations far below. +There are jagged walls and falling houses close at hand, and through the +battered roofs and broken windows, wretched rooms are seen, where want +and fever hide themselves in many wretched shapes, while smoke and +crowded gables, and distorted chimneys, and deformity of brick and +mortar penning up deformity of mind and body, choke the murky distance. +As Mr Dombey looks out of his carriage window, it is never in his +thoughts that the monster who has brought him there has let the light +of day in on these things: not made or caused them. It was the journey's +fitting end, and might have been the end of everything; it was so +ruinous and dreary. + +So, pursuing the one course of thought, he had the one relentless +monster still before him. All things looked black, and cold, and +deadly upon him, and he on them. He found a likeness to his misfortune +everywhere. There was a remorseless triumph going on about him, and it +galled and stung him in his pride and jealousy, whatever form it took: +though most of all when it divided with him the love and memory of his +lost boy. + +There was a face--he had looked upon it, on the previous night, and it +on him with eyes that read his soul, though they were dim with tears, +and hidden soon behind two quivering hands--that often had attended +him in fancy, on this ride. He had seen it, with the expression of last +night, timidly pleading to him. It was not reproachful, but there was +something of doubt, almost of hopeful incredulity in it, which, as he +once more saw that fade away into a desolate certainty of his dislike, +was like reproach. It was a trouble to him to think of this face of +Florence. + +Because he felt any new compunction towards it? No. Because the feeling +it awakened in him--of which he had had some old foreshadowing in older +times--was full-formed now, and spoke out plainly, moving him too much, +and threatening to grow too strong for his composure. Because the face +was abroad, in the expression of defeat and persecution that seemed to +encircle him like the air. Because it barbed the arrow of that cruel and +remorseless enemy on which his thoughts so ran, and put into its grasp a +double-handed sword. Because he knew full well, in his own breast, as he +stood there, tinging the scene of transition before him with the morbid +colours of his own mind, and making it a ruin and a picture of decay, +instead of hopeful change, and promise of better things, that life had +quite as much to do with his complainings as death. One child was gone, +and one child left. Why was the object of his hope removed instead of +her? + +The sweet, calm, gentle presence in his fancy, moved him to no +reflection but that. She had been unwelcome to him from the first; she +was an aggravation of his bitterness now. If his son had been his only +child, and the same blow had fallen on him, it would have been heavy to +bear; but infinitely lighter than now, when it might have fallen on her +(whom he could have lost, or he believed it, without a pang), and had +not. Her loving and innocent face rising before him, had no softening +or winning influence. He rejected the angel, and took up with the +tormenting spirit crouching in his bosom. Her patience, goodness, youth, +devotion, love, were as so many atoms in the ashes upon which he set his +heel. He saw her image in the blight and blackness all around him, not +irradiating but deepening the gloom. More than once upon this journey, +and now again as he stood pondering at this journey's end, tracing +figures in the dust with his stick, the thought came into his mind, what +was there he could interpose between himself and it? + +The Major, who had been blowing and panting all the way down, like +another engine, and whose eye had often wandered from his newspaper to +leer at the prospect, as if there were a procession of discomfited Miss +Toxes pouring out in the smoke of the train, and flying away over the +fields to hide themselves in any place of refuge, aroused his friends +by informing him that the post-horses were harnessed and the carriage +ready. + +'Dombey,' said the Major, rapping him on the arm with his cane, 'don't +be thoughtful. It's a bad habit, Old Joe, Sir, wouldn't be as tough +as you see him, if he had ever encouraged it. You are too great a man, +Dombey, to be thoughtful. In your position, Sir, you're far above that +kind of thing.' + +The Major even in his friendly remonstrances, thus consulting the +dignity and honour of Mr Dombey, and showing a lively sense of their +importance, Mr Dombey felt more than ever disposed to defer to a +gentleman possessing so much good sense and such a well-regulated mind; +accordingly he made an effort to listen to the Major's stories, as they +trotted along the turnpike road; and the Major, finding both the pace +and the road a great deal better adapted to his conversational powers +than the mode of travelling they had just relinquished, came out of his +entertainment. + +But still the Major, blunt and tough as he was, and as he so very often +said he was, administered some palatable catering to his companion's +appetite. He related, or rather suffered it to escape him, accidentally, +and as one might say, grudgingly and against his will, how there was +great curiosity and excitement at the club, in regard of his friend +Dombey. How he was suffocated with questions, Sir. How old Joe Bagstock +was a greater man than ever, there, on the strength of Dombey. How they +said, 'Bagstock, your friend Dombey now, what is the view he takes of +such and such a question? Though, by the Rood, Sir,' said the Major, +with a broad stare, 'how they discovered that J. B. ever came to know +you, is a mystery!' + +In this flow of spirits and conversation, only interrupted by his usual +plethoric symptoms, and by intervals of lunch, and from time to time by +some violent assault upon the Native, who wore a pair of ear-rings +in his dark-brown ears, and on whom his European clothes sat with an +outlandish impossibility of adjustment--being, of their own accord, and +without any reference to the tailor's art, long where they ought to be +short, short where they ought to be long, tight where they ought to be +loose, and loose where they ought to be tight--and to which he imparted +a new grace, whenever the Major attacked him, by shrinking into them +like a shrivelled nut, or a cold monkey--in this flow of spirits and +conversation, the Major continued all day: so that when evening came +on, and found them trotting through the green and leafy road near +Leamington, the Major's voice, what with talking and eating and +chuckling and choking, appeared to be in the box under the rumble, or in +some neighbouring hay-stack. Nor did the Major improve it at the +Royal Hotel, where rooms and dinner had been ordered, and where he so +oppressed his organs of speech by eating and drinking, that when he +retired to bed he had no voice at all, except to cough with, and could +only make himself intelligible to the dark servant by gasping at him. + +He not only rose next morning, however, like a giant refreshed, but +conducted himself, at breakfast like a giant refreshing. At this +meal they arranged their daily habits. The Major was to take the +responsibility of ordering everything to eat and drink; and they were to +have a late breakfast together every morning, and a late dinner together +every day. Mr Dombey would prefer remaining in his own room, or walking +in the country by himself, on that first day of their sojourn at +Leamington; but next morning he would be happy to accompany the Major to +the Pump-room, and about the town. So they parted until dinner-time. +Mr Dombey retired to nurse his wholesome thoughts in his own way. The +Major, attended by the Native carrying a camp-stool, a great-coat, +and an umbrella, swaggered up and down through all the public places: +looking into subscription books to find out who was there, looking up +old ladies by whom he was much admired, reporting J. B. tougher than +ever, and puffing his rich friend Dombey wherever he went. There never +was a man who stood by a friend more staunchly than the Major, when in +puffing him, he puffed himself. + +It was surprising how much new conversation the Major had to let off at +dinner-time, and what occasion he gave Mr Dombey to admire his social +qualities. At breakfast next morning, he knew the contents of the latest +newspapers received; and mentioned several subjects in connexion with +them, on which his opinion had recently been sought by persons of such +power and might, that they were only to be obscurely hinted at. Mr +Dombey, who had been so long shut up within himself, and who had +rarely, at any time, overstepped the enchanted circle within which the +operations of Dombey and Son were conducted, began to think this an +improvement on his solitary life; and in place of excusing himself for +another day, as he had thought of doing when alone, walked out with the +Major arm-in-arm. + + + +CHAPTER 21. New Faces + + +The MAJOR, more blue-faced and staring--more over-ripe, as it were, than +ever--and giving vent, every now and then, to one of the horse's coughs, +not so much of necessity as in a spontaneous explosion of importance, +walked arm-in-arm with Mr Dombey up the sunny side of the way, with his +cheeks swelling over his tight stock, his legs majestically wide +apart, and his great head wagging from side to side, as if he were +remonstrating within himself for being such a captivating object. They +had not walked many yards, before the Major encountered somebody he +knew, nor many yards farther before the Major encountered somebody else +he knew, but he merely shook his fingers at them as he passed, and led +Mr Dombey on: pointing out the localities as they went, and enlivening +the walk with any current scandal suggested by them. + +In this manner the Major and Mr Dombey were walking arm-in-arm, much +to their own satisfaction, when they beheld advancing towards them, +a wheeled chair, in which a lady was seated, indolently steering her +carriage by a kind of rudder in front, while it was propelled by some +unseen power in the rear. Although the lady was not young, she was +very blooming in the face--quite rosy--and her dress and attitude were +perfectly juvenile. Walking by the side of the chair, and carrying her +gossamer parasol with a proud and weary air, as if so great an effort +must be soon abandoned and the parasol dropped, sauntered a much younger +lady, very handsome, very haughty, very wilful, who tossed her head and +drooped her eyelids, as though, if there were anything in all the world +worth looking into, save a mirror, it certainly was not the earth or +sky. + +'Why, what the devil have we here, Sir!' cried the Major, stopping as +this little cavalcade drew near. + +'My dearest Edith!' drawled the lady in the chair, 'Major Bagstock!' + +The Major no sooner heard the voice, than he relinquished Mr Dombey's +arm, darted forward, took the hand of the lady in the chair and pressed +it to his lips. With no less gallantry, the Major folded both his gloves +upon his heart, and bowed low to the other lady. And now, the chair +having stopped, the motive power became visible in the shape of a +flushed page pushing behind, who seemed to have in part outgrown and in +part out-pushed his strength, for when he stood upright he was tall, and +wan, and thin, and his plight appeared the more forlorn from his having +injured the shape of his hat, by butting at the carriage with his +head to urge it forward, as is sometimes done by elephants in Oriental +countries. + +'Joe Bagstock,' said the Major to both ladies, 'is a proud and happy man +for the rest of his life.' + +'You false creature!' said the old lady in the chair, insipidly. 'Where +do you come from? I can't bear you.' + +'Then suffer old Joe to present a friend, Ma'am,' said the Major, +promptly, 'as a reason for being tolerated. Mr Dombey, Mrs Skewton.' The +lady in the chair was gracious. 'Mr Dombey, Mrs Granger.' The lady with +the parasol was faintly conscious of Mr Dombey's taking off his hat, +and bowing low. 'I am delighted, Sir,' said the Major, 'to have this +opportunity.' + +The Major seemed in earnest, for he looked at all the three, and leered +in his ugliest manner. + +'Mrs Skewton, Dombey,' said the Major, 'makes havoc in the heart of old +Josh.' + +Mr Dombey signified that he didn't wonder at it. + +'You perfidious goblin,' said the lady in the chair, 'have done! How +long have you been here, bad man?' + +'One day,' replied the Major. + +'And can you be a day, or even a minute,' returned the lady, slightly +settling her false curls and false eyebrows with her fan, and showing +her false teeth, set off by her false complexion, 'in the garden of +what's-its-name.' + +'Eden, I suppose, Mama,' interrupted the younger lady, scornfully. + +'My dear Edith,' said the other, 'I cannot help it. I never can remember +those frightful names--without having your whole Soul and Being inspired +by the sight of Nature; by the perfume,' said Mrs Skewton, rustling a +handkerchief that was faint and sickly with essences, 'of her artless +breath, you creature!' + +The discrepancy between Mrs Skewton's fresh enthusiasm of words, and +forlornly faded manner, was hardly less observable than that between +her age, which was about seventy, and her dress, which would have been +youthful for twenty-seven. Her attitude in the wheeled chair (which she +never varied) was one in which she had been taken in a barouche, some +fifty years before, by a then fashionable artist who had appended to his +published sketch the name of Cleopatra: in consequence of a discovery +made by the critics of the time, that it bore an exact resemblance to +that Princess as she reclined on board her galley. Mrs Skewton was a +beauty then, and bucks threw wine-glasses over their heads by dozens in +her honour. The beauty and the barouche had both passed away, but she +still preserved the attitude, and for this reason expressly, maintained +the wheeled chair and the butting page: there being nothing whatever, +except the attitude, to prevent her from walking. + +'Mr Dombey is devoted to Nature, I trust?' said Mrs Skewton, settling +her diamond brooch. And by the way, she chiefly lived upon the +reputation of some diamonds, and her family connexions. + +'My friend Dombey, Ma'am,' returned the Major, 'may be devoted to her +in secret, but a man who is paramount in the greatest city in the +universe--' + +'No one can be a stranger,' said Mrs Skewton, 'to Mr Dombey's immense +influence.' + +As Mr Dombey acknowledged the compliment with a bend of his head, the +younger lady glancing at him, met his eyes. + +'You reside here, Madam?' said Mr Dombey, addressing her. + +'No, we have been to a great many places. To Harrogate and Scarborough, +and into Devonshire. We have been visiting, and resting here and there. +Mama likes change.' + +'Edith of course does not,' said Mrs Skewton, with a ghastly archness. + +'I have not found that there is any change in such places,' was the +answer, delivered with supreme indifference. + +'They libel me. There is only one change, Mr Dombey,' observed Mrs +Skewton, with a mincing sigh, 'for which I really care, and that I +fear I shall never be permitted to enjoy. People cannot spare one. But +seclusion and contemplation are my what-his-name--' + +'If you mean Paradise, Mama, you had better say so, to render yourself +intelligible,' said the younger lady. + +'My dearest Edith,' returned Mrs Skewton, 'you know that I am wholly +dependent upon you for those odious names. I assure you, Mr Dombey, +Nature intended me for an Arcadian. I am thrown away in society. Cows +are my passion. What I have ever sighed for, has been to retreat to a +Swiss farm, and live entirely surrounded by cows--and china.' + +This curious association of objects, suggesting a remembrance of the +celebrated bull who got by mistake into a crockery shop, was received +with perfect gravity by Mr Dombey, who intimated his opinion that Nature +was, no doubt, a very respectable institution. + +'What I want,' drawled Mrs Skewton, pinching her shrivelled throat, 'is +heart.' It was frightfully true in one sense, if not in that in which +she used the phrase. 'What I want, is frankness, confidence, less +conventionality, and freer play of soul. We are so dreadfully +artificial.' + +We were, indeed. + +'In short,' said Mrs Skewton, 'I want Nature everywhere. It would be so +extremely charming.' + +'Nature is inviting us away now, Mama, if you are ready,' said the +younger lady, curling her handsome lip. At this hint, the wan page, who +had been surveying the party over the top of the chair, vanished behind +it, as if the ground had swallowed him up. + +'Stop a moment, Withers!' said Mrs Skewton, as the chair began to move; +calling to the page with all the languid dignity with which she had +called in days of yore to a coachman with a wig, cauliflower nosegay, +and silk stockings. 'Where are you staying, abomination?' + +The Major was staying at the Royal Hotel, with his friend Dombey. + +'You may come and see us any evening when you are good,' lisped Mrs +Skewton. 'If Mr Dombey will honour us, we shall be happy. Withers, go +on!' + +The Major again pressed to his blue lips the tips of the fingers +that were disposed on the ledge of the wheeled chair with careful +carelessness, after the Cleopatra model: and Mr Dombey bowed. The elder +lady honoured them both with a very gracious smile and a girlish wave +of her hand; the younger lady with the very slightest inclination of her +head that common courtesy allowed. + +The last glimpse of the wrinkled face of the mother, with that patched +colour on it which the sun made infinitely more haggard and dismal +than any want of colour could have been, and of the proud beauty of the +daughter with her graceful figure and erect deportment, engendered such +an involuntary disposition on the part of both the Major and Mr Dombey +to look after them, that they both turned at the same moment. The Page, +nearly as much aslant as his own shadow, was toiling after the chair, +uphill, like a slow battering-ram; the top of Cleopatra's bonnet was +fluttering in exactly the same corner to the inch as before; and the +Beauty, loitering by herself a little in advance, expressed in all +her elegant form, from head to foot, the same supreme disregard of +everything and everybody. + +'I tell you what, Sir,' said the Major, as they resumed their walk +again. 'If Joe Bagstock were a younger man, there's not a woman in the +world whom he'd prefer for Mrs Bagstock to that woman. By George, Sir!' +said the Major, 'she's superb!' + +'Do you mean the daughter?' inquired Mr Dombey. + +'Is Joey B. a turnip, Dombey,' said the Major, 'that he should mean the +mother?' + +'You were complimentary to the mother,' returned Mr Dombey. + +'An ancient flame, Sir,' chuckled Major Bagstock. 'Devilish ancient. I +humour her.' + +'She impresses me as being perfectly genteel,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Genteel, Sir,' said the Major, stopping short, and staring in his +companion's face. 'The Honourable Mrs Skewton, Sir, is sister to the +late Lord Feenix, and aunt to the present Lord. The family are not +wealthy--they're poor, indeed--and she lives upon a small jointure; but +if you come to blood, Sir!' The Major gave a flourish with his stick and +walked on again, in despair of being able to say what you came to, if +you came to that. + +'You addressed the daughter, I observed,' said Mr Dombey, after a short +pause, 'as Mrs Granger.' + +'Edith Skewton, Sir,' returned the Major, stopping short again, and +punching a mark in the ground with his cane, to represent her, 'married +(at eighteen) Granger of Ours;' whom the Major indicated by another +punch. 'Granger, Sir,' said the Major, tapping the last ideal portrait, +and rolling his head emphatically, 'was Colonel of Ours; a de-vilish +handsome fellow, Sir, of forty-one. He died, Sir, in the second year of +his marriage.' The Major ran the representative of the deceased Granger +through and through the body with his walking-stick, and went on again, +carrying his stick over his shoulder. + +'How long is this ago?' asked Mr Dombey, making another halt. + +'Edith Granger, Sir,' replied the Major, shutting one eye, putting his +head on one side, passing his cane into his left hand, and smoothing his +shirt-frill with his right, 'is, at this present time, not quite thirty. +And damme, Sir,' said the Major, shouldering his stick once more, and +walking on again, 'she's a peerless woman!' + +'Was there any family?' asked Mr Dombey presently. + +'Yes, Sir,' said the Major. 'There was a boy.' + +Mr Dombey's eyes sought the ground, and a shade came over his face. + +'Who was drowned, Sir,' pursued the Major. 'When a child of four or five +years old.' + +'Indeed?' said Mr Dombey, raising his head. + +'By the upsetting of a boat in which his nurse had no business to have +put him,' said the Major. 'That's his history. Edith Granger is Edith +Granger still; but if tough old Joey B., Sir, were a little younger and +a little richer, the name of that immortal paragon should be Bagstock.' + +The Major heaved his shoulders, and his cheeks, and laughed more like an +over-fed Mephistopheles than ever, as he said the words. + +'Provided the lady made no objection, I suppose?' said Mr Dombey coldly. + +'By Gad, Sir,' said the Major, 'the Bagstock breed are not accustomed +to that sort of obstacle. Though it's true enough that Edith might have +married twenty times, but for being proud, Sir, proud.' + +Mr Dombey seemed, by his face, to think no worse of her for that. + +'It's a great quality after all,' said the Major. 'By the Lord, it's a +high quality! Dombey! You are proud yourself, and your friend, Old Joe, +respects you for it, Sir.' + +With this tribute to the character of his ally, which seemed to be wrung +from him by the force of circumstances and the irresistible tendency +of their conversation, the Major closed the subject, and glided into a +general exposition of the extent to which he had been beloved and doted +on by splendid women and brilliant creatures. + +On the next day but one, Mr Dombey and the Major encountered the +Honourable Mrs Skewton and her daughter in the Pump-room; on the day +after, they met them again very near the place where they had met them +first. After meeting them thus, three or four times in all, it became +a point of mere civility to old acquaintances that the Major should go +there one evening. Mr Dombey had not originally intended to pay visits, +but on the Major announcing this intention, he said he would have the +pleasure of accompanying him. So the Major told the Native to go round +before dinner, and say, with his and Mr Dombey's compliments, that they +would have the honour of visiting the ladies that same evening, if the +ladies were alone. In answer to which message, the Native brought back a +very small note with a very large quantity of scent about it, indited by +the Honourable Mrs Skewton to Major Bagstock, and briefly saying, 'You +are a shocking bear and I have a great mind not to forgive you, but +if you are very good indeed,' which was underlined, 'you may come. +Compliments (in which Edith unites) to Mr Dombey.' + +The Honourable Mrs Skewton and her daughter, Mrs Granger, resided, while +at Leamington, in lodgings that were fashionable enough and dear enough, +but rather limited in point of space and conveniences; so that the +Honourable Mrs Skewton, being in bed, had her feet in the window and +her head in the fireplace, while the Honourable Mrs Skewton's maid was +quartered in a closet within the drawing-room, so extremely small, that, +to avoid developing the whole of its accommodations, she was obliged to +writhe in and out of the door like a beautiful serpent. Withers, the +wan page, slept out of the house immediately under the tiles at a +neighbouring milk-shop; and the wheeled chair, which was the stone of +that young Sisyphus, passed the night in a shed belonging to the same +dairy, where new-laid eggs were produced by the poultry connected with +the establishment, who roosted on a broken donkey-cart, persuaded, to +all appearance, that it grew there, and was a species of tree. + +Mr Dombey and the Major found Mrs Skewton arranged, as Cleopatra, +among the cushions of a sofa: very airily dressed; and certainly not +resembling Shakespeare's Cleopatra, whom age could not wither. On their +way upstairs they had heard the sound of a harp, but it had ceased +on their being announced, and Edith now stood beside it handsomer and +haughtier than ever. It was a remarkable characteristic of this lady's +beauty that it appeared to vaunt and assert itself without her aid, and +against her will. She knew that she was beautiful: it was impossible +that it could be otherwise: but she seemed with her own pride to defy +her very self. + +Whether she held cheap attractions that could only call forth admiration +that was worthless to her, or whether she designed to render them more +precious to admirers by this usage of them, those to whom they were +precious seldom paused to consider. + +'I hope, Mrs Granger,' said Mr Dombey, advancing a step towards her, 'we +are not the cause of your ceasing to play?' + +'You! oh no!' + +'Why do you not go on then, my dearest Edith?' said Cleopatra. + +'I left off as I began--of my own fancy.' + +The exquisite indifference of her manner in saying this: an indifference +quite removed from dulness or insensibility, for it was pointed with +proud purpose: was well set off by the carelessness with which she drew +her hand across the strings, and came from that part of the room. + +'Do you know, Mr Dombey,' said her languishing mother, playing with a +hand-screen, 'that occasionally my dearest Edith and myself actually +almost differ--' + +'Not quite, sometimes, Mama?' said Edith. + +'Oh never quite, my darling! Fie, fie, it would break my heart,' +returned her mother, making a faint attempt to pat her with the +screen, which Edith made no movement to meet, '--about these old +conventionalities of manner that are observed in little things? Why are +we not more natural? Dear me! With all those yearnings, and gushings, +and impulsive throbbings that we have implanted in our souls, and which +are so very charming, why are we not more natural?' + +Mr Dombey said it was very true, very true. + +'We could be more natural I suppose if we tried?' said Mrs Skewton. + +Mr Dombey thought it possible. + +'Devil a bit, Ma'am,' said the Major. 'We couldn't afford it. Unless the +world was peopled with J.B.'s--tough and blunt old Joes, Ma'am, plain +red herrings with hard roes, Sir--we couldn't afford it. It wouldn't +do.' + +'You naughty Infidel,' said Mrs Skewton, 'be mute.' + +'Cleopatra commands,' returned the Major, kissing his hand, 'and Antony +Bagstock obeys.' + +'The man has no sensitiveness,' said Mrs Skewton, cruelly holding up the +hand-screen so as to shut the Major out. 'No sympathy. And what do we +live for but sympathy! What else is so extremely charming! Without that +gleam of sunshine on our cold cold earth,' said Mrs Skewton, arranging +her lace tucker, and complacently observing the effect of her bare lean +arm, looking upward from the wrist, 'how could we possibly bear it? In +short, obdurate man!' glancing at the Major, round the screen, 'I would +have my world all heart; and Faith is so excessively charming, that I +won't allow you to disturb it, do you hear?' + +The Major replied that it was hard in Cleopatra to require the world to +be all heart, and yet to appropriate to herself the hearts of all +the world; which obliged Cleopatra to remind him that flattery was +insupportable to her, and that if he had the boldness to address her in +that strain any more, she would positively send him home. + +Withers the Wan, at this period, handing round the tea, Mr Dombey again +addressed himself to Edith. + +'There is not much company here, it would seem?' said Mr Dombey, in his +own portentous gentlemanly way. + +'I believe not. We see none.' + +'Why really,' observed Mrs Skewton from her couch, 'there are no people +here just now with whom we care to associate.' + +'They have not enough heart,' said Edith, with a smile. The very +twilight of a smile: so singularly were its light and darkness blended. + +'My dearest Edith rallies me, you see!' said her mother, shaking her +head: which shook a little of itself sometimes, as if the palsy twinkled +now and then in opposition to the diamonds. 'Wicked one!' + +'You have been here before, if I am not mistaken?' said Mr Dombey. Still +to Edith. + +'Oh, several times. I think we have been everywhere.' + +'A beautiful country!' + +'I suppose it is. Everybody says so.' + +'Your cousin Feenix raves about it, Edith,' interposed her mother from +her couch. + +The daughter slightly turned her graceful head, and raising her eyebrows +by a hair's-breadth, as if her cousin Feenix were of all the mortal +world the least to be regarded, turned her eyes again towards Mr Dombey. + +'I hope, for the credit of my good taste, that I am tired of the +neighbourhood,' she said. + +'You have almost reason to be, Madam,' he replied, glancing at a variety +of landscape drawings, of which he had already recognised several +as representing neighbouring points of view, and which were strewn +abundantly about the room, 'if these beautiful productions are from your +hand.' + +She gave him no reply, but sat in a disdainful beauty, quite amazing. + +'Have they that interest?' said Mr Dombey. 'Are they yours?' + +'Yes.' + +'And you play, I already know.' + +'Yes.' + +'And sing?' + +'Yes.' + +She answered all these questions with a strange reluctance; and with +that remarkable air of opposition to herself, already noticed as +belonging to her beauty. Yet she was not embarrassed, but wholly +self-possessed. Neither did she seem to wish to avoid the conversation, +for she addressed her face, and--so far as she could--her manner also, +to him; and continued to do so, when he was silent. + +'You have many resources against weariness at least,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Whatever their efficiency may be,' she returned, 'you know them all +now. I have no more.' + +'May I hope to prove them all?' said Mr Dombey, with solemn gallantry, +laying down a drawing he had held, and motioning towards the harp. + +'Oh certainly! If you desire it!' + +She rose as she spoke, and crossing by her mother's couch, and directing +a stately look towards her, which was instantaneous in its duration, but +inclusive (if anyone had seen it) of a multitude of expressions, among +which that of the twilight smile, without the smile itself, overshadowed +all the rest, went out of the room. + +The Major, who was quite forgiven by this time, had wheeled a little +table up to Cleopatra, and was sitting down to play picquet with her. Mr +Dombey, not knowing the game, sat down to watch them for his edification +until Edith should return. + +'We are going to have some music, Mr Dombey, I hope?' said Cleopatra. + +'Mrs Granger has been kind enough to promise so,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Ah! That's very nice. Do you propose, Major?' + +'No, Ma'am,' said the Major. 'Couldn't do it.' + +'You're a barbarous being,' replied the lady, 'and my hand's destroyed. +You are fond of music, Mr Dombey?' + +'Eminently so,' was Mr Dombey's answer. + +'Yes. It's very nice,' said Cleopatra, looking at her cards. 'So +much heart in it--undeveloped recollections of a previous state of +existence--and all that--which is so truly charming. Do you know,' +simpered Cleopatra, reversing the knave of clubs, who had come into her +game with his heels uppermost, 'that if anything could tempt me to put +a period to my life, it would be curiosity to find out what it's all +about, and what it means; there are so many provoking mysteries, really, +that are hidden from us. Major, you to play!' + +The Major played; and Mr Dombey, looking on for his instruction, +would soon have been in a state of dire confusion, but that he gave no +attention to the game whatever, and sat wondering instead when Edith +would come back. + +She came at last, and sat down to her harp, and Mr Dombey rose and stood +beside her, listening. He had little taste for music, and no knowledge +of the strain she played, but he saw her bending over it, and perhaps +he heard among the sounding strings some distant music of his own, that +tamed the monster of the iron road, and made it less inexorable. + +Cleopatra had a sharp eye, verily, at picquet. It glistened like a +bird's, and did not fix itself upon the game, but pierced the room from +end to end, and gleamed on harp, performer, listener, everything. + +When the haughty beauty had concluded, she arose, and receiving Mr +Dombey's thanks and compliments in exactly the same manner as before, +went with scarcely any pause to the piano, and began there. + +Edith Granger, any song but that! Edith Granger, you are very handsome, +and your touch upon the keys is brilliant, and your voice is deep and +rich; but not the air that his neglected daughter sang to his dead son! + +Alas, he knows it not; and if he did, what air of hers would stir him, +rigid man! Sleep, lonely Florence, sleep! Peace in thy dreams, although +the night has turned dark, and the clouds are gathering, and threaten to +discharge themselves in hail! + + + +CHAPTER 22. A Trifle of Management by Mr Carker the Manager + + +Mr Carker the Manager sat at his desk, smooth and soft as usual, +reading those letters which were reserved for him to open, backing +them occasionally with such memoranda and references as their business +purport required, and parcelling them out into little heaps for +distribution through the several departments of the House. The post had +come in heavy that morning, and Mr Carker the Manager had a good deal to +do. + +The general action of a man so engaged--pausing to look over a bundle +of papers in his hand, dealing them round in various portions, taking +up another bundle and examining its contents with knitted brows and +pursed-out lips--dealing, and sorting, and pondering by turns--would +easily suggest some whimsical resemblance to a player at cards. The face +of Mr Carker the Manager was in good keeping with such a fancy. It was +the face of a man who studied his play, warily: who made himself master +of all the strong and weak points of the game: who registered the cards +in his mind as they fell about him, knew exactly what was on them, what +they missed, and what they made: who was crafty to find out what the +other players held, and who never betrayed his own hand. + +The letters were in various languages, but Mr Carker the Manager read +them all. If there had been anything in the offices of Dombey and Son +that he could read, there would have been a card wanting in the pack. +He read almost at a glance, and made combinations of one letter with +another and one business with another as he went on, adding new matter +to the heaps--much as a man would know the cards at sight, and work out +their combinations in his mind after they were turned. Something too +deep for a partner, and much too deep for an adversary, Mr Carker +the Manager sat in the rays of the sun that came down slanting on him +through the skylight, playing his game alone. + +And although it is not among the instincts wild or domestic of the cat +tribe to play at cards, feline from sole to crown was Mr Carker the +Manager, as he basked in the strip of summer-light and warmth that shone +upon his table and the ground as if they were a crooked dial-plate, +and himself the only figure on it. With hair and whiskers deficient in +colour at all times, but feebler than common in the rich sunshine, +and more like the coat of a sandy tortoise-shell cat; with long nails, +nicely pared and sharpened; with a natural antipathy to any speck of +dirt, which made him pause sometimes and watch the falling motes of +dust, and rub them off his smooth white hand or glossy linen: Mr Carker +the Manager, sly of manner, sharp of tooth, soft of foot, watchful of +eye, oily of tongue, cruel of heart, nice of habit, sat with a dainty +steadfastness and patience at his work, as if he were waiting at a +mouse's hole. + +At length the letters were disposed of, excepting one which he +reserved for a particular audience. Having locked the more confidential +correspondence in a drawer, Mr Carker the Manager rang his bell. + +'Why do you answer it?' was his reception of his brother. + +'The messenger is out, and I am the next,' was the submissive reply. + +'You are the next?' muttered the Manager. 'Yes! Creditable to me! +There!' + +Pointing to the heaps of opened letters, he turned disdainfully away, +in his elbow-chair, and broke the seal of that one which he held in his +hand. + +'I am sorry to trouble you, James,' said the brother, gathering them up, +'but--' + +'Oh! you have something to say. I knew that. Well?' + +Mr Carker the Manager did not raise his eyes or turn them on his +brother, but kept them on his letter, though without opening it. + +'Well?' he repeated sharply. + +'I am uneasy about Harriet.' + +'Harriet who? what Harriet? I know nobody of that name.' + +'She is not well, and has changed very much of late.' + +'She changed very much, a great many years ago,' replied the Manager; +'and that is all I have to say. + +'I think if you would hear me-- + +'Why should I hear you, Brother John?' returned the Manager, laying a +sarcastic emphasis on those two words, and throwing up his head, but not +lifting his eyes. 'I tell you, Harriet Carker made her choice many years +ago between her two brothers. She may repent it, but she must abide by +it.' + +'Don't mistake me. I do not say she does repent it. It would be black +ingratitude in me to hint at such a thing,' returned the other. 'Though +believe me, James, I am as sorry for her sacrifice as you.' + +'As I?' exclaimed the Manager. 'As I?' + +'As sorry for her choice--for what you call her choice--as you are angry +at it,' said the Junior. + +'Angry?' repeated the other, with a wide show of his teeth. + +'Displeased. Whatever word you like best. You know my meaning. There is +no offence in my intention.' + +'There is offence in everything you do,' replied his brother, glancing +at him with a sudden scowl, which in a moment gave place to a wider +smile than the last. 'Carry those papers away, if you please. I am busy. + +His politeness was so much more cutting than his wrath, that the Junior +went to the door. But stopping at it, and looking round, he said: + +'When Harriet tried in vain to plead for me with you, on your first just +indignation, and my first disgrace; and when she left you, James, +to follow my broken fortunes, and devote herself, in her mistaken +affection, to a ruined brother, because without her he had no one, and +was lost; she was young and pretty. I think if you could see her +now--if you would go and see her--she would move your admiration and +compassion.' + +The Manager inclined his head, and showed his teeth, as who should say, +in answer to some careless small-talk, 'Dear me! Is that the case?' but +said never a word. + +'We thought in those days: you and I both: that she would marry young, +and lead a happy and light-hearted life,' pursued the other. 'Oh if you +knew how cheerfully she cast those hopes away; how cheerfully she has +gone forward on the path she took, and never once looked back; you never +could say again that her name was strange in your ears. Never!' + +Again the Manager inclined his head and showed his teeth, and seemed to +say, 'Remarkable indeed! You quite surprise me!' And again he uttered +never a word. + +'May I go on?' said John Carker, mildly. + +'On your way?' replied his smiling brother. 'If you will have the +goodness.' + +John Carker, with a sigh, was passing slowly out at the door, when his +brother's voice detained him for a moment on the threshold. + +'If she has gone, and goes, her own way cheerfully,' he said, throwing +the still unfolded letter on his desk, and putting his hands firmly in +his pockets, 'you may tell her that I go as cheerfully on mine. If she +has never once looked back, you may tell her that I have, sometimes, to +recall her taking part with you, and that my resolution is no easier to +wear away;' he smiled very sweetly here; 'than marble.' + +'I tell her nothing of you. We never speak about you. Once a year, on +your birthday, Harriet says always, "Let us remember James by name, and +wish him happy," but we say no more.' + +'Tell it then, if you please,' returned the other, 'to yourself. You +can't repeat it too often, as a lesson to you to avoid the subject in +speaking to me. I know no Harriet Carker. There is no such person. You +may have a sister; make much of her. I have none.' + +Mr Carker the Manager took up the letter again, and waved it with a +smile of mock courtesy towards the door. Unfolding it as his brother +withdrew, and looking darkly after him as he left the room, he once +more turned round in his elbow-chair, and applied himself to a diligent +perusal of its contents. + +It was in the writing of his great chief, Mr Dombey, and dated from +Leamington. Though he was a quick reader of all other letters, Mr Carker +read this slowly; weighing the words as he went, and bringing every +tooth in his head to bear upon them. When he had read it through once, +he turned it over again, and picked out these passages. 'I find myself +benefited by the change, and am not yet inclined to name any time for my +return.' 'I wish, Carker, you would arrange to come down once and see me +here, and let me know how things are going on, in person.' 'I omitted +to speak to you about young Gay. If not gone per Son and Heir, or if Son +and Heir still lying in the Docks, appoint some other young man and +keep him in the City for the present. I am not decided.' 'Now that's +unfortunate!' said Mr Carker the Manager, expanding his mouth, as if it +were made of India-rubber: 'for he's far away.' + +Still that passage, which was in a postscript, attracted his attention +and his teeth, once more. + +'I think,' he said, 'my good friend Captain Cuttle mentioned something +about being towed along in the wake of that day. What a pity he's so far +away!' + +He refolded the letter, and was sitting trifling with it, standing it +long-wise and broad-wise on his table, and turning it over and over +on all sides--doing pretty much the same thing, perhaps, by its +contents--when Mr Perch the messenger knocked softly at the door, and +coming in on tiptoe, bending his body at every step as if it were the +delight of his life to bow, laid some papers on the table. + +'Would you please to be engaged, Sir?' asked Mr Perch, rubbing his +hands, and deferentially putting his head on one side, like a man who +felt he had no business to hold it up in such a presence, and would keep +it as much out of the way as possible. + +'Who wants me?' + +'Why, Sir,' said Mr Perch, in a soft voice, 'really nobody, Sir, to +speak of at present. Mr Gills the Ship's Instrument-maker, Sir, has +looked in, about a little matter of payment, he says: but I mentioned to +him, Sir, that you was engaged several deep; several deep.' + +Mr Perch coughed once behind his hand, and waited for further orders. + +'Anybody else?' + +'Well, Sir,' said Mr Perch, 'I wouldn't of my own self take the liberty +of mentioning, Sir, that there was anybody else; but that same young lad +that was here yesterday, Sir, and last week, has been hanging about the +place; and it looks, Sir,' added Mr Perch, stopping to shut the door, +'dreadful unbusiness-like to see him whistling to the sparrows down the +court, and making of 'em answer him.' + +'You said he wanted something to do, didn't you, Perch?' asked Mr +Carker, leaning back in his chair and looking at that officer. + +'Why, Sir,' said Mr Perch, coughing behind his hand again, 'his +expression certainly were that he was in wants of a sitiwation, and that +he considered something might be done for him about the Docks, being +used to fishing with a rod and line: but--' Mr Perch shook his head very +dubiously indeed. + +'What does he say when he comes?' asked Mr Carker. + +'Indeed, Sir,' said Mr Perch, coughing another cough behind his hand, +which was always his resource as an expression of humility when nothing +else occurred to him, 'his observation generally air that he would +humbly wish to see one of the gentlemen, and that he wants to earn a +living. But you see, Sir,' added Perch, dropping his voice to a whisper, +and turning, in the inviolable nature of his confidence, to give the +door a thrust with his hand and knee, as if that would shut it any more +when it was shut already, 'it's hardly to be bore, Sir, that a common +lad like that should come a prowling here, and saying that his mother +nursed our House's young gentleman, and that he hopes our House will +give him a chance on that account. I am sure, Sir,' observed Mr Perch, +'that although Mrs Perch was at that time nursing as thriving a little +girl, Sir, as we've ever took the liberty of adding to our family, +I wouldn't have made so free as drop a hint of her being capable of +imparting nourishment, not if it was never so!' + +Mr Carker grinned at him like a shark, but in an absent, thoughtful +manner. + +'Whether,' submitted Mr Perch, after a short silence, and another cough, +'it mightn't be best for me to tell him, that if he was seen here any +more he would be given into custody; and to keep to it! With respect to +bodily fear,' said Mr Perch, 'I'm so timid, myself, by nature, Sir, +and my nerves is so unstrung by Mrs Perch's state, that I could take my +affidavit easy.' + +'Let me see this fellow, Perch,' said Mr Carker. 'Bring him in!' + +'Yes, Sir. Begging your pardon, Sir,' said Mr Perch, hesitating at the +door, 'he's rough, Sir, in appearance.' + +'Never mind. If he's there, bring him in. I'll see Mr Gills directly. +Ask him to wait.' + +Mr Perch bowed; and shutting the door, as precisely and carefully as if +he were not coming back for a week, went on his quest among the sparrows +in the court. While he was gone, Mr Carker assumed his favourite +attitude before the fire-place, and stood looking at the door; +presenting, with his under lip tucked into the smile that showed his +whole row of upper teeth, a singularly crouching apace. + +The messenger was not long in returning, followed by a pair of +heavy boots that came bumping along the passage like boxes. With the +unceremonious words 'Come along with you!'--a very unusual form of +introduction from his lips--Mr Perch then ushered into the presence a +strong-built lad of fifteen, with a round red face, a round sleek head, +round black eyes, round limbs, and round body, who, to carry out the +general rotundity of his appearance, had a round hat in his hand, +without a particle of brim to it. + +Obedient to a nod from Mr Carker, Perch had no sooner confronted the +visitor with that gentleman than he withdrew. The moment they were face +to face alone, Mr Carker, without a word of preparation, took him by the +throat, and shook him until his head seemed loose upon his shoulders. + +The boy, who in the midst of his astonishment could not help staring +wildly at the gentleman with so many white teeth who was choking him, +and at the office walls, as though determined, if he were choked, that +his last look should be at the mysteries for his intrusion into which he +was paying such a severe penalty, at last contrived to utter-- + +'Come, Sir! You let me alone, will you!' + +'Let you alone!' said Mr Carker. 'What! I have got you, have I?' There +was no doubt of that, and tightly too. 'You dog,' said Mr Carker, +through his set jaws, 'I'll strangle you!' + +Biler whimpered, would he though? oh no he wouldn't--and what was he +doing of--and why didn't he strangle some--body of his own size and not +him: but Biler was quelled by the extraordinary nature of his reception, +and, as his head became stationary, and he looked the gentleman in the +face, or rather in the teeth, and saw him snarling at him, he so far +forgot his manhood as to cry. + +'I haven't done nothing to you, Sir,' said Biler, otherwise Rob, +otherwise Grinder, and always Toodle. + +'You young scoundrel!' replied Mr Carker, slowly releasing him, and +moving back a step into his favourite position. 'What do you mean by +daring to come here?' + +'I didn't mean no harm, Sir,' whimpered Rob, putting one hand to his +throat, and the knuckles of the other to his eyes. 'I'll never come +again, Sir. I only wanted work.' + +'Work, young Cain that you are!' repeated Mr Carker, eyeing him +narrowly. 'Ain't you the idlest vagabond in London?' + +The impeachment, while it much affected Mr Toodle Junior, attached to +his character so justly, that he could not say a word in denial. +He stood looking at the gentleman, therefore, with a frightened, +self-convicted, and remorseful air. As to his looking at him, it may be +observed that he was fascinated by Mr Carker, and never took his round +eyes off him for an instant. + +'Ain't you a thief?' said Mr Carker, with his hands behind him in his +pockets. + +'No, sir,' pleaded Rob. + +'You are!' said Mr Carker. + +'I ain't indeed, Sir,' whimpered Rob. 'I never did such a thing as +thieve, Sir, if you'll believe me. I know I've been a going wrong, Sir, +ever since I took to bird-catching and walking-matching. I'm sure a +cove might think,' said Mr Toodle Junior, with a burst of penitence, +'that singing birds was innocent company, but nobody knows what harm is +in them little creeturs and what they brings you down to.' + +They seemed to have brought him down to a velveteen jacket and trousers +very much the worse for wear, a particularly small red waistcoat like a +gorget, an interval of blue check, and the hat before mentioned. + +'I ain't been home twenty times since them birds got their will of me,' +said Rob, 'and that's ten months. How can I go home when everybody's +miserable to see me! I wonder,' said Biler, blubbering outright, and +smearing his eyes with his coat-cuff, 'that I haven't been and drownded +myself over and over again.' + +All of which, including his expression of surprise at not having +achieved this last scarce performance, the boy said, just as if the +teeth of Mr Carker drew it out of him, and he had no power of concealing +anything with that battery of attraction in full play. + +'You're a nice young gentleman!' said Mr Carker, shaking his head at +him. 'There's hemp-seed sown for you, my fine fellow!' + +'I'm sure, Sir,' returned the wretched Biler, blubbering again, and +again having recourse to his coat-cuff: 'I shouldn't care, sometimes, +if it was growed too. My misfortunes all began in wagging, Sir; but what +could I do, exceptin' wag?' + +'Excepting what?' said Mr Carker. + +'Wag, Sir. Wagging from school.' + +'Do you mean pretending to go there, and not going?' said Mr Carker. + +'Yes, Sir, that's wagging, Sir,' returned the quondam Grinder, much +affected. 'I was chivied through the streets, Sir, when I went there, +and pounded when I got there. So I wagged, and hid myself, and that +began it.' + +'And you mean to tell me,' said Mr Carker, taking him by the throat +again, holding him out at arm's-length, and surveying him in silence for +some moments, 'that you want a place, do you?' + +'I should be thankful to be tried, Sir,' returned Toodle Junior, +faintly. + +Mr Carker the Manager pushed him backward into a corner--the boy +submitting quietly, hardly venturing to breathe, and never once removing +his eyes from his face--and rang the bell. + +'Tell Mr Gills to come here.' + +Mr Perch was too deferential to express surprise or recognition of the +figure in the corner: and Uncle Sol appeared immediately. + +'Mr Gills!' said Carker, with a smile, 'sit down. How do you do? You +continue to enjoy your health, I hope?' + +'Thank you, Sir,' returned Uncle Sol, taking out his pocket-book, and +handing over some notes as he spoke. 'Nothing ails me in body but old +age. Twenty-five, Sir.' + +'You are as punctual and exact, Mr Gills,' replied the smiling Manager, +taking a paper from one of his many drawers, and making an endorsement +on it, while Uncle Sol looked over him, 'as one of your own +chronometers. Quite right.' + +'The Son and Heir has not been spoken, I find by the list, Sir,' said +Uncle Sol, with a slight addition to the usual tremor in his voice. + +'The Son and Heir has not been spoken,' returned Carker. 'There seems +to have been tempestuous weather, Mr Gills, and she has probably been +driven out of her course.' + +'She is safe, I trust in Heaven!' said old Sol. + +'She is safe, I trust in Heaven!' assented Mr Carker in that voiceless +manner of his: which made the observant young Toodle tremble again. 'Mr +Gills,' he added aloud, throwing himself back in his chair, 'you must +miss your nephew very much?' + +Uncle Sol, standing by him, shook his head and heaved a deep sigh. + +'Mr Gills,' said Carker, with his soft hand playing round his mouth, and +looking up into the Instrument-maker's face, 'it would be company to you +to have a young fellow in your shop just now, and it would be obliging +me if you would give one house-room for the present. No, to be sure,' +he added quickly, in anticipation of what the old man was going to say, +'there's not much business doing there, I know; but you can make him +clean the place out, polish up the instruments; drudge, Mr Gills. That's +the lad!' + +Sol Gills pulled down his spectacles from his forehead to his eyes, +and looked at Toodle Junior standing upright in the corner: his head +presenting the appearance (which it always did) of having been newly +drawn out of a bucket of cold water; his small waistcoat rising and +falling quickly in the play of his emotions; and his eyes intently fixed +on Mr Carker, without the least reference to his proposed master. + +'Will you give him house-room, Mr Gills?' said the Manager. + +Old Sol, without being quite enthusiastic on the subject, replied that +he was glad of any opportunity, however slight, to oblige Mr Carker, +whose wish on such a point was a command: and that the wooden Midshipman +would consider himself happy to receive in his berth any visitor of Mr +Carker's selecting. + +Mr Carker bared himself to the tops and bottoms of his gums: making +the watchful Toodle Junior tremble more and more: and acknowledged the +Instrument-maker's politeness in his most affable manner. + +'I'll dispose of him so, then, Mr Gills,' he answered, rising, and +shaking the old man by the hand, 'until I make up my mind what to do +with him, and what he deserves. As I consider myself responsible for +him, Mr Gills,' here he smiled a wide smile at Rob, who shook before +it: 'I shall be glad if you'll look sharply after him, and report his +behaviour to me. I'll ask a question or two of his parents as I ride +home this afternoon--respectable people--to confirm some particulars in +his own account of himself; and that done, Mr Gills, I'll send him round +to you to-morrow morning. Goodbye!' + +His smile at parting was so full of teeth, that it confused old Sol, and +made him vaguely uncomfortable. He went home, thinking of raging seas, +foundering ships, drowning men, an ancient bottle of Madeira never +brought to light, and other dismal matters. + +'Now, boy!' said Mr Carker, putting his hand on young Toodle's shoulder, +and bringing him out into the middle of the room. 'You have heard me?' + +Rob said, 'Yes, Sir.' + +'Perhaps you understand,' pursued his patron, 'that if you ever deceive +or play tricks with me, you had better have drowned yourself, indeed, +once for all, before you came here?' + +There was nothing in any branch of mental acquisition that Rob seemed to +understand better than that. + +'If you have lied to me,' said Mr Carker, 'in anything, never come in my +way again. If not, you may let me find you waiting for me somewhere near +your mother's house this afternoon. I shall leave this at five o'clock, +and ride there on horseback. Now, give me the address.' + +Rob repeated it slowly, as Mr Carker wrote it down. Rob even spelt it +over a second time, letter by letter, as if he thought that the omission +of a dot or scratch would lead to his destruction. Mr Carker then handed +him out of the room; and Rob, keeping his round eyes fixed upon his +patron to the last, vanished for the time being. + +Mr Carker the Manager did a great deal of business in the course of the +day, and bestowed his teeth upon a great many people. In the office, in +the court, in the street, and on 'Change, they glistened and bristled +to a terrible extent. Five o'clock arriving, and with it Mr Carker's bay +horse, they got on horseback, and went gleaming up Cheapside. + +As no one can easily ride fast, even if inclined to do so, through the +press and throng of the City at that hour, and as Mr Carker was not +inclined, he went leisurely along, picking his way among the carts and +carriages, avoiding whenever he could the wetter and more dirty places +in the over-watered road, and taking infinite pains to keep himself and +his steed clean. Glancing at the passersby while he was thus ambling on +his way, he suddenly encountered the round eyes of the sleek-headed Rob +intently fixed upon his face as if they had never been taken off, while +the boy himself, with a pocket-handkerchief twisted up like a speckled +eel and girded round his waist, made a very conspicuous demonstration +of being prepared to attend upon him, at whatever pace he might think +proper to go. + +This attention, however flattering, being one of an unusual kind, +and attracting some notice from the other passengers, Mr Carker took +advantage of a clearer thoroughfare and a cleaner road, and broke into a +trot. Rob immediately did the same. Mr Carker presently tried a canter; +Rob was still in attendance. Then a short gallop; it was all one to the +boy. Whenever Mr Carker turned his eyes to that side of the road, he +still saw Toodle Junior holding his course, apparently without distress, +and working himself along by the elbows after the most approved manner +of professional gentlemen who get over the ground for wagers. + +Ridiculous as this attendance was, it was a sign of an influence +established over the boy, and therefore Mr Carker, affecting not to +notice it, rode away into the neighbourhood of Mr Toodle's house. On +his slackening his pace here, Rob appeared before him to point out the +turnings; and when he called to a man at a neighbouring gateway to +hold his horse, pending his visit to the buildings that had succeeded +Staggs's Gardens, Rob dutifully held the stirrup, while the Manager +dismounted. + +'Now, Sir,' said Mr Carker, taking him by the shoulder, 'come along!' + +The prodigal son was evidently nervous of visiting the parental abode; +but Mr Carker pushing him on before, he had nothing for it but to open +the right door, and suffer himself to be walked into the midst of his +brothers and sisters, mustered in overwhelming force round the family +tea-table. At sight of the prodigal in the grasp of a stranger, +these tender relations united in a general howl, which smote upon the +prodigal's breast so sharply when he saw his mother stand up among them, +pale and trembling, with the baby in her arms, that he lent his own +voice to the chorus. + +Nothing doubting now that the stranger, if not Mr Ketch in person, was +one of that company, the whole of the young family wailed the louder, +while its more infantine members, unable to control the transports of +emotion appertaining to their time of life, threw themselves on their +backs like young birds when terrified by a hawk, and kicked violently. +At length, poor Polly making herself audible, said, with quivering lips, +'Oh Rob, my poor boy, what have you done at last!' + +'Nothing, mother,' cried Rob, in a piteous voice, 'ask the gentleman!' + +'Don't be alarmed,' said Mr Carker, 'I want to do him good.' + +At this announcement, Polly, who had not cried yet, began to do so. The +elder Toodles, who appeared to have been meditating a rescue, unclenched +their fists. The younger Toodles clustered round their mother's gown, +and peeped from under their own chubby arms at their desperado brother +and his unknown friend. Everybody blessed the gentleman with the +beautiful teeth, who wanted to do good. + +'This fellow,' said Mr Carker to Polly, giving him a gentle shake, 'is +your son, eh, Ma'am?' + +'Yes, Sir,' sobbed Polly, with a curtsey; 'yes, Sir.' + +'A bad son, I am afraid?' said Mr Carker. + +'Never a bad son to me, Sir,' returned Polly. + +'To whom then?' demanded Mr Carker. + +'He has been a little wild, Sir,' returned Polly, checking the baby, who +was making convulsive efforts with his arms and legs to launch himself +on Biler, through the ambient air, 'and has gone with wrong companions: +but I hope he has seen the misery of that, Sir, and will do well again.' + +Mr Carker looked at Polly, and the clean room, and the clean children, +and the simple Toodle face, combined of father and mother, that was +reflected and repeated everywhere about him--and seemed to have achieved +the real purpose of his visit. + +'Your husband, I take it, is not at home?' he said. + +'No, Sir,' replied Polly. 'He's down the line at present.' + +The prodigal Rob seemed very much relieved to hear it: though still in +the absorption of all his faculties in his patron, he hardly took his +eyes from Mr Carker's face, unless for a moment at a time to steal a +sorrowful glance at his mother. + +'Then,' said Mr Carker, 'I'll tell you how I have stumbled on this boy +of yours, and who I am, and what I am going to do for him.' + +This Mr Carker did, in his own way; saying that he at first intended to +have accumulated nameless terrors on his presumptuous head, for +coming to the whereabout of Dombey and Son. That he had relented, in +consideration of his youth, his professed contrition, and his friends. +That he was afraid he took a rash step in doing anything for the boy, +and one that might expose him to the censure of the prudent; but that +he did it of himself and for himself, and risked the consequences +single-handed; and that his mother's past connexion with Mr Dombey's +family had nothing to do with it, and that Mr Dombey had nothing to do +with it, but that he, Mr Carker, was the be-all and the end-all of this +business. Taking great credit to himself for his goodness, and +receiving no less from all the family then present, Mr Carker signified, +indirectly but still pretty plainly, that Rob's implicit fidelity, +attachment, and devotion, were for evermore his due, and the least +homage he could receive. And with this great truth Rob himself was so +impressed, that, standing gazing on his patron with tears rolling down +his cheeks, he nodded his shiny head until it seemed almost as loose as +it had done under the same patron's hands that morning. + +Polly, who had passed Heaven knows how many sleepless nights on account +of this her dissipated firstborn, and had not seen him for weeks and +weeks, could have almost kneeled to Mr Carker the Manager, as to a Good +Spirit--in spite of his teeth. But Mr Carker rising to depart, she only +thanked him with her mother's prayers and blessings; thanks so rich when +paid out of the Heart's mint, especially for any service Mr Carker had +rendered, that he might have given back a large amount of change, and +yet been overpaid. + +As that gentleman made his way among the crowding children to the door, +Rob retreated on his mother, and took her and the baby in the same +repentant hug. + +'I'll try hard, dear mother, now. Upon my soul I will!' said Rob. + +'Oh do, my dear boy! I am sure you will, for our sakes and your own!' +cried Polly, kissing him. 'But you're coming back to speak to me, when +you have seen the gentleman away?' + +'I don't know, mother.' Rob hesitated, and looked down. 'Father--when's +he coming home?' + +'Not till two o'clock to-morrow morning.' + +'I'll come back, mother dear!' cried Rob. And passing through the +shrill cry of his brothers and sisters in reception of this promise, he +followed Mr Carker out. + +'What!' said Mr Carker, who had heard this. 'You have a bad father, have +you?' + +'No, Sir!' returned Rob, amazed. 'There ain't a better nor a kinder +father going, than mine is.' + +'Why don't you want to see him then?' inquired his patron. + +'There's such a difference between a father and a mother, Sir,' said +Rob, after faltering for a moment. 'He couldn't hardly believe yet that +I was doing to do better--though I know he'd try to--but a mother--she +always believes what's good, Sir; at least, I know my mother does, God +bless her!' + +Mr Carker's mouth expanded, but he said no more until he was mounted +on his horse, and had dismissed the man who held it, when, looking down +from the saddle steadily into the attentive and watchful face of the +boy, he said: + +'You'll come to me tomorrow morning, and you shall be shown where that +old gentleman lives; that old gentleman who was with me this morning; +where you are going, as you heard me say.' + +'Yes, Sir,' returned Rob. + +'I have a great interest in that old gentleman, and in serving him, you +serve me, boy, do you understand? Well,' he added, interrupting him, for +he saw his round face brighten when he was told that: 'I see you do. I +want to know all about that old gentleman, and how he goes on from day +to day--for I am anxious to be of service to him--and especially who +comes there to see him. Do you understand?' + +Rob nodded his steadfast face, and said 'Yes, Sir,' again. + +'I should like to know that he has friends who are attentive to him, +and that they don't desert him--for he lives very much alone now, poor +fellow; but that they are fond of him, and of his nephew who has gone +abroad. There is a very young lady who may perhaps come to see him. I +want particularly to know all about her.' + +'I'll take care, Sir,' said the boy. + +'And take care,' returned his patron, bending forward to advance his +grinning face closer to the boy's, and pat him on the shoulder with the +handle of his whip: 'take care you talk about affairs of mine to nobody +but me.' + +'To nobody in the world, Sir,' replied Rob, shaking his head. + +'Neither there,' said Mr Carker, pointing to the place they had just +left, 'nor anywhere else. I'll try how true and grateful you can be. +I'll prove you!' Making this, by his display of teeth and by the action +of his head, as much a threat as a promise, he turned from Rob's eyes, +which were nailed upon him as if he had won the boy by a charm, body +and soul, and rode away. But again becoming conscious, after trotting a +short distance, that his devoted henchman, girt as before, was yielding +him the same attendance, to the great amusement of sundry spectators, +he reined up, and ordered him off. To ensure his obedience, he turned +in the saddle and watched him as he retired. It was curious to see that +even then Rob could not keep his eyes wholly averted from his patron's +face, but, constantly turning and turning again to look after him, +involved himself in a tempest of buffetings and jostlings from the other +passengers in the street: of which, in the pursuit of the one paramount +idea, he was perfectly heedless. + +Mr Carker the Manager rode on at a foot-pace, with the easy air of one +who had performed all the business of the day in a satisfactory manner, +and got it comfortably off his mind. Complacent and affable as man could +be, Mr Carker picked his way along the streets and hummed a soft tune as +he went. He seemed to purr, he was so glad. + +And in some sort, Mr Carker, in his fancy, basked upon a hearth too. +Coiled up snugly at certain feet, he was ready for a spring, Or for a +tear, or for a scratch, or for a velvet touch, as the humour took him +and occasion served. Was there any bird in a cage, that came in for a +share of his regards? + +'A very young lady!' thought Mr Carker the Manager, through his song. +'Ay! when I saw her last, she was a little child. With dark eyes and +hair, I recollect, and a good face; a very good face! I daresay she's +pretty.' + +More affable and pleasant yet, and humming his song until his many teeth +vibrated to it, Mr Carker picked his way along, and turned at last into +the shady street where Mr Dombey's house stood. He had been so busy, +winding webs round good faces, and obscuring them with meshes, that he +hardly thought of being at this point of his ride, until, glancing down +the cold perspective of tall houses, he reined in his horse quickly +within a few yards of the door. But to explain why Mr Carker reined in +his horse quickly, and what he looked at in no small surprise, a few +digressive words are necessary. + +Mr Toots, emancipated from the Blimber thraldom and coming into the +possession of a certain portion of his worldly wealth, 'which,' as he had +been wont, during his last half-year's probation, to communicate to Mr +Feeder every evening as a new discovery, 'the executors couldn't keep +him out of' had applied himself with great diligence, to the science +of Life. Fired with a noble emulation to pursue a brilliant and +distinguished career, Mr Toots had furnished a choice set of apartments; +had established among them a sporting bower, embellished with the +portraits of winning horses, in which he took no particle of interest; +and a divan, which made him poorly. In this delicious abode, Mr Toots +devoted himself to the cultivation of those gentle arts which refine +and humanise existence, his chief instructor in which was an interesting +character called the Game Chicken, who was always to be heard of at the +bar of the Black Badger, wore a shaggy white great-coat in the warmest +weather, and knocked Mr Toots about the head three times a week, for the +small consideration of ten and six per visit. + +The Game Chicken, who was quite the Apollo of Mr Toots's Pantheon, had +introduced to him a marker who taught billiards, a Life Guard who taught +fencing, a jobmaster who taught riding, a Cornish gentleman who was +up to anything in the athletic line, and two or three other friends +connected no less intimately with the fine arts. Under whose auspices +Mr Toots could hardly fail to improve apace, and under whose tuition he +went to work. + +But however it came about, it came to pass, even while these gentlemen +had the gloss of novelty upon them, that Mr Toots felt, he didn't know +how, unsettled and uneasy. There were husks in his corn, that even Game +Chickens couldn't peck up; gloomy giants in his leisure, that even Game +Chickens couldn't knock down. Nothing seemed to do Mr Toots so much good +as incessantly leaving cards at Mr Dombey's door. No taxgatherer in the +British Dominions--that wide-spread territory on which the sun never +sets, and where the tax-gatherer never goes to bed--was more regular and +persevering in his calls than Mr Toots. + +Mr Toots never went upstairs; and always performed the same ceremonies, +richly dressed for the purpose, at the hall door. + +'Oh! Good morning!' would be Mr Toots's first remark to the servant. +'For Mr Dombey,' would be Mr Toots's next remark, as he handed in a +card. 'For Miss Dombey,' would be his next, as he handed in another. + +Mr Toots would then turn round as if to go away; but the man knew him by +this time, and knew he wouldn't. + +'Oh, I beg your pardon,' Mr Toots would say, as if a thought had +suddenly descended on him. 'Is the young woman at home?' + +The man would rather think she was, but wouldn't quite know. Then he +would ring a bell that rang upstairs, and would look up the staircase, +and would say, yes, she was at home, and was coming down. Then Miss +Nipper would appear, and the man would retire. + +'Oh! How de do?' Mr Toots would say, with a chuckle and a blush. + +Susan would thank him, and say she was very well. + +'How's Diogenes going on?' would be Mr Toots's second interrogation. + +Very well indeed. Miss Florence was fonder and fonder of him every +day. Mr Toots was sure to hail this with a burst of chuckles, like the +opening of a bottle of some effervescent beverage. + +'Miss Florence is quite well, Sir,' Susan would add. + +'Oh, it's of no consequence, thank'ee,' was the invariable reply of Mr +Toots; and when he had said so, he always went away very fast. + +Now it is certain that Mr Toots had a filmy something in his mind, which +led him to conclude that if he could aspire successfully in the fulness +of time, to the hand of Florence, he would be fortunate and blest. It +is certain that Mr Toots, by some remote and roundabout road, had got +to that point, and that there he made a stand. His heart was wounded; he +was touched; he was in love. He had made a desperate attempt, one +night, and had sat up all night for the purpose, to write an acrostic +on Florence, which affected him to tears in the conception. But he +never proceeded in the execution further than the words 'For when I +gaze,'--the flow of imagination in which he had previously written down +the initial letters of the other seven lines, deserting him at that +point. + +Beyond devising that very artful and politic measure of leaving a +card for Mr Dombey daily, the brain of Mr Toots had not worked much +in reference to the subject that held his feelings prisoner. But deep +consideration at length assured Mr Toots that an important step to gain, +was, the conciliation of Miss Susan Nipper, preparatory to giving her +some inkling of his state of mind. + +A little light and playful gallantry towards this lady seemed the means +to employ in that early chapter of the history, for winning her to +his interests. Not being able quite to make up his mind about it, +he consulted the Chicken--without taking that gentleman into his +confidence; merely informing him that a friend in Yorkshire had written +to him (Mr Toots) for his opinion on such a question. The Chicken +replying that his opinion always was, 'Go in and win,' and further, +'When your man's before you and your work cut out, go in and do it,' Mr +Toots considered this a figurative way of supporting his own view of the +case, and heroically resolved to kiss Miss Nipper next day. + +Upon the next day, therefore, Mr Toots, putting into requisition some of +the greatest marvels that Burgess and Co. had ever turned out, went off +to Mr Dombey's upon this design. But his heart failed him so much as he +approached the scene of action, that, although he arrived on the ground +at three o'clock in the afternoon, it was six before he knocked at the +door. + +Everything happened as usual, down to the point where Susan said her +young mistress was well, and Mr Toots said it was of no consequence. To +her amazement, Mr Toots, instead of going off, like a rocket, after that +observation, lingered and chuckled. + +'Perhaps you'd like to walk upstairs, Sir!' said Susan. + +'Well, I think I will come in!' said Mr Toots. + +But instead of walking upstairs, the bold Toots made an awkward plunge +at Susan when the door was shut, and embracing that fair creature, +kissed her on the cheek. + +'Go along with you!' cried Susan, 'or Ill tear your eyes out.' + +'Just another!' said Mr Toots. + +'Go along with you!' exclaimed Susan, giving him a push 'Innocents like +you, too! Who'll begin next? Go along, Sir!' + +Susan was not in any serious strait, for she could hardly speak for +laughing; but Diogenes, on the staircase, hearing a rustling against +the wall, and a shuffling of feet, and seeing through the banisters that +there was some contention going on, and foreign invasion in the house, +formed a different opinion, dashed down to the rescue, and in the +twinkling of an eye had Mr Toots by the leg. + +Susan screamed, laughed, opened the street-door, and ran downstairs; the +bold Toots tumbled staggering out into the street, with Diogenes holding +on to one leg of his pantaloons, as if Burgess and Co. were his cooks, +and had provided that dainty morsel for his holiday entertainment; +Diogenes shaken off, rolled over and over in the dust, got up again, +whirled round the giddy Toots and snapped at him: and all this turmoil +Mr Carker, reigning up his horse and sitting a little at a distance, saw +to his amazement, issue from the stately house of Mr Dombey. + +Mr Carker remained watching the discomfited Toots, when Diogenes was +called in, and the door shut: and while that gentleman, taking refuge in +a doorway near at hand, bound up the torn leg of his pantaloons with a +costly silk handkerchief that had formed part of his expensive outfit +for the advent. + +'I beg your pardon, Sir,' said Mr Carker, riding up, with his most +propitiatory smile. 'I hope you are not hurt?' + +'Oh no, thank you,' replied Mr Toots, raising his flushed face, 'it's +of no consequence' Mr Toots would have signified, if he could, that he +liked it very much. + +'If the dog's teeth have entered the leg, Sir--' began Carker, with a +display of his own. + +'No, thank you,' said Mr Toots, 'it's all quite right. It's very +comfortable, thank you.' + +'I have the pleasure of knowing Mr Dombey,' observed Carker. + +'Have you though?' rejoined the blushing Took + +'And you will allow me, perhaps, to apologise, in his absence,' said Mr +Carker, taking off his hat, 'for such a misadventure, and to wonder how +it can possibly have happened.' + +Mr Toots is so much gratified by this politeness, and the lucky chance +of making friends with a friend of Mr Dombey, that he pulls out his +card-case which he never loses an opportunity of using, and hands his +name and address to Mr Carker: who responds to that courtesy by giving +him his own, and with that they part. + +As Mr Carker picks his way so softly past the house, looking up at the +windows, and trying to make out the pensive face behind the curtain +looking at the children opposite, the rough head of Diogenes came +clambering up close by it, and the dog, regardless of all soothing, +barks and growls, and makes at him from that height, as if he would +spring down and tear him limb from limb. + +Well spoken, Di, so near your Mistress! Another, and another with your +head up, your eyes flashing, and your vexed mouth worrying itself, for +want of him! Another, as he picks his way along! You have a good scent, +Di,--cats, boy, cats! + + + +CHAPTER 23. Florence solitary, and the Midshipman mysterious + + +Florence lived alone in the great dreary house, and day succeeded day, +and still she lived alone; and the blank walls looked down upon her with +a vacant stare, as if they had a Gorgon-like mind to stare her youth and +beauty into stone. + +No magic dwelling-place in magic story, shut up in the heart of a thick +wood, was ever more solitary and deserted to the fancy, than was her +father's mansion in its grim reality, as it stood lowering on the +street: always by night, when lights were shining from neighbouring +windows, a blot upon its scanty brightness; always by day, a frown upon +its never-smiling face. + +There were not two dragon sentries keeping ward before the gate of this +above, as in magic legend are usually found on duty over the wronged +innocence imprisoned; but besides a glowering visage, with its thin lips +parted wickedly, that surveyed all comers from above the archway of the +door, there was a monstrous fantasy of rusty iron, curling and twisting +like a petrifaction of an arbour over threshold, budding in spikes +and corkscrew points, and bearing, one on either side, two ominous +extinguishers, that seemed to say, 'Who enter here, leave light behind!' +There were no talismanic characters engraven on the portal, but the +house was now so neglected in appearance, that boys chalked the railings +and the pavement--particularly round the corner where the side wall +was--and drew ghosts on the stable door; and being sometimes driven off +by Mr Towlinson, made portraits of him, in return, with his ears growing +out horizontally from under his hat. Noise ceased to be, within the +shadow of the roof. The brass band that came into the street once a +week, in the morning, never brayed a note in at those windows; but all +such company, down to a poor little piping organ of weak intellect, +with an imbecile party of automaton dancers, waltzing in and out at +folding-doors, fell off from it with one accord, and shunned it as a +hopeless place. + +The spell upon it was more wasting than the spell that used to set +enchanted houses sleeping once upon a time, but left their waking +freshness unimpaired. + +The passive desolation of disuse was everywhere silently manifest about +it. Within doors, curtains, drooping heavily, lost their old folds and +shapes, and hung like cumbrous palls. Hecatombs of furniture, still +piled and covered up, shrunk like imprisoned and forgotten men, and +changed insensibly. Mirrors were dim as with the breath of years. +Patterns of carpets faded and became perplexed and faint, like the +memory of those years' trifling incidents. Boards, starting at unwonted +footsteps, creaked and shook. Keys rusted in the locks of doors. Damp +started on the walls, and as the stains came out, the pictures seemed to +go in and secrete themselves. Mildew and mould began to lurk in closets. +Fungus trees grew in corners of the cellars. Dust accumulated, nobody +knew whence nor how; spiders, moths, and grubs were heard of every day. +An exploratory blackbeetle now and then was found immovable upon the +stairs, or in an upper room, as wondering how he got there. Rats began +to squeak and scuffle in the night time, through dark galleries they +mined behind the panelling. + +The dreary magnificence of the state rooms, seen imperfectly by the +doubtful light admitted through closed shutters, would have answered +well enough for an enchanted abode. Such as the tarnished paws of +gilded lions, stealthily put out from beneath their wrappers; the marble +lineaments of busts on pedestals, fearfully revealing themselves through +veils; the clocks that never told the time, or, if wound up by any +chance, told it wrong, and struck unearthly numbers, which are not +upon the dial; the accidental tinklings among the pendant lustres, more +startling than alarm-bells; the softened sounds and laggard air that +made their way among these objects, and a phantom crowd of others, +shrouded and hooded, and made spectral of shape. But, besides, there was +the great staircase, where the lord of the place so rarely set his foot, +and by which his little child had gone up to Heaven. There were other +staircases and passages where no one went for weeks together; there were +two closed rooms associated with dead members of the family, and with +whispered recollections of them; and to all the house but Florence, +there was a gentle figure moving through the solitude and gloom, that +gave to every lifeless thing a touch of present human interest and +wonder. + +For Florence lived alone in the deserted house, and day succeeded day, +and still she lived alone, and the cold walls looked down upon her with +a vacant stare, as if they had a Gorgon-like mind to stare her youth and +beauty into stone. + +The grass began to grow upon the roof, and in the crevices of the +basement paving. A scaly crumbling vegetation sprouted round the +window-sills. Fragments of mortar lost their hold upon the insides of +the unused chimneys, and came dropping down. The two trees with the +smoky trunks were blighted high up, and the withered branches domineered +above the leaves, Through the whole building white had turned yellow, +yellow nearly black; and since the time when the poor lady died, it had +slowly become a dark gap in the long monotonous street. + +But Florence bloomed there, like the king's fair daughter in the +story. Her books, her music, and her daily teachers, were her only real +companions, Susan Nipper and Diogenes excepted: of whom the former, in +her attendance on the studies of her young mistress, began to grow +quite learned herself, while the latter, softened possibly by the same +influences, would lay his head upon the window-ledge, and placidly +open and shut his eyes upon the street, all through a summer morning; +sometimes pricking up his head to look with great significance after +some noisy dog in a cart, who was barking his way along, and sometimes, +with an exasperated and unaccountable recollection of his supposed enemy +in the neighbourhood, rushing to the door, whence, after a deafening +disturbance, he would come jogging back with a ridiculous complacency +that belonged to him, and lay his jaw upon the window-ledge again, with +the air of a dog who had done a public service. + +So Florence lived in her wilderness of a home, within the circle of her +innocent pursuits and thoughts, and nothing harmed her. She could go +down to her father's rooms now, and think of him, and suffer her loving +heart humbly to approach him, without fear of repulse. She could look +upon the objects that had surrounded him in his sorrow, and could nestle +near his chair, and not dread the glance that she so well remembered. +She could render him such little tokens of her duty and service, as +putting everything in order for him with her own hands, binding little +nosegays for table, changing them as one by one they withered and he did +not come back, preparing something for him every day, and leaving some +timid mark of her presence near his usual seat. To-day, it was a little +painted stand for his watch; tomorrow she would be afraid to leave it, +and would substitute some other trifle of her making not so likely to +attract his eye. Waking in the night, perhaps, she would tremble at the +thought of his coming home and angrily rejecting it, and would hurry +down with slippered feet and quickly beating heart, and bring it away. +At another time, she would only lay her face upon his desk, and leave a +kiss there, and a tear. + +Still no one knew of this. Unless the household found it out when she +was not there--and they all held Mr Dombey's rooms in awe--it was as +deep a secret in her breast as what had gone before it. Florence stole +into those rooms at twilight, early in the morning, and at times when +meals were served downstairs. And although they were in every nook the +better and the brighter for her care, she entered and passed out as +quietly as any sunbeam, opting that she left her light behind. + +Shadowy company attended Florence up and down the echoing house, and +sat with her in the dismantled rooms. As if her life were an enchanted +vision, there arose out of her solitude ministering thoughts, that made +it fanciful and unreal. She imagined so often what her life would have +been if her father could have loved her and she had been a favourite +child, that sometimes, for the moment, she almost believed it was so, +and, borne on by the current of that pensive fiction, seemed to remember +how they had watched her brother in his grave together; how they had +freely shared his heart between them; how they were united in the dear +remembrance of him; how they often spoke about him yet; and her kind +father, looking at her gently, told her of their common hope and trust +in God. At other times she pictured to herself her mother yet alive. And +oh the happiness of falling on her neck, and clinging to her with +the love and confidence of all her soul! And oh the desolation of the +solitary house again, with evening coming on, and no one there! + +But there was one thought, scarcely shaped out to herself, yet fervent +and strong within her, that upheld Florence when she strove and filled +her true young heart, so sorely tried, with constancy of purpose. Into +her mind, as into all others contending with the great affliction of +our mortal nature, there had stolen solemn wonderings and hopes, arising +in the dim world beyond the present life, and murmuring, like faint +music, of recognition in the far-off land between her brother and her +mother: of some present consciousness in both of her: some love and +commiseration for her: and some knowledge of her as she went her way +upon the earth. It was a soothing consolation to Florence to give +shelter to these thoughts, until one day--it was soon after she had last +seen her father in his own room, late at night--the fancy came upon her, +that, in weeping for his alienated heart, she might stir the spirits of +the dead against him. Wild, weak, childish, as it may have been to think +so, and to tremble at the half-formed thought, it was the impulse of +her loving nature; and from that hour Florence strove against the cruel +wound in her breast, and tried to think of him whose hand had made it, +only with hope. + +Her father did not know--she held to it from that time--how much she +loved him. She was very young, and had no mother, and had never learned, +by some fault or misfortune, how to express to him that she loved him. +She would be patient, and would try to gain that art in time, and win +him to a better knowledge of his only child. + +This became the purpose of her life. The morning sun shone down upon the +faded house, and found the resolution bright and fresh within the bosom +of its solitary mistress, Through all the duties of the day, it +animated her; for Florence hoped that the more she knew, and the more +accomplished she became, the more glad he would be when he came to know +and like her. Sometimes she wondered, with a swelling heart and rising +tear, whether she was proficient enough in anything to surprise him when +they should become companions. Sometimes she tried to think if there +were any kind of knowledge that would bespeak his interest more readily +than another. Always: at her books, her music, and her work: in her +morning walks, and in her nightly prayers: she had her engrossing aim +in view. Strange study for a child, to learn the road to a hard parent's +heart! + +There were many careless loungers through the street, as the summer +evening deepened into night, who glanced across the road at the sombre +house, and saw the youthful figure at the window, such a contrast to it, +looking upward at the stars as they began to shine, who would have slept +the worse if they had known on what design she mused so steadfastly. The +reputation of the mansion as a haunted house, would not have been +the gayer with some humble dwellers elsewhere, who were struck by its +external gloom in passing and repassing on their daily avocations, and +so named it, if they could have read its story in the darkening face. +But Florence held her sacred purpose, unsuspected and unaided: and +studied only how to bring her father to the understanding that she loved +him, and made no appeal against him in any wandering thought. + +Thus Florence lived alone in the deserted house, and day succeeded day, +and still she lived alone, and the monotonous walls looked down upon her +with a stare, as if they had a Gorgon-like intent to stare her youth and +beauty into stone. + +Susan Nipper stood opposite to her young mistress one morning, as she +folded and sealed a note she had been writing: and showed in her looks +an approving knowledge of its contents. + +'Better late than never, dear Miss Floy,' said Susan, 'and I do say, +that even a visit to them old Skettleses will be a Godsend.' + +'It is very good of Sir Barnet and Lady Skettles, Susan,' returned +Florence, with a mild correction of that young lady's familiar mention +of the family in question, 'to repeat their invitation so kindly.' + +Miss Nipper, who was perhaps the most thoroughgoing partisan on the face +of the earth, and who carried her partisanship into all matters great or +small, and perpetually waged war with it against society, screwed up +her lips and shook her head, as a protest against any recognition of +disinterestedness in the Skettleses, and a plea in bar that they would +have valuable consideration for their kindness, in the company of +Florence. + +'They know what they're about, if ever people did,' murmured Miss +Nipper, drawing in her breath 'oh! trust them Skettleses for that!' + +'I am not very anxious to go to Fulham, Susan, I confess,' said Florence +thoughtfully: 'but it will be right to go. I think it will be better.' + +'Much better,' interposed Susan, with another emphatic shake of her +head. + +'And so,' said Florence, 'though I would prefer to have gone when there +was no one there, instead of in this vacation time, when it seems there +are some young people staying in the house, I have thankfully said yes.' + +'For which I say, Miss Floy, Oh be joyful!' returned Susan, 'Ah! h--h!' + +This last ejaculation, with which Miss Nipper frequently wound up a +sentence, at about that epoch of time, was supposed below the level of +the hall to have a general reference to Mr Dombey, and to be expressive +of a yearning in Miss Nipper to favour that gentleman with a piece of +her mind. But she never explained it; and it had, in consequence, +the charm of mystery, in addition to the advantage of the sharpest +expression. + +'How long it is before we have any news of Walter, Susan!' observed +Florence, after a moment's silence. + +'Long indeed, Miss Floy!' replied her maid. 'And Perch said, when he +came just now to see for letters--but what signifies what he says!' +exclaimed Susan, reddening and breaking off. 'Much he knows about it!' + +Florence raised her eyes quickly, and a flush overspread her face. + +'If I hadn't,' said Susan Nipper, evidently struggling with some +latent anxiety and alarm, and looking full at her young mistress, +while endeavouring to work herself into a state of resentment with the +unoffending Mr Perch's image, 'if I hadn't more manliness than that +insipidest of his sex, I'd never take pride in my hair again, but turn +it up behind my ears, and wear coarse caps, without a bit of border, +until death released me from my insignificance. I may not be a Amazon, +Miss Floy, and wouldn't so demean myself by such disfigurement, but +anyways I'm not a giver up, I hope.' + +'Give up! What?' cried Florence, with a face of terror. + +'Why, nothing, Miss,' said Susan. 'Good gracious, nothing! It's only +that wet curl-paper of a man, Perch, that anyone might almost make +away with, with a touch, and really it would be a blessed event for all +parties if someone would take pity on him, and would have the goodness!' + +'Does he give up the ship, Susan?' inquired Florence, very pale. + +'No, Miss,' returned Susan, 'I should like to see him make so bold as +do it to my face! No, Miss, but he goes on about some bothering ginger +that Mr Walter was to send to Mrs Perch, and shakes his dismal head, and +says he hopes it may be coming; anyhow, he says, it can't come now in +time for the intended occasion, but may do for next, which really,' said +Miss Nipper, with aggravated scorn, 'puts me out of patience with the +man, for though I can bear a great deal, I am not a camel, neither am +I,' added Susan, after a moment's consideration, 'if I know myself, a +dromedary neither.' + +'What else does he say, Susan?' inquired Florence, earnestly. 'Won't you +tell me?' + +'As if I wouldn't tell you anything, Miss Floy, and everything!' said +Susan. 'Why, nothing Miss, he says that there begins to be a general +talk about the ship, and that they have never had a ship on that voyage +half so long unheard of, and that the Captain's wife was at the office +yesterday, and seemed a little put out about it, but anyone could say +that, we knew nearly that before.' + +'I must visit Walter's uncle,' said Florence, hurriedly, 'before I leave +home. I will go and see him this morning. Let us walk there, directly, +Susan.' + +Miss Nipper having nothing to urge against the proposal, but being +perfectly acquiescent, they were soon equipped, and in the streets, and +on their way towards the little Midshipman. + +The state of mind in which poor Walter had gone to Captain Cuttle's, +on the day when Brogley the broker came into possession, and when there +seemed to him to be an execution in the very steeples, was pretty much +the same as that in which Florence now took her way to Uncle Sol's; with +this difference, that Florence suffered the added pain of thinking that +she had been, perhaps, the innocent occasion of involving Walter in +peril, and all to whom he was dear, herself included, in an agony of +suspense. For the rest, uncertainty and danger seemed written upon +everything. The weathercocks on spires and housetops were mysterious +with hints of stormy wind, and pointed, like so many ghostly fingers, +out to dangerous seas, where fragments of great wrecks were drifting, +perhaps, and helpless men were rocked upon them into a sleep as deep as +the unfathomable waters. When Florence came into the City, and passed +gentlemen who were talking together, she dreaded to hear them speaking +of the ship, and saying it was lost. Pictures and prints of vessels +fighting with the rolling waves filled her with alarm. The smoke and +clouds, though moving gently, moved too fast for her apprehensions, and +made her fear there was a tempest blowing at that moment on the ocean. + +Susan Nipper may or may not have been affected similarly, but having her +attention much engaged in struggles with boys, whenever there was any +press of people--for, between that grade of human kind and herself, +there was some natural animosity that invariably broke out, whenever +they came together--it would seem that she had not much leisure on the +road for intellectual operations. + +Arriving in good time abreast of the wooden Midshipman on the opposite +side of the way, and waiting for an opportunity to cross the street, +they were a little surprised at first to see, at the Instrument-maker's +door, a round-headed lad, with his chubby face addressed towards the +sky, who, as they looked at him, suddenly thrust into his capacious +mouth two fingers of each hand, and with the assistance of that +machinery whistled, with astonishing shrillness, to some pigeons at a +considerable elevation in the air. + +'Mrs Richards's eldest, Miss!' said Susan, 'and the worrit of Mrs +Richards's life!' + +As Polly had been to tell Florence of the resuscitated prospects of her +son and heir, Florence was prepared for the meeting: so, a favourable +moment presenting itself, they both hastened across, without any +further contemplation of Mrs Richards's bane. That sporting character, +unconscious of their approach, again whistled with his utmost might, and +then yelled in a rapture of excitement, 'Strays! Whoo-oop! Strays!' which +identification had such an effect upon the conscience-stricken pigeons, +that instead of going direct to some town in the North of England, as +appeared to have been their original intention, they began to wheel and +falter; whereupon Mrs Richards's first born pierced them with another +whistle, and again yelled, in a voice that rose above the turmoil of the +street, 'Strays! Whoo-oop! Strays!' + +From this transport, he was abruptly recalled to terrestrial objects, by +a poke from Miss Nipper, which sent him into the shop. + +'Is this the way you show your penitence, when Mrs Richards has been +fretting for you months and months?' said Susan, following the poke. +'Where's Mr Gills?' + +Rob, who smoothed his first rebellious glance at Miss Nipper when he +saw Florence following, put his knuckles to his hair, in honour of the +latter, and said to the former, that Mr Gills was out.' + +'Fetch him home,' said Miss Nipper, with authority, 'and say that my +young lady's here.' + +'I don't know where he's gone,' said Rob. + +'Is that your penitence?' cried Susan, with stinging sharpness. + +'Why how can I go and fetch him when I don't know where to go?' +whimpered the baited Rob. 'How can you be so unreasonable?' + +'Did Mr Gills say when he should be home?' asked Florence. + +'Yes, Miss,' replied Rob, with another application of his knuckles to +his hair. 'He said he should be home early in the afternoon; in about a +couple of hours from now, Miss.' + +'Is he very anxious about his nephew?' inquired Susan. + +'Yes, Miss,' returned Rob, preferring to address himself to Florence and +slighting Nipper; 'I should say he was, very much so. He ain't indoors, +Miss, not a quarter of an hour together. He can't settle in one place +five minutes. He goes about, like a--just like a stray,' said Rob, +stooping to get a glimpse of the pigeons through the window, and +checking himself, with his fingers half-way to his mouth, on the verge +of another whistle. + +'Do you know a friend of Mr Gills, called Captain Cuttle?' inquired +Florence, after a moment's reflection. + +'Him with a hook, Miss?' rejoined Rob, with an illustrative twist of his +left hand. Yes, Miss. He was here the day before yesterday.' + +'Has he not been here since?' asked Susan. + +'No, Miss,' returned Rob, still addressing his reply to Florence. + +'Perhaps Walter's Uncle has gone there, Susan,' observed Florence, +turning to her. + +'To Captain Cuttle's, Miss?' interposed Rob; 'no, he's not gone there, +Miss. Because he left particular word that if Captain Cuttle called, I +should tell him how surprised he was, not to have seen him yesterday, +and should make him stop till he came back.' + +'Do you know where Captain Cuttle lives?' asked Florence. + +Rob replied in the affirmative, and turning to a greasy parchment book +on the shop desk, read the address aloud. + +Florence again turned to her maid and took counsel with her in a low +voice, while Rob the round-eyed, mindful of his patron's secret charge, +looked on and listened. Florence proposed that they could go to Captain +Cuttle's house; hear from his own lips, what he thought of the absence +of any tidings of the Son and Heir; and bring him, if they could, to +comfort Uncle Sol. Susan at first objected slightly, on the score of +distance; but a hackney-coach being mentioned by her mistress, withdrew +that opposition, and gave in her assent. There were some minutes of +discussion between them before they came to this conclusion, during +which the staring Rob paid close attention to both speakers, and +inclined his ear to each by turns, as if he were appointed arbitrator of +the argument. + +In time, Rob was despatched for a coach, the visitors keeping shop +meanwhile; and when he brought it, they got into it, leaving word for +Uncle Sol that they would be sure to call again, on their way back. Rob +having stared after the coach until it was as invisible as the +pigeons had now become, sat down behind the desk with a most assiduous +demeanour; and in order that he might forget nothing of what had +transpired, made notes of it on various small scraps of paper, with +a vast expenditure of ink. There was no danger of these documents +betraying anything, if accidentally lost; for long before a word was +dry, it became as profound a mystery to Rob, as if he had had no part +whatever in its production. + +While he was yet busy with these labours, the hackney-coach, after +encountering unheard-of difficulties from swivel-bridges, soft roads, +impassable canals, caravans of casks, settlements of scarlet-beans and +little wash-houses, and many such obstacles abounding in that country, +stopped at the corner of Brig Place. Alighting here, Florence and Susan +Nipper walked down the street, and sought out the abode of Captain +Cuttle. + +It happened by evil chance to be one of Mrs MacStinger's great cleaning +days. On these occasions, Mrs MacStinger was knocked up by the policeman +at a quarter before three in the morning, and rarely such before twelve +o'clock next night. The chief object of this institution appeared to be, +that Mrs MacStinger should move all the furniture into the back garden +at early dawn, walk about the house in pattens all day, and move the +furniture back again after dark. These ceremonies greatly fluttered +those doves the young MacStingers, who were not only unable at such +times to find any resting-place for the soles of their feet, but +generally came in for a good deal of pecking from the maternal bird +during the progress of the solemnities. + +At the moment when Florence and Susan Nipper presented themselves at Mrs +MacStinger's door, that worthy but redoubtable female was in the act of +conveying Alexander MacStinger, aged two years and three months, along +the passage, for forcible deposition in a sitting posture on the street +pavement: Alexander being black in the face with holding his breath +after punishment, and a cool paving-stone being usually found to act as +a powerful restorative in such cases. + +The feelings of Mrs MacStinger, as a woman and a mother, were outraged +by the look of pity for Alexander which she observed on Florence's face. +Therefore, Mrs MacStinger asserting those finest emotions of our nature, +in preference to weakly gratifying her curiosity, shook and buffeted +Alexander both before and during the application of the paving-stone, +and took no further notice of the strangers. + +'I beg your pardon, Ma'am,' said Florence, when the child had found his +breath again, and was using it. 'Is this Captain Cuttle's house?' + +'No,' said Mrs MacStinger. + +'Not Number Nine?' asked Florence, hesitating. + +'Who said it wasn't Number Nine?' said Mrs MacStinger. + +Susan Nipper instantly struck in, and begged to inquire what Mrs +MacStinger meant by that, and if she knew whom she was talking to. + +Mrs MacStinger in retort, looked at her all over. 'What do you want with +Captain Cuttle, I should wish to know?' said Mrs MacStinger. + +'Should you? Then I'm sorry that you won't be satisfied,' returned Miss +Nipper. + +'Hush, Susan! If you please!' said Florence. 'Perhaps you can have the +goodness to tell us where Captain Cuttle lives, Ma'am as he don't live +here.' + +'Who says he don't live here?' retorted the implacable MacStinger. 'I +said it wasn't Cap'en Cuttle's house--and it ain't his house--and forbid +it, that it ever should be his house--for Cap'en Cuttle don't know how +to keep a house--and don't deserve to have a house--it's my house--and +when I let the upper floor to Cap'en Cuttle, oh I do a thankless thing, +and cast pearls before swine!' + +Mrs MacStinger pitched her voice for the upper windows in offering these +remarks, and cracked off each clause sharply by itself as if from +a rifle possessing an infinity of barrels. After the last shot, the +Captain's voice was heard to say, in feeble remonstrance from his own +room, 'Steady below!' + +'Since you want Cap'en Cuttle, there he is!' said Mrs MacStinger, with +an angry motion of her hand. On Florence making bold to enter, without +any more parley, and on Susan following, Mrs MacStinger recommenced her +pedestrian exercise in pattens, and Alexander MacStinger (still on +the paving-stone), who had stopped in his crying to attend to the +conversation, began to wail again, entertaining himself during that +dismal performance, which was quite mechanical, with a general survey of +the prospect, terminating in the hackney-coach. + +The Captain in his own apartment was sitting with his hands in his +pockets and his legs drawn up under his chair, on a very small desolate +island, lying about midway in an ocean of soap and water. The Captain's +windows had been cleaned, the walls had been cleaned, the stove had been +cleaned, and everything the stove excepted, was wet, and shining with +soft soap and sand: the smell of which dry-saltery impregnated the +air. In the midst of the dreary scene, the Captain, cast away upon his +island, looked round on the waste of waters with a rueful countenance, +and seemed waiting for some friendly bark to come that way, and take him +off. + +But when the Captain, directing his forlorn visage towards the door, saw +Florence appear with her maid, no words can describe his astonishment. +Mrs MacStinger's eloquence having rendered all other sounds but +imperfectly distinguishable, he had looked for no rarer visitor than the +potboy or the milkman; wherefore, when Florence appeared, and coming to +the confines of the island, put her hand in his, the Captain stood up, +aghast, as if he supposed her, for the moment, to be some young member +of the Flying Dutchman's family. + +Instantly recovering his self-possession, however, the Captain's first +care was to place her on dry land, which he happily accomplished, with +one motion of his arm. Issuing forth, then, upon the main, Captain +Cuttle took Miss Nipper round the waist, and bore her to the island +also. Captain Cuttle, then, with great respect and admiration, raised +the hand of Florence to his lips, and standing off a little (for the +island was not large enough for three), beamed on her from the soap and +water like a new description of Triton. + +'You are amazed to see us, I am sure,' said Florence, with a smile. + +The inexpressibly gratified Captain kissed his hook in reply, and +growled, as if a choice and delicate compliment were included in the +words, 'Stand by! Stand by!' + +'But I couldn't rest,' said Florence, 'without coming to ask you what +you think about dear Walter--who is my brother now--and whether there is +anything to fear, and whether you will not go and console his poor Uncle +every day, until we have some intelligence of him?' + +At these words Captain Cuttle, as by an involuntary gesture, clapped +his hand to his head, on which the hard glazed hat was not, and looked +discomfited. + +'Have you any fears for Walter's safety?' inquired Florence, from whose +face the Captain (so enraptured he was with it) could not take his eyes: +while she, in her turn, looked earnestly at him, to be assured of the +sincerity of his reply. + +'No, Heart's-delight,' said Captain Cuttle, 'I am not afeard. Wal'r is a +lad as'll go through a deal o' hard weather. Wal'r is a lad as'll bring +as much success to that 'ere brig as a lad is capable on. Wal'r,' said +the Captain, his eyes glistening with the praise of his young friend, +and his hook raised to announce a beautiful quotation, 'is what you may +call a out'ard and visible sign of an in'ard and spirited grasp, and +when found make a note of.' + +Florence, who did not quite understand this, though the Captain +evidently thought it full of meaning, and highly satisfactory, mildly +looked to him for something more. + +'I am not afeard, my Heart's-delight,' resumed the Captain, 'There's +been most uncommon bad weather in them latitudes, there's no denyin', +and they have drove and drove and been beat off, may be t'other side +the world. But the ship's a good ship, and the lad's a good lad; and it +ain't easy, thank the Lord,' the Captain made a little bow, 'to break +up hearts of oak, whether they're in brigs or buzzums. Here we have 'em +both ways, which is bringing it up with a round turn, and so I ain't a +bit afeard as yet.' + +'As yet?' repeated Florence. + +'Not a bit,' returned the Captain, kissing his iron hand; 'and afore +I begin to be, my Hearts-delight, Wal'r will have wrote home from +the island, or from some port or another, and made all taut and +ship-shape.' And with regard to old Sol Gills, here the Captain became +solemn, 'who I'll stand by, and not desert until death do us part, +and when the stormy winds do blow, do blow, do blow--overhaul the +Catechism,' said the Captain parenthetically, 'and there you'll find +them expressions--if it would console Sol Gills to have the opinion of a +seafaring man as has got a mind equal to any undertaking that he puts +it alongside of, and as was all but smashed in his 'prenticeship, and of +which the name is Bunsby, that 'ere man shall give him such an opinion +in his own parlour as'll stun him. Ah!' said Captain Cuttle, vauntingly, +'as much as if he'd gone and knocked his head again a door!' + +'Let us take this gentleman to see him, and let us hear what he says,' +cried Florence. 'Will you go with us now? We have a coach here.' + +Again the Captain clapped his hand to his head, on which the hard +glazed hat was not, and looked discomfited. But at this instant a most +remarkable phenomenon occurred. The door opening, without any note of +preparation, and apparently of itself, the hard glazed hat in question +skimmed into the room like a bird, and alighted heavily at the Captain's +feet. The door then shut as violently as it had opened, and nothing +ensued in explanation of the prodigy. + +Captain Cuttle picked up his hat, and having turned it over with a look +of interest and welcome, began to polish it on his sleeve. While doing +so, the Captain eyed his visitors intently, and said in a low voice, + +'You see I should have bore down on Sol Gills yesterday, and this +morning, but she--she took it away and kept it. That's the long and short +of the subject.' + +'Who did, for goodness sake?' asked Susan Nipper. + +'The lady of the house, my dear,' returned the Captain, in a gruff +whisper, and making signals of secrecy. 'We had some words about the +swabbing of these here planks, and she--In short,' said the Captain, +eyeing the door, and relieving himself with a long breath, 'she stopped +my liberty.' + +'Oh! I wish she had me to deal with!' said Susan, reddening with the +energy of the wish. 'I'd stop her!' + +'Would you, do you, my dear?' rejoined the Captain, shaking his head +doubtfully, but regarding the desperate courage of the fair aspirant +with obvious admiration. 'I don't know. It's difficult navigation. She's +very hard to carry on with, my dear. You never can tell how she'll head, +you see. She's full one minute, and round upon you next. And when she in +a tartar,' said the Captain, with the perspiration breaking out upon +his forehead. There was nothing but a whistle emphatic enough for the +conclusion of the sentence, so the Captain whistled tremulously. After +which he again shook his head, and recurring to his admiration of Miss +Nipper's devoted bravery, timidly repeated, 'Would you, do you think, my +dear?' + +Susan only replied with a bridling smile, but that was so very full of +defiance, that there is no knowing how long Captain Cuttle might have +stood entranced in its contemplation, if Florence in her anxiety had not +again proposed their immediately resorting to the oracular Bunsby. Thus +reminded of his duty, Captain Cuttle Put on the glazed hat firmly, took +up another knobby stick, with which he had supplied the place of that +one given to Walter, and offering his arm to Florence, prepared to cut +his way through the enemy. + +It turned out, however, that Mrs MacStinger had already changed her +course, and that she headed, as the Captain had remarked she often did, +in quite a new direction. For when they got downstairs, they found that +exemplary woman beating the mats on the doorsteps, with Alexander, +still upon the paving-stone, dimly looming through a fog of dust; and +so absorbed was Mrs MacStinger in her household occupation, that when +Captain Cuttle and his visitors passed, she beat the harder, and neither +by word nor gesture showed any consciousness of their vicinity. The +Captain was so well pleased with this easy escape--although the effect +of the door-mats on him was like a copious administration of snuff, and +made him sneeze until the tears ran down his face--that he could hardly +believe his good fortune; but more than once, between the door and the +hackney-coach, looked over his shoulder, with an obvious apprehension of +Mrs MacStinger's giving chase yet. + +However, they got to the corner of Brig Place without any molestation +from that terrible fire-ship; and the Captain mounting the +coach-box--for his gallantry would not allow him to ride inside with the +ladies, though besought to do so--piloted the driver on his course for +Captain Bunsby's vessel, which was called the Cautious Clara, and was +lying hard by Ratcliffe. + +Arrived at the wharf off which this great commander's ship was jammed +in among some five hundred companions, whose tangled rigging looked +like monstrous cobwebs half swept down, Captain Cuttle appeared at the +coach-window, and invited Florence and Miss Nipper to accompany him +on board; observing that Bunsby was to the last degree soft-hearted +in respect of ladies, and that nothing would so much tend to bring his +expansive intellect into a state of harmony as their presentation to the +Cautious Clara. + +Florence readily consented; and the Captain, taking her little hand +in his prodigious palm, led her, with a mixed expression of patronage, +paternity, pride, and ceremony, that was pleasant to see, over several +very dirty decks, until, coming to the Clara, they found that cautious +craft (which lay outside the tier) with her gangway removed, and +half-a-dozen feet of river interposed between herself and her nearest +neighbour. It appeared, from Captain Cuttle's explanation, that the +great Bunsby, like himself, was cruelly treated by his landlady, and +that when her usage of him for the time being was so hard that he could +bear it no longer, he set this gulf between them as a last resource. + +'Clara a-hoy!' cried the Captain, putting a hand to each side of his +mouth. + +'A-hoy!' cried a boy, like the Captain's echo, tumbling up from below. + +'Bunsby aboard?' cried the Captain, hailing the boy in a stentorian +voice, as if he were half-a-mile off instead of two yards. + +'Ay, ay!' cried the boy, in the same tone. + +The boy then shoved out a plank to Captain Cuttle, who adjusted it +carefully, and led Florence across: returning presently for Miss Nipper. +So they stood upon the deck of the Cautious Clara, in whose standing +rigging, divers fluttering articles of dress were curing, in company +with a few tongues and some mackerel. + +Immediately there appeared, coming slowly up above the bulk-head of the +cabin, another bulk-head--human, and very large--with one stationary eye +in the mahogany face, and one revolving one, on the principle of some +lighthouses. This head was decorated with shaggy hair, like oakum, +which had no governing inclination towards the north, east, west, or +south, but inclined to all four quarters of the compass, and to every +point upon it. The head was followed by a perfect desert of chin, and by +a shirt-collar and neckerchief, and by a dreadnought pilot-coat, and by +a pair of dreadnought pilot-trousers, whereof the waistband was so very +broad and high, that it became a succedaneum for a waistcoat: being +ornamented near the wearer's breastbone with some massive wooden +buttons, like backgammon men. As the lower portions of these pantaloons +became revealed, Bunsby stood confessed; his hands in their pockets, +which were of vast size; and his gaze directed, not to Captain Cuttle or +the ladies, but the mast-head. + +The profound appearance of this philosopher, who was bulky and strong, +and on whose extremely red face an expression of taciturnity sat +enthroned, not inconsistent with his character, in which that quality +was proudly conspicuous, almost daunted Captain Cuttle, though on +familiar terms with him. Whispering to Florence that Bunsby had never +in his life expressed surprise, and was considered not to know what it +meant, the Captain watched him as he eyed his mast-head, and afterwards +swept the horizon; and when the revolving eye seemed to be coming round +in his direction, said: + +'Bunsby, my lad, how fares it?' + +A deep, gruff, husky utterance, which seemed to have no connexion with +Bunsby, and certainly had not the least effect upon his face, replied, +'Ay, ay, shipmet, how goes it?' At the same time Bunsby's right hand and +arm, emerging from a pocket, shook the Captain's, and went back again. + +'Bunsby,' said the Captain, striking home at once, 'here you are; a man +of mind, and a man as can give an opinion. Here's a young lady as wants +to take that opinion, in regard of my friend Wal'r; likewise my t'other +friend, Sol Gills, which is a character for you to come within hail of, +being a man of science, which is the mother of invention, and knows no +law. Bunsby, will you wear, to oblige me, and come along with us?' + +The great commander, who seemed by expression of his visage to be always +on the look-out for something in the extremest distance, and to have no +ocular knowledge of anything within ten miles, made no reply whatever. + +'Here is a man,' said the Captain, addressing himself to his fair +auditors, and indicating the commander with his outstretched hook, 'that +has fell down, more than any man alive; that has had more accidents +happen to his own self than the Seamen's Hospital to all hands; that +took as many spars and bars and bolts about the outside of his head +when he was young, as you'd want a order for on Chatham-yard to build +a pleasure yacht with; and yet that his opinions in that way, it's my +belief, for there ain't nothing like 'em afloat or ashore.' + +The stolid commander appeared by a very slight vibration in his elbows, +to express some satisfaction in this encomium; but if his face had +been as distant as his gaze was, it could hardly have enlightened +the beholders less in reference to anything that was passing in his +thoughts. + +'Shipmet,' said Bunsby, all of a sudden, and stooping down to look out +under some interposing spar, 'what'll the ladies drink?' + +Captain Cuttle, whose delicacy was shocked by such an inquiry in +connection with Florence, drew the sage aside, and seeming to explain in +his ear, accompanied him below; where, that he might not take offence, +the Captain drank a dram himself, which Florence and Susan, glancing +down the open skylight, saw the sage, with difficulty finding room for +himself between his berth and a very little brass fireplace, serve out +for self and friend. They soon reappeared on deck, and Captain Cuttle, +triumphing in the success of his enterprise, conducted Florence back to +the coach, while Bunsby followed, escorting Miss Nipper, whom he +hugged upon the way (much to that young lady's indignation) with his +pilot-coated arm, like a blue bear. + +The Captain put his oracle inside, and gloried so much in having secured +him, and having got that mind into a hackney-coach, that he could not +refrain from often peeping in at Florence through the little window +behind the driver, and testifying his delight in smiles, and also in +taps upon his forehead, to hint to her that the brain of Bunsby was +hard at it. In the meantime, Bunsby, still hugging Miss Nipper (for his +friend, the Captain, had not exaggerated the softness of his heart), +uniformly preserved his gravity of deportment, and showed no other +consciousness of her or anything. + +Uncle Sol, who had come home, received them at the door, and ushered +them immediately into the little back parlour: strangely altered by the +absence of Walter. On the table, and about the room, were the charts +and maps on which the heavy-hearted Instrument-maker had again and again +tracked the missing vessel across the sea, and on which, with a pair of +compasses that he still had in his hand, he had been measuring, a minute +before, how far she must have driven, to have driven here or there: +and trying to demonstrate that a long time must elapse before hope was +exhausted. + +'Whether she can have run,' said Uncle Sol, looking wistfully over the +chart; 'but no, that's almost impossible or whether she can have been +forced by stress of weather,--but that's not reasonably likely. Or +whether there is any hope she so far changed her course as--but even I +can hardly hope that!' With such broken suggestions, poor old Uncle Sol +roamed over the great sheet before him, and could not find a speck of +hopeful probability in it large enough to set one small point of the +compasses upon. + +Florence saw immediately--it would have been difficult to help +seeing--that there was a singular, indescribable change in the old +man, and that while his manner was far more restless and unsettled +than usual, there was yet a curious, contradictory decision in it, that +perplexed her very much. She fancied once that he spoke wildly, and at +random; for on her saying she regretted not to have seen him when she +had been there before that morning, he at first replied that he had +been to see her, and directly afterwards seemed to wish to recall that +answer. + +'You have been to see me?' said Florence. 'To-day?' + +'Yes, my dear young lady,' returned Uncle Sol, looking at her and away +from her in a confused manner. 'I wished to see you with my own eyes, +and to hear you with my own ears, once more before--' There he stopped. + +'Before when? Before what?' said Florence, putting her hand upon his +arm. + +'Did I say "before?"' replied old Sol. 'If I did, I must have meant +before we should have news of my dear boy.' + +'You are not well,' said Florence, tenderly. 'You have been so very +anxious I am sure you are not well.' + +'I am as well,' returned the old man, shutting up his right hand, and +holding it out to show her: 'as well and firm as any man at my time of +life can hope to be. See! It's steady. Is its master not as capable of +resolution and fortitude as many a younger man? I think so. We shall +see.' + +There was that in his manner more than in his words, though they +remained with her too, which impressed Florence so much, that she would +have confided her uneasiness to Captain Cuttle at that moment, if +the Captain had not seized that moment for expounding the state +of circumstance, on which the opinion of the sagacious Bunsby was +requested, and entreating that profound authority to deliver the same. + +Bunsby, whose eye continued to be addressed to somewhere about the +half-way house between London and Gravesend, two or three times put out +his rough right arm, as seeking to wind it for inspiration round +the fair form of Miss Nipper; but that young female having withdrawn +herself, in displeasure, to the opposite side of the table, the soft +heart of the Commander of the Cautious Clara met with no response to its +impulses. After sundry failures in this wise, the Commander, addressing +himself to nobody, thus spake; or rather the voice within him said +of its own accord, and quite independent of himself, as if he were +possessed by a gruff spirit: + +'My name's Jack Bunsby!' + +'He was christened John,' cried the delighted Captain Cuttle. 'Hear +him!' + +'And what I says,' pursued the voice, after some deliberation, 'I stands +to.' + +The Captain, with Florence on his arm, nodded at the auditory, and +seemed to say, 'Now he's coming out. This is what I meant when I brought +him.' + +'Whereby,' proceeded the voice, 'why not? If so, what odds? Can any man +say otherwise? No. Awast then!' + +When it had pursued its train of argument to this point, the voice +stopped, and rested. It then proceeded very slowly, thus: + +'Do I believe that this here Son and Heir's gone down, my lads? Mayhap. +Do I say so? Which? If a skipper stands out by Sen' George's Channel, +making for the Downs, what's right ahead of him? The Goodwins. He +isn't forced to run upon the Goodwins, but he may. The bearings of this +observation lays in the application on it. That ain't no part of my +duty. Awast then, keep a bright look-out for'ard, and good luck to you!' + +The voice here went out of the back parlour and into the street, taking +the Commander of the Cautious Clara with it, and accompanying him on +board again with all convenient expedition, where he immediately turned +in, and refreshed his mind with a nap. + +The students of the sage's precepts, left to their own application +of his wisdom--upon a principle which was the main leg of the Bunsby +tripod, as it is perchance of some other oracular stools--looked upon +one another in a little uncertainty; while Rob the Grinder, who had +taken the innocent freedom of peering in, and listening, through the +skylight in the roof, came softly down from the leads, in a state of +very dense confusion. Captain Cuttle, however, whose admiration of +Bunsby was, if possible, enhanced by the splendid manner in which he +had justified his reputation and come through this solemn reference, +proceeded to explain that Bunsby meant nothing but confidence; that +Bunsby had no misgivings; and that such an opinion as that man had +given, coming from such a mind as his, was Hope's own anchor, with good +roads to cast it in. Florence endeavoured to believe that the Captain +was right; but the Nipper, with her arms tight folded, shook her head +in resolute denial, and had no more trust in Bunsby than in Mr Perch +himself. + +The philosopher seemed to have left Uncle Sol pretty much where he had +found him, for he still went roaming about the watery world, compasses +in hand, and discovering no rest for them. It was in pursuance of a +whisper in his ear from Florence, while the old man was absorbed in this +pursuit, that Captain Cuttle laid his heavy hand upon his shoulder. + +'What cheer, Sol Gills?' cried the Captain, heartily. + +'But so-so, Ned,' returned the Instrument-maker. 'I have been +remembering, all this afternoon, that on the very day when my boy +entered Dombey's House, and came home late to dinner, sitting just there +where you stand, we talked of storm and shipwreck, and I could hardly +turn him from the subject.' + +But meeting the eyes of Florence, which were fixed with earnest scrutiny +upon his face, the old man stopped and smiled. + +'Stand by, old friend!' cried the Captain. 'Look alive! I tell you what, +Sol Gills; arter I've convoyed Heart's-delight safe home,' here the +Captain kissed his hook to Florence, 'I'll come back and take you in tow +for the rest of this blessed day. You'll come and eat your dinner along +with me, Sol, somewheres or another.' + +'Not to-day, Ned!' said the old man quickly, and appearing to be +unaccountably startled by the proposition. 'Not to-day. I couldn't do +it!' + +'Why not?' returned the Captain, gazing at him in astonishment. + +'I--I have so much to do. I--I mean to think of, and arrange. I couldn't +do it, Ned, indeed. I must go out again, and be alone, and turn my mind +to many things to-day.' + +The Captain looked at the Instrument-maker, and looked at Florence, and +again at the Instrument-maker. 'To-morrow, then,' he suggested, at last. + +'Yes, yes. To-morrow,' said the old man. 'Think of me to-morrow. Say +to-morrow.' + +'I shall come here early, mind, Sol Gills,' stipulated the Captain. + +'Yes, yes. The first thing tomorrow morning,' said old Sol; 'and now +good-bye, Ned Cuttle, and God bless you!' + +Squeezing both the Captain's hands, with uncommon fervour, as he said +it, the old man turned to Florence, folded hers in his own, and put +them to his lips; then hurried her out to the coach with very singular +precipitation. Altogether, he made such an effect on Captain Cuttle +that the Captain lingered behind, and instructed Rob to be particularly +gentle and attentive to his master until the morning: which injunction +he strengthened with the payment of one shilling down, and the promise +of another sixpence before noon next day. This kind office performed, +Captain Cuttle, who considered himself the natural and lawful body-guard +of Florence, mounted the box with a mighty sense of his trust, and +escorted her home. At parting, he assured her that he would stand by Sol +Gills, close and true; and once again inquired of Susan Nipper, unable +to forget her gallant words in reference to Mrs MacStinger, 'Would you, +do you think my dear, though?' + +When the desolate house had closed upon the two, the Captain's thoughts +reverted to the old Instrument-maker, and he felt uncomfortable. +Therefore, instead of going home, he walked up and down the street +several times, and, eking out his leisure until evening, dined late at a +certain angular little tavern in the City, with a public parlour like +a wedge, to which glazed hats much resorted. The Captain's principal +intention was to pass Sol Gills's, after dark, and look in through the +window: which he did, The parlour door stood open, and he could see his +old friend writing busily and steadily at the table within, while the +little Midshipman, already sheltered from the night dews, watched +him from the counter; under which Rob the Grinder made his own bed, +preparatory to shutting the shop. Reassured by the tranquillity that +reigned within the precincts of the wooden mariner, the Captain headed +for Brig Place, resolving to weigh anchor betimes in the morning. + + + +CHAPTER 24. The Study of a Loving Heart + + +Sir Barnet and Lady Skettles, very good people, resided in a pretty +villa at Fulham, on the banks of the Thames; which was one of the most +desirable residences in the world when a rowing-match happened to be +going past, but had its little inconveniences at other times, among +which may be enumerated the occasional appearance of the river in the +drawing-room, and the contemporaneous disappearance of the lawn and +shrubbery. + +Sir Barnet Skettles expressed his personal consequence chiefly through +an antique gold snuffbox, and a ponderous silk pocket-kerchief, which +he had an imposing manner of drawing out of his pocket like a banner +and using with both hands at once. Sir Barnet's object in life was +constantly to extend the range of his acquaintance. Like a heavy body +dropped into water--not to disparage so worthy a gentleman by the +comparison--it was in the nature of things that Sir Barnet must spread +an ever widening circle about him, until there was no room left. +Or, like a sound in air, the vibration of which, according to the +speculation of an ingenious modern philosopher, may go on travelling for +ever through the interminable fields of space, nothing but coming to the +end of his moral tether could stop Sir Barnet Skettles in his voyage of +discovery through the social system. + +Sir Barnet was proud of making people acquainted with people. He liked +the thing for its own sake, and it advanced his favourite object too. +For example, if Sir Barnet had the good fortune to get hold of a law +recruit, or a country gentleman, and ensnared him to his hospitable +villa, Sir Barnet would say to him, on the morning after his arrival, +'Now, my dear Sir, is there anybody you would like to know? Who is there +you would wish to meet? Do you take any interest in writing people, or +in painting or sculpturing people, or in acting people, or in anything +of that sort?' Possibly the patient answered yes, and mentioned +somebody, of whom Sir Barnet had no more personal knowledge than of +Ptolemy the Great. Sir Barnet replied, that nothing on earth was easier, +as he knew him very well: immediately called on the aforesaid somebody, +left his card, wrote a short note,--'My dear Sir--penalty of your +eminent position--friend at my house naturally desirous--Lady Skettles +and myself participate--trust that genius being superior to ceremonies, +you will do us the distinguished favour of giving us the pleasure,' etc, +etc.--and so killed a brace of birds with one stone, dead as door-nails. + +With the snuff-box and banner in full force, Sir Barnet Skettles +propounded his usual inquiry to Florence on the first morning of +her visit. When Florence thanked him, and said there was no one in +particular whom she desired to see, it was natural she should think with +a pang, of poor lost Walter. When Sir Barnet Skettles, urging his kind +offer, said, 'My dear Miss Dombey, are you sure you can remember no one +whom your good Papa--to whom I beg you present the best compliments of +myself and Lady Skettles when you write--might wish you to know?' it was +natural, perhaps, that her poor head should droop a little, and that her +voice should tremble as it softly answered in the negative. + +Skettles Junior, much stiffened as to his cravat, and sobered down as to +his spirits, was at home for the holidays, and appeared to feel himself +aggrieved by the solicitude of his excellent mother that he should be +attentive to Florence. Another and a deeper injury under which the soul +of young Barnet chafed, was the company of Dr and Mrs Blimber, who had +been invited on a visit to the paternal roof-tree, and of whom the young +gentleman often said he would have preferred their passing the vacation +at Jericho. + +'Is there anybody you can suggest now, Doctor Blimber?' said Sir Barnet +Skettles, turning to that gentleman. + +'You are very kind, Sir Barnet,' returned Doctor Blimber. 'Really I am +not aware that there is, in particular. I like to know my fellow-men in +general, Sir Barnet. What does Terence say? Anyone who is the parent of +a son is interesting to me.' + +'Has Mrs Blimber any wish to see any remarkable person?' asked Sir +Barnet, courteously. + +Mrs Blimber replied, with a sweet smile and a shake of her sky-blue cap, +that if Sir Barnet could have made her known to Cicero, she would have +troubled him; but such an introduction not being feasible, and she +already enjoying the friendship of himself and his amiable lady, and +possessing with the Doctor her husband their joint confidence in regard +to their dear son--here young Barnet was observed to curl his nose--she +asked no more. + +Sir Barnet was fain, under these circumstances, to content himself for +the time with the company assembled. Florence was glad of that; for she +had a study to pursue among them, and it lay too near her heart, and was +too precious and momentous, to yield to any other interest. + +There were some children staying in the house. Children who were as +frank and happy with fathers and with mothers as those rosy faces +opposite home. Children who had no restraint upon their love, and freely +showed it. Florence sought to learn their secret; sought to find out +what it was she had missed; what simple art they knew, and she knew not; +how she could be taught by them to show her father that she loved him, +and to win his love again. + +Many a day did Florence thoughtfully observe these children. On many +a bright morning did she leave her bed when the glorious sun rose, and +walking up and down upon the river's bank, before anyone in the house +was stirring, look up at the windows of their rooms, and think of them, +asleep, so gently tended and affectionately thought of. Florence would +feel more lonely then, than in the great house all alone; and would +think sometimes that she was better there than here, and that there was +greater peace in hiding herself than in mingling with others of her age, +and finding how unlike them all she was. But attentive to her study, +though it touched her to the quick at every little leaf she turned in +the hard book, Florence remained among them, and tried, with patient +hope, to gain the knowledge that she wearied for. + +Ah! how to gain it! how to know the charm in its beginning! There were +daughters here, who rose up in the morning, and lay down to rest at +night, possessed of fathers' hearts already. They had no repulse to +overcome, no coldness to dread, no frown to smooth away. As the morning +advanced, and the windows opened one by one, and the dew began to dry +upon the flowers and and youthful feet began to move upon the lawn, +Florence, glancing round at the bright faces, thought what was there +she could learn from these children? It was too late to learn from them; +each could approach her father fearlessly, and put up her lips to meet +the ready kiss, and wind her arm about the neck that bent down to caress +her. She could not begin by being so bold. Oh! could it be that there +was less and less hope as she studied more and more! + +She remembered well, that even the old woman who had robbed her when +a little child--whose image and whose house, and all she had said and +done, were stamped upon her recollection, with the enduring sharpness +of a fearful impression made at that early period of life--had spoken +fondly of her daughter, and how terribly even she had cried out in the +pain of hopeless separation from her child. But her own mother, she +would think again, when she recalled this, had loved her well. Then, +sometimes, when her thoughts reverted swiftly to the void between +herself and her father, Florence would tremble, and the tears would +start upon her face, as she pictured to herself her mother living on, +and coming also to dislike her, because of her wanting the unknown grace +that should conciliate that father naturally, and had never done so +from her cradle. She knew that this imagination did wrong to her mother's +memory, and had no truth in it, or base to rest upon; and yet she tried +so hard to justify him, and to find the whole blame in herself, that she +could not resist its passing, like a wild cloud, through the distance of +her mind. + +There came among the other visitors, soon after Florence, one beautiful +girl, three or four years younger than she, who was an orphan child, and +who was accompanied by her aunt, a grey-haired lady, who spoke much to +Florence, and who greatly liked (but that they all did) to hear her sing +of an evening, and would always sit near her at that time, with motherly +interest. They had only been two days in the house, when Florence, being +in an arbour in the garden one warm morning, musingly observant of a +youthful group upon the turf, through some intervening boughs,--and +wreathing flowers for the head of one little creature among them who was +the pet and plaything of the rest, heard this same lady and her niece, +in pacing up and down a sheltered nook close by, speak of herself. + +'Is Florence an orphan like me, aunt?' said the child. + +'No, my love. She has no mother, but her father is living.' + +'Is she in mourning for her poor Mama, now?' inquired the child quickly. + +'No; for her only brother.' + +'Has she no other brother?' + +'None.' + +'No sister?' + +'None,' + +'I am very, very sorry!' said the little girl + +As they stopped soon afterwards to watch some boats, and had been silent +in the meantime, Florence, who had risen when she heard her name, and +had gathered up her flowers to go and meet them, that they might know of +her being within hearing, resumed her seat and work, expecting to hear +no more; but the conversation recommenced next moment. + +'Florence is a favourite with everyone here, and deserves to be, I am +sure,' said the child, earnestly. 'Where is her Papa?' + +The aunt replied, after a moment's pause, that she did not know. Her +tone of voice arrested Florence, who had started from her seat again; +and held her fastened to the spot, with her work hastily caught up +to her bosom, and her two hands saving it from being scattered on the +ground. + +'He is in England, I hope, aunt?' said the child. + +'I believe so. Yes; I know he is, indeed.' + +'Has he ever been here?' + +'I believe not. No.' + +'Is he coming here to see her?' + +'I believe not.' + +'Is he lame, or blind, or ill, aunt?' asked the child. + +The flowers that Florence held to her breast began to fall when she +heard those words, so wonderingly spoke She held them closer; and her +face hung down upon them. + +'Kate,' said the lady, after another moment of silence, 'I will tell you +the whole truth about Florence as I have heard it, and believe it to be. +Tell no one else, my dear, because it may be little known here, and your +doing so would give her pain.' + +'I never will!' exclaimed the child. + +'I know you never will,' returned the lady. 'I can trust you as myself. +I fear then, Kate, that Florence's father cares little for her, very +seldom sees her, never was kind to her in her life, and now quite shuns +her and avoids her. She would love him dearly if he would suffer her, +but he will not--though for no fault of hers; and she is greatly to be +loved and pitied by all gentle hearts.' + +More of the flowers that Florence held fell scattering on the ground; +those that remained were wet, but not with dew; and her face dropped +upon her laden hands. + +'Poor Florence! Dear, good Florence!' cried the child. + +'Do you know why I have told you this, Kate?' said the lady. + +'That I may be very kind to her, and take great care to try to please +her. Is that the reason, aunt?' + +'Partly,' said the lady, 'but not all. Though we see her so cheerful; +with a pleasant smile for everyone; ready to oblige us all, and bearing +her part in every amusement here: she can hardly be quite happy, do you +think she can, Kate?' + +'I am afraid not,' said the little girl. + +'And you can understand,' pursued the lady, 'why her observation of +children who have parents who are fond of them, and proud of them--like +many here, just now--should make her sorrowful in secret?' + +'Yes, dear aunt,' said the child, 'I understand that very well. Poor +Florence!' + +More flowers strayed upon the ground, and those she yet held to her +breast trembled as if a wintry wind were rustling them. + +'My Kate,' said the lady, whose voice was serious, but very calm and +sweet, and had so impressed Florence from the first moment of her +hearing it, 'of all the youthful people here, you are her natural and +harmless friend; you have not the innocent means, that happier children +have--' + +'There are none happier, aunt!' exclaimed the child, who seemed to cling +about her. + +'--As other children have, dear Kate, of reminding her of her misfortune. +Therefore I would have you, when you try to be her little friend, +try all the more for that, and feel that the bereavement you +sustained--thank Heaven! before you knew its weight--gives you claim and +hold upon poor Florence.' + +'But I am not without a parent's love, aunt, and I never have been,' +said the child, 'with you.' + +'However that may be, my dear,' returned the lady, 'your misfortune is a +lighter one than Florence's; for not an orphan in the wide world can be +so deserted as the child who is an outcast from a living parent's love.' + +The flowers were scattered on the ground like dust; the empty hands were +spread upon the face; and orphaned Florence, shrinking down upon the +ground, wept long and bitterly. + +But true of heart and resolute in her good purpose, Florence held to it +as her dying mother held by her upon the day that gave Paul life. He did +not know how much she loved him. However long the time in coming, and +however slow the interval, she must try to bring that knowledge to her +father's heart one day or other. Meantime she must be careful in no +thoughtless word, or look, or burst of feeling awakened by any chance +circumstance, to complain against him, or to give occasion for these +whispers to his prejudice. + +Even in the response she made the orphan child, to whom she was +attracted strongly, and whom she had such occasion to remember, Florence +was mindful of him. If she singled her out too plainly (Florence +thought) from among the rest, she would confirm--in one mind certainly: +perhaps in more--the belief that he was cruel and unnatural. Her own +delight was no set-off to this. What she had overheard was a reason, +not for soothing herself, but for saving him; and Florence did it, in +pursuance of the study of her heart. + +She did so always. If a book were read aloud, and there were anything +in the story that pointed at an unkind father, she was in pain for their +application of it to him; not for herself. So with any trifle of an +interlude that was acted, or picture that was shown, or game that was +played, among them. The occasions for such tenderness towards him were +so many, that her mind misgave her often, it would indeed be better to +go back to the old house, and live again within the shadow of its dull +walls, undisturbed. How few who saw sweet Florence, in her spring of +womanhood, the modest little queen of those small revels, imagined what +a load of sacred care lay heavy in her breast! How few of those who +stiffened in her father's freezing atmosphere, suspected what a heap of +fiery coals was piled upon his head! + +Florence pursued her study patiently, and, failing to acquire the secret +of the nameless grace she sought, among the youthful company who were +assembled in the house, often walked out alone, in the early morning, +among the children of the poor. But still she found them all too far +advanced to learn from. They had won their household places long ago, +and did not stand without, as she did, with a bar across the door. + +There was one man whom she several times observed at work very early, +and often with a girl of about her own age seated near him. He was a +very poor man, who seemed to have no regular employment, but now went +roaming about the banks of the river when the tide was low, looking out +for bits and scraps in the mud; and now worked at the unpromising +little patch of garden-ground before his cottage; and now tinkered up +a miserable old boat that belonged to him; or did some job of that kind +for a neighbour, as chance occurred. Whatever the man's labour, the +girl was never employed; but sat, when she was with him, in a listless, +moping state, and idle. + +Florence had often wished to speak to this man; yet she had never taken +courage to do so, as he made no movement towards her. But one morning +when she happened to come upon him suddenly, from a by-path among some +pollard willows which terminated in the little shelving piece of stony +ground that lay between his dwelling and the water, where he was bending +over a fire he had made to caulk the old boat which was lying bottom +upwards, close by, he raised his head at the sound of her footstep, and +gave her Good morning. + +'Good morning,' said Florence, approaching nearer, 'you are at work +early.' + +'I'd be glad to be often at work earlier, Miss, if I had work to do.' + +'Is it so hard to get?' asked Florence. + +'I find it so,' replied the man. + +Florence glanced to where the girl was sitting, drawn together, with her +elbows on her knees, and her chin on her hands, and said: + +'Is that your daughter?' + +He raised his head quickly, and looking towards the girl with a +brightened face, nodded to her, and said 'Yes,' Florence looked towards +her too, and gave her a kind salutation; the girl muttered something in +return, ungraciously and sullenly. + +'Is she in want of employment also?' said Florence. + +The man shook his head. 'No, Miss,' he said. 'I work for both,' + +'Are there only you two, then?' inquired Florence. + +'Only us two,' said the man. 'Her mother his been dead these ten year. +Martha!' (he lifted up his head again, and whistled to her) 'won't you +say a word to the pretty young lady?' + +The girl made an impatient gesture with her cowering shoulders, and +turned her head another way. Ugly, misshapen, peevish, ill-conditioned, +ragged, dirty--but beloved! Oh yes! Florence had seen her father's look +towards her, and she knew whose look it had no likeness to. + +'I'm afraid she's worse this morning, my poor girl!' said the man, +suspending his work, and contemplating his ill-favoured child, with a +compassion that was the more tender for being rougher. + +'She is ill, then!' said Florence. + +The man drew a deep sigh. 'I don't believe my Martha's had five short +days' good health,' he answered, looking at her still, 'in as many long +years.' + +'Ay! and more than that, John,' said a neighbour, who had come down to +help him with the boat. + +'More than that, you say, do you?' cried the other, pushing back his +battered hat, and drawing his hand across his forehead. 'Very like. It +seems a long, long time.' + +'And the more the time,' pursued the neighbour, 'the more you've +favoured and humoured her, John, till she's got to be a burden to +herself, and everybody else.' + +'Not to me,' said her father, falling to his work. 'Not to me.' + +Florence could feel--who better?--how truly he spoke. She drew a little +closer to him, and would have been glad to touch his rugged hand, and +thank him for his goodness to the miserable object that he looked upon +with eyes so different from any other man's. + +'Who would favour my poor girl--to call it favouring--if I didn't?' said +the father. + +'Ay, ay,' cried the neighbour. 'In reason, John. But you! You rob +yourself to give to her. You bind yourself hand and foot on her account. +You make your life miserable along of her. And what does she care! You +don't believe she knows it?' + +The father lifted up his head again, and whistled to her. Martha made +the same impatient gesture with her crouching shoulders, in reply; and +he was glad and happy. + +'Only for that, Miss,' said the neighbour, with a smile, in which there +was more of secret sympathy than he expressed; 'only to get that, he +never lets her out of his sight!' + +'Because the day'll come, and has been coming a long while,' observed +the other, bending low over his work, 'when to get half as much from +that unfort'nate child of mine--to get the trembling of a finger, or the +waving of a hair--would be to raise the dead.' + +Florence softly put some money near his hand on the old boat, and left +him. + +And now Florence began to think, if she were to fall ill, if she were to +fade like her dear brother, would he then know that she had loved him; +would she then grow dear to him; would he come to her bedside, when she +was weak and dim of sight, and take her into his embrace, and cancel all +the past? Would he so forgive her, in that changed condition, for not +having been able to lay open her childish heart to him, as to make it +easy to relate with what emotions she had gone out of his room that +night; what she had meant to say if she had had the courage; and how she +had endeavoured, afterwards, to learn the way she never knew in infancy? + +Yes, she thought if she were dying, he would relent. She thought, that +if she lay, serene and not unwilling to depart, upon the bed that was +curtained round with recollections of their darling boy, he would be +touched home, and would say, 'Dear Florence, live for me, and we will +love each other as we might have done, and be as happy as we might have +been these many years!' She thought that if she heard such words from +him, and had her arms clasped round him, she could answer with a smile, +'It is too late for anything but this; I never could be happier, dear +father!' and so leave him, with a blessing on her lips. + +The golden water she remembered on the wall, appeared to Florence, in +the light of such reflections, only as a current flowing on to rest, +and to a region where the dear ones, gone before, were waiting, hand in +hand; and often when she looked upon the darker river rippling at her +feet, she thought with awful wonder, but not terror, of that river which +her brother had so often said was bearing him away. + +The father and his sick daughter were yet fresh in Florence's mind, and, +indeed, that incident was not a week old, when Sir Barnet and his lady +going out walking in the lanes one afternoon, proposed to her to bear +them company. Florence readily consenting, Lady Skettles ordered out +young Barnet as a matter of course. For nothing delighted Lady Skettles +so much, as beholding her eldest son with Florence on his arm. + +Barnet, to say the truth, appeared to entertain an opposite sentiment on +the subject, and on such occasions frequently expressed himself audibly, +though indefinitely, in reference to 'a parcel of girls.' As it was not +easy to ruffle her sweet temper, however, Florence generally reconciled +the young gentleman to his fate after a few minutes, and they strolled +on amicably: Lady Skettles and Sir Barnet following, in a state of +perfect complacency and high gratification. + +This was the order of procedure on the afternoon in question; and +Florence had almost succeeded in overruling the present objections +of Skettles Junior to his destiny, when a gentleman on horseback came +riding by, looked at them earnestly as he passed, drew in his rein, +wheeled round, and came riding back again, hat in hand. + +The gentleman had looked particularly at Florence; and when the little +party stopped, on his riding back, he bowed to her, before saluting Sir +Barnet and his lady. Florence had no remembrance of having ever seen +him, but she started involuntarily when he came near her, and drew back. + +'My horse is perfectly quiet, I assure you,' said the gentleman. + +It was not that, but something in the gentleman himself--Florence could +not have said what--that made her recoil as if she had been stung. + +'I have the honour to address Miss Dombey, I believe?' said the +gentleman, with a most persuasive smile. On Florence inclining her head, +he added, 'My name is Carker. I can hardly hope to be remembered by Miss +Dombey, except by name. Carker.' + +Florence, sensible of a strange inclination to shiver, though the day +was hot, presented him to her host and hostess; by whom he was very +graciously received. + +'I beg pardon,' said Mr Carker, 'a thousand times! But I am going down +tomorrow morning to Mr Dombey, at Leamington, and if Miss Dombey can +entrust me with any commission, need I say how very happy I shall be?' + +Sir Barnet immediately divining that Florence would desire to write a +letter to her father, proposed to return, and besought Mr Carker to come +home and dine in his riding gear. Mr Carker had the misfortune to be +engaged to dinner, but if Miss Dombey wished to write, nothing would +delight him more than to accompany them back, and to be her faithful +slave in waiting as long as she pleased. As he said this with his widest +smile, and bent down close to her to pat his horse's neck, Florence +meeting his eyes, saw, rather than heard him say, 'There is no news of +the ship!' + +Confused, frightened, shrinking from him, and not even sure that he +had said those words, for he seemed to have shown them to her in some +extraordinary manner through his smile, instead of uttering them, +Florence faintly said that she was obliged to him, but she would not +write; she had nothing to say. + +'Nothing to send, Miss Dombey?' said the man of teeth. + +'Nothing,' said Florence, 'but my--but my dear love--if you please.' + +Disturbed as Florence was, she raised her eyes to his face with +an imploring and expressive look, that plainly besought him, if he +knew--which he as plainly did--that any message between her and her +father was an uncommon charge, but that one most of all, to spare her. +Mr Carker smiled and bowed low, and being charged by Sir Barnet with the +best compliments of himself and Lady Skettles, took his leave, and rode +away: leaving a favourable impression on that worthy couple. Florence +was seized with such a shudder as he went, that Sir Barnet, adopting the +popular superstition, supposed somebody was passing over her grave. Mr +Carker turning a corner, on the instant, looked back, and bowed, and +disappeared, as if he rode off to the churchyard straight, to do it. + + + +CHAPTER 25. Strange News of Uncle Sol + + +Captain Cuttle, though no sluggard, did not turn out so early on the +morning after he had seen Sol Gills, through the shop-window, writing in +the parlour, with the Midshipman upon the counter, and Rob the Grinder +making up his bed below it, but that the clocks struck six as he raised +himself on his elbow, and took a survey of his little chamber. The +Captain's eyes must have done severe duty, if he usually opened them as +wide on awaking as he did that morning; and were but roughly rewarded +for their vigilance, if he generally rubbed them half as hard. But the +occasion was no common one, for Rob the Grinder had certainly never +stood in the doorway of Captain Cuttle's room before, and in it he stood +then, panting at the Captain, with a flushed and touzled air of Bed +about him, that greatly heightened both his colour and expression. + +'Holloa!' roared the Captain. 'What's the matter?' + +Before Rob could stammer a word in answer, Captain Cuttle turned out, +all in a heap, and covered the boy's mouth with his hand. + +'Steady, my lad,' said the Captain, 'don't ye speak a word to me as +yet!' + +The Captain, looking at his visitor in great consternation, gently +shouldered him into the next room, after laying this injunction upon +him; and disappearing for a few moments, forthwith returned in the blue +suit. Holding up his hand in token of the injunction not yet being taken +off, Captain Cuttle walked up to the cupboard, and poured himself out +a dram; a counterpart of which he handed to the messenger. The Captain +then stood himself up in a corner, against the wall, as if to forestall +the possibility of being knocked backwards by the communication that was +to be made to him; and having swallowed his liquor, with his eyes fixed +on the messenger, and his face as pale as his face could be, requested +him to 'heave ahead.' + +'Do you mean, tell you, Captain?' asked Rob, who had been greatly +impressed by these precautions. + +'Ay!' said the Captain. + +'Well, Sir,' said Rob, 'I ain't got much to tell. But look here!' + +Rob produced a bundle of keys. The Captain surveyed them, remained in +his corner, and surveyed the messenger. + +'And look here!' pursued Rob. + +The boy produced a sealed packet, which Captain Cuttle stared at as he +had stared at the keys. + +'When I woke this morning, Captain,' said Rob, 'which was about a +quarter after five, I found these on my pillow. The shop-door was +unbolted and unlocked, and Mr Gills gone.' + +'Gone!' roared the Captain. + +'Flowed, Sir,' returned Rob. + +The Captain's voice was so tremendous, and he came out of his corner +with such way on him, that Rob retreated before him into another corner: +holding out the keys and packet, to prevent himself from being run down. + +'"For Captain Cuttle," Sir,' cried Rob, 'is on the keys, and on the +packet too. Upon my word and honour, Captain Cuttle, I don't know +anything more about it. I wish I may die if I do! Here's a sitiwation +for a lad that's just got a sitiwation,' cried the unfortunate Grinder, +screwing his cuff into his face: 'his master bolted with his place, and +him blamed for it!' + +These lamentations had reference to Captain Cuttle's gaze, or +rather glare, which was full of vague suspicions, threatenings, and +denunciations. Taking the proffered packet from his hand, the Captain +opened it and read as follows:-- + +'"My dear Ned Cuttle. Enclosed is my will!"' The Captain turned it over, +with a doubtful look--'"and Testament"--Where's the Testament?' said the +Captain, instantly impeaching the ill-fated Grinder. 'What have you done +with that, my lad?' + +'I never see it,' whimpered Rob. 'Don't keep on suspecting an innocent +lad, Captain. I never touched the Testament.' + +Captain Cuttle shook his head, implying that somebody must be made +answerable for it; and gravely proceeded: + +'"Which don't break open for a year, or until you have decisive +intelligence of my dear Walter, who is dear to you, Ned, too, I am +sure."' The Captain paused and shook his head in some emotion; then, as +a re-establishment of his dignity in this trying position, looked with +exceeding sternness at the Grinder. '"If you should never hear of me, or +see me more, Ned, remember an old friend as he will remember you to +the last--kindly; and at least until the period I have mentioned has +expired, keep a home in the old place for Walter. There are no debts, +the loan from Dombey's House is paid off and all my keys I send with +this. Keep this quiet, and make no inquiry for me; it is useless. So no +more, dear Ned, from your true friend, Solomon Gills."' The Captain took +a long breath, and then read these words written below: '"The boy Rob, +well recommended, as I told you, from Dombey's House. If all else should +come to the hammer, take care, Ned, of the little Midshipman."' + +To convey to posterity any idea of the manner in which the Captain, +after turning this letter over and over, and reading it a score of +times, sat down in his chair, and held a court-martial on the subject in +his own mind, would require the united genius of all the great men, +who, discarding their own untoward days, have determined to go down to +posterity, and have never got there. At first the Captain was too much +confounded and distressed to think of anything but the letter itself; +and even when his thoughts began to glance upon the various attendant +facts, they might, perhaps, as well have occupied themselves with their +former theme, for any light they reflected on them. In this state of +mind, Captain Cuttle having the Grinder before the court, and no one +else, found it a great relief to decide, generally, that he was an +object of suspicion: which the Captain so clearly expressed in his +visage, that Rob remonstrated. + +'Oh, don't, Captain!' cried the Grinder. 'I wonder how you can! what +have I done to be looked at, like that?' + +'My lad,' said Captain Cuttle, 'don't you sing out afore you're hurt. +And don't you commit yourself, whatever you do.' + +'I haven't been and committed nothing, Captain!' answered Rob. + +'Keep her free, then,' said the Captain, impressively, 'and ride easy.' + +With a deep sense of the responsibility imposed upon him, and the +necessity of thoroughly fathoming this mysterious affair as became a man +in his relations with the parties, Captain Cuttle resolved to go down +and examine the premises, and to keep the Grinder with him. Considering +that youth as under arrest at present, the Captain was in some doubt +whether it might not be expedient to handcuff him, or tie his ankles +together, or attach a weight to his legs; but not being clear as to the +legality of such formalities, the Captain decided merely to hold him by +the shoulder all the way, and knock him down if he made any objection. + +However, he made none, and consequently got to the Instrument-maker's +house without being placed under any more stringent restraint. As the +shutters were not yet taken down, the Captain's first care was to +have the shop opened; and when the daylight was freely admitted, he +proceeded, with its aid, to further investigation. + +The Captain's first care was to establish himself in a chair in the +shop, as President of the solemn tribunal that was sitting within +him; and to require Rob to lie down in his bed under the counter, show +exactly where he discovered the keys and packet when he awoke, how +he found the door when he went to try it, how he started off to Brig +Place--cautiously preventing the latter imitation from being carried +farther than the threshold--and so on to the end of the chapter. When +all this had been done several times, the Captain shook his head and +seemed to think the matter had a bad look. + +Next, the Captain, with some indistinct idea of finding a body, +instituted a strict search over the whole house; groping in the cellars +with a lighted candle, thrusting his hook behind doors, bringing his +head into violent contact with beams, and covering himself with cobwebs. +Mounting up to the old man's bed-room, they found that he had not been +in bed on the previous night, but had merely lain down on the coverlet, +as was evident from the impression yet remaining there. + +'And I think, Captain,' said Rob, looking round the room, 'that when Mr +Gills was going in and out so often, these last few days, he was taking +little things away, piecemeal, not to attract attention.' + +'Ay!' said the Captain, mysteriously. 'Why so, my lad?' + +'Why,' returned Rob, looking about, 'I don't see his shaving tackle. Nor +his brushes, Captain. Nor no shirts. Nor yet his shoes.' + +As each of these articles was mentioned, Captain Cuttle took particular +notice of the corresponding department of the Grinder, lest he should +appear to have been in recent use, or should prove to be in present +possession thereof. But Rob had no occasion to shave, was not brushed, +and wore the clothes he had on for a long time past, beyond all +possibility of a mistake. + +'And what should you say,' said the Captain--'not committing +yourself--about his time of sheering off? Hey?' + +'Why, I think, Captain,' returned Rob, 'that he must have gone pretty +soon after I began to snore.' + +'What o'clock was that?' said the Captain, prepared to be very +particular about the exact time. + +'How can I tell, Captain!' answered Rob. 'I only know that I'm a heavy +sleeper at first, and a light one towards morning; and if Mr Gills had +come through the shop near daybreak, though ever so much on tiptoe, I'm +pretty sure I should have heard him shut the door at all events.' + +On mature consideration of this evidence, Captain Cuttle began to think +that the Instrument-maker must have vanished of his own accord; to which +logical conclusion he was assisted by the letter addressed to himself, +which, as being undeniably in the old man's handwriting, would seem, +with no great forcing, to bear the construction, that he arranged of his +own will to go, and so went. The Captain had next to consider where and +why? and as there was no way whatsoever that he saw to the solution of +the first difficulty, he confined his meditations to the second. + +Remembering the old man's curious manner, and the farewell he had taken +of him; unaccountably fervent at the time, but quite intelligible now: a +terrible apprehension strengthened on the Captain, that, overpowered +by his anxieties and regrets for Walter, he had been driven to commit +suicide. Unequal to the wear and tear of daily life, as he had +often professed himself to be, and shaken as he no doubt was by the +uncertainty and deferred hope he had undergone, it seemed no violently +strained misgiving, but only too probable. + +Free from debt, and with no fear for his personal liberty, or the seizure +of his goods, what else but such a state of madness could have hurried +him away alone and secretly? As to his carrying some apparel with him, if +he had really done so--and they were not even sure of that--he might have +done so, the Captain argued, to prevent inquiry, to distract attention +from his probable fate, or to ease the very mind that was now revolving +all these possibilities. Such, reduced into plain language, and condensed +within a small compass, was the final result and substance of Captain +Cuttle's deliberations: which took a long time to arrive at this pass, +and were, like some more public deliberations, very discursive and +disorderly. + +Dejected and despondent in the extreme, Captain Cuttle felt it just to +release Rob from the arrest in which he had placed him, and to enlarge +him, subject to a kind of honourable inspection which he still resolved +to exercise; and having hired a man, from Brogley the Broker, to sit in +the shop during their absence, the Captain, taking Rob with him, issued +forth upon a dismal quest after the mortal remains of Solomon Gills. + +Not a station-house, or bone-house, or work-house in the metropolis +escaped a visitation from the hard glazed hat. Along the wharves, among +the shipping on the bank-side, up the river, down the river, here, +there, everywhere, it went gleaming where men were thickest, like the +hero's helmet in an epic battle. For a whole week the Captain read of +all the found and missing people in all the newspapers and handbills, +and went forth on expeditions at all hours of the day to identify +Solomon Gills, in poor little ship-boys who had fallen overboard, and in +tall foreigners with dark beards who had taken poison--'to make sure,' +Captain Cuttle said, 'that it wam't him.' It is a sure thing that it +never was, and that the good Captain had no other satisfaction. + +Captain Cuttle at last abandoned these attempts as hopeless, and set +himself to consider what was to be done next. After several new perusals +of his poor friend's letter, he considered that the maintenance of 'a +home in the old place for Walter' was the primary duty imposed upon him. +Therefore, the Captain's decision was, that he would keep house on +the premises of Solomon Gills himself, and would go into the +instrument-business, and see what came of it. + +But as this step involved the relinquishment of his apartments at Mrs +MacStinger's, and he knew that resolute woman would never hear of his +deserting them, the Captain took the desperate determination of running +away. + +'Now, look ye here, my lad,' said the Captain to Rob, when he had +matured this notable scheme, 'to-morrow, I shan't be found in this here +roadstead till night--not till arter midnight p'rhaps. But you keep +watch till you hear me knock, and the moment you do, turn-to, and open +the door.' + +'Very good, Captain,' said Rob. + +'You'll continue to be rated on these here books,' pursued the Captain +condescendingly, 'and I don't say but what you may get promotion, if +you and me should pull together with a will. But the moment you hear me +knock to-morrow night, whatever time it is, turn-to and show yourself +smart with the door.' + +'I'll be sure to do it, Captain,' replied Rob. + +'Because you understand,' resumed the Captain, coming back again to +enforce this charge upon his mind, 'there may be, for anything I can +say, a chase; and I might be took while I was waiting, if you didn't +show yourself smart with the door.' + +Rob again assured the Captain that he would be prompt and wakeful; +and the Captain having made this prudent arrangement, went home to Mrs +MacStinger's for the last time. + +The sense the Captain had of its being the last time, and of the awful +purpose hidden beneath his blue waistcoat, inspired him with such a +mortal dread of Mrs MacStinger, that the sound of that lady's foot +downstairs at any time of the day, was sufficient to throw him into +a fit of trembling. It fell out, too, that Mrs MacStinger was in a +charming temper--mild and placid as a house--lamb; and Captain Cuttle's +conscience suffered terrible twinges, when she came up to inquire if she +could cook him nothing for his dinner. + +'A nice small kidney-pudding now, Cap'en Cuttle,' said his landlady: 'or +a sheep's heart. Don't mind my trouble.' + +'No thank'ee, Ma'am,' returned the Captain. + +'Have a roast fowl,' said Mrs MacStinger, 'with a bit of weal stuffing +and some egg sauce. Come, Cap'en Cuttle! Give yourself a little treat!' + +'No thank'ee, Ma'am,' returned the Captain very humbly. + +'I'm sure you're out of sorts, and want to be stimulated,' said Mrs +MacStinger. 'Why not have, for once in a way, a bottle of sherry wine?' + +'Well, Ma'am,' rejoined the Captain, 'if you'd be so good as take a +glass or two, I think I would try that. Would you do me the favour, +Ma'am,' said the Captain, torn to pieces by his conscience, 'to accept a +quarter's rent ahead?' + +'And why so, Cap'en Cuttle?' retorted Mrs MacStinger--sharply, as the +Captain thought. + +The Captain was frightened to dead 'If you would Ma'am,' he said with +submission, 'it would oblige me. I can't keep my money very well. It +pays itself out. I should take it kind if you'd comply.' + +'Well, Cap'en Cuttle,' said the unconscious MacStinger, rubbing her +hands, 'you can do as you please. It's not for me, with my family, to +refuse, no more than it is to ask.' + +'And would you, Ma'am,' said the Captain, taking down the tin canister +in which he kept his cash, from the top shelf of the cupboard, 'be so +good as offer eighteen-pence a-piece to the little family all round? If +you could make it convenient, Ma'am, to pass the word presently for them +children to come for'ard, in a body, I should be glad to see 'em.' + +These innocent MacStingers were so many daggers to the Captain's breast, +when they appeared in a swarm, and tore at him with the confiding +trustfulness he so little deserved. The eye of Alexander MacStinger, who +had been his favourite, was insupportable to the Captain; the voice of +Juliana MacStinger, who was the picture of her mother, made a coward of +him. + +Captain Cuttle kept up appearances, nevertheless, tolerably well, and +for an hour or two was very hardly used and roughly handled by the young +MacStingers: who in their childish frolics, did a little damage also +to the glazed hat, by sitting in it, two at a time, as in a nest, and +drumming on the inside of the crown with their shoes. At length the +Captain sorrowfully dismissed them: taking leave of these cherubs with +the poignant remorse and grief of a man who was going to execution. + +In the silence of night, the Captain packed up his heavier property in a +chest, which he locked, intending to leave it there, in all probability +for ever, but on the forlorn chance of one day finding a man +sufficiently bold and desperate to come and ask for it. Of his lighter +necessaries, the Captain made a bundle; and disposed his plate about his +person, ready for flight. At the hour of midnight, when Brig Place was +buried in slumber, and Mrs MacStinger was lulled in sweet oblivion, with +her infants around her, the guilty Captain, stealing down on tiptoe, in +the dark, opened the door, closed it softly after him, and took to his +heels. + +Pursued by the image of Mrs MacStinger springing out of bed, and, +regardless of costume, following and bringing him back; pursued also by +a consciousness of his enormous crime; Captain Cuttle held on at a great +pace, and allowed no grass to grow under his feet, between Brig Place +and the Instrument-maker's door. It opened when he knocked--for Rob +was on the watch--and when it was bolted and locked behind him, Captain +Cuttle felt comparatively safe. + +'Whew!' cried the Captain, looking round him. 'It's a breather!' + +'Nothing the matter, is there, Captain?' cried the gaping Rob. + +'No, no!' said Captain Cuttle, after changing colour, and listening to +a passing footstep in the street. 'But mind ye, my lad; if any lady, +except either of them two as you see t'other day, ever comes and asks +for Cap'en Cuttle, be sure to report no person of that name known, nor +never heard of here; observe them orders, will you?' + +'I'll take care, Captain,' returned Rob. + +'You might say--if you liked,' hesitated the Captain, 'that you'd +read in the paper that a Cap'en of that name was gone to Australia, +emigrating, along with a whole ship's complement of people as had all +swore never to come back no more.' + +Rob nodded his understanding of these instructions; and Captain Cuttle +promising to make a man of him, if he obeyed orders, dismissed him, +yawning, to his bed under the counter, and went aloft to the chamber of +Solomon Gills. + +What the Captain suffered next day, whenever a bonnet passed, or how +often he darted out of the shop to elude imaginary MacStingers, and +sought safety in the attic, cannot be told. But to avoid the fatigues +attendant on this means of self-preservation, the Captain curtained the +glass door of communication between the shop and parlour, on the inside; +fitted a key to it from the bunch that had been sent to him; and cut a +small hole of espial in the wall. The advantage of this fortification is +obvious. On a bonnet appearing, the Captain instantly slipped into his +garrison, locked himself up, and took a secret observation of the enemy. +Finding it a false alarm, the Captain instantly slipped out again. And +the bonnets in the street were so very numerous, and alarms were +so inseparable from their appearance, that the Captain was almost +incessantly slipping in and out all day long. + +Captain Cuttle found time, however, in the midst of this fatiguing +service to inspect the stock; in connexion with which he had the +general idea (very laborious to Rob) that too much friction could not +be bestowed upon it, and that it could not be made too bright. He also +ticketed a few attractive-looking articles at a venture, at prices +ranging from ten shillings to fifty pounds, and exposed them in the +window to the great astonishment of the public. + +After effecting these improvements, Captain Cuttle, surrounded by the +instruments, began to feel scientific: and looked up at the stars at +night, through the skylight, when he was smoking his pipe in the little +back parlour before going to bed, as if he had established a kind of +property in them. As a tradesman in the City, too, he began to have an +interest in the Lord Mayor, and the Sheriffs, and in Public Companies; +and felt bound to read the quotations of the Funds every day, though he +was unable to make out, on any principle of navigation, what the figures +meant, and could have very well dispensed with the fractions. Florence, +the Captain waited on, with his strange news of Uncle Sol, immediately +after taking possession of the Midshipman; but she was away from home. +So the Captain sat himself down in his altered station of life, with no +company but Rob the Grinder; and losing count of time, as men do when +great changes come upon them, thought musingly of Walter, and of Solomon +Gills, and even of Mrs MacStinger herself, as among the things that had +been. + + + +CHAPTER 26. Shadows of the Past and Future + + +'Your most obedient, Sir,' said the Major. 'Damme, Sir, a friend of my +friend Dombey's is a friend of mine, and I'm glad to see you!' + +'I am infinitely obliged, Carker,' explained Mr Dombey, 'to Major +Bagstock, for his company and conversation. Major Bagstock has rendered +me great service, Carker.' + +Mr Carker the Manager, hat in hand, just arrived at Leamington, and +just introduced to the Major, showed the Major his whole double range +of teeth, and trusted he might take the liberty of thanking him with +all his heart for having effected so great an Improvement in Mr Dombey's +looks and spirits. + +'By Gad, Sir,' said the Major, in reply, 'there are no thanks due to +me, for it's a give and take affair. A great creature like our friend +Dombey, Sir,' said the Major, lowering his voice, but not lowering it so +much as to render it inaudible to that gentleman, 'cannot help improving +and exalting his friends. He strengthens and invigorates a man, Sir, +does Dombey, in his moral nature.' + +Mr Carker snapped at the expression. In his moral nature. Exactly. The +very words he had been on the point of suggesting. + +'But when my friend Dombey, Sir,' added the Major, 'talks to you of +Major Bagstock, I must crave leave to set him and you right. He means +plain Joe, Sir--Joey B.--Josh. Bagstock--Joseph--rough and tough Old J., +Sir. At your service.' + +Mr Carker's excessively friendly inclinations towards the Major, and Mr +Carker's admiration of his roughness, toughness, and plainness, gleamed +out of every tooth in Mr Carker's head. + +'And now, Sir,' said the Major, 'you and Dombey have the devil's own +amount of business to talk over.' + +'By no means, Major,' observed Mr Dombey. + +'Dombey,' said the Major, defiantly, 'I know better; a man of your +mark--the Colossus of commerce--is not to be interrupted. Your moments +are precious. We shall meet at dinner-time. In the interval, old Joseph +will be scarce. The dinner-hour is a sharp seven, Mr Carker.' + +With that, the Major, greatly swollen as to his face, withdrew; but +immediately putting in his head at the door again, said: + +'I beg your pardon. Dombey, have you any message to 'em?' + +Mr Dombey in some embarrassment, and not without a glance at the +courteous keeper of his business confidence, entrusted the Major with +his compliments. + +'By the Lord, Sir,' said the Major, 'you must make it something warmer +than that, or old Joe will be far from welcome.' + +'Regards then, if you will, Major,' returned Mr Dombey. + +'Damme, Sir,' said the Major, shaking his shoulders and his great cheeks +jocularly: 'make it something warmer than that.' + +'What you please, then, Major,' observed Mr Dombey. + +'Our friend is sly, Sir, sly, Sir, de-vilish sly,' said the Major, +staring round the door at Carker. 'So is Bagstock.' But stopping in the +midst of a chuckle, and drawing himself up to his full height, the Major +solemnly exclaimed, as he struck himself on the chest, 'Dombey! I envy +your feelings. God bless you!' and withdrew. + +'You must have found the gentleman a great resource,' said Carker, +following him with his teeth. + +'Very great indeed,' said Mr Dombey. + +'He has friends here, no doubt,' pursued Carker. 'I perceive, from +what he has said, that you go into society here. Do you know,' smiling +horribly, 'I am so very glad that you go into society!' + +Mr Dombey acknowledged this display of interest on the part of his +second in command, by twirling his watch-chain, and slightly moving his +head. + +'You were formed for society,' said Carker. 'Of all the men I know, you +are the best adapted, by nature and by position, for society. Do you +know I have been frequently amazed that you should have held it at arm's +length so long!' + +'I have had my reasons, Carker. I have been alone, and indifferent to +it. But you have great social qualifications yourself, and are the more +likely to have been surprised.' + +'Oh! I!' returned the other, with ready self-disparagement. 'It's +quite another matter in the case of a man like me. I don't come into +comparison with you.' + +Mr Dombey put his hand to his neckcloth, settled his chin in it, +coughed, and stood looking at his faithful friend and servant for a few +moments in silence. + +'I shall have the pleasure, Carker,' said Mr Dombey at length: making as +if he swallowed something a little too large for his throat: 'to present +you to my--to the Major's friends. Highly agreeable people.' + +'Ladies among them, I presume?' insinuated the smooth Manager. + +'They are all--that is to say, they are both--ladies,' replied Mr +Dombey. + +'Only two?' smiled Carker. + +'They are only two. I have confined my visits to their residence, and +have made no other acquaintance here.' + +'Sisters, perhaps?' quoth Carker. + +'Mother and daughter,' replied Mr Dombey. + +As Mr Dombey dropped his eyes, and adjusted his neckcloth again, the +smiling face of Mr Carker the Manager became in a moment, and without +any stage of transition, transformed into a most intent and frowning +face, scanning his closely, and with an ugly sneer. As Mr Dombey raised +his eyes, it changed back, no less quickly, to its old expression, and +showed him every gum of which it stood possessed. + +'You are very kind,' said Carker, 'I shall be delighted to know them. +Speaking of daughters, I have seen Miss Dombey.' + +There was a sudden rush of blood to Mr Dombey's face. + +'I took the liberty of waiting on her,' said Carker, 'to inquire if she +could charge me with any little commission. I am not so fortunate as to +be the bearer of any but her--but her dear love.' + +Wolf's face that it was then, with even the hot tongue revealing itself +through the stretched mouth, as the eyes encountered Mr Dombey's! + +'What business intelligence is there?' inquired the latter gentleman, +after a silence, during which Mr Carker had produced some memoranda and +other papers. + +'There is very little,' returned Carker. 'Upon the whole we have not had +our usual good fortune of late, but that is of little moment to you. At +Lloyd's, they give up the Son and Heir for lost. Well, she was insured, +from her keel to her masthead.' + +'Carker,' said Mr Dombey, taking a chair near him, 'I cannot say that +young man, Gay, ever impressed me favourably--' + +'Nor me,' interposed the Manager. + +'--But I wish,' said Mr Dombey, without heeding the interruption, 'he had +never gone on board that ship. I wish he had never been sent out. + +'It is a pity you didn't say so, in good time, is it not?' retorted +Carker, coolly. 'However, I think it's all for the best. I really, think +it's all for the best. Did I mention that there was something like a +little confidence between Miss Dombey and myself?' + +'No,' said Mr Dombey, sternly. + +'I have no doubt,' returned Mr Carker, after an impressive pause, 'that +wherever Gay is, he is much better where he is, than at home here. If +I were, or could be, in your place, I should be satisfied of that. I +am quite satisfied of it myself. Miss Dombey is confiding and +young--perhaps hardly proud enough, for your daughter--if she have a +fault. Not that that is much though, I am sure. Will you check these +balances with me?' + +Mr Dombey leaned back in his chair, instead of bending over the papers +that were laid before him, and looked the Manager steadily in the face. +The Manager, with his eyelids slightly raised, affected to be glancing +at his figures, and to await the leisure of his principal. He showed +that he affected this, as if from great delicacy, and with a design to +spare Mr Dombey's feelings; and the latter, as he looked at him, was +cognizant of his intended consideration, and felt that but for it, this +confidential Carker would have said a great deal more, which he, Mr +Dombey, was too proud to ask for. It was his way in business, often. +Little by little, Mr Dombey's gaze relaxed, and his attention became +diverted to the papers before him; but while busy with the occupation +they afforded him, he frequently stopped, and looked at Mr Carker again. +Whenever he did so, Mr Carker was demonstrative, as before, in his +delicacy, and impressed it on his great chief more and more. + +While they were thus engaged; and under the skilful culture of the +Manager, angry thoughts in reference to poor Florence brooded and bred +in Mr Dombey's breast, usurping the place of the cold dislike that +generally reigned there; Major Bagstock, much admired by the old ladies +of Leamington, and followed by the Native, carrying the usual amount +of light baggage, straddled along the shady side of the way, to make a +morning call on Mrs Skewton. It being midday when the Major reached the +bower of Cleopatra, he had the good fortune to find his Princess on her +usual sofa, languishing over a cup of coffee, with the room so darkened +and shaded for her more luxurious repose, that Withers, who was in +attendance on her, loomed like a phantom page. + +'What insupportable creature is this, coming in?' said Mrs Skewton, 'I +cannot hear it. Go away, whoever you are!' + +'You have not the heart to banish J. B., Ma'am!' said the Major halting +midway, to remonstrate, with his cane over his shoulder. + +'Oh it's you, is it? On second thoughts, you may enter,' observed +Cleopatra. + +The Major entered accordingly, and advancing to the sofa pressed her +charming hand to his lips. + +'Sit down,' said Cleopatra, listlessly waving her fan, 'a long way off. +Don't come too near me, for I am frightfully faint and sensitive this +morning, and you smell of the Sun. You are absolutely tropical.' + +'By George, Ma'am,' said the Major, 'the time has been when Joseph +Bagstock has been grilled and blistered by the Sun; then time was, when +he was forced, Ma'am, into such full blow, by high hothouse heat in +the West Indies, that he was known as the Flower. A man never heard of +Bagstock, Ma'am, in those days; he heard of the Flower--the Flower of +Ours. The Flower may have faded, more or less, Ma'am,' observed the +Major, dropping into a much nearer chair than had been indicated by +his cruel Divinity, 'but it is a tough plant yet, and constant as the +evergreen.' + +Here the Major, under cover of the dark room, shut up one eye, rolled +his head like a Harlequin, and, in his great self-satisfaction, perhaps +went nearer to the confines of apoplexy than he had ever gone before. + +'Where is Mrs Granger?' inquired Cleopatra of her page. + +Withers believed she was in her own room. + +'Very well,' said Mrs Skewton. 'Go away, and shut the door. I am +engaged.' + +As Withers disappeared, Mrs Skewton turned her head languidly towards +the Major, without otherwise moving, and asked him how his friend was. + +'Dombey, Ma'am,' returned the Major, with a facetious gurgling in his +throat, 'is as well as a man in his condition can be. His condition is +a desperate one, Ma'am. He is touched, is Dombey! Touched!' cried the +Major. 'He is bayonetted through the body.' + +Cleopatra cast a sharp look at the Major, that contrasted forcibly with +the affected drawl in which she presently said: + +'Major Bagstock, although I know but little of the world,--nor can I +really regret my experience, for I fear it is a false place, full of +withering conventionalities: where Nature is but little regarded, and +where the music of the heart, and the gushing of the soul, and all that +sort of thing, which is so truly poetical, is seldom heard,--I cannot +misunderstand your meaning. There is an allusion to Edith--to my +extremely dear child,' said Mrs Skewton, tracing the outline of her +eyebrows with her forefinger, 'in your words, to which the tenderest of +chords vibrates excessively.' + +'Bluntness, Ma'am,' returned the Major, 'has ever been the +characteristic of the Bagstock breed. You are right. Joe admits it.' + +'And that allusion,' pursued Cleopatra, 'would involve one of the +most--if not positively the most--touching, and thrilling, and sacred +emotions of which our sadly-fallen nature is susceptible, I conceive.' + +The Major laid his hand upon his lips, and wafted a kiss to Cleopatra, +as if to identify the emotion in question. + +'I feel that I am weak. I feel that I am wanting in that energy, which +should sustain a Mama: not to say a parent: on such a subject,' said +Mrs Skewton, trimming her lips with the laced edge of her +pocket-handkerchief; 'but I can hardly approach a topic so excessively +momentous to my dearest Edith without a feeling of faintness. +Nevertheless, bad man, as you have boldly remarked upon it, and as it +has occasioned me great anguish:' Mrs Skewton touched her left side with +her fan: 'I will not shrink from my duty.' + +The Major, under cover of the dimness, swelled, and swelled, and rolled +his purple face about, and winked his lobster eye, until he fell into a +fit of wheezing, which obliged him to rise and take a turn or two about +the room, before his fair friend could proceed. + +'Mr Dombey,' said Mrs Skewton, when she at length resumed, 'was obliging +enough, now many weeks ago, to do us the honour of visiting us here; +in company, my dear Major, with yourself. I acknowledge--let me be +open--that it is my failing to be the creature of impulse, and to wear +my heart as it were, outside. I know my failing full well. My enemy +cannot know it better. But I am not penitent; I would rather not be +frozen by the heartless world, and am content to bear this imputation +justly.' + +Mrs Skewton arranged her tucker, pinched her wiry throat to give it a +soft surface, and went on, with great complacency. + +'It gave me (my dearest Edith too, I am sure) infinite pleasure +to receive Mr Dombey. As a friend of yours, my dear Major, we were +naturally disposed to be prepossessed in his favour; and I fancied +that I observed an amount of Heart in Mr Dombey, that was excessively +refreshing.' + +'There is devilish little heart in Dombey now, Ma'am,' said the Major. + +'Wretched man!' cried Mrs Skewton, looking at him languidly, 'pray be +silent.' + +'J. B. is dumb, Ma'am,' said the Major. + +'Mr Dombey,' pursued Cleopatra, smoothing the rosy hue upon her cheeks, +'accordingly repeated his visit; and possibly finding some attraction +in the simplicity and primitiveness of our tastes--for there is always +a charm in nature--it is so very sweet--became one of our little circle +every evening. Little did I think of the awful responsibility into which +I plunged when I encouraged Mr Dombey--to'-- + +'To beat up these quarters, Ma'am,' suggested Major Bagstock. + +'Coarse person!' said Mrs Skewton, 'you anticipate my meaning, though in +odious language.' + +Here Mrs Skewton rested her elbow on the little table at her side, +and suffering her wrist to droop in what she considered a graceful and +becoming manner, dangled her fan to and fro, and lazily admired her hand +while speaking. + +'The agony I have endured,' she said mincingly, 'as the truth has by +degrees dawned upon me, has been too exceedingly terrific to dilate +upon. My whole existence is bound up in my sweetest Edith; and to +see her change from day to day--my beautiful pet, who has positively +garnered up her heart since the death of that most delightful creature, +Granger--is the most affecting thing in the world.' + +Mrs Skewton's world was not a very trying one, if one might judge of it +by the influence of its most affecting circumstance upon her; but this +by the way. + +'Edith,' simpered Mrs Skewton, 'who is the perfect pearl of my life, is +said to resemble me. I believe we are alike.' + +'There is one man in the world who never will admit that anyone +resembles you, Ma'am,' said the Major; 'and that man's name is Old Joe +Bagstock.' + +Cleopatra made as if she would brain the flatterer with her fan, but +relenting, smiled upon him and proceeded: + +'If my charming girl inherits any advantages from me, wicked one!': the +Major was the wicked one: 'she inherits also my foolish nature. She has +great force of character--mine has been said to be immense, though I +don't believe it--but once moved, she is susceptible and sensitive +to the last extent. What are my feelings when I see her pining! They +destroy me. + +The Major advancing his double chin, and pursing up his blue lips into a +soothing expression, affected the profoundest sympathy. + +'The confidence,' said Mrs Skewton, 'that has subsisted between us--the +free development of soul, and openness of sentiment--is touching to +think of. We have been more like sisters than Mama and child.' + +'J. B.'s own sentiment,' observed the Major, 'expressed by J. B. fifty +thousand times!' + +'Do not interrupt, rude man!' said Cleopatra. 'What are my feelings, +then, when I find that there is one subject avoided by us! That there is +a what's-his-name--a gulf--opened between us. That my own artless Edith +is changed to me! They are of the most poignant description, of course.' + +The Major left his chair, and took one nearer to the little table. + +'From day to day I see this, my dear Major,' proceeded Mrs Skewton. +'From day to day I feel this. From hour to hour I reproach myself for +that excess of faith and trustfulness which has led to such distressing +consequences; and almost from minute to minute, I hope that Mr Dombey +may explain himself, and relieve the torture I undergo, which is +extremely wearing. But nothing happens, my dear Major; I am the slave +of remorse--take care of the coffee-cup: you are so very awkward--my +darling Edith is an altered being; and I really don't see what is to be +done, or what good creature I can advise with.' + +Major Bagstock, encouraged perhaps by the softened and confidential +tone into which Mrs Skewton, after several times lapsing into it for +a moment, seemed now to have subsided for good, stretched out his hand +across the little table, and said with a leer, + +'Advise with Joe, Ma'am.' + +'Then, you aggravating monster,' said Cleopatra, giving one hand to +the Major, and tapping his knuckles with her fan, which she held in the +other: 'why don't you talk to me? you know what I mean. Why don't you +tell me something to the purpose?' + +The Major laughed, and kissed the hand she had bestowed upon him, and +laughed again immensely. + +'Is there as much Heart in Mr Dombey as I gave him credit for?' +languished Cleopatra tenderly. 'Do you think he is in earnest, my dear +Major? Would you recommend his being spoken to, or his being left alone? +Now tell me, like a dear man, what would you advise.' + +'Shall we marry him to Edith Granger, Ma'am?' chuckled the Major, +hoarsely. + +'Mysterious creature!' returned Cleopatra, bringing her fan to bear upon +the Major's nose. 'How can we marry him?' + +'Shall we marry him to Edith Granger, Ma'am, I say?' chuckled the Major +again. + +Mrs Skewton returned no answer in words, but smiled upon the Major with +so much archness and vivacity, that that gallant officer considering +himself challenged, would have imprinted a kiss on her exceedingly red +lips, but for her interposing the fan with a very winning and juvenile +dexterity. It might have been in modesty; it might have been in +apprehension of some danger to their bloom. + +'Dombey, Ma'am,' said the Major, 'is a great catch.' + +'Oh, mercenary wretch!' cried Cleopatra, with a little shriek, 'I am +shocked.' + +'And Dombey, Ma'am,' pursued the Major, thrusting forward his head, and +distending his eyes, 'is in earnest. Joseph says it; Bagstock knows it; +J. B. keeps him to the mark. Leave Dombey to himself, Ma'am. Dombey is +safe, Ma'am. Do as you have done; do no more; and trust to J. B. for the +end.' + +'You really think so, my dear Major?' returned Cleopatra, who had eyed +him very cautiously, and very searchingly, in spite of her listless +bearing. + +'Sure of it, Ma'am,' rejoined the Major. 'Cleopatra the peerless, +and her Antony Bagstock, will often speak of this, triumphantly, +when sharing the elegance and wealth of Edith Dombey's establishment. +Dombey's right-hand man, Ma'am,' said the Major, stopping abruptly in a +chuckle, and becoming serious, 'has arrived.' + +'This morning?' said Cleopatra. + +'This morning, Ma'am,' returned the Major. 'And Dombey's anxiety for his +arrival, Ma'am, is to be referred--take J. B.'s word for this; for Joe +is devilish sly'--the Major tapped his nose, and screwed up one of his +eyes tight: which did not enhance his native beauty--'to his desire that +what is in the wind should become known to him' without Dombey's telling +and consulting him. For Dombey is as proud, Ma'am,' said the Major, 'as +Lucifer.' + +'A charming quality,' lisped Mrs Skewton; 'reminding one of dearest +Edith.' + +'Well, Ma'am,' said the Major. 'I have thrown out hints already, and the +right-hand man understands 'em; and I'll throw out more, before the day +is done. Dombey projected this morning a ride to Warwick Castle, and +to Kenilworth, to-morrow, to be preceded by a breakfast with us. I +undertook the delivery of this invitation. Will you honour us so far, +Ma'am?' said the Major, swelling with shortness of breath and slyness, +as he produced a note, addressed to the Honourable Mrs Skewton, by +favour of Major Bagstock, wherein hers ever faithfully, Paul Dombey, +besought her and her amiable and accomplished daughter to consent to +the proposed excursion; and in a postscript unto which, the same ever +faithfully Paul Dombey entreated to be recalled to the remembrance of +Mrs Granger. + +'Hush!' said Cleopatra, suddenly, 'Edith!' + +The loving mother can scarcely be described as resuming her insipid and +affected air when she made this exclamation; for she had never cast it +off; nor was it likely that she ever would or could, in any other +place than in the grave. But hurriedly dismissing whatever shadow of +earnestness, or faint confession of a purpose, laudable or wicked, +that her face, or voice, or manner: had, for the moment, betrayed, she +lounged upon the couch, her most insipid and most languid self again, as +Edith entered the room. + +Edith, so beautiful and stately, but so cold and so repelling. Who, +slightly acknowledging the presence of Major Bagstock, and directing +a keen glance at her mother, drew back the from a window, and sat down +there, looking out. + +'My dearest Edith,' said Mrs Skewton, 'where on earth have you been? I +have wanted you, my love, most sadly.' + +'You said you were engaged, and I stayed away,' she answered, without +turning her head. + +'It was cruel to Old Joe, Ma'am,' said the Major in his gallantry. + +'It was very cruel, I know,' she said, still looking out--and said with +such calm disdain, that the Major was discomfited, and could think of +nothing in reply. + +'Major Bagstock, my darling Edith,' drawled her mother, 'who is +generally the most useless and disagreeable creature in the world: as +you know--' + +'It is surely not worthwhile, Mama,' said Edith, looking round, 'to +observe these forms of speech. We are quite alone. We know each other.' + +The quiet scorn that sat upon her handsome face--a scorn that evidently +lighted on herself, no less than them--was so intense and deep, that +her mother's simper, for the instant, though of a hardy constitution, +drooped before it. + +'My darling girl,' she began again. + +'Not woman yet?' said Edith, with a smile. + +'How very odd you are to-day, my dear! Pray let me say, my love, +that Major Bagstock has brought the kindest of notes from Mr Dombey, +proposing that we should breakfast with him to-morrow, and ride to +Warwick and Kenilworth. Will you go, Edith?' + +'Will I go!' she repeated, turning very red, and breathing quickly as +she looked round at her mother. + +'I knew you would, my own, observed the latter carelessly. 'It is, as +you say, quite a form to ask. Here is Mr Dombey's letter, Edith.' + +'Thank you. I have no desire to read it,' was her answer. + +'Then perhaps I had better answer it myself,' said Mrs Skewton, 'though +I had thought of asking you to be my secretary, darling.' As Edith made +no movement, and no answer, Mrs Skewton begged the Major to wheel her +little table nearer, and to set open the desk it contained, and to take +out pen and paper for her; all which congenial offices of gallantry the +Major discharged, with much submission and devotion. + +'Your regards, Edith, my dear?' said Mrs Skewton, pausing, pen in hand, +at the postscript. + +'What you will, Mama,' she answered, without turning her head, and with +supreme indifference. + +Mrs Skewton wrote what she would, without seeking for any more explicit +directions, and handed her letter to the Major, who receiving it as a +precious charge, made a show of laying it near his heart, but was fain +to put it in the pocket of his pantaloons on account of the insecurity +of his waistcoat The Major then took a very polished and chivalrous +farewell of both ladies, which the elder one acknowledged in her usual +manner, while the younger, sitting with her face addressed to the +window, bent her head so slightly that it would have been a greater +compliment to the Major to have made no sign at all, and to have left +him to infer that he had not been heard or thought of. + +'As to alteration in her, Sir,' mused the Major on his way back; on +which expedition--the afternoon being sunny and hot--he ordered the +Native and the light baggage to the front, and walked in the shadow +of that expatriated prince: 'as to alteration, Sir, and pining, and so +forth, that won't go down with Joseph Bagstock, None of that, Sir. It +won't do here. But as to there being something of a division between +'em--or a gulf as the mother calls it--damme, Sir, that seems true +enough. And it's odd enough! Well, Sir!' panted the Major, 'Edith +Granger and Dombey are well matched; let 'em fight it out! Bagstock +backs the winner!' + +The Major, by saying these latter words aloud, in the vigour of his +thoughts, caused the unhappy Native to stop, and turn round, in the +belief that he was personally addressed. Exasperated to the last degree +by this act of insubordination, the Major (though he was swelling with +enjoyment of his own humour), at the moment of its occurrence instantly +thrust his cane among the Native's ribs, and continued to stir him up, +at short intervals, all the way to the hotel. + +Nor was the Major less exasperated as he dressed for dinner, during +which operation the dark servant underwent the pelting of a shower of +miscellaneous objects, varying in size from a boot to a hairbrush, and +including everything that came within his master's reach. For the Major +plumed himself on having the Native in a perfect state of drill, and +visited the least departure from strict discipline with this kind of +fatigue duty. Add to this, that he maintained the Native about his +person as a counter-irritant against the gout, and all other vexations, +mental as well as bodily; and the Native would appear to have earned his +pay--which was not large. + +At length, the Major having disposed of all the missiles that were +convenient to his hand, and having called the Native so many new names +as must have given him great occasion to marvel at the resources of +the English language, submitted to have his cravat put on; and being +dressed, and finding himself in a brisk flow of spirits after this +exercise, went downstairs to enliven 'Dombey' and his right-hand man. + +Dombey was not yet in the room, but the right-hand man was there, and +his dental treasures were, as usual, ready for the Major. + +'Well, Sir!' said the Major. 'How have you passed the time since I had +the happiness of meeting you? Have you walked at all?' + +'A saunter of barely half an hour's duration,' returned Carker. 'We have +been so much occupied.' + +'Business, eh?' said the Major. + +'A variety of little matters necessary to be gone through,' replied +Carker. 'But do you know--this is quite unusual with me, educated in +a distrustful school, and who am not generally disposed to be +communicative,' he said, breaking off, and speaking in a charming tone +of frankness--'but I feel quite confidential with you, Major Bagstock.' + +'You do me honour, Sir,' returned the Major. 'You may be.' + +'Do you know, then,' pursued Carker, 'that I have not found my +friend--our friend, I ought rather to call him--' + +'Meaning Dombey, Sir?' cried the Major. 'You see me, Mr Carker, standing +here! J. B.?' + +He was puffy enough to see, and blue enough; and Mr Carker intimated the +he had that pleasure. + +'Then you see a man, Sir, who would go through fire and water to serve +Dombey,' returned Major Bagstock. + +Mr Carker smiled, and said he was sure of it. 'Do you know, Major,' he +proceeded: 'to resume where I left off: that I have not found our friend +so attentive to business today, as usual?' + +'No?' observed the delighted Major. + +'I have found him a little abstracted, and with his attention disposed +to wander,' said Carker. + +'By Jove, Sir,' cried the Major, 'there's a lady in the case.' + +'Indeed, I begin to believe there really is,' returned Carker; 'I +thought you might be jesting when you seemed to hint at it; for I know +you military men'-- + +The Major gave the horse's cough, and shook his head and shoulders, as +much as to say, 'Well! we are gay dogs, there's no denying.' He then +seized Mr Carker by the button-hole, and with starting eyes whispered in +his ear, that she was a woman of extraordinary charms, Sir. That she was +a young widow, Sir. That she was of a fine family, Sir. That Dombey was +over head and ears in love with her, Sir, and that it would be a good +match on both sides; for she had beauty, blood, and talent, and Dombey +had fortune; and what more could any couple have? Hearing Mr Dombey's +footsteps without, the Major cut himself short by saying, that Mr Carker +would see her tomorrow morning, and would judge for himself; and between +his mental excitement, and the exertion of saying all this in wheezy +whispers, the Major sat gurgling in the throat and watering at the eyes, +until dinner was ready. + +The Major, like some other noble animals, exhibited himself to great +advantage at feeding-time. On this occasion, he shone resplendent at +one end of the table, supported by the milder lustre of Mr Dombey at +the other; while Carker on one side lent his ray to either light, or +suffered it to merge into both, as occasion arose. + +During the first course or two, the Major was usually grave; for the +Native, in obedience to general orders, secretly issued, collected every +sauce and cruet round him, and gave him a great deal to do, in taking +out the stoppers, and mixing up the contents in his plate. Besides +which, the Native had private zests and flavours on a side-table, +with which the Major daily scorched himself; to say nothing of strange +machines out of which he spirited unknown liquids into the Major's +drink. But on this occasion, Major Bagstock, even amidst these many +occupations, found time to be social; and his sociality consisted in +excessive slyness for the behoof of Mr Carker, and the betrayal of Mr +Dombey's state of mind. + +'Dombey,' said the Major, 'you don't eat; what's the matter?' + +'Thank you,' returned the gentleman, 'I am doing very well; I have no +great appetite today.' + +'Why, Dombey, what's become of it?' asked the Major. 'Where's it gone? +You haven't left it with our friends, I'll swear, for I can answer for +their having none to-day at luncheon. I can answer for one of 'em, at +least: I won't say which.' + +Then the Major winked at Carker, and became so frightfully sly, that his +dark attendant was obliged to pat him on the back, without orders, or he +would probably have disappeared under the table. + +In a later stage of the dinner: that is to say, when the Native stood +at the Major's elbow ready to serve the first bottle of champagne: the +Major became still slyer. + +'Fill this to the brim, you scoundrel,' said the Major, holding up his +glass. 'Fill Mr Carker's to the brim too. And Mr Dombey's too. By Gad, +gentlemen,' said the Major, winking at his new friend, while Mr Dombey +looked into his plate with a conscious air, 'we'll consecrate this +glass of wine to a Divinity whom Joe is proud to know, and at a distance +humbly and reverently to admire. Edith,' said the Major, 'is her name; +angelic Edith!' + +'To angelic Edith!' cried the smiling Carker. + +'Edith, by all means,' said Mr Dombey. + +The entrance of the waiters with new dishes caused the Major to be +slyer yet, but in a more serious vein. 'For though among ourselves, Joe +Bagstock mingles jest and earnest on this subject, Sir,' said the Major, +laying his finger on his lips, and speaking half apart to Carker, 'he +holds that name too sacred to be made the property of these fellows, or +of any fellows. Not a word, Sir, while they are here!' + +This was respectful and becoming on the Major's part, and Mr Dombey +plainly felt it so. Although embarrassed in his own frigid way, by the +Major's allusions, Mr Dombey had no objection to such rallying, it was +clear, but rather courted it. Perhaps the Major had been pretty near the +truth, when he had divined that morning that the great man who was too +haughty formally to consult with, or confide in his prime minister, on +such a matter, yet wished him to be fully possessed of it. Let this +be how it may, he often glanced at Mr Carker while the Major plied his +light artillery, and seemed watchful of its effect upon him. + +But the Major, having secured an attentive listener, and a smiler who +had not his match in all the world--'in short, a devilish intelligent +and able fellow,' as he often afterwards declared--was not going to let +him off with a little slyness personal to Mr Dombey. Therefore, on the +removal of the cloth, the Major developed himself as a choice spirit +in the broader and more comprehensive range of narrating regimental +stories, and cracking regimental jokes, which he did with such prodigal +exuberance, that Carker was (or feigned to be) quite exhausted with +laughter and admiration: while Mr Dombey looked on over his starched +cravat, like the Major's proprietor, or like a stately showman who was +glad to see his bear dancing well. + +When the Major was too hoarse with meat and drink, and the display +of his social powers, to render himself intelligible any longer, they +adjourned to coffee. After which, the Major inquired of Mr Carker the +Manager, with little apparent hope of an answer in the affirmative, if +he played picquet. + +'Yes, I play picquet a little,' said Mr Carker. + +'Backgammon, perhaps?' observed the Major, hesitating. + +'Yes, I play backgammon a little too,' replied the man of teeth. + +'Carker plays at all games, I believe,' said Mr Dombey, laying himself +on a sofa like a man of wood, without a hinge or a joint in him; 'and +plays them well.' + +In sooth, he played the two in question, to such perfection, that the +Major was astonished, and asked him, at random, if he played chess. + +'Yes, I play chess a little,' answered Carker. 'I have sometimes played, +and won a game--it's a mere trick--without seeing the board.' + +'By Gad, Sir!' said the Major, staring, 'you are a contrast to Dombey, +who plays nothing.' + +'Oh! He!' returned the Manager. 'He has never had occasion to acquire +such little arts. To men like me, they are sometimes useful. As at +present, Major Bagstock, when they enable me to take a hand with you.' + +It might be only the false mouth, so smooth and wide; and yet there +seemed to lurk beneath the humility and subserviency of this short +speech, a something like a snarl; and, for a moment, one might have +thought that the white teeth were prone to bite the hand they fawned +upon. But the Major thought nothing about it; and Mr Dombey lay +meditating with his eyes half shut, during the whole of the play, which +lasted until bed-time. + +By that time, Mr Carker, though the winner, had mounted high into the +Major's good opinion, insomuch that when he left the Major at his own +room before going to bed, the Major as a special attention, sent the +Native--who always rested on a mattress spread upon the ground at his +master's door--along the gallery, to light him to his room in state. + +There was a faint blur on the surface of the mirror in Mr Carker's +chamber, and its reflection was, perhaps, a false one. But it showed, +that night, the image of a man, who saw, in his fancy, a crowd of +people slumbering on the ground at his feet, like the poor Native at his +master's door: who picked his way among them: looking down, maliciously +enough: but trod upon no upturned face--as yet. + + + +CHAPTER 27. Deeper Shadows + + +Mr Carker the Manager rose with the lark, and went out, walking in the +summer day. His meditations--and he meditated with contracted brows +while he strolled along--hardly seemed to soar as high as the lark, or +to mount in that direction; rather they kept close to their nest upon +the earth, and looked about, among the dust and worms. But there was not +a bird in the air, singing unseen, farther beyond the reach of human eye +than Mr Carker's thoughts. He had his face so perfectly under control, +that few could say more, in distinct terms, of its expression, than that +it smiled or that it pondered. It pondered now, intently. As the lark +rose higher, he sank deeper in thought. As the lark poured out her +melody clearer and stronger, he fell into a graver and profounder +silence. At length, when the lark came headlong down, with an +accumulating stream of song, and dropped among the green wheat near him, +rippling in the breath of the morning like a river, he sprang up from +his reverie, and looked round with a sudden smile, as courteous and +as soft as if he had had numerous observers to propitiate; nor did he +relapse, after being thus awakened; but clearing his face, like one who +bethought himself that it might otherwise wrinkle and tell tales, went +smiling on, as if for practice. + +Perhaps with an eye to first impressions, Mr Carker was very carefully +and trimly dressed, that morning. Though always somewhat formal, in his +dress, in imitation of the great man whom he served, he stopped short of +the extent of Mr Dombey's stiffness: at once perhaps because he knew +it to be ludicrous, and because in doing so he found another means of +expressing his sense of the difference and distance between them. Some +people quoted him indeed, in this respect, as a pointed commentary, +and not a flattering one, on his icy patron--but the world is prone +to misconstruction, and Mr Carker was not accountable for its bad +propensity. + +Clean and florid: with his light complexion, fading as it were, in the +sun, and his dainty step enhancing the softness of the turf: Mr Carker +the Manager strolled about meadows, and green lanes, and glided among +avenues of trees, until it was time to return to breakfast. Taking a +nearer way back, Mr Carker pursued it, airing his teeth, and said aloud +as he did so, 'Now to see the second Mrs Dombey!' + +He had strolled beyond the town, and re-entered it by a pleasant walk, +where there was a deep shade of leafy trees, and where there were a few +benches here and there for those who chose to rest. It not being a place +of general resort at any hour, and wearing at that time of the still +morning the air of being quite deserted and retired, Mr Carker had it, +or thought he had it, all to himself. So, with the whim of an idle man, +to whom there yet remained twenty minutes for reaching a destination +easily able in ten, Mr Carker threaded the great boles of the trees, +and went passing in and out, before this one and behind that, weaving a +chain of footsteps on the dewy ground. + +But he found he was mistaken in supposing there was no one in the grove, +for as he softly rounded the trunk of one large tree, on which the +obdurate bark was knotted and overlapped like the hide of a rhinoceros +or some kindred monster of the ancient days before the Flood, he saw +an unexpected figure sitting on a bench near at hand, about which, in +another moment, he would have wound the chain he was making. + +It was that of a lady, elegantly dressed and very handsome, whose dark +proud eyes were fixed upon the ground, and in whom some passion or +struggle was raging. For as she sat looking down, she held a corner of +her under lip within her mouth, her bosom heaved, her nostril quivered, +her head trembled, indignant tears were on her cheek, and her foot was +set upon the moss as though she would have crushed it into nothing. And +yet almost the self-same glance that showed him this, showed him the +self-same lady rising with a scornful air of weariness and lassitude, +and turning away with nothing expressed in face or figure but careless +beauty and imperious disdain. + +A withered and very ugly old woman, dressed not so much like a gipsy as +like any of that medley race of vagabonds who tramp about the country, +begging, and stealing, and tinkering, and weaving rushes, by turns, or +all together, had been observing the lady, too; for, as she rose, this +second figure strangely confronting the first, scrambled up from the +ground--out of it, it almost appeared--and stood in the way. + +'Let me tell your fortune, my pretty lady,' said the old woman, munching +with her jaws, as if the Death's Head beneath her yellow skin were +impatient to get out. + +'I can tell it for myself,' was the reply. + +'Ay, ay, pretty lady; but not right. You didn't tell it right when you +were sitting there. I see you! Give me a piece of silver, pretty lady, +and I'll tell your fortune true. There's riches, pretty lady, in your +face.' + +'I know,' returned the lady, passing her with a dark smile, and a proud +step. 'I knew it before. + +'What! You won't give me nothing?' cried the old woman. 'You won't give +me nothing to tell your fortune, pretty lady? How much will you give me +to tell it, then? Give me something, or I'll call it after you!' croaked +the old woman, passionately. + +Mr Carker, whom the lady was about to pass close, slinking against his +tree as she crossed to gain the path, advanced so as to meet her, and +pulling off his hat as she went by, bade the old woman hold her peace. +The lady acknowledged his interference with an inclination of the head, +and went her way. + +'You give me something then, or I'll call it after her!' screamed +the old woman, throwing up her arms, and pressing forward against his +outstretched hand. 'Or come,' she added, dropping her voice suddenly, +looking at him earnestly, and seeming in a moment to forget the object +of her wrath, 'give me something, or I'll call it after you!' + +'After me, old lady!' returned the Manager, putting his hand in his +pocket. + +'Yes,' said the woman, steadfast in her scrutiny, and holding out her +shrivelled hand. 'I know!' + +'What do you know?' demanded Carker, throwing her a shilling. 'Do you +know who the handsome lady is?' + +Munching like that sailor's wife of yore, who had chestnuts in her lap, +and scowling like the witch who asked for some in vain, the old woman +picked the shilling up, and going backwards, like a crab, or like a heap +of crabs: for her alternately expanding and contracting hands might +have represented two of that species, and her creeping face, some +half-a-dozen more: crouched on the veinous root of an old tree, pulled +out a short black pipe from within the crown of her bonnet, lighted it +with a match, and smoked in silence, looking fixedly at her questioner. + +Mr Carker laughed, and turned upon his heel. + +'Good!' said the old woman. 'One child dead, and one child living: one +wife dead, and one wife coming. Go and meet her!' + +In spite of himself, the Manager looked round again, and stopped. The +old woman, who had not removed her pipe, and was munching and mumbling +while she smoked, as if in conversation with an invisible familiar, +pointed with her finger in the direction he was going, and laughed. + +'What was that you said, Bedlamite?' he demanded. + +The woman mumbled, and chattered, and smoked, and still pointed +before him; but remained silent Muttering a farewell that was not +complimentary, Mr Carker pursued his way; but as he turned out of that +place, and looked over his shoulder at the root of the old tree, he +could yet see the finger pointing before him, and thought he heard the +woman screaming, 'Go and meet her!' + +Preparations for a choice repast were completed, he found, at the hotel; +and Mr Dombey, and the Major, and the breakfast, were awaiting the +ladies. Individual constitution has much to do with the development of +such facts, no doubt; but in this case, appetite carried it hollow over +the tender passion; Mr Dombey being very cool and collected, and the +Major fretting and fuming in a state of violent heat and irritation. +At length the door was thrown open by the Native, and, after a pause, +occupied by her languishing along the gallery, a very blooming, but not +very youthful lady, appeared. + +'My dear Mr Dombey,' said the lady, 'I am afraid we are late, but +Edith has been out already looking for a favourable point of view for a +sketch, and kept me waiting for her. Falsest of Majors,' giving him her +little finger, 'how do you do?' + +'Mrs Skewton,' said Mr Dombey, 'let me gratify my friend Carker:' Mr +Dombey unconsciously emphasised the word friend, as saying "no really; I +do allow him to take credit for that distinction:" 'by presenting him to +you. You have heard me mention Mr Carker.' + +'I am charmed, I am sure,' said Mrs Skewton, graciously. + +Mr Carker was charmed, of course. Would he have been more charmed on Mr +Dombey's behalf, if Mrs Skewton had been (as he at first supposed her) +the Edith whom they had toasted overnight? + +'Why, where, for Heaven's sake, is Edith?' exclaimed Mrs Skewton, +looking round. 'Still at the door, giving Withers orders about the +mounting of those drawings! My dear Mr Dombey, will you have the +kindness'-- + +Mr Dombey was already gone to seek her. Next moment he returned, bearing +on his arm the same elegantly dressed and very handsome lady whom Mr +Carker had encountered underneath the trees. + +'Carker--' began Mr Dombey. But their recognition of each other was so +manifest, that Mr Dombey stopped surprised. + +'I am obliged to the gentleman,' said Edith, with a stately bend, 'for +sparing me some annoyance from an importunate beggar just now.' + +'I am obliged to my good fortune,' said Mr Carker, bowing low, 'for the +opportunity of rendering so slight a service to one whose servant I am +proud to be.' + +As her eye rested on him for an instant, and then lighted on the ground, +he saw in its bright and searching glance a suspicion that he had not +come up at the moment of his interference, but had secretly observed +her sooner. As he saw that, she saw in his eye that her distrust was not +without foundation. + +'Really,' cried Mrs Skewton, who had taken this opportunity of +inspecting Mr Carker through her glass, and satisfying herself (as she +lisped audibly to the Major) that he was all heart; 'really now, this is +one of the most enchanting coincidences that I ever heard of. The idea! +My dearest Edith, there is such an obvious destiny in it, that really +one might almost be induced to cross one's arms upon one's frock, and +say, like those wicked Turks, there is no What's-his-name but Thingummy, +and What-you-may-call-it is his prophet!' + +Edith designed no revision of this extraordinary quotation from the +Koran, but Mr Dombey felt it necessary to offer a few polite remarks. + +'It gives me great pleasure,' said Mr Dombey, with cumbrous gallantry, +'that a gentleman so nearly connected with myself as Carker is, should +have had the honour and happiness of rendering the least assistance to +Mrs Granger.' Mr Dombey bowed to her. 'But it gives me some pain, and +it occasions me to be really envious of Carker;' he unconsciously laid +stress on these words, as sensible that they must appear to involve a +very surprising proposition; 'envious of Carker, that I had not that +honour and that happiness myself.' Mr Dombey bowed again. Edith, saving +for a curl of her lip, was motionless. + +'By the Lord, Sir,' cried the Major, bursting into speech at sight of +the waiter, who was come to announce breakfast, 'it's an extraordinary +thing to me that no one can have the honour and happiness of shooting +all such beggars through the head without being brought to book for +it. But here's an arm for Mrs Granger if she'll do J. B. the honour to +accept it; and the greatest service Joe can render you, Ma'am, just now, +is, to lead you into table!' + +With this, the Major gave his arm to Edith; Mr Dombey led the way with +Mrs Skewton; Mrs Carker went last, smiling on the party. + +'I am quite rejoiced, Mr Carker,' said the lady-mother, at breakfast, +after another approving survey of him through her glass, 'that you have +timed your visit so happily, as to go with us to-day. It is the most +enchanting expedition!' + +'Any expedition would be enchanting in such society,' returned Carker; +'but I believe it is, in itself, full of interest.' + +'Oh!' cried Mrs Skewton, with a faded little scream of rapture, +'the Castle is charming!--associations of the Middle Ages--and all +that--which is so truly exquisite. Don't you dote upon the Middle Ages, +Mr Carker?' + +'Very much, indeed,' said Mr Carker. + +'Such charming times!' cried Cleopatra. 'So full of faith! So vigorous +and forcible! So picturesque! So perfectly removed from commonplace! +Oh dear! If they would only leave us a little more of the poetry of +existence in these terrible days!' + +Mrs Skewton was looking sharp after Mr Dombey all the time she said +this, who was looking at Edith: who was listening, but who never lifted +up her eyes. + +'We are dreadfully real, Mr Carker,' said Mrs Skewton; 'are we not?' + +Few people had less reason to complain of their reality than Cleopatra, +who had as much that was false about her as could well go to the +composition of anybody with a real individual existence. But Mr Carker +commiserated our reality nevertheless, and agreed that we were very +hardly used in that regard. + +'Pictures at the Castle, quite divine!' said Cleopatra. 'I hope you dote +upon pictures?' + +'I assure you, Mrs Skewton,' said Mr Dombey, with solemn encouragement +of his Manager, 'that Carker has a very good taste for pictures; quite +a natural power of appreciating them. He is a very creditable artist +himself. He will be delighted, I am sure, with Mrs Granger's taste and +skill.' + +'Damme, Sir!' cried Major Bagstock, 'my opinion is, that you're the +admirable Carker, and can do anything.' + +'Oh!' smiled Carker, with humility, 'you are much too sanguine, Major +Bagstock. I can do very little. But Mr Dombey is so generous in his +estimation of any trivial accomplishment a man like myself may find it +almost necessary to acquire, and to which, in his very different +sphere, he is far superior, that--' Mr Carker shrugged his shoulders, +deprecating further praise, and said no more. + +All this time, Edith never raised her eyes, unless to glance towards +her mother when that lady's fervent spirit shone forth in words. But as +Carker ceased, she looked at Mr Dombey for a moment. For a moment only; +but with a transient gleam of scornful wonder on her face, not lost on +one observer, who was smiling round the board. + +Mr Dombey caught the dark eyelash in its descent, and took the +opportunity of arresting it. + +'You have been to Warwick often, unfortunately?' said Mr Dombey. + +'Several times.' + +'The visit will be tedious to you, I am afraid.' + +'Oh no; not at all.' + +'Ah! You are like your cousin Feenix, my dearest Edith,' said Mrs +Skewton. 'He has been to Warwick Castle fifty times, if he has been +there once; yet if he came to Leamington to-morrow--I wish he would, +dear angel!--he would make his fifty-second visit next day.' + +'We are all enthusiastic, are we not, Mama?' said Edith, with a cold +smile. + +'Too much so, for our peace, perhaps, my dear,' returned her mother; +'but we won't complain. Our own emotions are our recompense. If, as your +cousin Feenix says, the sword wears out the what's-its-name--' + +'The scabbard, perhaps,' said Edith. + +'Exactly--a little too fast, it is because it is bright and glowing, you +know, my dearest love.' + +Mrs Skewton heaved a gentle sigh, supposed to cast a shadow on the +surface of that dagger of lath, whereof her susceptible bosom was the +sheath: and leaning her head on one side, in the Cleopatra manner, +looked with pensive affection on her darling child. + +Edith had turned her face towards Mr Dombey when he first addressed her, +and had remained in that attitude, while speaking to her mother, and +while her mother spoke to her, as though offering him her attention, if +he had anything more to say. There was something in the manner of this +simple courtesy: almost defiant, and giving it the character of being +rendered on compulsion, or as a matter of traffic to which she was a +reluctant party again not lost upon that same observer who was smiling +round the board. It set him thinking of her as he had first seen her, +when she had believed herself to be alone among the trees. + +Mr Dombey having nothing else to say, proposed--the breakfast being +now finished, and the Major gorged, like any Boa Constrictor--that they +should start. A barouche being in waiting, according to the orders of +that gentleman, the two ladies, the Major and himself, took their seats +in it; the Native and the wan page mounted the box, Mr Towlinson being +left behind; and Mr Carker, on horseback, brought up the rear. + +Mr Carker cantered behind the carriage at the distance of a hundred yards +or so, and watched it, during all the ride, as if he were a cat, indeed, +and its four occupants, mice. Whether he looked to one side of the road, +or to the other--over distant landscape, with its smooth undulations, +wind-mills, corn, grass, bean fields, wild-flowers, farm-yards, hayricks, +and the spire among the wood--or upwards in the sunny air, where +butterflies were sporting round his head, and birds were pouring out +their songs--or downward, where the shadows of the branches interlaced, +and made a trembling carpet on the road--or onward, where the overhanging +trees formed aisles and arches, dim with the softened light that steeped +through leaves--one corner of his eye was ever on the formal head of Mr +Dombey, addressed towards him, and the feather in the bonnet, drooping +so neglectfully and scornfully between them; much as he had seen the +haughty eyelids droop; not least so, when the face met that now fronting +it. Once, and once only, did his wary glance release these objects; and +that was, when a leap over a low hedge, and a gallop across a field, +enabled him to anticipate the carriage coming by the road, and to be +standing ready, at the journey's end, to hand the ladies out. Then, and +but then, he met her glance for an instant in her first surprise; but +when he touched her, in alighting, with his soft white hand, it +overlooked him altogether as before. + +Mrs Skewton was bent on taking charge of Mr Carker herself, and showing +him the beauties of the Castle. She was determined to have his arm, and +the Major's too. It would do that incorrigible creature: who was the +most barbarous infidel in point of poetry: good to be in such company. +This chance arrangement left Mr Dombey at liberty to escort Edith: which +he did: stalking before them through the apartments with a gentlemanly +solemnity. + +'Those darling byegone times, Mr Carker,' said Cleopatra, 'with their +delicious fortresses, and their dear old dungeons, and their delightful +places of torture, and their romantic vengeances, and their picturesque +assaults and sieges, and everything that makes life truly charming! How +dreadfully we have degenerated!' + +'Yes, we have fallen off deplorably,' said Mr Carker. + +The peculiarity of their conversation was, that Mrs Skewton, in spite of +her ecstasies, and Mr Carker, in spite of his urbanity, were both +intent on watching Mr Dombey and Edith. With all their conversational +endowments, they spoke somewhat distractedly, and at random, in +consequence. + +'We have no Faith left, positively,' said Mrs Skewton, advancing her +shrivelled ear; for Mr Dombey was saying something to Edith. 'We have no +Faith in the dear old Barons, who were the most delightful creatures--or +in the dear old Priests, who were the most warlike of men--or even in +the days of that inestimable Queen Bess, upon the wall there, which were +so extremely golden. Dear creature! She was all Heart And that charming +father of hers! I hope you dote on Harry the Eighth!' + +'I admire him very much,' said Carker. + +'So bluff!' cried Mrs Skewton, 'wasn't he? So burly. So truly English. +Such a picture, too, he makes, with his dear little peepy eyes, and his +benevolent chin!' + +'Ah, Ma'am!' said Carker, stopping short; 'but if you speak of pictures, +there's a composition! What gallery in the world can produce the +counterpart of that?' + +As the smiling gentleman thus spake, he pointed through a doorway to +where Mr Dombey and Edith were standing alone in the centre of another +room. + +They were not interchanging a word or a look. Standing together, arm +in arm, they had the appearance of being more divided than if seas had +rolled between them. There was a difference even in the pride of the +two, that removed them farther from each other, than if one had been +the proudest and the other the humblest specimen of humanity in all +creation. He, self-important, unbending, formal, austere. She, lovely +and graceful, in an uncommon degree, but totally regardless of herself +and him and everything around, and spurning her own attractions with her +haughty brow and lip, as if they were a badge or livery she hated. So +unmatched were they, and opposed, so forced and linked together by a +chain which adverse hazard and mischance had forged: that fancy might +have imagined the pictures on the walls around them, startled by the +unnatural conjunction, and observant of it in their several expressions. +Grim knights and warriors looked scowling on them. A churchman, with his +hand upraised, denounced the mockery of such a couple coming to God's +altar. Quiet waters in landscapes, with the sun reflected in their +depths, asked, if better means of escape were not at hand, was there no +drowning left? Ruins cried, 'Look here, and see what We are, wedded to +uncongenial Time!' Animals, opposed by nature, worried one another, as a +moral to them. Loves and Cupids took to flight afraid, and Martyrdom had +no such torment in its painted history of suffering. + +Nevertheless, Mrs Skewton was so charmed by the sight to which Mr Carker +invoked her attention, that she could not refrain from saying, half +aloud, how sweet, how very full of soul it was! Edith, overhearing, +looked round, and flushed indignant scarlet to her hair. + +'My dearest Edith knows I was admiring her!' said Cleopatra, tapping +her, almost timidly, on the back with her parasol. 'Sweet pet!' + +Again Mr Carker saw the strife he had witnessed so unexpectedly among +the trees. Again he saw the haughty languor and indifference come over +it, and hide it like a cloud. + +She did not raise her eyes to him; but with a slight peremptory motion +of them, seemed to bid her mother come near. Mrs Skewton thought it +expedient to understand the hint, and advancing quickly, with her two +cavaliers, kept near her daughter from that time. + +Mr Carker now, having nothing to distract his attention, began to +discourse upon the pictures and to select the best, and point them +out to Mr Dombey: speaking with his usual familiar recognition of Mr +Dombey's greatness, and rendering homage by adjusting his eye-glass for +him, or finding out the right place in his catalogue, or holding his +stick, or the like. These services did not so much originate with Mr +Carker, in truth, as with Mr Dombey himself, who was apt to assert his +chieftainship by saying, with subdued authority, and in an easy way--for +him--'Here, Carker, have the goodness to assist me, will you?' which the +smiling gentleman always did with pleasure. + +They made the tour of the pictures, the walls, crow's nest, and so +forth; and as they were still one little party, and the Major was rather +in the shade: being sleepy during the process of digestion: Mr Carker +became communicative and agreeable. At first, he addressed himself for +the most part to Mrs Skewton; but as that sensitive lady was in such +ecstasies with the works of art, after the first quarter of an hour, +that she could do nothing but yawn (they were such perfect inspirations, +she observed as a reason for that mark of rapture), he transferred his +attentions to Mr Dombey. Mr Dombey said little beyond an occasional +'Very true, Carker,' or 'Indeed, Carker,' but he tacitly encouraged +Carker to proceed, and inwardly approved of his behaviour very much: +deeming it as well that somebody should talk, and thinking that +his remarks, which were, as one might say, a branch of the parent +establishment, might amuse Mrs Granger. Mr Carker, who possessed an +excellent discretion, never took the liberty of addressing that lady, +direct; but she seemed to listen, though she never looked at him; +and once or twice, when he was emphatic in his peculiar humility, the +twilight smile stole over her face, not as a light, but as a deep black +shadow. + +Warwick Castle being at length pretty well exhausted, and the Major very +much so: to say nothing of Mrs Skewton, whose peculiar demonstrations of +delight had become very frequent Indeed: the carriage was again put +in requisition, and they rode to several admired points of view in the +neighbourhood. Mr Dombey ceremoniously observed of one of these, that +a sketch, however slight, from the fair hand of Mrs Granger, would be a +remembrance to him of that agreeable day: though he wanted no artificial +remembrance, he was sure (here Mr Dombey made another of his bows), +which he must always highly value. Withers the lean having Edith's +sketch-book under his arm, was immediately called upon by Mrs Skewton +to produce the same: and the carriage stopped, that Edith might make the +drawing, which Mr Dombey was to put away among his treasures. + +'But I am afraid I trouble you too much,' said Mr Dombey. + +'By no means. Where would you wish it taken from?' she answered, turning +to him with the same enforced attention as before. + +Mr Dombey, with another bow, which cracked the starch in his cravat, +would beg to leave that to the Artist. + +'I would rather you chose for yourself,' said Edith. + +'Suppose then,' said Mr Dombey, 'we say from here. It appears a good +spot for the purpose, or--Carker, what do you think?' + +There happened to be in the foreground, at some little distance, a +grove of trees, not unlike that in which Mr Carker had made his chain +of footsteps in the morning, and with a seat under one tree, greatly +resembling, in the general character of its situation, the point where +his chain had broken. + +'Might I venture to suggest to Mrs Granger,' said Carker, 'that that is +an interesting--almost a curious--point of view?' + +She followed the direction of his riding-whip with her eyes, and raised +them quickly to his face. It was the second glance they had exchanged +since their introduction; and would have been exactly like the first, +but that its expression was plainer. + +'Will you like that?' said Edith to Mr Dombey. + +'I shall be charmed,' said Mr Dombey to Edith. + +Therefore the carriage was driven to the spot where Mr Dombey was to +be charmed; and Edith, without moving from her seat, and opening her +sketch-book with her usual proud indifference, began to sketch. + +'My pencils are all pointless,' she said, stopping and turning them +over. + +'Pray allow me,' said Mr Dombey. 'Or Carker will do it better, as he +understands these things. Carker, have the goodness to see to these +pencils for Mrs Granger.' + +Mr Carker rode up close to the carriage-door on Mrs Granger's side, and +letting the rein fall on his horse's neck, took the pencils from her +hand with a smile and a bow, and sat in the saddle leisurely mending +them. Having done so, he begged to be allowed to hold them, and to +hand them to her as they were required; and thus Mr Carker, with many +commendations of Mrs Granger's extraordinary skill--especially in +trees--remained--close at her side, looking over the drawing as she made +it. Mr Dombey in the meantime stood bolt upright in the carriage like a +highly respectable ghost, looking on too; while Cleopatra and the Major +dallied as two ancient doves might do. + +'Are you satisfied with that, or shall I finish it a little more?' said +Edith, showing the sketch to Mr Dombey. + +Mr Dombey begged that it might not be touched; it was perfection. + +'It is most extraordinary,' said Carker, bringing every one of his +red gums to bear upon his praise. 'I was not prepared for anything so +beautiful, and so unusual altogether.' + +This might have applied to the sketcher no less than to the sketch; but +Mr Carker's manner was openness itself--not as to his mouth alone, but +as to his whole spirit. So it continued to be while the drawing was laid +aside for Mr Dombey, and while the sketching materials were put up; +then he handed in the pencils (which were received with a distant +acknowledgment of his help, but without a look), and tightening his +rein, fell back, and followed the carriage again. + +Thinking, perhaps, as he rode, that even this trivial sketch had been +made and delivered to its owner, as if it had been bargained for and +bought. Thinking, perhaps, that although she had assented with such +perfect readiness to his request, her haughty face, bent over the +drawing, or glancing at the distant objects represented in it, had +been the face of a proud woman, engaged in a sordid and miserable +transaction. Thinking, perhaps, of such things: but smiling certainly, +and while he seemed to look about him freely, in enjoyment of the air +and exercise, keeping always that sharp corner of his eye upon the +carriage. + +A stroll among the haunted ruins of Kenilworth, and more rides to more +points of view: most of which, Mrs Skewton reminded Mr Dombey, Edith had +already sketched, as he had seen in looking over her drawings: brought +the day's expedition to a close. Mrs Skewton and Edith were driven to +their own lodgings; Mr Carker was graciously invited by Cleopatra to +return thither with Mr Dombey and the Major, in the evening, to hear +some of Edith's music; and the three gentlemen repaired to their hotel +to dinner. + +The dinner was the counterpart of yesterday's, except that the Major was +twenty-four hours more triumphant and less mysterious. Edith was toasted +again. Mr Dombey was again agreeably embarrassed. And Mr Carker was full +of interest and praise. + +There were no other visitors at Mrs Skewton's. Edith's drawings were +strewn about the room, a little more abundantly than usual perhaps; and +Withers, the wan page, handed round a little stronger tea. The harp +was there; the piano was there; and Edith sang and played. But even the +music was played by Edith to Mr Dombey's order, as it were, in the same +uncompromising way. As thus. + +'Edith, my dearest love,' said Mrs Skewton, half an hour after tea, 'Mr +Dombey is dying to hear you, I know.' + +'Mr Dombey has life enough left to say so for himself, Mama, I have no +doubt.' + +'I shall be immensely obliged,' said Mr Dombey. + +'What do you wish?' + +'Piano?' hesitated Mr Dombey. + +'Whatever you please. You have only to choose.' + +Accordingly, she began with the piano. It was the same with the harp; +the same with her singing; the same with the selection of the pieces +that she sang and played. Such frigid and constrained, yet prompt and +pointed acquiescence with the wishes he imposed upon her, and on no one +else, was sufficiently remarkable to penetrate through all the mysteries +of picquet, and impress itself on Mr Carker's keen attention. Nor did he +lose sight of the fact that Mr Dombey was evidently proud of his power, +and liked to show it. + +Nevertheless, Mr Carker played so well--some games with the Major, and +some with Cleopatra, whose vigilance of eye in respect of Mr Dombey and +Edith no lynx could have surpassed--that he even heightened his position +in the lady-mother's good graces; and when on taking leave he regretted +that he would be obliged to return to London next morning, Cleopatra +trusted: community of feeling not being met with every day: that it was +far from being the last time they would meet. + +'I hope so,' said Mr Carker, with an expressive look at the couple in +the distance, as he drew towards the door, following the Major. 'I think +so.' + +Mr Dombey, who had taken a stately leave of Edith, bent, or made some +approach to a bend, over Cleopatra's couch, and said, in a low voice: + +'I have requested Mrs Granger's permission to call on her to-morrow +morning--for a purpose--and she has appointed twelve o'clock. May I hope +to have the pleasure of finding you at home, Madam, afterwards?' + +Cleopatra was so much fluttered and moved, by hearing this, of course, +incomprehensible speech, that she could only shut her eyes, and shake +her head, and give Mr Dombey her hand; which Mr Dombey, not exactly +knowing what to do with, dropped. + +'Dombey, come along!' cried the Major, looking in at the door. 'Damme, +Sir, old Joe has a great mind to propose an alteration in the name of +the Royal Hotel, and that it should be called the Three Jolly Bachelors, +in honour of ourselves and Carker.' With this, the Major slapped Mr +Dombey on the back, and winking over his shoulder at the ladies, with a +frightful tendency of blood to the head, carried him off. + +Mrs Skewton reposed on her sofa, and Edith sat apart, by her harp, in +silence. The mother, trifling with her fan, looked stealthily at the +daughter more than once, but the daughter, brooding gloomily with +downcast eyes, was not to be disturbed. + +Thus they remained for a long hour, without a word, until Mrs Skewton's +maid appeared, according to custom, to prepare her gradually for night. +At night, she should have been a skeleton, with dart and hour-glass, +rather than a woman, this attendant; for her touch was as the touch +of Death. The painted object shrivelled underneath her hand; the form +collapsed, the hair dropped off, the arched dark eyebrows changed to +scanty tufts of grey; the pale lips shrunk, the skin became cadaverous +and loose; an old, worn, yellow, nodding woman, with red eyes, alone +remained in Cleopatra's place, huddled up, like a slovenly bundle, in a +greasy flannel gown. + +The very voice was changed, as it addressed Edith, when they were alone +again. + +'Why don't you tell me,' it said sharply, 'that he is coming here +to-morrow by appointment?' + +'Because you know it,' returned Edith, 'Mother.' + +The mocking emphasis she laid on that one word! + +'You know he has bought me,' she resumed. 'Or that he will, to-morrow. +He has considered of his bargain; he has shown it to his friend; he is +even rather proud of it; he thinks that it will suit him, and may be had +sufficiently cheap; and he will buy to-morrow. God, that I have lived +for this, and that I feel it!' + +Compress into one handsome face the conscious self-abasement, and the +burning indignation of a hundred women, strong in passion and in pride; +and there it hid itself with two white shuddering arms. + +'What do you mean?' returned the angry mother. 'Haven't you from a +child--' + +'A child!' said Edith, looking at her, 'when was I a child? What +childhood did you ever leave to me? I was a woman--artful, designing, +mercenary, laying snares for men--before I knew myself, or you, or even +understood the base and wretched aim of every new display I learnt You +gave birth to a woman. Look upon her. She is in her pride tonight.' + +And as she spoke, she struck her hand upon her beautiful bosom, as +though she would have beaten down herself. + +'Look at me,' she said, 'who have never known what it is to have an +honest heart, and love. Look at me, taught to scheme and plot when +children play; and married in my youth--an old age of design--to one +for whom I had no feeling but indifference. Look at me, whom he left a +widow, dying before his inheritance descended to him--a judgment on you! +well deserved!--and tell me what has been my life for ten years since.' + +'We have been making every effort to endeavour to secure to you a good +establishment,' rejoined her mother. 'That has been your life. And now +you have got it.' + +'There is no slave in a market: there is no horse in a fair: so shown +and offered and examined and paraded, Mother, as I have been, for ten +shameful years,' cried Edith, with a burning brow, and the same bitter +emphasis on the one word. 'Is it not so? Have I been made the bye-word +of all kinds of men? Have fools, have profligates, have boys, have +dotards, dangled after me, and one by one rejected me, and fallen off, +because you were too plain with all your cunning: yes, and too true, +with all those false pretences: until we have almost come to be +notorious? The licence of look and touch,' she said, with flashing eyes, +'have I submitted to it, in half the places of resort upon the map of +England? Have I been hawked and vended here and there, until the last +grain of self-respect is dead within me, and I loathe myself? Has been +my late childhood? I had none before. Do not tell me that I had, tonight +of all nights in my life!' + +'You might have been well married,' said her mother, 'twenty times at +least, Edith, if you had given encouragement enough.' + +'No! Who takes me, refuse that I am, and as I well deserve to be,' she +answered, raising her head, and trembling in her energy of shame and +stormy pride, 'shall take me, as this man does, with no art of mine put +forth to lure him. He sees me at the auction, and he thinks it well to +buy me. Let him! When he came to view me--perhaps to bid--he required to +see the roll of my accomplishments. I gave it to him. When he would have +me show one of them, to justify his purchase to his men, I require of +him to say which he demands, and I exhibit it. I will do no more. He +makes the purchase of his own will, and with his own sense of its worth, +and the power of his money; and I hope it may never disappoint him. I +have not vaunted and pressed the bargain; neither have you, so far as I +have been able to prevent you. + +'You talk strangely to-night, Edith, to your own Mother.' + +'It seems so to me; stranger to me than you,' said Edith. 'But my +education was completed long ago. I am too old now, and have fallen too +low, by degrees, to take a new course, and to stop yours, and to help +myself. The germ of all that purifies a woman's breast, and makes it +true and good, has never stirred in mine, and I have nothing else to +sustain me when I despise myself.' There had been a touching sadness in +her voice, but it was gone, when she went on to say, with a curled lip, +'So, as we are genteel and poor, I am content that we should be made +rich by these means; all I say is, I have kept the only purpose I have +had the strength to form--I had almost said the power, with you at my +side, Mother--and have not tempted this man on.' + +'This man! You speak,' said her mother, 'as if you hated him.' + +'And you thought I loved him, did you not?' she answered, stopping on +her way across the room, and looking round. 'Shall I tell you,' she +continued, with her eyes fixed on her mother, 'who already knows us +thoroughly, and reads us right, and before whom I have even less of +self-respect or confidence than before my own inward self; being so much +degraded by his knowledge of me?' + +'This is an attack, I suppose,' returned her mother coldly, 'on poor, +unfortunate what's-his-name--Mr Carker! Your want of self-respect and +confidence, my dear, in reference to that person (who is very agreeable, +it strikes me), is not likely to have much effect on your establishment. +Why do you look at me so hard? Are you ill?' + +Edith suddenly let fall her face, as if it had been stung, and while +she pressed her hands upon it, a terrible tremble crept over her whole +frame. It was quickly gone; and with her usual step, she passed out of +the room. + +The maid who should have been a skeleton, then reappeared, and giving +one arm to her mistress, who appeared to have taken off her manner +with her charms, and to have put on paralysis with her flannel gown, +collected the ashes of Cleopatra, and carried them away in the other, +ready for tomorrow's revivification. + + + +CHAPTER 28. Alterations + + +'So the day has come at length, Susan,' said Florence to the excellent +Nipper, 'when we are going back to our quiet home!' + +Susan drew in her breath with an amount of expression not easily +described, further relieving her feelings with a smart cough, answered, +'Very quiet indeed, Miss Floy, no doubt. Excessive so.' + +'When I was a child,' said Florence, thoughtfully, and after musing for +some moments, 'did you ever see that gentleman who has taken the trouble +to ride down here to speak to me, now three times--three times, I think, +Susan?' + +'Three times, Miss,' returned the Nipper. 'Once when you was out a +walking with them Sket--' + +Florence gently looked at her, and Miss Nipper checked herself. + +'With Sir Barnet and his lady, I mean to say, Miss, and the young +gentleman. And two evenings since then.' + +'When I was a child, and when company used to come to visit Papa, did +you ever see that gentleman at home, Susan?' asked Florence. + +'Well, Miss,' returned her maid, after considering, 'I really couldn't +say I ever did. When your poor dear Ma died, Miss Floy, I was very new +in the family, you see, and my element:' the Nipper bridled, as opining +that her merits had been always designedly extinguished by Mr Dombey: +'was the floor below the attics.' + +'To be sure,' said Florence, still thoughtfully; 'you are not likely to +have known who came to the house. I quite forgot.' + +'Not, Miss, but what we talked about the family and visitors,' said +Susan, 'and but what I heard much said, although the nurse before Mrs +Richards make unpleasant remarks when I was in company, and hint +at little Pitchers, but that could only be attributed, poor thing,' +observed Susan, with composed forbearance, 'to habits of intoxication, +for which she was required to leave, and did.' + +Florence, who was seated at her chamber window, with her face resting +on her hand, sat looking out, and hardly seemed to hear what Susan said, +she was so lost in thought. + +'At all events, Miss,' said Susan, 'I remember very well that this same +gentleman, Mr Carker, was almost, if not quite, as great a gentleman +with your Papa then, as he is now. It used to be said in the house then, +Miss, that he was at the head of all your Pa's affairs in the City, and +managed the whole, and that your Pa minded him more than anybody, which, +begging your pardon, Miss Floy, he might easy do, for he never minded +anybody else. I knew that, Pitcher as I might have been.' + +Susan Nipper, with an injured remembrance of the nurse before Mrs +Richards, emphasised 'Pitcher' strongly. + +'And that Mr Carker has not fallen off, Miss,' she pursued, 'but has +stood his ground, and kept his credit with your Pa, I know from what +is always said among our people by that Perch, whenever he comes to the +house; and though he's the weakest weed in the world, Miss Floy, and no +one can have a moment's patience with the man, he knows what goes on in +the City tolerable well, and says that your Pa does nothing without Mr +Carker, and leaves all to Mr Carker, and acts according to Mr Carker, +and has Mr Carker always at his elbow, and I do believe that he believes +(that washiest of Perches!) that after your Pa, the Emperor of India is +the child unborn to Mr Carker.' + +Not a word of this was lost on Florence, who, with an awakened interest +in Susan's speech, no longer gazed abstractedly on the prospect without, +but looked at her, and listened with attention. + +'Yes, Susan,' she said, when that young lady had concluded. 'He is in +Papa's confidence, and is his friend, I am sure.' + +Florence's mind ran high on this theme, and had done for some days. Mr +Carker, in the two visits with which he had followed up his first one, +had assumed a confidence between himself and her--a right on his part +to be mysterious and stealthy, in telling her that the ship was still +unheard of--a kind of mildly restrained power and authority over +her--that made her wonder, and caused her great uneasiness. She had +no means of repelling it, or of freeing herself from the web he was +gradually winding about her; for that would have required some art and +knowledge of the world, opposed to such address as his; and Florence had +none. True, he had said no more to her than that there was no news of +the ship, and that he feared the worst; but how he came to know that +she was interested in the ship, and why he had the right to signify +his knowledge to her, so insidiously and darkly, troubled Florence very +much. + +This conduct on the part of Mr Carker, and her habit of often +considering it with wonder and uneasiness, began to invest him with +an uncomfortable fascination in Florence's thoughts. A more distinct +remembrance of his features, voice, and manner: which she sometimes +courted, as a means of reducing him to the level of a real personage, +capable of exerting no greater charm over her than another: did not +remove the vague impression. And yet he never frowned, or looked upon +her with an air of dislike or animosity, but was always smiling and +serene. + +Again, Florence, in pursuit of her strong purpose with reference to +her father, and her steady resolution to believe that she was herself +unwittingly to blame for their so cold and distant relations, would +recall to mind that this gentleman was his confidential friend, and +would think, with an anxious heart, could her struggling tendency to +dislike and fear him be a part of that misfortune in her, which had +turned her father's love adrift, and left her so alone? She dreaded that +it might be; sometimes believed it was: then she resolved that she +would try to conquer this wrong feeling; persuaded herself that she was +honoured and encouraged by the notice of her father's friend; and hoped +that patient observation of him and trust in him would lead her bleeding +feet along that stony road which ended in her father's heart. + +Thus, with no one to advise her--for she could advise with no one +without seeming to complain against him--gentle Florence tossed on an +uneasy sea of doubt and hope; and Mr Carker, like a scaly monster of the +deep, swam down below, and kept his shining eye upon her. + +Florence had a new reason in all this for wishing to be at home again. +Her lonely life was better suited to her course of timid hope and doubt; +and she feared sometimes, that in her absence she might miss some +hopeful chance of testifying her affection for her father. Heaven knows, +she might have set her mind at rest, poor child! on this last point; but +her slighted love was fluttering within her, and, even in her sleep, it +flew away in dreams, and nestled, like a wandering bird come home, upon +her father's neck. + +Of Walter she thought often. Ah! how often, when the night was gloomy, +and the wind was blowing round the house! But hope was strong in her +breast. It is so difficult for the young and ardent, even with such +experience as hers, to imagine youth and ardour quenched like a weak +flame, and the bright day of life merging into night, at noon, that hope +was strong yet. Her tears fell frequently for Walter's sufferings; but +rarely for his supposed death, and never long. + +She had written to the old Instrument-maker, but had received no +answer to her note: which indeed required none. Thus matters stood with +Florence on the morning when she was going home, gladly, to her old +secluded life. + +Doctor and Mrs Blimber, accompanied (much against his will) by their +valued charge, Master Barnet, were already gone back to Brighton, where +that young gentleman and his fellow-pilgrims to Parnassus were then, no +doubt, in the continual resumption of their studies. The holiday time +was past and over; most of the juvenile guests at the villa had taken +their departure; and Florence's long visit was come to an end. + +There was one guest, however, albeit not resident within the house, who +had been very constant in his attentions to the family, and who still +remained devoted to them. This was Mr Toots, who after renewing, some +weeks ago, the acquaintance he had had the happiness of forming with +Skettles Junior, on the night when he burst the Blimberian bonds and +soared into freedom with his ring on, called regularly every other day, +and left a perfect pack of cards at the hall-door; so many indeed, that +the ceremony was quite a deal on the part of Mr Toots, and a hand at +whist on the part of the servant. + +Mr Toots, likewise, with the bold and happy idea of preventing the +family from forgetting him (but there is reason to suppose that +this expedient originated in the teeming brain of the Chicken), had +established a six-oared cutter, manned by aquatic friends of the +Chicken's and steered by that illustrious character in person, who wore +a bright red fireman's coat for the purpose, and concealed the perpetual +black eye with which he was afflicted, beneath a green shade. Previous +to the institution of this equipage, Mr Toots sounded the Chicken on a +hypothetical case, as, supposing the Chicken to be enamoured of a young +lady named Mary, and to have conceived the intention of starting a boat +of his own, what would he call that boat? The Chicken replied, with +divers strong asseverations, that he would either christen it Poll or +The Chicken's Delight. Improving on this idea, Mr Toots, after deep +study and the exercise of much invention, resolved to call his boat +The Toots's Joy, as a delicate compliment to Florence, of which no man +knowing the parties, could possibly miss the appreciation. + +Stretched on a crimson cushion in his gallant bark, with his shoes +in the air, Mr Toots, in the exercise of his project, had come up the +river, day after day, and week after week, and had flitted to and fro, +near Sir Barnet's garden, and had caused his crew to cut across and +across the river at sharp angles, for his better exhibition to any +lookers-out from Sir Barnet's windows, and had had such evolutions +performed by the Toots's Joy as had filled all the neighbouring part +of the water-side with astonishment. But whenever he saw anyone in Sir +Barnet's garden on the brink of the river, Mr Toots always feigned to be +passing there, by a combination of coincidences of the most singular and +unlikely description. + +'How are you, Toots?' Sir Barnet would say, waving his hand from the +lawn, while the artful Chicken steered close in shore. + +'How de do, Sir Barnet?' Mr Toots would answer, 'What a surprising thing +that I should see you here!' + +Mr Toots, in his sagacity, always said this, as if, instead of that +being Sir Barnet's house, it were some deserted edifice on the banks of +the Nile, or Ganges. + +'I never was so surprised!' Mr Toots would exclaim.--'Is Miss Dombey +there?' + +Whereupon Florence would appear, perhaps. + +'Oh, Diogenes is quite well, Miss Dombey,' Toots would cry. 'I called to +ask this morning.' + +'Thank you very much!' the pleasant voice of Florence would reply. + +'Won't you come ashore, Toots?' Sir Barnet would say then. 'Come! you're +in no hurry. Come and see us.' + +'Oh, it's of no consequence, thank you!' Mr Toots would blushingly +rejoin. 'I thought Miss Dombey might like to know, that's all. +Good-bye!' And poor Mr Toots, who was dying to accept the invitation, +but hadn't the courage to do it, signed to the Chicken, with an aching +heart, and away went the Joy, cleaving the water like an arrow. + +The Joy was lying in a state of extraordinary splendour, at the garden +steps, on the morning of Florence's departure. When she went downstairs +to take leave, after her talk with Susan, she found Mr Toots awaiting +her in the drawing-room. + +'Oh, how de do, Miss Dombey?' said the stricken Toots, always dreadfully +disconcerted when the desire of his heart was gained, and he was +speaking to her; 'thank you, I'm very well indeed, I hope you're the +same, so was Diogenes yesterday.' + +'You are very kind,' said Florence. + +'Thank you, it's of no consequence,' retorted Mr Toots. 'I thought +perhaps you wouldn't mind, in this fine weather, coming home by water, +Miss Dombey. There's plenty of room in the boat for your maid.' + +'I am very much obliged to you,' said Florence, hesitating. 'I really +am--but I would rather not.' + +'Oh, it's of no consequence,' retorted Mr Toots. 'Good morning.' + +'Won't you wait and see Lady Skettles?' asked Florence, kindly. + +'Oh no, thank you,' returned Mr Toots, 'it's of no consequence at all.' + +So shy was Mr Toots on such occasions, and so flurried! But Lady +Skettles entering at the moment, Mr Toots was suddenly seized with a +passion for asking her how she did, and hoping she was very well; nor +could Mr Toots by any possibility leave off shaking hands with her, +until Sir Barnet appeared: to whom he immediately clung with the +tenacity of desperation. + +'We are losing, today, Toots,' said Sir Barnet, turning towards +Florence, 'the light of our house, I assure you' + +'Oh, it's of no conseq--I mean yes, to be sure,' faltered the +embarrassed Mr Toots. 'Good morning!' + +Notwithstanding the emphatic nature of this farewell, Mr Toots, instead +of going away, stood leering about him, vacantly. Florence, to relieve +him, bade adieu, with many thanks, to Lady Skettles, and gave her arm to +Sir Barnet. + +'May I beg of you, my dear Miss Dombey,' said her host, as he conducted +her to the carriage, 'to present my best compliments to your dear Papa?' + +It was distressing to Florence to receive the commission, for she felt +as if she were imposing on Sir Barnet by allowing him to believe that a +kindness rendered to her, was rendered to her father. As she could not +explain, however, she bowed her head and thanked him; and again she +thought that the dull home, free from such embarrassments, and such +reminders of her sorrow, was her natural and best retreat. + +Such of her late friends and companions as were yet remaining at the +villa, came running from within, and from the garden, to say good-bye. +They were all attached to her, and very earnest in taking leave of +her. Even the household were sorry for her going, and the servants came +nodding and curtseying round the carriage door. As Florence looked round +on the kind faces, and saw among them those of Sir Barnet and his lady, +and of Mr Toots, who was chuckling and staring at her from a distance, +she was reminded of the night when Paul and she had come from Doctor +Blimber's: and when the carriage drove away, her face was wet with +tears. + +Sorrowful tears, but tears of consolation, too; for all the softer +memories connected with the dull old house to which she was returning +made it dear to her, as they rose up. How long it seemed since she had +wandered through the silent rooms: since she had last crept, softly and +afraid, into those her father occupied: since she had felt the solemn +but yet soothing influence of the beloved dead in every action of her +daily life! This new farewell reminded her, besides, of her parting +with poor Walter: of his looks and words that night: and of the gracious +blending she had noticed in him, of tenderness for those he left behind, +with courage and high spirit. His little history was associated with +the old house too, and gave it a new claim and hold upon her heart. + +Even Susan Nipper softened towards the home of so many years, as they +were on their way towards it. Gloomy as it was, and rigid justice as she +rendered to its gloom, she forgave it a great deal. 'I shall be glad to +see it again, I don't deny, Miss,' said the Nipper. 'There ain't much in +it to boast of, but I wouldn't have it burnt or pulled down, neither!' + +'You'll be glad to go through the old rooms, won't you, Susan?' said +Florence, smiling. + +'Well, Miss,' returned the Nipper, softening more and more towards the +house, as they approached it nearer, 'I won't deny but what I shall, +though I shall hate 'em again, to-morrow, very likely.' + +Florence felt that, for her, there was greater peace within it than +elsewhere. It was better and easier to keep her secret shut up there, +among the tall dark walls, than to carry it abroad into the light, and +try to hide it from a crowd of happy eyes. It was better to pursue the +study of her loving heart, alone, and find no new discouragements in +loving hearts about her. It was easier to hope, and pray, and love +on, all uncared for, yet with constancy and patience, in the tranquil +sanctuary of such remembrances: although it mouldered, rusted, and +decayed about her: than in a new scene, let its gaiety be what it would. +She welcomed back her old enchanted dream of life, and longed for the +old dark door to close upon her, once again. + +Full of such thoughts, they turned into the long and sombre street. +Florence was not on that side of the carriage which was nearest to her +home, and as the distance lessened between them and it, she looked out +of her window for the children over the way. + +She was thus engaged, when an exclamation from Susan caused her to turn +quickly round. + +'Why, Gracious me!' cried Susan, breathless, 'where's our house!' + +'Our house!' said Florence. + +Susan, drawing in her head from the window, thrust it out again, drew +it in again as the carriage stopped, and stared at her mistress in +amazement. + +There was a labyrinth of scaffolding raised all round the house, from +the basement to the roof. Loads of bricks and stones, and heaps of +mortar, and piles of wood, blocked up half the width and length of +the broad street at the side. Ladders were raised against the walls; +labourers were climbing up and down; men were at work upon the steps of +the scaffolding; painters and decorators were busy inside; great rolls +of ornamental paper were being delivered from a cart at the door; an +upholsterer's waggon also stopped the way; no furniture was to be seen +through the gaping and broken windows in any of the rooms; nothing but +workmen, and the implements of their several trades, swarming from +the kitchens to the garrets. Inside and outside alike: bricklayers, +painters, carpenters, masons: hammer, hod, brush, pickaxe, saw, and +trowel: all at work together, in full chorus! + +Florence descended from the coach, half doubting if it were, or could be +the right house, until she recognised Towlinson, with a sun-burnt face, +standing at the door to receive her. + +'There is nothing the matter?' inquired Florence. + +'Oh no, Miss.' + +'There are great alterations going on.' + +'Yes, Miss, great alterations,' said Towlinson. + +Florence passed him as if she were in a dream, and hurried upstairs. The +garish light was in the long-darkened drawing-room and there were steps +and platforms, and men in paper caps, in the high places. Her mother's +picture was gone with the rest of the moveables, and on the mark where +it had been, was scrawled in chalk, 'this room in panel. Green and +gold.' The staircase was a labyrinth of posts and planks like the +outside of the house, and a whole Olympus of plumbers and glaziers was +reclining in various attitudes, on the skylight. Her own room was not +yet touched within, but there were beams and boards raised against +it without, baulking the daylight. She went up swiftly to that other +bedroom, where the little bed was; and a dark giant of a man with a pipe +in his mouth, and his head tied up in a pocket-handkerchief, was staring +in at the window. + +It was here that Susan Nipper, who had been in quest of Florence, found +her, and said, would she go downstairs to her Papa, who wished to speak +to her. + +'At home! and wishing to speak to me!' cried Florence, trembling. + +Susan, who was infinitely more distraught than Florence herself, +repeated her errand; and Florence, pale and agitated, hurried down +again, without a moment's hesitation. She thought upon the way down, +would she dare to kiss him? The longing of her heart resolved her, and +she thought she would. + +Her father might have heard that heart beat, when it came into his +presence. One instant, and it would have beat against his breast. + +But he was not alone. There were two ladies there; and Florence stopped. +Striving so hard with her emotion, that if her brute friend Di had not +burst in and overwhelmed her with his caresses as a welcome home--at +which one of the ladies gave a little scream, and that diverted her +attention from herself--she would have swooned upon the floor. + +'Florence,' said her father, putting out his hand: so stiffly that it +held her off: 'how do you do?' + +Florence took the hand between her own, and putting it timidly to her +lips, yielded to its withdrawal. It touched the door in shutting it, +with quite as much endearment as it had touched her. + +'What dog is that?' said Mr Dombey, displeased. + +'It is a dog, Papa--from Brighton.' + +'Well!' said Mr Dombey; and a cloud passed over his face, for he +understood her. + +'He is very good-tempered,' said Florence, addressing herself with her +natural grace and sweetness to the two lady strangers. 'He is only glad +to see me. Pray forgive him.' + +She saw in the glance they interchanged, that the lady who had screamed, +and who was seated, was old; and that the other lady, who stood near her +Papa, was very beautiful, and of an elegant figure. + +'Mrs Skewton,' said her father, turning to the first, and holding out +his hand, 'this is my daughter Florence.' + +'Charming, I am sure,' observed the lady, putting up her glass. 'So +natural! My darling Florence, you must kiss me, if you please.' + +Florence having done so, turned towards the other lady, by whom her +father stood waiting. + +'Edith,' said Mr Dombey, 'this is my daughter Florence. Florence, this +lady will soon be your Mama.' + +Florence started, and looked up at the beautiful face in a conflict +of emotions, among which the tears that name awakened, struggled for a +moment with surprise, interest, admiration, and an indefinable sort of +fear. Then she cried out, 'Oh, Papa, may you be happy! may you be very, +very happy all your life!' and then fell weeping on the lady's bosom. + +There was a short silence. The beautiful lady, who at first had seemed +to hesitate whether or no she should advance to Florence, held her to +her breast, and pressed the hand with which she clasped her, close about +her waist, as if to reassure her and comfort her. Not one word passed +the lady's lips. She bent her head down over Florence, and she kissed +her on the cheek, but she said no word. + +'Shall we go on through the rooms,' said Mr Dombey, 'and see how our +workmen are doing? Pray allow me, my dear madam.' + +He said this in offering his arm to Mrs Skewton, who had been looking +at Florence through her glass, as though picturing to herself what she +might be made, by the infusion--from her own copious storehouse, no +doubt--of a little more Heart and Nature. Florence was still sobbing on +the lady's breast, and holding to her, when Mr Dombey was heard to say +from the Conservatory: + +'Let us ask Edith. Dear me, where is she?' + +'Edith, my dear!' cried Mrs Skewton, 'where are you? Looking for Mr +Dombey somewhere, I know. We are here, my love.' + +The beautiful lady released her hold of Florence, and pressing her lips +once more upon her face, withdrew hurriedly, and joined them. Florence +remained standing in the same place: happy, sorry, joyful, and in tears, +she knew not how, or how long, but all at once: when her new Mama came +back, and took her in her arms again. + +'Florence,' said the lady, hurriedly, and looking into her face with +great earnestness. 'You will not begin by hating me?' + +'By hating you, Mama?' cried Florence, winding her arm round her neck, +and returning the look. + +'Hush! Begin by thinking well of me,' said the beautiful lady. 'Begin by +believing that I will try to make you happy, and that I am prepared to +love you, Florence. Good-bye. We shall meet again soon. Good-bye! Don't +stay here, now.' + +Again she pressed her to her breast she had spoken in a rapid manner, +but firmly--and Florence saw her rejoin them in the other room. + +And now Florence began to hope that she would learn from her new and +beautiful Mama, how to gain her father's love; and in her sleep that +night, in her lost old home, her own Mama smiled radiantly upon the +hope, and blessed it. Dreaming Florence! + + + +CHAPTER 29. The Opening of the Eyes of Mrs Chick + + +Miss Tox, all unconscious of any such rare appearances in connexion with +Mr Dombey's house, as scaffoldings and ladders, and men with their heads +tied up in pocket-handkerchiefs, glaring in at the windows like flying +genii or strange birds,--having breakfasted one morning at about this +eventful period of time, on her customary viands; to wit, one French +roll rasped, one egg new laid (or warranted to be), and one little pot +of tea, wherein was infused one little silver scoopful of that herb +on behalf of Miss Tox, and one little silver scoopful on behalf of +the teapot--a flight of fancy in which good housekeepers delight; went +upstairs to set forth the bird waltz on the harpsichord, to water and +arrange the plants, to dust the nick-nacks, and, according to her daily +custom, to make her little drawing-room the garland of Princess's Place. + +Miss Tox endued herself with a pair of ancient gloves, like dead leaves, +in which she was accustomed to perform these avocations--hidden from +human sight at other times in a table drawer--and went methodically to +work; beginning with the bird waltz; passing, by a natural association +of ideas, to her bird--a very high-shouldered canary, stricken in years, +and much rumpled, but a piercing singer, as Princess's Place well knew; +taking, next in order, the little china ornaments, paper fly-cages, and +so forth; and coming round, in good time, to the plants, which generally +required to be snipped here and there with a pair of scissors, for some +botanical reason that was very powerful with Miss Tox. + + +Miss Tox was slow in coming to the plants, this morning. The weather was +warm, the wind southerly; and there was a sigh of the summer-time in +Princess's Place, that turned Miss Tox's thoughts upon the country. The +pot-boy attached to the Princess's Arms had come out with a can and +trickled water, in a flowering pattern, all over Princess's Place, and it +gave the weedy ground a fresh scent--quite a growing scent, Miss Tox +said. There was a tiny blink of sun peeping in from the great street +round the corner, and the smoky sparrows hopped over it and back again, +brightening as they passed: or bathed in it, like a stream, and became +glorified sparrows, unconnected with chimneys. Legends in praise of +Ginger-Beer, with pictorial representations of thirsty customers +submerged in the effervescence, or stunned by the flying corks, were +conspicuous in the window of the Princess's Arms. They were making late +hay, somewhere out of town; and though the fragrance had a long way to +come, and many counter fragrances to contend with among the dwellings of +the poor (may God reward the worthy gentlemen who stickle for the Plague +as part and parcel of the wisdom of our ancestors, and who do their +little best to keep those dwellings miserable!), yet it was wafted +faintly into Princess's Place, whispering of Nature and her wholesome +air, as such things will, even unto prisoners and captives, and those who +are desolate and oppressed, in very spite of aldermen and knights to +boot: at whose sage nod--and how they nod!--the rolling world stands +still! + +Miss Tox sat down upon the window-seat, and thought of her good Papa +deceased--Mr Tox, of the Customs Department of the public service; and +of her childhood, passed at a seaport, among a considerable quantity of +cold tar, and some rusticity. She fell into a softened remembrance of +meadows, in old time, gleaming with buttercups, like so many +inverted firmaments of golden stars; and how she had made chains of +dandelion-stalks for youthful vowers of eternal constancy, dressed +chiefly in nankeen; and how soon those fetters had withered and broken. + +Sitting on the window-seat, and looking out upon the sparrows and +the blink of sun, Miss Tox thought likewise of her good Mama +deceased--sister to the owner of the powdered head and pigtail--of her +virtues and her rheumatism. And when a man with bulgy legs, and a rough +voice, and a heavy basket on his head that crushed his hat into a mere +black muffin, came crying flowers down Princess's Place, making his +timid little roots of daisies shudder in the vibration of every yell +he gave, as though he had been an ogre, hawking little children, summer +recollections were so strong upon Miss Tox, that she shook her head, and +murmured she would be comparatively old before she knew it--which seemed +likely. + +In her pensive mood, Miss Tox's thoughts went wandering on Mr Dombey's +track; probably because the Major had returned home to his lodgings +opposite, and had just bowed to her from his window. What other reason +could Miss Tox have for connecting Mr Dombey with her summer days +and dandelion fetters? Was he more cheerful? thought Miss Tox. Was he +reconciled to the decrees of fate? Would he ever marry again? and if +yes, whom? What sort of person now! + +A flush--it was warm weather--overspread Miss Tox's face, as, while +entertaining these meditations, she turned her head, and was surprised +by the reflection of her thoughtful image in the chimney-glass. Another +flush succeeded when she saw a little carriage drive into Princess's +Place, and make straight for her own door. Miss Tox arose, took up her +scissors hastily, and so coming, at last, to the plants, was very busy +with them when Mrs Chick entered the room. + +'How is my sweetest friend!' exclaimed Miss Tox, with open arms. + +A little stateliness was mingled with Miss Tox's sweetest friend's +demeanour, but she kissed Miss Tox, and said, 'Lucretia, thank you, I am +pretty well. I hope you are the same. Hem!' + +Mrs Chick was labouring under a peculiar little monosyllabic cough; a +sort of primer, or easy introduction to the art of coughing. + +'You call very early, and how kind that is, my dear!' pursued Miss Tox. +'Now, have you breakfasted?' + +'Thank you, Lucretia,' said Mrs Chick, 'I have. I took an early +breakfast'--the good lady seemed curious on the subject of Princess's +Place, and looked all round it as she spoke--'with my brother, who has +come home.' + +'He is better, I trust, my love,' faltered Miss Tox. + +'He is greatly better, thank you. Hem!' + +'My dear Louisa must be careful of that cough' remarked Miss Tox. + +'It's nothing,' returned Mrs Chic 'It's merely change of weather. We +must expect change.' + +'Of weather?' asked Miss Tox, in her simplicity. + +'Of everything,' returned Mrs Chick. 'Of course we must. It's a world of +change. Anyone would surprise me very much, Lucretia, and would greatly +alter my opinion of their understanding, if they attempted to contradict +or evade what is so perfectly evident. Change!' exclaimed Mrs Chick, +with severe philosophy. 'Why, my gracious me, what is there that does +not change! even the silkworm, who I am sure might be supposed not to +trouble itself about such subjects, changes into all sorts of unexpected +things continually.' + +'My Louisa,' said the mild Miss Tox, 'is ever happy in her +illustrations.' + +'You are so kind, Lucretia,' returned Mrs Chick, a little softened, 'as +to say so, and to think so, I believe. I hope neither of us may ever +have any cause to lessen our opinion of the other, Lucretia.' + +'I am sure of it,' returned Miss Tox. + +Mrs Chick coughed as before, and drew lines on the carpet with the ivory +end of her parasol. Miss Tox, who had experience of her fair friend, and +knew that under the pressure of any slight fatigue or vexation she +was prone to a discursive kind of irritability, availed herself of the +pause, to change the subject. + +'Pardon me, my dear Louisa,' said Miss Tox, 'but have I caught sight of +the manly form of Mr Chick in the carriage?' + +'He is there,' said Mrs Chick, 'but pray leave him there. He has his +newspaper, and would be quite contented for the next two hours. Go on +with your flowers, Lucretia, and allow me to sit here and rest.' + +'My Louisa knows,' observed Miss Tox, 'that between friends like +ourselves, any approach to ceremony would be out of the question. +Therefore--' Therefore Miss Tox finished the sentence, not in words but +action; and putting on her gloves again, which she had taken off, and +arming herself once more with her scissors, began to snip and clip among +the leaves with microscopic industry. + +'Florence has returned home also,' said Mrs Chick, after sitting silent +for some time, with her head on one side, and her parasol sketching on +the floor; 'and really Florence is a great deal too old now, to continue +to lead that solitary life to which she has been accustomed. Of course +she is. There can be no doubt about it. I should have very little +respect, indeed, for anybody who could advocate a different opinion. +Whatever my wishes might be, I could not respect them. We cannot command +our feelings to such an extent as that.' + +Miss Tox assented, without being particular as to the intelligibility of +the proposition. + +'If she's a strange girl,' said Mrs Chick, 'and if my brother Paul +cannot feel perfectly comfortable in her society, after all the sad +things that have happened, and all the terrible disappointments that +have been undergone, then, what is the reply? That he must make an +effort. That he is bound to make an effort. We have always been a family +remarkable for effort. Paul is at the head of the family; almost the +only representative of it left--for what am I--I am of no consequence--' + +'My dearest love,' remonstrated Miss Tox. + +Mrs Chick dried her eyes, which were, for the moment, overflowing; and +proceeded: + +'And consequently he is more than ever bound to make an effort. And +though his having done so, comes upon me with a sort of shock--for mine +is a very weak and foolish nature; which is anything but a blessing I am +sure; I often wish my heart was a marble slab, or a paving-stone--' + +'My sweet Louisa,' remonstrated Miss Tox again. + +'Still, it is a triumph to me to know that he is so true to himself, and +to his name of Dombey; although, of course, I always knew he would be. +I only hope,' said Mrs Chick, after a pause, 'that she may be worthy of +the name too.' + +Miss Tox filled a little green watering-pot from a jug, and happening +to look up when she had done so, was so surprised by the amount of +expression Mrs Chick had conveyed into her face, and was bestowing upon +her, that she put the little watering-pot on the table for the present, +and sat down near it. + +'My dear Louisa,' said Miss Tox, 'will it be the least satisfaction to +you, if I venture to observe in reference to that remark, that I, as a +humble individual, think your sweet niece in every way most promising?' + +'What do you mean, Lucretia?' returned Mrs Chick, with increased +stateliness of manner. 'To what remark of mine, my dear, do you refer?' + +'Her being worthy of her name, my love,' replied Miss Tox. + +'If,' said Mrs Chick, with solemn patience, 'I have not expressed +myself with clearness, Lucretia, the fault of course is mine. There +is, perhaps, no reason why I should express myself at all, except the +intimacy that has subsisted between us, and which I very much hope, +Lucretia--confidently hope--nothing will occur to disturb. Because, why +should I do anything else? There is no reason; it would be absurd. But +I wish to express myself clearly, Lucretia; and therefore to go back +to that remark, I must beg to say that it was not intended to relate to +Florence, in any way.' + +'Indeed!' returned Miss Tox. + +'No,' said Mrs Chick shortly and decisively. + +'Pardon me, my dear,' rejoined her meek friend; 'but I cannot have +understood it. I fear I am dull.' + +Mrs Chick looked round the room and over the way; at the plants, at the +bird, at the watering-pot, at almost everything within view, except Miss +Tox; and finally dropping her glance upon Miss Tox, for a moment, on its +way to the ground, said, looking meanwhile with elevated eyebrows at the +carpet: + +'When I speak, Lucretia, of her being worthy of the name, I speak of my +brother Paul's second wife. I believe I have already said, in effect, +if not in the very words I now use, that it is his intention to marry a +second wife.' + +Miss Tox left her seat in a hurry, and returned to her plants; clipping +among the stems and leaves, with as little favour as a barber working at +so many pauper heads of hair. + +'Whether she will be fully sensible of the distinction conferred upon +her,' said Mrs Chick, in a lofty tone, 'is quite another question. +I hope she may be. We are bound to think well of one another in this +world, and I hope she may be. I have not been advised with myself. If +I had been advised with, I have no doubt my advice would have been +cavalierly received, and therefore it is infinitely better as it is. I +much prefer it as it is.' + +Miss Tox, with head bent down, still clipped among the plants. Mrs +Chick, with energetic shakings of her own head from time to time, +continued to hold forth, as if in defiance of somebody. + +'If my brother Paul had consulted with me, which he sometimes does--or +rather, sometimes used to do; for he will naturally do that no more now, +and this is a circumstance which I regard as a relief from +responsibility,' said Mrs Chick, hysterically, 'for I thank Heaven I am +not jealous--' here Mrs Chick again shed tears: 'if my brother Paul had +come to me, and had said, "Louisa, what kind of qualities would you +advise me to look out for, in a wife?" I should certainly have answered, +"Paul, you must have family, you must have beauty, you must have dignity, +you must have connexion." Those are the words I should have used. You +might have led me to the block immediately afterwards,' said Mrs Chick, +as if that consequence were highly probable, 'but I should have used +them. I should have said, "Paul! You to marry a second time without +family! You to marry without beauty! You to marry without dignity! You +to marry without connexion! There is nobody in the world, not mad, who +could dream of daring to entertain such a preposterous idea!"' + +Miss Tox stopped clipping; and with her head among the plants, listened +attentively. Perhaps Miss Tox thought there was hope in this exordium, +and the warmth of Mrs Chick. + +'I should have adopted this course of argument,' pursued the discreet +lady, 'because I trust I am not a fool. I make no claim to be considered +a person of superior intellect--though I believe some people have been +extraordinary enough to consider me so; one so little humoured as I am, +would very soon be disabused of any such notion; but I trust I am not a +downright fool. And to tell ME,' said Mrs Chick with ineffable disdain, +'that my brother Paul Dombey could ever contemplate the possibility of +uniting himself to anybody--I don't care who'--she was more sharp +and emphatic in that short clause than in any other part of her +discourse--'not possessing these requisites, would be to insult what +understanding I have got, as much as if I was to be told that I was born +and bred an elephant, which I may be told next,' said Mrs Chick, with +resignation. 'It wouldn't surprise me at all. I expect it.' + +In the moment's silence that ensued, Miss Tox's scissors gave a feeble +clip or two; but Miss Tox's face was still invisible, and Miss Tox's +morning gown was agitated. Mrs Chick looked sideways at her, through the +intervening plants, and went on to say, in a tone of bland conviction, +and as one dwelling on a point of fact that hardly required to be +stated: + +'Therefore, of course my brother Paul has done what was to be expected +of him, and what anybody might have foreseen he would do, if he entered +the marriage state again. I confess it takes me rather by surprise, +however gratifying; because when Paul went out of town I had no idea at +all that he would form any attachment out of town, and he certainly +had no attachment when he left here. However, it seems to be extremely +desirable in every point of view. I have no doubt the mother is a most +genteel and elegant creature, and I have no right whatever to dispute +the policy of her living with them: which is Paul's affair, not +mine--and as to Paul's choice, herself, I have only seen her picture +yet, but that is beautiful indeed. Her name is beautiful too,' said Mrs +Chick, shaking her head with energy, and arranging herself in her +chair; 'Edith is at once uncommon, as it strikes me, and distinguished. +Consequently, Lucretia, I have no doubt you will be happy to hear that +the marriage is to take place immediately--of course, you will:' great +emphasis again: 'and that you are delighted with this change in the +condition of my brother, who has shown you a great deal of pleasant +attention at various times.' + +Miss Tox made no verbal answer, but took up the little watering-pot +with a trembling hand, and looked vacantly round as if considering what +article of furniture would be improved by the contents. The room door +opening at this crisis of Miss Tox's feelings, she started, laughed +aloud, and fell into the arms of the person entering; happily insensible +alike of Mrs Chick's indignant countenance and of the Major at his +window over the way, who had his double-barrelled eye-glass in full +action, and whose face and figure were dilated with Mephistophelean joy. + +Not so the expatriated Native, amazed supporter of Miss Tox's swooning +form, who, coming straight upstairs, with a polite inquiry touching Miss +Tox's health (in exact pursuance of the Major's malicious instructions), +had accidentally arrived in the very nick of time to catch the +delicate burden in his arms, and to receive the contents of the little +watering-pot in his shoe; both of which circumstances, coupled with his +consciousness of being closely watched by the wrathful Major, who had +threatened the usual penalty in regard of every bone in his skin in case +of any failure, combined to render him a moving spectacle of mental and +bodily distress. + +For some moments, this afflicted foreigner remained clasping Miss Tox +to his heart, with an energy of action in remarkable opposition to his +disconcerted face, while that poor lady trickled slowly down upon him +the very last sprinklings of the little watering-pot, as if he were a +delicate exotic (which indeed he was), and might be almost expected to +blow while the gentle rain descended. Mrs Chick, at length recovering +sufficient presence of mind to interpose, commanded him to drop Miss Tox +upon the sofa and withdraw; and the exile promptly obeying, she applied +herself to promote Miss Tox's recovery. + +But none of that gentle concern which usually characterises the +daughters of Eve in their tending of each other; none of that +freemasonry in fainting, by which they are generally bound together in +a mysterious bond of sisterhood; was visible in Mrs Chick's demeanour. +Rather like the executioner who restores the victim to sensation +previous to proceeding with the torture (or was wont to do so, in the +good old times for which all true men wear perpetual mourning), did Mrs +Chick administer the smelling-bottle, the slapping on the hands, the +dashing of cold water on the face, and the other proved remedies. And +when, at length, Miss Tox opened her eyes, and gradually became restored +to animation and consciousness, Mrs Chick drew off as from a criminal, +and reversing the precedent of the murdered king of Denmark, regarded +her more in anger than in sorrow.' + +'Lucretia!' said Mrs Chick 'I will not attempt to disguise what I feel. +My eyes are opened, all at once. I wouldn't have believed this, if a +Saint had told it to me.' + +'I am foolish to give way to faintness,' Miss Tox faltered. 'I shall be +better presently.' + +'You will be better presently, Lucretia!' repeated Mrs Chick, with +exceeding scorn. 'Do you suppose I am blind? Do you imagine I am in my +second childhood? No, Lucretia! I am obliged to you!' + +Miss Tox directed an imploring, helpless kind of look towards her +friend, and put her handkerchief before her face. + +'If anyone had told me this yesterday,' said Mrs Chick, with majesty, +'or even half-an-hour ago, I should have been tempted, I almost believe, +to strike them to the earth. Lucretia Tox, my eyes are opened to you all +at once. The scales:' here Mrs Chick cast down an imaginary pair, such +as are commonly used in grocers' shops: 'have fallen from my sight. The +blindness of my confidence is past, Lucretia. It has been abused and +played, upon, and evasion is quite out of the question now, I assure +you.' + +'Oh! to what do you allude so cruelly, my love?' asked Miss Tox, through +her tears. + +'Lucretia,' said Mrs Chick, 'ask your own heart. I must entreat you not +to address me by any such familiar term as you have just used, if you +please. I have some self-respect left, though you may think otherwise.' + +'Oh, Louisa!' cried Miss Tox. 'How can you speak to me like that?' + +'How can I speak to you like that?' retorted Mrs Chick, who, in default +of having any particular argument to sustain herself upon, relied +principally on such repetitions for her most withering effects. 'Like +that! You may well say like that, indeed!' + +Miss Tox sobbed pitifully. + +'The idea!' said Mrs Chick, 'of your having basked at my brother's +fireside, like a serpent, and wound yourself, through me, almost into +his confidence, Lucretia, that you might, in secret, entertain designs +upon him, and dare to aspire to contemplate the possibility of his +uniting himself to you! Why, it is an idea,' said Mrs Chick, with +sarcastic dignity, 'the absurdity of which almost relieves its +treachery.' + +'Pray, Louisa,' urged Miss Tox, 'do not say such dreadful things.' + +'Dreadful things!' repeated Mrs Chick. 'Dreadful things! Is it not +a fact, Lucretia, that you have just now been unable to command your +feelings even before me, whose eyes you had so completely closed?' + +'I have made no complaint,' sobbed Miss Tox. 'I have said nothing. If I +have been a little overpowered by your news, Louisa, and have ever +had any lingering thought that Mr Dombey was inclined to be particular +towards me, surely you will not condemn me.' + +'She is going to say,' said Mrs Chick, addressing herself to the whole +of the furniture, in a comprehensive glance of resignation and appeal, +'She is going to say--I know it--that I have encouraged her!' + +'I don't wish to exchange reproaches, dear Louisa,' sobbed Miss Tox. 'Nor +do I wish to complain. But, in my own defence--' + +'Yes,' cried Mrs Chick, looking round the room with a prophetic smile, +'that's what she's going to say. I knew it. You had better say it. +Say it openly! Be open, Lucretia Tox,' said Mrs Chick, with desperate +sternness, 'whatever you are.' + +'In my own defence,' faltered Miss Tox, 'and only in my own defence +against your unkind words, my dear Louisa, I would merely ask you if you +haven't often favoured such a fancy, and even said it might happen, for +anything we could tell?' + +'There is a point,' said Mrs Chick, rising, not as if she were going to +stop at the floor, but as if she were about to soar up, high, into +her native skies, 'beyond which endurance becomes ridiculous, if not +culpable. I can bear much; but not too much. What spell was on me when I +came into this house this day, I don't know; but I had a presentiment--a +dark presentiment,' said Mrs Chick, with a shiver, 'that something was +going to happen. Well may I have had that foreboding, Lucretia, when my +confidence of many years is destroyed in an instant, when my eyes are +opened all at once, and when I find you revealed in your true colours. +Lucretia, I have been mistaken in you. It is better for us both that +this subject should end here. I wish you well, and I shall ever wish you +well. But, as an individual who desires to be true to herself in her own +poor position, whatever that position may be, or may not be--and as the +sister of my brother--and as the sister-in-law of my brother's wife--and +as a connexion by marriage of my brother's wife's mother--may I be +permitted to add, as a Dombey?--I can wish you nothing else but good +morning.' + +These words, delivered with cutting suavity, tempered and chastened by a +lofty air of moral rectitude, carried the speaker to the door. There she +inclined her head in a ghostly and statue-like manner, and so withdrew +to her carriage, to seek comfort and consolation in the arms of Mr +Chick, her lord. + +Figuratively speaking, that is to say; for the arms of Mr Chick were +full of his newspaper. Neither did that gentleman address his eyes +towards his wife otherwise than by stealth. Neither did he offer any +consolation whatever. In short, he sat reading, and humming fag ends +of tunes, and sometimes glancing furtively at her without delivering +himself of a word, good, bad, or indifferent. + +In the meantime Mrs Chick sat swelling and bridling, and tossing her +head, as if she were still repeating that solemn formula of farewell +to Lucretia Tox. At length, she said aloud, 'Oh the extent to which her +eyes had been opened that day!' + +'To which your eyes have been opened, my dear!' repeated Mr Chick. + +'Oh, don't talk to me!' said Mrs Chic 'if you can bear to see me in +this state, and not ask me what the matter is, you had better hold your +tongue for ever.' + +'What is the matter, my dear?' asked Mr Chick + +'To think,' said Mrs Chick, in a state of soliloquy, 'that she should +ever have conceived the base idea of connecting herself with our family +by a marriage with Paul! To think that when she was playing at horses +with that dear child who is now in his grave--I never liked it at the +time--she should have been hiding such a double-faced design! I +wonder she was never afraid that something would happen to her. She is +fortunate if nothing does.' + +'I really thought, my dear,' said Mr Chick slowly, after rubbing the +bridge of his nose for some time with his newspaper, 'that you had +gone on the same tack yourself, all along, until this morning; and had +thought it would be a convenient thing enough, if it could have been +brought about.' + +Mrs Chick instantly burst into tears, and told Mr Chick that if he +wished to trample upon her with his boots, he had better do It. + +'But with Lucretia Tox I have done,' said Mrs Chick, after abandoning +herself to her feelings for some minutes, to Mr Chick's great terror. +'I can bear to resign Paul's confidence in favour of one who, I hope and +trust, may be deserving of it, and with whom he has a perfect right to +replace poor Fanny if he chooses; I can bear to be informed, in Paul's +cool manner, of such a change in his plans, and never to be consulted +until all is settled and determined; but deceit I can not bear, and +with Lucretia Tox I have done. It is better as it is,' said Mrs Chick, +piously; 'much better. It would have been a long time before I could +have accommodated myself comfortably with her, after this; and I really +don't know, as Paul is going to be very grand, and these are people of +condition, that she would have been quite presentable, and might not +have compromised myself. There's a providence in everything; everything +works for the best; I have been tried today but on the whole I do not +regret it.' + +In which Christian spirit, Mrs Chick dried her eyes and smoothed her +lap, and sat as became a person calm under a great wrong. Mr Chick +feeling his unworthiness no doubt, took an early opportunity of being +set down at a street corner and walking away whistling, with his +shoulders very much raised, and his hands in his pockets. + +While poor excommunicated Miss Tox, who, if she were a fawner and +toad-eater, was at least an honest and a constant one, and had ever +borne a faithful friendship towards her impeacher and had been truly +absorbed and swallowed up in devotion to the magnificence of Mr +Dombey--while poor excommunicated Miss Tox watered her plants with her +tears, and felt that it was winter in Princess's Place. + + + +CHAPTER 30. The interval before the Marriage + + +Although the enchanted house was no more, and the working world had +broken into it, and was hammering and crashing and tramping up and +down stairs all day long keeping Diogenes in an incessant paroxysm of +barking, from sunrise to sunset--evidently convinced that his enemy +had got the better of him at last, and was then sacking the premises in +triumphant defiance--there was, at first, no other great change in the +method of Florence's life. At night, when the workpeople went away, the +house was dreary and deserted again; and Florence, listening to their +voices echoing through the hall and staircase as they departed, pictured +to herself the cheerful homes to which the were returning, and the +children who were waiting for them, and was glad to think that they were +merry and well pleased to go. + +She welcomed back the evening silence as an old friend, but it came now +with an altered face, and looked more kindly on her. Fresh hope was in +it. The beautiful lady who had soothed and carressed her, in the very +room in which her heart had been so wrung, was a spirit of promise +to her. Soft shadows of the bright life dawning, when her father's +affection should be gradually won, and all, or much should be restored, +of what she had lost on the dark day when a mother's love had faded with +a mother's last breath on her cheek, moved about her in the twilight and +were welcome company. Peeping at the rosy children her neighbours, it +was a new and precious sensation to think that they might soon speak +together and know each other; when she would not fear, as of old, to +show herself before them, lest they should be grieved to see her in her +black dress sitting there alone! + +In her thoughts of her new mother, and in the love and trust overflowing +her pure heart towards her, Florence loved her own dead mother more +and more. She had no fear of setting up a rival in her breast. The new +flower sprang from the deep-planted and long-cherished root, she knew. +Every gentle word that had fallen from the lips of the beautiful lady, +sounded to Florence like an echo of the voice long hushed and silent. +How could she love that memory less for living tenderness, when it was +her memory of all parental tenderness and love! + +Florence was, one day, sitting reading in her room, and thinking of +the lady and her promised visit soon--for her book turned on a kindred +subject--when, raising her eyes, she saw her standing in the doorway. + +'Mama!' cried Florence, joyfully meeting her. 'Come again!' + +'Not Mama yet,' returned the lady, with a serious smile, as she +encircled Florence's neck with her arm. + +'But very soon to be,' cried Florence. + +'Very soon now, Florence: very soon.' + +Edith bent her head a little, so as to press the blooming cheek of +Florence against her own, and for some few moments remained thus silent. +There was something so very tender in her manner, that Florence was even +more sensible of it than on the first occasion of their meeting. + +She led Florence to a chair beside her, and sat down: Florence looking +in her face, quite wondering at its beauty, and willingly leaving her +hand in hers. + +'Have you been alone, Florence, since I was here last?' + +'Oh yes!' smiled Florence, hastily. + +She hesitated and cast down her eyes; for her new Mama was very earnest +in her look, and the look was intently and thoughtfully fixed upon her +face. + +'I--I--am used to be alone,' said Florence. 'I don't mind it at all. Di +and I pass whole days together, sometimes.' Florence might have said, +whole weeks and months. + +'Is Di your maid, love?' + +'My dog, Mama,' said Florence, laughing. 'Susan is my maid.' + +'And these are your rooms,' said Edith, looking round. 'I was not shown +these rooms the other day. We must have them improved, Florence. They +shall be made the prettiest in the house.' + +'If I might change them, Mama,' returned Florence; 'there is one +upstairs I should like much better.' + +'Is this not high enough, dear girl?' asked Edith, smiling. + +'The other was my brother's room,' said Florence, 'and I am very fond of +it. I would have spoken to Papa about it when I came home, and found the +workmen here, and everything changing; but--' + +Florence dropped her eyes, lest the same look should make her falter +again. + +'but I was afraid it might distress him; and as you said you would be +here again soon, Mama, and are the mistress of everything, I determined +to take courage and ask you.' + +Edith sat looking at her, with her brilliant eyes intent upon her face, +until Florence raising her own, she, in her turn, withdrew her gaze, and +turned it on the ground. It was then that Florence thought how different +this lady's beauty was, from what she had supposed. She had thought it +of a proud and lofty kind; yet her manner was so subdued and gentle, +that if she had been of Florence's own age and character, it scarcely +could have invited confidence more. + +Except when a constrained and singular reserve crept over her; and then +she seemed (but Florence hardly understood this, though she could not +choose but notice it, and think about it) as if she were humbled before +Florence, and ill at ease. When she had said that she was not her Mama +yet, and when Florence had called her the mistress of everything there, +this change in her was quick and startling; and now, while the eyes of +Florence rested on her face, she sat as though she would have shrunk and +hidden from her, rather than as one about to love and cherish her, in +right of such a near connexion. + +She gave Florence her ready promise, about her new room, and said she +would give directions about it herself. She then asked some questions +concerning poor Paul; and when they had sat in conversation for some +time, told Florence she had come to take her to her own home. + +'We have come to London now, my mother and I,' said Edith, 'and you +shall stay with us until I am married. I wish that we should know and +trust each other, Florence.' + +'You are very kind to me,' said Florence, 'dear Mama. How much I thank +you!' + +'Let me say now, for it may be the best opportunity,' continued Edith, +looking round to see that they were quite alone, and speaking in a lower +voice, 'that when I am married, and have gone away for some weeks, +I shall be easier at heart if you will come home here. No matter who +invites you to stay elsewhere. Come home here. It is better to be alone +than--what I would say is,' she added, checking herself, 'that I know +well you are best at home, dear Florence.' + +'I will come home on the very day, Mama' + +'Do so. I rely on that promise. Now, prepare to come with me, dear girl. +You will find me downstairs when you are ready.' + +Slowly and thoughtfully did Edith wander alone through the mansion of +which she was so soon to be the lady: and little heed took she of all +the elegance and splendour it began to display. The same indomitable +haughtiness of soul, the same proud scorn expressed in eye and lip, the +same fierce beauty, only tamed by a sense of its own little worth, and +of the little worth of everything around it, went through the grand +saloons and halls, that had got loose among the shady trees, and raged +and rent themselves. The mimic roses on the walls and floors were set +round with sharp thorns, that tore her breast; in every scrap of gold +so dazzling to the eye, she saw some hateful atom of her purchase-money; +the broad high mirrors showed her, at full length, a woman with a noble +quality yet dwelling in her nature, who was too false to her better +self, and too debased and lost, to save herself. She believed that all +this was so plain, more or less, to all eyes, that she had no resource +or power of self-assertion but in pride: and with this pride, which +tortured her own heart night and day, she fought her fate out, braved +it, and defied it. + +Was this the woman whom Florence--an innocent girl, strong only in her +earnestness and simple truth--could so impress and quell, that by her +side she was another creature, with her tempest of passion hushed, and +her very pride itself subdued? Was this the woman who now sat beside her +in a carriage, with her arms entwined, and who, while she courted and +entreated her to love and trust her, drew her fair head to nestle on her +breast, and would have laid down life to shield it from wrong or harm? + +Oh, Edith! it were well to die, indeed, at such a time! Better and +happier far, perhaps, to die so, Edith, than to live on to the end! + +The Honourable Mrs Skewton, who was thinking of anything rather than +of such sentiments--for, like many genteel persons who have existed at +various times, she set her face against death altogether, and objected +to the mention of any such low and levelling upstart--had borrowed a +house in Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, from a stately relative (one +of the Feenix brood), who was out of town, and who did not object to +lending it, in the handsomest manner, for nuptial purposes, as the loan +implied his final release and acquittance from all further loans and +gifts to Mrs Skewton and her daughter. It being necessary for the credit +of the family to make a handsome appearance at such a time, Mrs Skewton, +with the assistance of an accommodating tradesman resident in the parish +of Mary-le-bone, who lent out all sorts of articles to the nobility and +gentry, from a service of plate to an army of footmen, clapped into this +house a silver-headed butler (who was charged extra on that account, as +having the appearance of an ancient family retainer), two very tall young +men in livery, and a select staff of kitchen-servants; so that a legend +arose, downstairs, that Withers the page, released at once from his +numerous household duties, and from the propulsion of the wheeled-chair +(inconsistent with the metropolis), had been several times observed +to rub his eyes and pinch his limbs, as if he misdoubted his having +overslept himself at the Leamington milkman's, and being still in a +celestial dream. A variety of requisites in plate and china being also +conveyed to the same establishment from the same convenient source, with +several miscellaneous articles, including a neat chariot and a pair +of bays, Mrs Skewton cushioned herself on the principal sofa, in the +Cleopatra attitude, and held her court in fair state. + +'And how,' said Mrs Skewton, on the entrance of her daughter and her +charge, 'is my charming Florence? You must come and kiss me, Florence, +if you please, my love.' + +Florence was timidly stooping to pick out a place in the white part of +Mrs Skewton's face, when that lady presented her ear, and relieved her +of her difficulty. + +'Edith, my dear,' said Mrs Skewton, 'positively, I--stand a little more +in the light, my sweetest Florence, for a moment.' + +Florence blushingly complied. + +'You don't remember, dearest Edith,' said her mother, 'what you were +when you were about the same age as our exceedingly precious Florence, +or a few years younger?' + +'I have long forgotten, mother.' + +'For positively, my dear,' said Mrs Skewton, 'I do think that I see a +decided resemblance to what you were then, in our extremely fascinating +young friend. And it shows,' said Mrs Skewton, in a lower voice, which +conveyed her opinion that Florence was in a very unfinished state, 'what +cultivation will do.' + +'It does, indeed,' was Edith's stern reply. + +Her mother eyed her sharply for a moment, and feeling herself on unsafe +ground, said, as a diversion: + +'My charming Florence, you must come and kiss me once more, if you +please, my love.' + +Florence complied, of course, and again imprinted her lips on Mrs +Skewton's ear. + +'And you have heard, no doubt, my darling pet,' said Mrs Skewton, +detaining her hand, 'that your Papa, whom we all perfectly adore and +dote upon, is to be married to my dearest Edith this day week.' + +'I knew it would be very soon,' returned Florence, 'but not exactly +when.' + +'My darling Edith,' urged her mother, gaily, 'is it possible you have +not told Florence?' + +'Why should I tell Florence?' she returned, so suddenly and harshly, +that Florence could scarcely believe it was the same voice. + +Mrs Skewton then told Florence, as another and safer diversion, that her +father was coming to dinner, and that he would no doubt be charmingly +surprised to see her; as he had spoken last night of dressing in the +City, and had known nothing of Edith's design, the execution of which, +according to Mrs Skewton's expectation, would throw him into a perfect +ecstasy. Florence was troubled to hear this; and her distress became so +keen, as the dinner-hour approached, that if she had known how to frame +an entreaty to be suffered to return home, without involving her father +in her explanation, she would have hurried back on foot, bareheaded, +breathless, and alone, rather than incur the risk of meeting his +displeasure. + +As the time drew nearer, she could hardly breathe. She dared not +approach a window, lest he should see her from the street. She dared not +go upstairs to hide her emotion, lest, in passing out at the door, she +should meet him unexpectedly; besides which dread, she felt as though +she never could come back again if she were summoned to his presence. +In this conflict of fears; she was sitting by Cleopatra's couch, +endeavouring to understand and to reply to the bald discourse of that +lady, when she heard his foot upon the stair. + +'I hear him now!' cried Florence, starting. 'He is coming!' + +Cleopatra, who in her juvenility was always playfully disposed, and who +in her self-engrossment did not trouble herself about the nature of this +agitation, pushed Florence behind her couch, and dropped a shawl over +her, preparatory to giving Mr Dombey a rapture of surprise. It was so +quickly done, that in a moment Florence heard his awful step in the +room. + +He saluted his intended mother-in-law, and his intended bride. The +strange sound of his voice thrilled through the whole frame of his +child. + +'My dear Dombey,' said Cleopatra, 'come here and tell me how your pretty +Florence is.' + +'Florence is very well,' said Mr Dombey, advancing towards the couch. + +'At home?' + +'At home,' said Mr Dombey. + +'My dear Dombey,' returned Cleopatra, with bewitching vivacity; 'now are +you sure you are not deceiving me? I don't know what my dearest Edith +will say to me when I make such a declaration, but upon my honour I am +afraid you are the falsest of men, my dear Dombey.' + +Though he had been; and had been detected on the spot, in the most +enormous falsehood that was ever said or done; he could hardly have been +more disconcerted than he was, when Mrs Skewton plucked the shawl away, +and Florence, pale and trembling, rose before him like a ghost. He had +not yet recovered his presence of mind, when Florence had run up to him, +clasped her hands round his neck, kissed his face, and hurried out of +the room. He looked round as if to refer the matter to somebody else, +but Edith had gone after Florence, instantly. + +'Now, confess, my dear Dombey,' said Mrs Skewton, giving him her hand, +'that you never were more surprised and pleased in your life.' + +'I never was more surprised,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Nor pleased, my dearest Dombey?' returned Mrs Skewton, holding up her +fan. + +'I--yes, I am exceedingly glad to meet Florence here,' said Mr Dombey. +He appeared to consider gravely about it for a moment, and then said, +more decidedly, 'Yes, I really am very glad indeed to meet Florence +here.' + +'You wonder how she comes here?' said Mrs Skewton, 'don't you?' + +'Edith, perhaps--' suggested Mr Dombey. + +'Ah! wicked guesser!' replied Cleopatra, shaking her head. 'Ah! cunning, +cunning man! One shouldn't tell these things; your sex, my dear Dombey, +are so vain, and so apt to abuse our weakness; but you know my open +soul--very well; immediately.' + +This was addressed to one of the very tall young men who announced +dinner. + +'But Edith, my dear Dombey,' she continued in a whisper, 'when she +cannot have you near her--and as I tell her, she cannot expect that +always--will at least have near her something or somebody belonging to +you. Well, how extremely natural that is! And in this spirit, nothing +would keep her from riding off to-day to fetch our darling Florence. +Well, how excessively charming that is!' + +As she waited for an answer, Mr Dombey answered, 'Eminently so.' + +'Bless you, my dear Dombey, for that proof of heart!' cried Cleopatra, +squeezing his hand. 'But I am growing too serious! Take me downstairs, +like an angel, and let us see what these people intend to give us for +dinner. Bless you, dear Dombey!' + +Cleopatra skipping off her couch with tolerable briskness, after +the last benediction, Mr Dombey took her arm in his and led her +ceremoniously downstairs; one of the very tall young men on hire, whose +organ of veneration was imperfectly developed, thrusting his tongue into +his cheek, for the entertainment of the other very tall young man on +hire, as the couple turned into the dining-room. + +Florence and Edith were already there, and sitting side by side. +Florence would have risen when her father entered, to resign her chair +to him; but Edith openly put her hand upon her arm, and Mr Dombey took +an opposite place at the round table. + +The conversation was almost entirely sustained by Mrs Skewton. Florence +hardly dared to raise her eyes, lest they should reveal the traces of +tears; far less dared to speak; and Edith never uttered one word, +unless in answer to a question. Verily, Cleopatra worked hard, for the +establishment that was so nearly clutched; and verily it should have +been a rich one to reward her! + +'And so your preparations are nearly finished at last, my dear Dombey?' +said Cleopatra, when the dessert was put upon the table, and the +silver-headed butler had withdrawn. 'Even the lawyers' preparations!' + +'Yes, madam,' replied Mr Dombey; 'the deed of settlement, the +professional gentlemen inform me, is now ready, and as I was mentioning +to you, Edith has only to do us the favour to suggest her own time for +its execution.' + +Edith sat like a handsome statue; as cold, as silent, and as still. + +'My dearest love,' said Cleopatra, 'do you hear what Mr Dombey says? Ah, +my dear Dombey!' aside to that gentleman, 'how her absence, as the +time approaches, reminds me of the days, when that most agreeable of +creatures, her Papa, was in your situation!' + +'I have nothing to suggest. It shall be when you please,' said Edith, +scarcely looking over the table at Mr Dombey. + +'To-morrow?' suggested Mr Dombey. + +'If you please.' + +'Or would next day,' said Mr Dombey, 'suit your engagements better?' + +'I have no engagements. I am always at your disposal. Let it be when you +like.' + +'No engagements, my dear Edith!' remonstrated her mother, 'when you are +in a most terrible state of flurry all day long, and have a thousand and +one appointments with all sorts of trades-people!' + +'They are of your making,' returned Edith, turning on her with a slight +contraction of her brow. 'You and Mr Dombey can arrange between you.' + +'Very true indeed, my love, and most considerate of you!' said +Cleopatra. 'My darling Florence, you must really come and kiss me once +more, if you please, my dear!' + +Singular coincidence, that these gushes of interest in Florence hurried +Cleopatra away from almost every dialogue in which Edith had a share, +however trifling! Florence had certainly never undergone so much +embracing, and perhaps had never been, unconsciously, so useful in her +life. + +Mr Dombey was far from quarrelling, in his own breast, with the manner +of his beautiful betrothed. He had that good reason for sympathy +with haughtiness and coldness, which is found in a fellow-feeling. It +flattered him to think how these deferred to him, in Edith's case, and +seemed to have no will apart from his. It flattered him to picture to +himself, this proud and stately woman doing the honours of his house, +and chilling his guests after his own manner. The dignity of Dombey and +Son would be heightened and maintained, indeed, in such hands. + +So thought Mr Dombey, when he was left alone at the dining-table, and +mused upon his past and future fortunes: finding no uncongeniality in an +air of scant and gloomy state that pervaded the room, in colour a +dark brown, with black hatchments of pictures blotching the walls, and +twenty-four black chairs, with almost as many nails in them as so many +coffins, waiting like mutes, upon the threshold of the Turkey carpet; +and two exhausted negroes holding up two withered branches of candelabra +on the sideboard, and a musty smell prevailing as if the ashes of ten +thousand dinners were entombed in the sarcophagus below it. The owner of +the house lived much abroad; the air of England seldom agreed long with +a member of the Feenix family; and the room had gradually put itself +into deeper and still deeper mourning for him, until it was become so +funereal as to want nothing but a body in it to be quite complete. + +No bad representation of the body, for the nonce, in his unbending form, +if not in his attitude, Mr Dombey looked down into the cold depths of +the dead sea of mahogany on which the fruit dishes and decanters lay +at anchor: as if the subjects of his thoughts were rising towards the +surface one by one, and plunging down again. Edith was there in all her +majesty of brow and figure; and close to her came Florence, with her +timid head turned to him, as it had been, for an instant, when she +left the room; and Edith's eyes upon her, and Edith's hand put out +protectingly. A little figure in a low arm-chair came springing next +into the light, and looked upon him wonderingly, with its bright eyes +and its old-young face, gleaming as in the flickering of an evening +fire. Again came Florence close upon it, and absorbed his whole +attention. Whether as a fore-doomed difficulty and disappointment to +him; whether as a rival who had crossed him in his way, and might again; +whether as his child, of whom, in his successful wooing, he could +stoop to think as claiming, at such a time, to be no more estranged; or +whether as a hint to him that the mere appearance of caring for his +own blood should be maintained in his new relations; he best knew. +Indifferently well, perhaps, at best; for marriage company and marriage +altars, and ambitious scenes--still blotted here and there with +Florence--always Florence--turned up so fast, and so confusedly, that he +rose, and went upstairs to escape them. + +It was quite late at night before candles were brought; for at present +they made Mrs Skewton's head ache, she complained; and in the meantime +Florence and Mrs Skewton talked together (Cleopatra being very anxious +to keep her close to herself), or Florence touched the piano softly +for Mrs Skewton's delight; to make no mention of a few occasions in +the course of the evening, when that affectionate lady was impelled to +solicit another kiss, and which always happened after Edith had said +anything. They were not many, however, for Edith sat apart by an open +window during the whole time (in spite of her mother's fears that she +would take cold), and remained there until Mr Dombey took leave. He was +serenely gracious to Florence when he did so; and Florence went to bed +in a room within Edith's, so happy and hopeful, that she thought of +her late self as if it were some other poor deserted girl who was to be +pitied for her sorrow; and in her pity, sobbed herself to sleep. + +The week fled fast. There were drives to milliners, dressmakers, +jewellers, lawyers, florists, pastry-cooks; and Florence was always of +the party. Florence was to go to the wedding. Florence was to cast +off her mourning, and to wear a brilliant dress on the occasion. The +milliner's intentions on the subject of this dress--the milliner was +a Frenchwoman, and greatly resembled Mrs Skewton--were so chaste and +elegant, that Mrs Skewton bespoke one like it for herself. The milliner +said it would become her to admiration, and that all the world would +take her for the young lady's sister. + +The week fled faster. Edith looked at nothing and cared for nothing. Her +rich dresses came home, and were tried on, and were loudly commended +by Mrs Skewton and the milliners, and were put away without a word from +her. Mrs Skewton made their plans for every day, and executed them. +Sometimes Edith sat in the carriage when they went to make purchases; +sometimes, when it was absolutely necessary, she went into the shops. +But Mrs Skewton conducted the whole business, whatever it happened +to be; and Edith looked on as uninterested and with as much apparent +indifference as if she had no concern in it. Florence might perhaps have +thought she was haughty and listless, but that she was never so to her. +So Florence quenched her wonder in her gratitude whenever it broke out, +and soon subdued it. + +The week fled faster. It had nearly winged its flight away. The last +night of the week, the night before the marriage, was come. In the dark +room--for Mrs Skewton's head was no better yet, though she expected to +recover permanently to-morrow--were that lady, Edith, and Mr Dombey. +Edith was at her open window looking out into the street; Mr Dombey +and Cleopatra were talking softly on the sofa. It was growing late; and +Florence, being fatigued, had gone to bed. + +'My dear Dombey,' said Cleopatra, 'you will leave me Florence to-morrow, +when you deprive me of my sweetest Edith.' + +Mr Dombey said he would, with pleasure. + +'To have her about me, here, while you are both at Paris, and to +think at her age, I am assisting in the formation of her mind, my dear +Dombey,' said Cleopatra, 'will be a perfect balm to me in the extremely +shattered state to which I shall be reduced.' + +Edith turned her head suddenly. Her listless manner was exchanged, in +a moment, to one of burning interest, and, unseen in the darkness, she +attended closely to their conversation. + +Mr Dombey would be delighted to leave Florence in such admirable +guardianship. + +'My dear Dombey,' returned Cleopatra, 'a thousand thanks for your good +opinion. I feared you were going, with malice aforethought, as the +dreadful lawyers say--those horrid prosers!--to condemn me to utter +solitude.' + +'Why do me so great an injustice, my dear madam?' said Mr Dombey. + +'Because my charming Florence tells me so positively she must go home +tomorrow, returned Cleopatra, that I began to be afraid, my dearest +Dombey, you were quite a Bashaw.' + +'I assure you, madam!' said Mr Dombey, 'I have laid no commands on +Florence; and if I had, there are no commands like your wish.' + +'My dear Dombey,' replied Cleopatra, what a courtier you are! Though +I'll not say so, either; for courtiers have no heart, and yours pervades +your farming life and character. And are you really going so early, my +dear Dombey!' + +Oh, indeed! it was late, and Mr Dombey feared he must. + +'Is this a fact, or is it all a dream!' lisped Cleopatra. 'Can I +believe, my dearest Dombey, that you are coming back tomorrow morning to +deprive me of my sweet companion; my own Edith!' + +Mr Dombey, who was accustomed to take things literally, reminded Mrs +Skewton that they were to meet first at the church. + +'The pang,' said Mrs Skewton, 'of consigning a child, even to you, my +dear Dombey, is one of the most excruciating imaginable, and combined +with a naturally delicate constitution, and the extreme stupidity of the +pastry-cook who has undertaken the breakfast, is almost too much for my +poor strength. But I shall rally, my dear Dombey, in the morning; do not +fear for me, or be uneasy on my account. Heaven bless you! My dearest +Edith!' she cried archly. 'Somebody is going, pet.' + +Edith, who had turned her head again towards the window, and whose +interest in their conversation had ceased, rose up in her place, but +made no advance towards him, and said nothing. Mr Dombey, with a lofty +gallantry adapted to his dignity and the occasion, betook his creaking +boots towards her, put her hand to his lips, said, 'Tomorrow morning +I shall have the happiness of claiming this hand as Mrs Dombey's,' and +bowed himself solemnly out. + +Mrs Skewton rang for candles as soon as the house-door had closed upon +him. With the candles appeared her maid, with the juvenile dress that +was to delude the world to-morrow. The dress had savage retribution in +it, as such dresses ever have, and made her infinitely older and more +hideous than her greasy flannel gown. But Mrs Skewton tried it on with +mincing satisfaction; smirked at her cadaverous self in the glass, as +she thought of its killing effect upon the Major; and suffering her maid +to take it off again, and to prepare her for repose, tumbled into ruins +like a house of painted cards. + +All this time, Edith remained at the dark window looking out into the +street. When she and her mother were at last left alone, she moved +from it for the first time that evening, and came opposite to her. The +yawning, shaking, peevish figure of the mother, with her eyes raised to +confront the proud erect form of the daughter, whose glance of fire was +bent downward upon her, had a conscious air upon it, that no levity or +temper could conceal. + +'I am tired to death,' said she. 'You can't be trusted for a moment. You +are worse than a child. Child! No child would be half so obstinate and +undutiful.' + +'Listen to me, mother,' returned Edith, passing these words by with a +scorn that would not descend to trifle with them. 'You must remain alone +here until I return.' + +'Must remain alone here, Edith, until you return!' repeated her mother. + +'Or in that name upon which I shall call to-morrow to witness what I do, +so falsely: and so shamefully, I swear I will refuse the hand of this +man in the church. If I do not, may I fall dead upon the pavement!' + +The mother answered with a look of quick alarm, in no degree diminished +by the look she met. + +'It is enough,' said Edith, steadily, 'that we are what we are. I +will have no youth and truth dragged down to my level. I will have no +guileless nature undermined, corrupted, and perverted, to amuse the +leisure of a world of mothers. You know my meaning. Florence must go +home.' + +'You are an idiot, Edith,' cried her angry mother. 'Do you expect there +can ever be peace for you in that house, till she is married, and away?' + +'Ask me, or ask yourself, if I ever expect peace in that house,' said +her daughter, 'and you know the answer.' + +'And am I to be told to-night, after all my pains and labour, and when +you are going, through me, to be rendered independent,' her mother +almost shrieked in her passion, while her palsied head shook like a +leaf, 'that there is corruption and contagion in me, and that I am not +fit company for a girl! What are you, pray? What are you?' + +'I have put the question to myself,' said Edith, ashy pale, and pointing +to the window, 'more than once when I have been sitting there, and +something in the faded likeness of my sex has wandered past outside; and +God knows I have met with my reply. Oh mother, mother, if you had but +left me to my natural heart when I too was a girl--a younger girl than +Florence--how different I might have been!' + +Sensible that any show of anger was useless here, her mother restrained +herself, and fell a whimpering, and bewailed that she had lived too +long, and that her only child had cast her off, and that duty towards +parents was forgotten in these evil days, and that she had heard +unnatural taunts, and cared for life no longer. + +'If one is to go on living through continual scenes like this,' she +whined, 'I am sure it would be much better for me to think of some +means of putting an end to my existence. Oh! The idea of your being my +daughter, Edith, and addressing me in such a strain!' + +'Between us, mother,' returned Edith, mournfully, 'the time for mutual +reproaches is past.' + +'Then why do you revive it?' whimpered her mother. 'You know that you +are lacerating me in the cruellest manner. You know how sensitive I am +to unkindness. At such a moment, too, when I have so much to think of, +and am naturally anxious to appear to the best advantage! I wonder at +you, Edith. To make your mother a fright upon your wedding-day!' + +Edith bent the same fixed look upon her, as she sobbed and rubbed her +eyes; and said in the same low steady voice, which had neither risen nor +fallen since she first addressed her, 'I have said that Florence must go +home.' + +'Let her go!' cried the afflicted and affrighted parent, hastily. 'I am +sure I am willing she should go. What is the girl to me?' + +'She is so much to me, that rather than communicate, or suffer to be +communicated to her, one grain of the evil that is in my breast, mother, +I would renounce you, as I would (if you gave me cause) renounce him in +the church to-morrow,' replied Edith. 'Leave her alone. She shall not, +while I can interpose, be tampered with and tainted by the lessons I +have learned. This is no hard condition on this bitter night.' + +'If you had proposed it in a filial manner, Edith,' whined her mother, +'perhaps not; very likely not. But such extremely cutting words--' + +'They are past and at an end between us now,' said Edith. 'Take your own +way, mother; share as you please in what you have gained; spend, enjoy, +make much of it; and be as happy as you will. The object of our lives +is won. Henceforth let us wear it silently. My lips are closed upon the +past from this hour. I forgive you your part in to-morrow's wickedness. +May God forgive my own!' + +Without a tremor in her voice, or frame, and passing onward with a foot +that set itself upon the neck of every soft emotion, she bade her mother +good-night, and repaired to her own room. + +But not to rest; for there was no rest in the tumult of her agitation +when alone to and fro, and to and fro, and to and fro again, five +hundred times, among the splendid preparations for her adornment on the +morrow; with her dark hair shaken down, her dark eyes flashing with +a raging light, her broad white bosom red with the cruel grasp of the +relentless hand with which she spurned it from her, pacing up and down +with an averted head, as if she would avoid the sight of her own fair +person, and divorce herself from its companionship. Thus, in the dead +time of the night before her bridal, Edith Granger wrestled with her +unquiet spirit, tearless, friendless, silent, proud, and uncomplaining. + +At length it happened that she touched the open door which led into the +room where Florence lay. + +She started, stopped, and looked in. + +A light was burning there, and showed her Florence in her bloom of +innocence and beauty, fast asleep. Edith held her breath, and felt +herself drawn on towards her. + +Drawn nearer, nearer, nearer yet; at last, drawn so near, that stooping +down, she pressed her lips to the gentle hand that lay outside the bed, +and put it softly to her neck. Its touch was like the prophet's rod of +old upon the rock. Her tears sprung forth beneath it, as she sunk upon +her knees, and laid her aching head and streaming hair upon the pillow +by its side. + +Thus Edith Granger passed the night before her bridal. Thus the sun +found her on her bridal morning. + + + +CHAPTER 31. The Wedding + + +Dawn with its passionless blank face, steals shivering to the church +beneath which lies the dust of little Paul and his mother, and looks +in at the windows. It is cold and dark. Night crouches yet, upon the +pavement, and broods, sombre and heavy, in nooks and corners of the +building. The steeple-clock, perched up above the houses, emerging +from beneath another of the countless ripples in the tide of time that +regularly roll and break on the eternal shore, is greyly visible, like a +stone beacon, recording how the sea flows on; but within doors, dawn, at +first, can only peep at night, and see that it is there. + +Hovering feebly round the church, and looking in, dawn moans and weeps +for its short reign, and its tears trickle on the window-glass, and +the trees against the church-wall bow their heads, and wring their many +hands in sympathy. Night, growing pale before it, gradually fades out of +the church, but lingers in the vaults below, and sits upon the coffins. +And now comes bright day, burnishing the steeple-clock, and reddening +the spire, and drying up the tears of dawn, and stifling its +complaining; and the dawn, following the night, and chasing it from its +last refuge, shrinks into the vaults itself and hides, with a frightened +face, among the dead, until night returns, refreshed, to drive it out. + +And now, the mice, who have been busier with the prayer-books than their +proper owners, and with the hassocks, more worn by their little teeth +than by human knees, hide their bright eyes in their holes, and +gather close together in affright at the resounding clashing of the +church-door. For the beadle, that man of power, comes early this morning +with the sexton; and Mrs Miff, the wheezy little pew-opener--a mighty +dry old lady, sparely dressed, with not an inch of fulness anywhere +about her--is also here, and has been waiting at the church-gate +half-an-hour, as her place is, for the beadle. + +A vinegary face has Mrs Miff, and a mortified bonnet, and eke a thirsty +soul for sixpences and shillings. Beckoning to stray people to come into +pews, has given Mrs Miff an air of mystery; and there is reservation in +the eye of Mrs Miff, as always knowing of a softer seat, but having her +suspicions of the fee. There is no such fact as Mr Miff, nor has there +been, these twenty years, and Mrs Miff would rather not allude to him. +He held some bad opinions, it would seem, about free seats; and though +Mrs Miff hopes he may be gone upwards, she couldn't positively undertake +to say so. + +Busy is Mrs Miff this morning at the church-door, beating and dusting +the altar-cloth, the carpet, and the cushions; and much has Mrs Miff to +say, about the wedding they are going to have. Mrs Miff is told, that +the new furniture and alterations in the house cost full five thousand +pound if they cost a penny; and Mrs Miff has heard, upon the best +authority, that the lady hasn't got a sixpence wherewithal to bless +herself. Mrs Miff remembers, like wise, as if it had happened yesterday, +the first wife's funeral, and then the christening, and then the other +funeral; and Mrs Miff says, by-the-by she'll soap-and-water that 'ere +tablet presently, against the company arrive. Mr Sownds the Beadle, who +is sitting in the sun upon the church steps all this time (and seldom +does anything else, except, in cold weather, sitting by the fire), +approves of Mrs Miff's discourse, and asks if Mrs Miff has heard it +said, that the lady is uncommon handsome? The information Mrs Miff +has received, being of this nature, Mr Sownds the Beadle, who, though +orthodox and corpulent, is still an admirer of female beauty, observes, +with unction, yes, he hears she is a spanker--an expression that seems +somewhat forcible to Mrs Miff, or would, from any lips but those of Mr +Sownds the Beadle. + +In Mr Dombey's house, at this same time, there is great stir and bustle, +more especially among the women: not one of whom has had a wink of sleep +since four o'clock, and all of whom were fully dressed before six. +Mr Towlinson is an object of greater consideration than usual to the +housemaid, and the cook says at breakfast time that one wedding makes +many, which the housemaid can't believe, and don't think true at all. +Mr Towlinson reserves his sentiments on this question; being rendered +something gloomy by the engagement of a foreigner with whiskers (Mr +Towlinson is whiskerless himself), who has been hired to accompany the +happy pair to Paris, and who is busy packing the new chariot. In respect +of this personage, Mr Towlinson admits, presently, that he never knew of +any good that ever come of foreigners; and being charged by the ladies +with prejudice, says, look at Bonaparte who was at the head of 'em, and +see what he was always up to! Which the housemaid says is very true. + +The pastry-cook is hard at work in the funereal room in Brook Street, +and the very tall young men are busy looking on. One of the very tall +young men already smells of sherry, and his eyes have a tendency to +become fixed in his head, and to stare at objects without seeing them. +The very tall young man is conscious of this failing in himself; and +informs his comrade that it's his 'exciseman.' The very tall young man +would say excitement, but his speech is hazy. + +The men who play the bells have got scent of the marriage; and the +marrow-bones and cleavers too; and a brass band too. The first, are +practising in a back settlement near Battlebridge; the second, put +themselves in communication, through their chief, with Mr Towlinson, to +whom they offer terms to be bought off; and the third, in the person of +an artful trombone, lurks and dodges round the corner, waiting for +some traitor tradesman to reveal the place and hour of breakfast, for a +bribe. Expectation and excitement extend further yet, and take a wider +range. From Balls Pond, Mr Perch brings Mrs Perch to spend the day with +Mr Dombey's servants, and accompany them, surreptitiously, to see the +wedding. In Mr Toots's lodgings, Mr Toots attires himself as if he were +at least the Bridegroom; determined to behold the spectacle in splendour +from a secret corner of the gallery, and thither to convey the Chicken: +for it is Mr Toots's desperate intent to point out Florence to the +Chicken, then and there, and openly to say, 'Now, Chicken, I will not +deceive you any longer; the friend I have sometimes mentioned to you is +myself; Miss Dombey is the object of my passion; what are your opinions, +Chicken, in this state of things, and what, on the spot, do you advise? +The so-much-to-be-astonished Chicken, in the meanwhile, dips his beak +into a tankard of strong beer, in Mr Toots's kitchen, and pecks up two +pounds of beefsteaks. In Princess's Place, Miss Tox is up and doing; for +she too, though in sore distress, is resolved to put a shilling in the +hands of Mrs Miff, and see the ceremony which has a cruel fascination +for her, from some lonely corner. The quarters of the wooden Midshipman +are all alive; for Captain Cuttle, in his ankle-jacks and with a huge +shirt-collar, is seated at his breakfast, listening to Rob the Grinder +as he reads the marriage service to him beforehand, under orders, to the +end that the Captain may perfectly understand the solemnity he is about +to witness: for which purpose, the Captain gravely lays injunctions on +his chaplain, from time to time, to 'put about,' or to 'overhaul that +'ere article again,' or to stick to his own duty, and leave the Amens to +him, the Captain; one of which he repeats, whenever a pause is made by +Rob the Grinder, with sonorous satisfaction. + +Besides all this, and much more, twenty nursery-maids in Mr Dombey's +street alone, have promised twenty families of little women, whose +instinctive interest in nuptials dates from their cradles, that they +shall go and see the marriage. Truly, Mr Sownds the Beadle has good +reason to feel himself in office, as he suns his portly figure on the +church steps, waiting for the marriage hour. Truly, Mrs Miff has cause +to pounce on an unlucky dwarf child, with a giant baby, who peeps in at +the porch, and drive her forth with indignation! + +Cousin Feenix has come over from abroad, expressly to attend the +marriage. Cousin Feenix was a man about town, forty years ago; but he +is still so juvenile in figure and in manner, and so well got up, +that strangers are amazed when they discover latent wrinkles in his +lordship's face, and crows' feet in his eyes: and first observe him, not +exactly certain when he walks across a room, of going quite straight to +where he wants to go. But Cousin Feenix, getting up at half-past seven +o'clock or so, is quite another thing from Cousin Feenix got up; and +very dim, indeed, he looks, while being shaved at Long's Hotel, in Bond +Street. + +Mr Dombey leaves his dressing-room, amidst a general whisking away of +the women on the staircase, who disperse in all directions, with a great +rustling of skirts, except Mrs Perch, who, being (but that she always +is) in an interesting situation, is not nimble, and is obliged to face +him, and is ready to sink with confusion as she curtesys;--may Heaven +avert all evil consequences from the house of Perch! Mr Dombey walks up +to the drawing-room, to bide his time. Gorgeous are Mr Dombey's new blue +coat, fawn-coloured pantaloons, and lilac waistcoat; and a whisper goes +about the house, that Mr Dombey's hair is curled. + +A double knock announces the arrival of the Major, who is gorgeous too, +and wears a whole geranium in his button-hole, and has his hair curled +tight and crisp, as well the Native knows. + +'Dombey!' says the Major, putting out both hands, 'how are you?' + +'Major,' says Mr Dombey, 'how are You?' + +'By Jove, Sir,' says the Major, 'Joey B. is in such case this morning, +Sir,'--and here he hits himself hard upon the breast--'In such case this +morning, Sir, that, damme, Dombey, he has half a mind to make a double +marriage of it, Sir, and take the mother.' + +Mr Dombey smiles; but faintly, even for him; for Mr Dombey feels that +he is going to be related to the mother, and that, under those +circumstances, she is not to be joked about. + +'Dombey,' says the Major, seeing this, 'I give you joy. I congratulate +you, Dombey. By the Lord, Sir,' says the Major, 'you are more to be +envied, this day, than any man in England!' + +Here again Mr Dombey's assent is qualified; because he is going to +confer a great distinction on a lady; and, no doubt, she is to be envied +most. + +'As to Edith Granger, Sir,' pursues the Major, 'there is not a woman +in all Europe but might--and would, Sir, you will allow Bagstock to +add--and would--give her ears, and her earrings, too, to be in Edith +Granger's place.' + +'You are good enough to say so, Major,' says Mr Dombey. + +'Dombey,' returns the Major, 'you know it. Let us have no false +delicacy. You know it. Do you know it, or do you not, Dombey?' says the +Major, almost in a passion. + +'Oh, really, Major--' + +'Damme, Sir,' retorts the Major, 'do you know that fact, or do you not? +Dombey! Is old Joe your friend? Are we on that footing of unreserved +intimacy, Dombey, that may justify a man--a blunt old Joseph B., +Sir--in speaking out; or am I to take open order, Dombey, and to keep my +distance, and to stand on forms?' + +'My dear Major Bagstock,' says Mr Dombey, with a gratified air, 'you are +quite warm.' + +'By Gad, Sir,' says the Major, 'I am warm. Joseph B. does not deny it, +Dombey. He is warm. This is an occasion, Sir, that calls forth all the +honest sympathies remaining in an old, infernal, battered, used-up, +invalided, J. B. carcase. And I tell you what, Dombey--at such a time +a man must blurt out what he feels, or put a muzzle on; and Joseph +Bagstock tells you to your face, Dombey, as he tells his club behind +your back, that he never will be muzzled when Paul Dombey is in +question. Now, damme, Sir,' concludes the Major, with great firmness, +'what do you make of that?' + +'Major,' says Mr Dombey, 'I assure you that I am really obliged to you. +I had no idea of checking your too partial friendship.' + +'Not too partial, Sir!' exclaims the choleric Major. 'Dombey, I deny +it.' + +'Your friendship I will say then,' pursues Mr Dombey, 'on any account. +Nor can I forget, Major, on such an occasion as the present, how much I +am indebted to it.' + +'Dombey,' says the Major, with appropriate action, 'that is the hand +of Joseph Bagstock: of plain old Joey B., Sir, if you like that better! +That is the hand, of which His Royal Highness the late Duke of York, did +me the honour to observe, Sir, to His Royal Highness the late Duke of +Kent, that it was the hand of Josh: a rough and tough, and possibly an +up-to-snuff, old vagabond. Dombey, may the present moment be the least +unhappy of our lives. God bless you!' + +Now enters Mr Carker, gorgeous likewise, and smiling like a +wedding-guest indeed. He can scarcely let Mr Dombey's hand go, he is so +congratulatory; and he shakes the Major's hand so heartily at the same +time, that his voice shakes too, in accord with his arms, as it comes +sliding from between his teeth. + +'The very day is auspicious,' says Mr Carker. 'The brightest and most +genial weather! I hope I am not a moment late?' + +'Punctual to your time, Sir,' says the Major. + +'I am rejoiced, I am sure,' says Mr Carker. 'I was afraid I might be a +few seconds after the appointed time, for I was delayed by a +procession of waggons; and I took the liberty of riding round to Brook +Street'--this to Mr Dombey--'to leave a few poor rarities of flowers for +Mrs Dombey. A man in my position, and so distinguished as to be invited +here, is proud to offer some homage in acknowledgment of his vassalage: +and as I have no doubt Mrs Dombey is overwhelmed with what is costly +and magnificent;' with a strange glance at his patron; 'I hope the very +poverty of my offering, may find favour for it.' + +'Mrs Dombey, that is to be,' returns Mr Dombey, condescendingly, 'will +be very sensible of your attention, Carker, I am sure.' + +'And if she is to be Mrs Dombey this morning, Sir,' says the Major, +putting down his coffee-cup, and looking at his watch, 'it's high time +we were off!' + +Forth, in a barouche, ride Mr Dombey, Major Bagstock, and Mr Carker, to +the church. Mr Sownds the Beadle has long risen from the steps, and +is in waiting with his cocked hat in his hand. Mrs Miff curtseys and +proposes chairs in the vestry. Mr Dombey prefers remaining in the +church. As he looks up at the organ, Miss Tox in the gallery shrinks +behind the fat leg of a cherubim on a monument, with cheeks like a young +Wind. Captain Cuttle, on the contrary, stands up and waves his hook, in +token of welcome and encouragement. Mr Toots informs the Chicken, behind +his hand, that the middle gentleman, he in the fawn-coloured pantaloons, +is the father of his love. The Chicken hoarsely whispers Mr Toots that +he's as stiff a cove as ever he see, but that it is within the resources +of Science to double him up, with one blow in the waistcoat. + +Mr Sownds and Mrs Miff are eyeing Mr Dombey from a little distance, when +the noise of approaching wheels is heard, and Mr Sownds goes out. Mrs +Miff, meeting Mr Dombey's eye as it is withdrawn from the presumptuous +maniac upstairs, who salutes him with so much urbanity, drops a curtsey, +and informs him that she believes his 'good lady' is come. Then there is +a crowding and a whispering at the door, and the good lady enters, with +a haughty step. + +There is no sign upon her face, of last night's suffering; there is no +trace in her manner, of the woman on the bended knees, reposing her wild +head, in beautiful abandonment, upon the pillow of the sleeping girl. +That girl, all gentle and lovely, is at her side--a striking contrast to +her own disdainful and defiant figure, standing there, composed, erect, +inscrutable of will, resplendent and majestic in the zenith of its +charms, yet beating down, and treading on, the admiration that it +challenges. + +There is a pause while Mr Sownds the Beadle glides into the vestry for +the clergyman and clerk. At this juncture, Mrs Skewton speaks to Mr +Dombey: more distinctly and emphatically than her custom is, and moving +at the same time, close to Edith. + +'My dear Dombey,' said the good Mama, 'I fear I must relinquish darling +Florence after all, and suffer her to go home, as she herself proposed. +After my loss of to-day, my dear Dombey, I feel I shall not have +spirits, even for her society.' + +'Had she not better stay with you?' returns the Bridegroom. + +'I think not, my dear Dombey. No, I think not. I shall be better alone. +Besides, my dearest Edith will be her natural and constant guardian when +you return, and I had better not encroach upon her trust, perhaps. She +might be jealous. Eh, dear Edith?' + +The affectionate Mama presses her daughter's arm, as she says this; +perhaps entreating her attention earnestly. + +'To be serious, my dear Dombey,' she resumes, 'I will relinquish our +dear child, and not inflict my gloom upon her. We have settled that, +just now. She fully understands, dear Dombey. Edith, my dear,--she fully +understands.' + +Again, the good mother presses her daughter's arm. Mr Dombey offers no +additional remonstrance; for the clergyman and clerk appear; and Mrs +Miff, and Mr Sownds the Beadle, group the party in their proper places +at the altar rails. + +The sun is shining down, upon the golden letters of the ten +commandments. Why does the Bride's eye read them, one by one? Which one +of all the ten appears the plainest to her in the glare of light? False +Gods; murder; theft; the honour that she owes her mother;--which is it +that appears to leave the wall, and printing itself in glowing letters, +on her book! + +'Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?' + +Cousin Feenix does that. He has come from Baden-Baden on purpose. +'Confound it,' Cousin Feenix says--good-natured creature, Cousin +Feenix--'when we do get a rich City fellow into the family, let us show +him some attention; let us do something for him.' + +'I give this woman to be married to this man,' saith Cousin Feenix +therefore. Cousin Feenix, meaning to go in a straight line, but turning +off sideways by reason of his wilful legs, gives the wrong woman to be +married to this man, at first--to wit, a brides--maid of some condition, +distantly connected with the family, and ten years Mrs Skewton's junior +--but Mrs Miff, interposing her mortified bonnet, dexterously turns him +back, and runs him, as on castors, full at the 'good lady:' whom Cousin +Feenix giveth to married to this man accordingly. + +And will they in the sight of heaven--? + +Ay, that they will: Mr Dombey says he will. And what says Edith? She +will. + +So, from that day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, +in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do them +part, they plight their troth to one another, and are married. + +In a firm, free hand, the Bride subscribes her name in the register, +when they adjourn to the vestry. 'There ain't a many ladies come here,' +Mrs Miff says with a curtsey--to look at Mrs Miff, at such a season, is +to make her mortified bonnet go down with a dip--'writes their names +like this good lady!' Mr Sownds the Beadle thinks it is a truly spanking +signature, and worthy of the writer--this, however, between himself and +conscience. + +Florence signs too, but unapplauded, for her hand shakes. All the party +sign; Cousin Feenix last; who puts his noble name into a wrong place, +and enrols himself as having been born that morning. + +The Major now salutes the Bride right gallantly, and carries out that +branch of military tactics in reference to all the ladies: +notwithstanding Mrs Skewton's being extremely hard to kiss, and +squeaking shrilly in the sacred edifice. The example is followed by +Cousin Feenix and even by Mr Dombey. Lastly, Mr Carker, with his white +teeth glistening, approaches Edith, more as if he meant to bite her, +than to taste the sweets that linger on her lips. + +There is a glow upon her proud cheek, and a flashing in her eyes, that +may be meant to stay him; but it does not, for he salutes her as the +rest have done, and wishes her all happiness. + +'If wishes,' says he in a low voice, 'are not superfluous, applied to +such a union.' + +'I thank you, Sir,' she answers, with a curled lip, and a heaving bosom. + +But, does Edith feel still, as on the night when she knew that Mr Dombey +would return to offer his alliance, that Carker knows her thoroughly, +and reads her right, and that she is more degraded by his knowledge +of her, than by aught else? Is it for this reason that her haughtiness +shrinks beneath his smile, like snow within the hands that grasps it +firmly, and that her imperious glance droops in meeting his, and seeks +the ground? + +'I am proud to see,' said Mr Carker, with a servile stooping of his +neck, which the revelations making by his eyes and teeth proclaim to +be a lie, 'I am proud to see that my humble offering is graced by Mrs +Dombey's hand, and permitted to hold so favoured a place in so joyful an +occasion.' + +Though she bends her head, in answer, there is something in the +momentary action of her hand, as if she would crush the flowers it +holds, and fling them, with contempt, upon the ground. But, she puts +the hand through the arm of her new husband, who has been standing +near, conversing with the Major, and is proud again, and motionless, and +silent. + +The carriages are once more at the church door. Mr Dombey, with his +bride upon his arm, conducts her through the twenty families of little +women who are on the steps, and every one of whom remembers the fashion +and the colour of her every article of dress from that moment, and +reproduces it on her doll, who is for ever being married. Cleopatra and +Cousin Feenix enter the same carriage. The Major hands into a second +carriage, Florence, and the bridesmaid who so narrowly escaped being +given away by mistake, and then enters it himself, and is followed by +Mr Carker. Horses prance and caper; coachmen and footmen shine in +fluttering favours, flowers, and new-made liveries. Away they dash and +rattle through the streets; and as they pass along, a thousand heads +are turned to look at them, and a thousand sober moralists revenge +themselves for not being married too, that morning, by reflecting that +these people little think such happiness can't last. + +Miss Tox emerges from behind the cherubim's leg, when all is quiet, and +comes slowly down from the gallery. Miss Tox's eyes are red, and her +pocket-handkerchief is damp. She is wounded, but not exasperated, and +she hopes they may be happy. She quite admits to herself the beauty of +the bride, and her own comparatively feeble and faded attractions; +but the stately image of Mr Dombey in his lilac waistcoat, and his +fawn-coloured pantaloons, is present to her mind, and Miss Tox weeps +afresh, behind her veil, on her way home to Princess's Place. Captain +Cuttle, having joined in all the amens and responses, with a devout +growl, feels much improved by his religious exercises; and in a peaceful +frame of mind pervades the body of the church, glazed hat in hand, and +reads the tablet to the memory of little Paul. The gallant Mr Toots, +attended by the faithful Chicken, leaves the building in torments of +love. The Chicken is as yet unable to elaborate a scheme for winning +Florence, but his first idea has gained possession of him, and he thinks +the doubling up of Mr Dombey would be a move in the right direction. Mr +Dombey's servants come out of their hiding-places, and prepare to rush +to Brook Street, when they are delayed by symptoms of indisposition +on the part of Mrs Perch, who entreats a glass of water, and becomes +alarming; Mrs Perch gets better soon, however, and is borne away; and +Mrs Miff, and Mr Sownds the Beadle, sit upon the steps to count what +they have gained by the affair, and talk it over, while the sexton tolls +a funeral. + +Now, the carriages arrive at the Bride's residence, and the players on +the bells begin to jingle, and the band strikes up, and Mr Punch, that +model of connubial bliss, salutes his wife. Now, the people run, and +push, and press round in a gaping throng, while Mr Dombey, leading Mrs +Dombey by the hand, advances solemnly into the Feenix Halls. Now, the +rest of the wedding party alight, and enter after them. And why does Mr +Carker, passing through the people to the hall-door, think of the old +woman who called to him in the Grove that morning? Or why does Florence, +as she passes, think, with a tremble, of her childhood, when she was +lost, and of the visage of Good Mrs Brown? + +Now, there are more congratulations on this happiest of days, and more +company, though not much; and now they leave the drawing-room, and range +themselves at table in the dark-brown dining-room, which no confectioner +can brighten up, let him garnish the exhausted negroes with as many +flowers and love-knots as he will. + +The pastry-cook has done his duty like a man, though, and a rich +breakfast is set forth. Mr and Mrs Chick have joined the party, among +others. Mrs Chick admires that Edith should be, by nature, such a +perfect Dombey; and is affable and confidential to Mrs Skewton, whose +mind is relieved of a great load, and who takes her share of the +champagne. The very tall young man who suffered from excitement early, +is better; but a vague sentiment of repentance has seized upon him, and +he hates the other very tall young man, and wrests dishes from him +by violence, and takes a grim delight in disobliging the company. The +company are cool and calm, and do not outrage the black hatchments of +pictures looking down upon them, by any excess of mirth. Cousin Feenix +and the Major are the gayest there; but Mr Carker has a smile for the +whole table. He has an especial smile for the Bride, who very, very +seldom meets it. + +Cousin Feenix rises, when the company have breakfasted, and the servants +have left the room; and wonderfully young he looks, with his white +wristbands almost covering his hands (otherwise rather bony), and the +bloom of the champagne in his cheeks. + +'Upon my honour,' says Cousin Feenix, 'although it's an unusual sort of +thing in a private gentleman's house, I must beg leave to call upon you +to drink what is usually called a--in fact a toast.' + +The Major very hoarsely indicates his approval. Mr Carker, bending his +head forward over the table in the direction of Cousin Feenix, smiles +and nods a great many times. + +'A--in fact it's not a--' Cousin Feenix beginning again, thus, comes to +a dead stop. + +'Hear, hear!' says the Major, in a tone of conviction. + +Mr Carker softly claps his hands, and bending forward over the table +again, smiles and nods a great many more times than before, as if +he were particularly struck by this last observation, and desired +personally to express his sense of the good it has done. + +'It is,' says Cousin Feenix, 'an occasion in fact, when the general +usages of life may be a little departed from, without impropriety; and +although I never was an orator in my life, and when I was in the House +of Commons, and had the honour of seconding the address, was--in fact, +was laid up for a fortnight with the consciousness of failure--' + +The Major and Mr Carker are so much delighted by this fragment of +personal history, that Cousin Feenix laughs, and addressing them +individually, goes on to say: + +'And in point of fact, when I was devilish ill--still, you know, I +feel that a duty devolves upon me. And when a duty devolves upon an +Englishman, he is bound to get out of it, in my opinion, in the best +way he can. Well! our family has had the gratification, to-day, of +connecting itself, in the person of my lovely and accomplished relative, +whom I now see--in point of fact, present--' + +Here there is general applause. + +'Present,' repeats Cousin Feenix, feeling that it is a neat point which +will bear repetition,--'with one who--that is to say, with a man, at +whom the finger of scorn can never--in fact, with my honourable friend +Dombey, if he will allow me to call him so.' + +Cousin Feenix bows to Mr Dombey; Mr Dombey solemnly returns the bow; +everybody is more or less gratified and affected by this extraordinary, +and perhaps unprecedented, appeal to the feelings. + +'I have not,' says Cousin Feenix, 'enjoyed those opportunities which I +could have desired, of cultivating the acquaintance of my friend Dombey, +and studying those qualities which do equal honour to his head, and, in +point of fact, to his heart; for it has been my misfortune to be, as +we used to say in my time in the House of Commons, when it was not +the custom to allude to the Lords, and when the order of parliamentary +proceedings was perhaps better observed than it is now--to be in--in +point of fact,' says Cousin Feenix, cherishing his joke, with great +slyness, and finally bringing it out with a jerk, "'in another place!"' + +The Major falls into convulsions, and is recovered with difficulty. + +'But I know sufficient of my friend Dombey,' resumes Cousin Feenix in +a graver tone, as if he had suddenly become a sadder and wiser man, 'to +know that he is, in point of fact, what may be emphatically called a--a +merchant--a British merchant--and a--and a man. And although I have +been resident abroad, for some years (it would give me great pleasure +to receive my friend Dombey, and everybody here, at Baden-Baden, and to +have an opportunity of making 'em known to the Grand Duke), still I know +enough, I flatter myself, of my lovely and accomplished relative, to +know that she possesses every requisite to make a man happy, and that +her marriage with my friend Dombey is one of inclination and affection +on both sides.' + +Many smiles and nods from Mr Carker. + +'Therefore,' says Cousin Feenix, 'I congratulate the family of which I +am a member, on the acquisition of my friend Dombey. I congratulate my +friend Dombey on his union with my lovely and accomplished relative who +possesses every requisite to make a man happy; and I take the liberty +of calling on you all, in point of fact, to congratulate both my +friend Dombey and my lovely and accomplished relative, on the present +occasion.' + +The speech of Cousin Feenix is received with great applause, and Mr +Dombey returns thanks on behalf of himself and Mrs Dombey. J. B. shortly +afterwards proposes Mrs Skewton. The breakfast languishes when that is +done, the violated hatchments are avenged, and Edith rises to assume her +travelling dress. + +All the servants in the meantime, have been breakfasting below. +Champagne has grown too common among them to be mentioned, and roast +fowls, raised pies, and lobster-salad, have become mere drugs. The +very tall young man has recovered his spirits, and again alludes to the +exciseman. His comrade's eye begins to emulate his own, and he, too, +stares at objects without taking cognizance thereof. There is a +general redness in the faces of the ladies; in the face of Mrs Perch +particularly, who is joyous and beaming, and lifted so far above the +cares of life, that if she were asked just now to direct a wayfarer to +Ball's Pond, where her own cares lodge, she would have some difficulty +in recalling the way. Mr Towlinson has proposed the happy pair; to which +the silver-headed butler has responded neatly, and with emotion; for he +half begins to think he is an old retainer of the family, and that he is +bound to be affected by these changes. The whole party, and especially +the ladies, are very frolicsome. Mr Dombey's cook, who generally takes +the lead in society, has said, it is impossible to settle down after +this, and why not go, in a party, to the play? Everybody (Mrs Perch +included) has agreed to this; even the Native, who is tigerish in his +drink, and who alarms the ladies (Mrs Perch particularly) by the rolling +of his eyes. One of the very tall young men has even proposed a ball +after the play, and it presents itself to no one (Mrs Perch included) in +the light of an impossibility. Words have arisen between the housemaid +and Mr Towlinson; she, on the authority of an old saw, asserting +marriages to be made in Heaven: he, affecting to trace the manufacture +elsewhere; he, supposing that she says so, because she thinks of being +married her own self: she, saying, Lord forbid, at any rate, that she +should ever marry him. To calm these flying taunts, the silver-headed +butler rises to propose the health of Mr Towlinson, whom to know is to +esteem, and to esteem is to wish well settled in life with the object of +his choice, wherever (here the silver-headed butler eyes the housemaid) +she may be. Mr Towlinson returns thanks in a speech replete with +feeling, of which the peroration turns on foreigners, regarding whom +he says they may find favour, sometimes, with weak and inconstant +intellects that can be led away by hair, but all he hopes, is, he may +never hear of no foreigner never boning nothing out of no travelling +chariot. The eye of Mr Towlinson is so severe and so expressive here, +that the housemaid is turning hysterical, when she and all the rest, +roused by the intelligence that the Bride is going away, hurry upstairs +to witness her departure. + +The chariot is at the door; the Bride is descending to the hall, where +Mr Dombey waits for her. Florence is ready on the staircase to depart +too; and Miss Nipper, who has held a middle state between the parlour +and the kitchen, is prepared to accompany her. As Edith appears, +Florence hastens towards her, to bid her farewell. + +Is Edith cold, that she should tremble! Is there anything unnatural or +unwholesome in the touch of Florence, that the beautiful form recedes +and contracts, as if it could not bear it! Is there so much hurry in +this going away, that Edith, with a wave of her hand, sweeps on, and is +gone! + +Mrs Skewton, overpowered by her feelings as a mother, sinks on her sofa +in the Cleopatra attitude, when the clatter of the chariot wheels is +lost, and sheds several tears. The Major, coming with the rest of the +company from table, endeavours to comfort her; but she will not be +comforted on any terms, and so the Major takes his leave. Cousin Feenix +takes his leave, and Mr Carker takes his leave. The guests all go away. +Cleopatra, left alone, feels a little giddy from her strong emotion, and +falls asleep. + +Giddiness prevails below stairs too. The very tall young man whose +excitement came on so soon, appears to have his head glued to the table +in the pantry, and cannot be detached from it. A violent revulsion has +taken place in the spirits of Mrs Perch, who is low on account of Mr +Perch, and tells cook that she fears he is not so much attached to his +home, as he used to be, when they were only nine in family. Mr Towlinson +has a singing in his ears and a large wheel going round and round inside +his head. The housemaid wishes it wasn't wicked to wish that one was +dead. + +There is a general delusion likewise, in these lower regions, on the +subject of time; everybody conceiving that it ought to be, at the +earliest, ten o'clock at night, whereas it is not yet three in the +afternoon. A shadowy idea of wickedness committed, haunts every +individual in the party; and each one secretly thinks the other a +companion in guilt, whom it would be agreeable to avoid. No man or woman +has the hardihood to hint at the projected visit to the play. Anyone +reviving the notion of the ball, would be scouted as a malignant idiot. + +Mrs Skewton sleeps upstairs, two hours afterwards, and naps are not +yet over in the kitchen. The hatchments in the dining-room look down +on crumbs, dirty plates, spillings of wine, half-thawed ice, stale +discoloured heel-taps, scraps of lobster, drumsticks of fowls, and +pensive jellies, gradually resolving themselves into a lukewarm gummy +soup. The marriage is, by this time, almost as denuded of its show and +garnish as the breakfast. Mr Dombey's servants moralise so much about +it, and are so repentant over their early tea, at home, that by eight +o'clock or so, they settle down into confirmed seriousness; and Mr +Perch, arriving at that time from the City, fresh and jocular, with +a white waistcoat and a comic song, ready to spend the evening, and +prepared for any amount of dissipation, is amazed to find himself coldly +received, and Mrs Perch but poorly, and to have the pleasing duty of +escorting that lady home by the next omnibus. + +Night closes in. Florence, having rambled through the handsome house, +from room to room, seeks her own chamber, where the care of Edith has +surrounded her with luxuries and comforts; and divesting herself of her +handsome dress, puts on her old simple mourning for dear Paul, and sits +down to read, with Diogenes winking and blinking on the ground beside +her. But Florence cannot read tonight. The house seems strange and new, +and there are loud echoes in it. There is a shadow on her heart: she +knows not why or what: but it is heavy. Florence shuts her book, and +gruff Diogenes, who takes that for a signal, puts his paws upon her lap, +and rubs his ears against her caressing hands. But Florence cannot see +him plainly, in a little time, for there is a mist between her eyes +and him, and her dead brother and dead mother shine in it like angels. +Walter, too, poor wandering shipwrecked boy, oh, where is he? + +The Major don't know; that's for certain; and don't care. The Major, +having choked and slumbered, all the afternoon, has taken a late dinner +at his club, and now sits over his pint of wine, driving a modest young +man, with a fresh-coloured face, at the next table (who would give a +handsome sum to be able to rise and go away, but cannot do it) to the +verge of madness, by anecdotes of Bagstock, Sir, at Dombey's wedding, +and Old Joe's devilish gentle manly friend, Lord Feenix. While Cousin +Feenix, who ought to be at Long's, and in bed, finds himself, instead, +at a gaming-table, where his wilful legs have taken him, perhaps, in his +own despite. + +Night, like a giant, fills the church, from pavement to roof, and holds +dominion through the silent hours. Pale dawn again comes peeping through +the windows: and, giving place to day, sees night withdraw into the +vaults, and follows it, and drives it out, and hides among the dead. The +timid mice again cower close together, when the great door clashes, +and Mr Sownds and Mrs Miff treading the circle of their daily lives, +unbroken as a marriage ring, come in. Again, the cocked hat and the +mortified bonnet stand in the background at the marriage hour; and +again this man taketh this woman, and this woman taketh this man, on the +solemn terms: + +'To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better for worse, for +richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, +until death do them part.' + +The very words that Mr Carker rides into town repeating, with his mouth +stretched to the utmost, as he picks his dainty way. + + + +CHAPTER 32. The Wooden Midshipman goes to Pieces + + +Honest Captain Cuttle, as the weeks flew over him in his fortified +retreat, by no means abated any of his prudent provisions against +surprise, because of the non-appearance of the enemy. The Captain argued +that his present security was too profound and wonderful to endure +much longer; he knew that when the wind stood in a fair quarter, the +weathercock was seldom nailed there; and he was too well acquainted with +the determined and dauntless character of Mrs MacStinger, to doubt that +that heroic woman had devoted herself to the task of his discovery and +capture. Trembling beneath the weight of these reasons, Captain Cuttle +lived a very close and retired life; seldom stirring abroad until after +dark; venturing even then only into the obscurest streets; never going +forth at all on Sundays; and both within and without the walls of his +retreat, avoiding bonnets, as if they were worn by raging lions. + +The Captain never dreamed that in the event of his being pounced upon by +Mrs MacStinger, in his walks, it would be possible to offer resistance. +He felt that it could not be done. He saw himself, in his mind's eye, +put meekly in a hackney-coach, and carried off to his old lodgings. He +foresaw that, once immured there, he was a lost man: his hat gone; Mrs +MacStinger watchful of him day and night; reproaches heaped upon his +head, before the infant family; himself the guilty object of suspicion +and distrust; an ogre in the children's eyes, and in their mother's a +detected traitor. + +A violent perspiration, and a lowness of spirits, always came over the +Captain as this gloomy picture presented itself to his imagination. It +generally did so previous to his stealing out of doors at night for air +and exercise. Sensible of the risk he ran, the Captain took leave of +Rob, at those times, with the solemnity which became a man who might +never return: exhorting him, in the event of his (the Captain's) being +lost sight of, for a time, to tread in the paths of virtue, and keep the +brazen instruments well polished. + +But not to throw away a chance; and to secure to himself a means, in +case of the worst, of holding communication with the external world; +Captain Cuttle soon conceived the happy idea of teaching Rob the Grinder +some secret signal, by which that adherent might make his presence and +fidelity known to his commander, in the hour of adversity. After much +cogitation, the Captain decided in favour of instructing him to +whistle the marine melody, 'Oh cheerily, cheerily!' and Rob the Grinder +attaining a point as near perfection in that accomplishment as a +landsman could hope to reach, the Captain impressed these mysterious +instructions on his mind: + +'Now, my lad, stand by! If ever I'm took--' + +'Took, Captain!' interposed Rob, with his round eyes wide open. + +'Ah!' said Captain Cuttle darkly, 'if ever I goes away, meaning to come +back to supper, and don't come within hail again, twenty-four hours +arter my loss, go you to Brig Place and whistle that 'ere tune near my +old moorings--not as if you was a meaning of it, you understand, but as +if you'd drifted there, promiscuous. If I answer in that tune, you sheer +off, my lad, and come back four-and-twenty hours arterwards; if I answer +in another tune, do you stand off and on, and wait till I throw out +further signals. Do you understand them orders, now?' + +'What am I to stand off and on of, Captain?' inquired Rob. 'The +horse-road?' + +'Here's a smart lad for you!' cried the Captain eyeing him sternly, 'as +don't know his own native alphabet! Go away a bit and come back again +alternate--d'ye understand that?' + +'Yes, Captain,' said Rob. + +'Very good my lad, then,' said the Captain, relenting. 'Do it!' + +That he might do it the better, Captain Cuttle sometimes condescended, +of an evening after the shop was shut, to rehearse this scene: +retiring into the parlour for the purpose, as into the lodgings of a +supposititious MacStinger, and carefully observing the behaviour of his +ally, from the hole of espial he had cut in the wall. Rob the Grinder +discharged himself of his duty with so much exactness and judgment, when +thus put to the proof, that the Captain presented him, at divers times, +with seven sixpences, in token of satisfaction; and gradually felt +stealing over his spirit the resignation of a man who had made provision +for the worst, and taken every reasonable precaution against an +unrelenting fate. + +Nevertheless, the Captain did not tempt ill-fortune, by being a whit +more venturesome than before. Though he considered it a point of good +breeding in himself, as a general friend of the family, to attend Mr +Dombey's wedding (of which he had heard from Mr Perch), and to show that +gentleman a pleasant and approving countenance from the gallery, he had +repaired to the church in a hackney cabriolet with both windows up; +and might have scrupled even to make that venture, in his dread of +Mrs MacStinger, but that the lady's attendance on the ministry of the +Reverend Melchisedech rendered it peculiarly unlikely that she would be +found in communion with the Establishment. + +The Captain got safe home again, and fell into the ordinary routine of +his new life, without encountering any more direct alarm from the enemy, +than was suggested to him by the daily bonnets in the street. But other +subjects began to lay heavy on the Captain's mind. Walter's ship was +still unheard of. No news came of old Sol Gills. Florence did not even +know of the old man's disappearance, and Captain Cuttle had not the +heart to tell her. Indeed the Captain, as his own hopes of the generous, +handsome, gallant-hearted youth, whom he had loved, according to his +rough manner, from a child, began to fade, and faded more and more from +day to day, shrunk with instinctive pain from the thought of exchanging +a word with Florence. If he had had good news to carry to her, the +honest Captain would have braved the newly decorated house and splendid +furniture--though these, connected with the lady he had seen at church, +were awful to him--and made his way into her presence. With a dark +horizon gathering around their common hopes, however, that darkened +every hour, the Captain almost felt as if he were a new misfortune +and affliction to her; and was scarcely less afraid of a visit from +Florence, than from Mrs MacStinger herself. + +It was a chill dark autumn evening, and Captain Cuttle had ordered a +fire to be kindled in the little back parlour, now more than ever like +the cabin of a ship. The rain fell fast, and the wind blew hard; and +straying out on the house-top by that stormy bedroom of his old friend, +to take an observation of the weather, the Captain's heart died within +him, when he saw how wild and desolate it was. Not that he associated +the weather of that time with poor Walter's destiny, or doubted that if +Providence had doomed him to be lost and shipwrecked, it was over, long +ago; but that beneath an outward influence, quite distinct from the +subject-matter of his thoughts, the Captain's spirits sank, and his +hopes turned pale, as those of wiser men had often done before him, and +will often do again. + +Captain Cuttle, addressing his face to the sharp wind and slanting rain, +looked up at the heavy scud that was flying fast over the wilderness of +house-tops, and looked for something cheery there in vain. The prospect +near at hand was no better. In sundry tea-chests and other rough boxes +at his feet, the pigeons of Rob the Grinder were cooing like so many +dismal breezes getting up. A crazy weathercock of a midshipman, with +a telescope at his eye, once visible from the street, but long bricked +out, creaked and complained upon his rusty pivot as the shrill blast +spun him round and round, and sported with him cruelly. Upon the +Captain's coarse blue vest the cold raindrops started like steel +beads; and he could hardly maintain himself aslant against the stiff +Nor'-Wester that came pressing against him, importunate to topple him +over the parapet, and throw him on the pavement below. If there were any +Hope alive that evening, the Captain thought, as he held his hat on, it +certainly kept house, and wasn't out of doors; so the Captain, shaking +his head in a despondent manner, went in to look for it. + +Captain Cuttle descended slowly to the little back parlour, and, seated +in his accustomed chair, looked for it in the fire; but it was not +there, though the fire was bright. He took out his tobacco-box and pipe, +and composing himself to smoke, looked for it in the red glow from the +bowl, and in the wreaths of vapour that curled upward from his lips; but +there was not so much as an atom of the rust of Hope's anchor in either. +He tried a glass of grog; but melancholy truth was at the bottom of that +well, and he couldn't finish it. He made a turn or two in the shop, and +looked for Hope among the instruments; but they obstinately worked out +reckonings for the missing ship, in spite of any opposition he could +offer, that ended at the bottom of the lone sea. + +The wind still rushing, and the rain still pattering, against the closed +shutters, the Captain brought to before the wooden Midshipman upon the +counter, and thought, as he dried the little officer's uniform with +his sleeve, how many years the Midshipman had seen, during which few +changes--hardly any--had transpired among his ship's company; how the +changes had come all together, one day, as it might be; and of what a +sweeping kind they were. Here was the little society of the back parlour +broken up, and scattered far and wide. Here was no audience for Lovely +Peg, even if there had been anybody to sing it, which there was not; for +the Captain was as morally certain that nobody but he could execute that +ballad, as he was that he had not the spirit, under existing +circumstances, to attempt it. There was no bright face of 'Wal'r' in the +house;--here the Captain transferred his sleeve for a moment from the +Midshipman's uniform to his own cheek;--the familiar wig and buttons of +Sol Gills were a vision of the past; Richard Whittington was knocked on +the head; and every plan and project in connexion with the Midshipman, +lay drifting, without mast or rudder, on the waste of waters. + +As the Captain, with a dejected face, stood revolving these thoughts, +and polishing the Midshipman, partly in the tenderness of old +acquaintance, and partly in the absence of his mind, a knocking at +the shop-door communicated a frightful start to the frame of Rob the +Grinder, seated on the counter, whose large eyes had been intently fixed +on the Captain's face, and who had been debating within himself, for the +five hundredth time, whether the Captain could have done a murder, that +he had such an evil conscience, and was always running away. + +'What's that?' said Captain Cuttle, softly. + +'Somebody's knuckles, Captain,' answered Rob the Grinder. + +The Captain, with an abashed and guilty air, immediately walked on +tiptoe to the little parlour and locked himself in. Rob, opening the +door, would have parleyed with the visitor on the threshold if the +visitor had come in female guise; but the figure being of the male sex, +and Rob's orders only applying to women, Rob held the door open and +allowed it to enter: which it did very quickly, glad to get out of the +driving rain. + +'A job for Burgess and Co. at any rate,' said the visitor, looking over +his shoulder compassionately at his own legs, which were very wet and +covered with splashes. 'Oh, how-de-do, Mr Gills?' + +The salutation was addressed to the Captain, now emerging from the back +parlour with a most transparent and utterly futile affectation of coming +out by accidence. + +'Thankee,' the gentleman went on to say in the same breath; 'I'm very +well indeed, myself, I'm much obliged to you. My name is Toots,--Mister +Toots.' + +The Captain remembered to have seen this young gentleman at the +wedding, and made him a bow. Mr Toots replied with a chuckle; and being +embarrassed, as he generally was, breathed hard, shook hands with the +Captain for a long time, and then falling on Rob the Grinder, in +the absence of any other resource, shook hands with him in a most +affectionate and cordial manner. + +'I say! I should like to speak a word to you, Mr Gills, if you please,' +said Toots at length, with surprising presence of mind. 'I say! Miss +D.O.M. you know!' + +The Captain, with responsive gravity and mystery, immediately waved his +hook towards the little parlour, whither Mr Toots followed him. + +'Oh! I beg your pardon though,' said Mr Toots, looking up in the +Captain's face as he sat down in a chair by the fire, which the Captain +placed for him; 'you don't happen to know the Chicken at all; do you, Mr +Gills?' + +'The Chicken?' said the Captain. + +'The Game Chicken,' said Mr Toots. + +The Captain shaking his head, Mr Toots explained that the man alluded +to was the celebrated public character who had covered himself and his +country with glory in his contest with the Nobby Shropshire One; but +this piece of information did not appear to enlighten the Captain very +much. + +'Because he's outside: that's all,' said Mr Toots. 'But it's of no +consequence; he won't get very wet, perhaps.' + +'I can pass the word for him in a moment,' said the Captain. + +'Well, if you would have the goodness to let him sit in the shop with +your young man,' chuckled Mr Toots, 'I should be glad; because, you +know, he's easily offended, and the damp's rather bad for his stamina. +I'll call him in, Mr Gills.' + +With that, Mr Toots repairing to the shop-door, sent a peculiar whistle +into the night, which produced a stoical gentleman in a shaggy white +great-coat and a flat-brimmed hat, with very short hair, a broken nose, +and a considerable tract of bare and sterile country behind each ear. + +'Sit down, Chicken,' said Mr Toots. + +The compliant Chicken spat out some small pieces of straw on which +he was regaling himself, and took in a fresh supply from a reserve he +carried in his hand. + +'There ain't no drain of nothing short handy, is there?' said the +Chicken, generally. 'This here sluicing night is hard lines to a man as +lives on his condition.' + +Captain Cuttle proffered a glass of rum, which the Chicken, throwing +back his head, emptied into himself, as into a cask, after proposing the +brief sentiment, 'Towards us!' Mr Toots and the Captain returning then +to the parlour, and taking their seats before the fire, Mr Toots began: + +'Mr Gills--' + +'Awast!' said the Captain. 'My name's Cuttle.' + +Mr Toots looked greatly disconcerted, while the Captain proceeded +gravely. + +'Cap'en Cuttle is my name, and England is my nation, this here is my +dwelling-place, and blessed be creation--Job,' said the Captain, as an +index to his authority. + +'Oh! I couldn't see Mr Gills, could I?' said Mr Toots; 'because--' + +'If you could see Sol Gills, young gen'l'm'n,' said the Captain, +impressively, and laying his heavy hand on Mr Toots's knee, 'old Sol, +mind you--with your own eyes--as you sit there--you'd be welcomer to me, +than a wind astern, to a ship becalmed. But you can't see Sol Gills. And +why can't you see Sol Gills?' said the Captain, apprised by the face of +Mr Toots that he was making a profound impression on that gentleman's +mind. 'Because he's inwisible.' + +Mr Toots in his agitation was going to reply that it was of no +consequence at all. But he corrected himself, and said, 'Lor bless me!' + +'That there man,' said the Captain, 'has left me in charge here by a +piece of writing, but though he was a'most as good as my sworn brother, +I know no more where he's gone, or why he's gone; if so be to seek his +nevy, or if so be along of being not quite settled in his mind; than you +do. One morning at daybreak, he went over the side,' said the Captain, +'without a splash, without a ripple I have looked for that man high and +low, and never set eyes, nor ears, nor nothing else, upon him from that +hour.' + +'But, good Gracious, Miss Dombey don't know--' Mr Toots began. + +'Why, I ask you, as a feeling heart,' said the Captain, dropping his +voice, 'why should she know? why should she be made to know, until such +time as there wam't any help for it? She took to old Sol Gills, did that +sweet creetur, with a kindness, with a affability, with a--what's the +good of saying so? you know her.' + +'I should hope so,' chuckled Mr Toots, with a conscious blush that +suffused his whole countenance. + +'And you come here from her?' said the Captain. + +'I should think so,' chuckled Mr Toots. + +'Then all I need observe, is,' said the Captain, 'that you know a angel, +and are chartered a angel.' + +Mr Toots instantly seized the Captain's hand, and requested the favour +of his friendship. + +'Upon my word and honour,' said Mr Toots, earnestly, 'I should be very +much obliged to you if you'd improve my acquaintance I should like to +know you, Captain, very much. I really am in want of a friend, I am. +Little Dombey was my friend at old Blimber's, and would have been now, +if he'd have lived. The Chicken,' said Mr Toots, in a forlorn whisper, +'is very well--admirable in his way--the sharpest man perhaps in the +world; there's not a move he isn't up to, everybody says so--but I don't +know--he's not everything. So she is an angel, Captain. If there is an +angel anywhere, it's Miss Dombey. That's what I've always said. Really +though, you know,' said Mr Toots, 'I should be very much obliged to you +if you'd cultivate my acquaintance.' + +Captain Cuttle received this proposal in a polite manner, but still +without committing himself to its acceptance; merely observing, 'Ay, +ay, my lad. We shall see, we shall see;' and reminding Mr Toots of his +immediate mission, by inquiring to what he was indebted for the honour +of that visit. + +'Why the fact is,' replied Mr Toots, 'that it's the young woman I come +from. Not Miss Dombey--Susan, you know. + +The Captain nodded his head once, with a grave expression of face +indicative of his regarding that young woman with serious respect. + +'And I'll tell you how it happens,' said Mr Toots. 'You know, I go and +call sometimes, on Miss Dombey. I don't go there on purpose, you know, +but I happen to be in the neighbourhood very often; and when I find +myself there, why--why I call.' + +'Nat'rally,' observed the Captain. + +'Yes,' said Mr Toots. 'I called this afternoon. Upon my word and honour, +I don't think it's possible to form an idea of the angel Miss Dombey was +this afternoon.' + +The Captain answered with a jerk of his head, implying that it might not +be easy to some people, but was quite so to him. + +'As I was coming out,' said Mr Toots, 'the young woman, in the most +unexpected manner, took me into the pantry.' + +The Captain seemed, for the moment, to object to this proceeding; and +leaning back in his chair, looked at Mr Toots with a distrustful, if not +threatening visage. + +'Where she brought out,' said Mr Toots, 'this newspaper. She told me +that she had kept it from Miss Dombey all day, on account of something +that was in it, about somebody that she and Dombey used to know; and +then she read the passage to me. Very well. Then she said--wait a +minute; what was it she said, though!' + +Mr Toots, endeavouring to concentrate his mental powers on this +question, unintentionally fixed the Captain's eye, and was so much +discomposed by its stern expression, that his difficulty in resuming the +thread of his subject was enhanced to a painful extent. + +'Oh!' said Mr Toots after long consideration. 'Oh, ah! Yes! She said +that she hoped there was a bare possibility that it mightn't be true; +and that as she couldn't very well come out herself, without surprising +Miss Dombey, would I go down to Mr Solomon Gills the Instrument-maker's +in this street, who was the party's Uncle, and ask whether he believed +it was true, or had heard anything else in the City. She said, if he +couldn't speak to me, no doubt Captain Cuttle could. By the bye!' said +Mr Toots, as the discovery flashed upon him, 'you, you know!' + +The Captain glanced at the newspaper in Mr Toots's hand, and breathed +short and hurriedly. + +'Well,' pursued Mr Toots, 'the reason why I'm rather late is, because I +went up as far as Finchley first, to get some uncommonly fine chickweed +that grows there, for Miss Dombey's bird. But I came on here, directly +afterwards. You've seen the paper, I suppose?' + +The Captain, who had become cautious of reading the news, lest he should +find himself advertised at full length by Mrs MacStinger, shook his +head. + +'Shall I read the passage to you?' inquired Mr Toots. + +The Captain making a sign in the affirmative, Mr Toots read as follows, +from the Shipping Intelligence: + +'"Southampton. The barque Defiance, Henry James, Commander, arrived in +this port to-day, with a cargo of sugar, coffee, and rum, reports +that being becalmed on the sixth day of her passage home from Jamaica, +in"--in such and such a latitude, you know,' said Mr Toots, after making +a feeble dash at the figures, and tumbling over them. + +'Ay!' cried the Captain, striking his clenched hand on the table. 'Heave +ahead, my lad!' + +'--latitude,' repeated Mr Toots, with a startled glance at the Captain, +'and longitude so-and-so,--"the look-out observed, half an hour before +sunset, some fragments of a wreck, drifting at about the distance of a +mile. The weather being clear, and the barque making no way, a boat was +hoisted out, with orders to inspect the same, when they were found to +consist of sundry large spars, and a part of the main rigging of an +English brig, of about five hundred tons burden, together with a portion +of the stem on which the words and letters 'Son and H-' were yet plainly +legible. No vestige of any dead body was to be seen upon the floating +fragments. Log of the Defiance states, that a breeze springing up in +the night, the wreck was seen no more. There can be no doubt that all +surmises as to the fate of the missing vessel, the Son and Heir, port of +London, bound for Barbados, are now set at rest for ever; that she broke +up in the last hurricane; and that every soul on board perished."' + +Captain Cuttle, like all mankind, little knew how much hope had survived +within him under discouragement, until he felt its death-shock. During +the reading of the paragraph, and for a minute or two afterwards, he sat +with his gaze fixed on the modest Mr Toots, like a man entranced; then, +suddenly rising, and putting on his glazed hat, which, in his visitor's +honour, he had laid upon the table, the Captain turned his back, and +bent his head down on the little chimneypiece. + +'Oh' upon my word and honour,' cried Mr Toots, whose tender heart was +moved by the Captain's unexpected distress, 'this is a most wretched +sort of affair this world is! Somebody's always dying, or going and +doing something uncomfortable in it. I'm sure I never should have looked +forward so much, to coming into my property, if I had known this. I +never saw such a world. It's a great deal worse than Blimber's.' + +Captain Cuttle, without altering his position, signed to Mr Toots not +to mind him; and presently turned round, with his glazed hat thrust back +upon his ears, and his hand composing and smoothing his brown face. + +'Wal'r, my dear lad,' said the Captain, 'farewell! Wal'r my child, +my boy, and man, I loved you! He warn't my flesh and blood,' said the +Captain, looking at the fire--'I ain't got none--but something of what a +father feels when he loses a son, I feel in losing Wal'r. For why?' said +the Captain. 'Because it ain't one loss, but a round dozen. Where's that +there young school-boy with the rosy face and curly hair, that used to +be as merry in this here parlour, come round every week, as a piece of +music? Gone down with Wal'r. Where's that there fresh lad, that nothing +couldn't tire nor put out, and that sparkled up and blushed so, when we +joked him about Heart's Delight, that he was beautiful to look at? +Gone down with Wal'r. Where's that there man's spirit, all afire, that +wouldn't see the old man hove down for a minute, and cared nothing for +itself? Gone down with Wal'r. It ain't one Wal'r. There was a dozen +Wal'rs that I know'd and loved, all holding round his neck when he went +down, and they're a-holding round mine now!' + +Mr Toots sat silent: folding and refolding the newspaper as small as +possible upon his knee. + +'And Sol Gills,' said the Captain, gazing at the fire, 'poor nevyless +old Sol, where are you got to! you was left in charge of me; his last +words was, "Take care of my Uncle!" What came over you, Sol, when you +went and gave the go-bye to Ned Cuttle; and what am I to put in my +accounts that he's a looking down upon, respecting you! Sol Gills, Sol +Gills!' said the Captain, shaking his head slowly, 'catch sight of that +there newspaper, away from home, with no one as know'd Wal'r by, to say +a word; and broadside to you broach, and down you pitch, head foremost!' + +Drawing a heavy sigh, the Captain turned to Mr Toots, and roused himself +to a sustained consciousness of that gentleman's presence. + +'My lad,' said the Captain, 'you must tell the young woman honestly that +this here fatal news is too correct. They don't romance, you see, on +such pints. It's entered on the ship's log, and that's the truest book +as a man can write. To-morrow morning,' said the Captain, 'I'll step out +and make inquiries; but they'll lead to no good. They can't do it. If +you'll give me a look-in in the forenoon, you shall know what I have +heerd; but tell the young woman from Cap'en Cuttle, that it's over. +Over!' And the Captain, hooking off his glazed hat, pulled his +handkerchief out of the crown, wiped his grizzled head despairingly, +and tossed the handkerchief in again, with the indifference of deep +dejection. + +'Oh! I assure you,' said Mr Toots, 'really I am dreadfully sorry. Upon +my word I am, though I wasn't acquainted with the party. Do you think +Miss Dombey will be very much affected, Captain Gills--I mean Mr +Cuttle?' + +'Why, Lord love you,' returned the Captain, with something of compassion +for Mr Toots's innocence. 'When she warn't no higher than that, they were +as fond of one another as two young doves.' + +'Were they though!' said Mr Toots, with a considerably lengthened face. + +'They were made for one another,' said the Captain, mournfully; 'but +what signifies that now!' + +'Upon my word and honour,' cried Mr Toots, blurting out his words +through a singular combination of awkward chuckles and emotion, 'I'm +even more sorry than I was before. You know, Captain Gills, I--I +positively adore Miss Dombey;--I--I am perfectly sore with loving her;' +the burst with which this confession forced itself out of the unhappy +Mr Toots, bespoke the vehemence of his feelings; 'but what would be the +good of my regarding her in this manner, if I wasn't truly sorry for +her feeling pain, whatever was the cause of it. Mine ain't a selfish +affection, you know,' said Mr Toots, in the confidence engendered by +his having been a witness of the Captain's tenderness. 'It's the sort +of thing with me, Captain Gills, that if I could be run over--or--or +trampled upon--or--or thrown off a very high place-or anything of that +sort--for Miss Dombey's sake, it would be the most delightful thing that +could happen to me.' + +All this, Mr Toots said in a suppressed voice, to prevent its reaching +the jealous ears of the Chicken, who objected to the softer emotions; +which effort of restraint, coupled with the intensity of his feelings, +made him red to the tips of his ears, and caused him to present such an +affecting spectacle of disinterested love to the eyes of Captain Cuttle, +that the good Captain patted him consolingly on the back, and bade him +cheer up. + +'Thankee, Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'it's kind of you, in the midst +of your own troubles, to say so. I'm very much obliged to you. As I +said before, I really want a friend, and should be glad to have your +acquaintance. Although I am very well off,' said Mr Toots, with energy, +'you can't think what a miserable Beast I am. The hollow crowd, you +know, when they see me with the Chicken, and characters of distinction +like that, suppose me to be happy; but I'm wretched. I suffer for Miss +Dombey, Captain Gills. I can't get through my meals; I have no pleasure +in my tailor; I often cry when I'm alone. I assure you it'll be a +satisfaction to me to come back to-morrow, or to come back fifty times.' + +Mr Toots, with these words, shook the Captain's hand; and disguising +such traces of his agitation as could be disguised on so short a notice, +before the Chicken's penetrating glance, rejoined that eminent gentleman +in the shop. The Chicken, who was apt to be jealous of his ascendancy, +eyed Captain Cuttle with anything but favour as he took leave of Mr +Toots, but followed his patron without being otherwise demonstrative +of his ill-will: leaving the Captain oppressed with sorrow; and Rob +the Grinder elevated with joy, on account of having had the honour of +staring for nearly half an hour at the conqueror of the Nobby Shropshire +One. + +Long after Rob was fast asleep in his bed under the counter, the Captain +sat looking at the fire; and long after there was no fire to look at, +the Captain sat gazing on the rusty bars, with unavailing thoughts of +Walter and old Sol crowding through his mind. Retirement to the stormy +chamber at the top of the house brought no rest with it; and the Captain +rose up in the morning, sorrowful and unrefreshed. + +As soon as the City offices were opened, the Captain issued forth to +the counting-house of Dombey and Son. But there was no opening of the +Midshipman's windows that morning. Rob the Grinder, by the Captain's +orders, left the shutters closed, and the house was as a house of death. + +It chanced that Mr Carker was entering the office, as Captain Cuttle +arrived at the door. Receiving the Manager's benison gravely and +silently, Captain Cuttle made bold to accompany him into his own room. + +'Well, Captain Cuttle,' said Mr Carker, taking up his usual position +before the fireplace, and keeping on his hat, 'this is a bad business.' + +'You have received the news as was in print yesterday, Sir?' said the +Captain. + +'Yes,' said Mr Carker, 'we have received it! It was accurately stated. +The underwriters suffer a considerable loss. We are very sorry. No help! +Such is life!' + +Mr Carker pared his nails delicately with a penknife, and smiled at the +Captain, who was standing by the door looking at him. + +'I excessively regret poor Gay,' said Carker, 'and the crew. I +understand there were some of our very best men among 'em. It always +happens so. Many men with families too. A comfort to reflect that poor +Gay had no family, Captain Cuttle!' + +The Captain stood rubbing his chin, and looking at the Manager. The +Manager glanced at the unopened letters lying on his desk, and took up +the newspaper. + +'Is there anything I can do for you, Captain Cuttle?' he asked looking +off it, with a smiling and expressive glance at the door. + +'I wish you could set my mind at rest, Sir, on something it's uneasy +about,' returned the Captain. + +'Ay!' exclaimed the Manager, 'what's that? Come, Captain Cuttle, I must +trouble you to be quick, if you please. I am much engaged.' + +'Lookee here, Sir,' said the Captain, advancing a step. 'Afore my friend +Wal'r went on this here disastrous voyage--' + +'Come, come, Captain Cuttle,' interposed the smiling Manager, 'don't +talk about disastrous voyages in that way. We have nothing to do with +disastrous voyages here, my good fellow. You must have begun very early +on your day's allowance, Captain, if you don't remember that there are +hazards in all voyages, whether by sea or land. You are not made uneasy +by the supposition that young what's-his-name was lost in bad weather +that was got up against him in these offices--are you? Fie, Captain! +Sleep, and soda-water, are the best cures for such uneasiness as that.' + +'My lad,' returned the Captain, slowly--'you are a'most a lad to me, +and so I don't ask your pardon for that slip of a word,--if you find any +pleasure in this here sport, you ain't the gentleman I took you for. And +if you ain't the gentleman I took you for, may be my mind has call to +be uneasy. Now this is what it is, Mr Carker.--Afore that poor lad went +away, according to orders, he told me that he warn't a going away for +his own good, or for promotion, he know'd. It was my belief that he +was wrong, and I told him so, and I come here, your head governor being +absent, to ask a question or two of you in a civil way, for my own +satisfaction. Them questions you answered--free. Now it'll ease my mind +to know, when all is over, as it is, and when what can't be cured must +be endoored--for which, as a scholar, you'll overhaul the book it's in, +and thereof make a note--to know once more, in a word, that I warn't +mistaken; that I warn't back'ard in my duty when I didn't tell the old +man what Wal'r told me; and that the wind was truly in his sail, when +he highsted of it for Barbados Harbour. Mr Carker,' said the Captain, in +the goodness of his nature, 'when I was here last, we was very pleasant +together. If I ain't been altogether so pleasant myself this morning, on +account of this poor lad, and if I have chafed again any observation of +yours that I might have fended off, my name is Ed'ard Cuttle, and I ask +your pardon.' + +'Captain Cuttle,' returned the Manager, with all possible politeness, 'I +must ask you to do me a favour.' + +'And what is it, Sir?' inquired the Captain. + +'To have the goodness to walk off, if you please,' rejoined the Manager, +stretching forth his arm, 'and to carry your jargon somewhere else.' + +Every knob in the Captain's face turned white with astonishment and +indignation; even the red rim on his forehead faded, like a rainbow +among the gathering clouds. + +'I tell you what, Captain Cuttle,' said the Manager, shaking his +forefinger at him, and showing him all his teeth, but still amiably +smiling, 'I was much too lenient with you when you came here before. You +belong to an artful and audacious set of people. In my desire to save +young what's-his-name from being kicked out of this place, neck and +crop, my good Captain, I tolerated you; but for once, and only once. +Now, go, my friend!' + +The Captain was absolutely rooted to the ground, and speechless-- + +'Go,' said the good-humoured Manager, gathering up his skirts, and +standing astride upon the hearth-rug, 'like a sensible fellow, and let +us have no turning out, or any such violent measures. If Mr Dombey +were here, Captain, you might be obliged to leave in a more ignominious +manner, possibly. I merely say, Go!' + +The Captain, laying his ponderous hand upon his chest, to assist himself +in fetching a deep breath, looked at Mr Carker from head to foot, and +looked round the little room, as if he did not clearly understand where +he was, or in what company. + +'You are deep, Captain Cuttle,' pursued Carker, with the easy and +vivacious frankness of a man of the world who knew the world too well +to be ruffled by any discovery of misdoing, when it did not +immediately concern himself, 'but you are not quite out of soundings, +either--neither you nor your absent friend, Captain. What have you done +with your absent friend, hey?' + +Again the Captain laid his hand upon his chest. After drawing another +deep breath, he conjured himself to 'stand by!' But in a whisper. + +'You hatch nice little plots, and hold nice little councils, and +make nice little appointments, and receive nice little visitors, too, +Captain, hey?' said Carker, bending his brows upon him, without +showing his teeth any the less: 'but it's a bold measure to come here +afterwards. Not like your discretion! You conspirators, and hiders, +and runners-away, should know better than that. Will you oblige me by +going?' + +'My lad,' gasped the Captain, in a choked and trembling voice, and with +a curious action going on in the ponderous fist; 'there's a many words I +could wish to say to you, but I don't rightly know where they're stowed +just at present. My young friend, Wal'r, was drownded only last night, +according to my reckoning, and it puts me out, you see. But you and +me will come alongside o'one another again, my lad,' said the Captain, +holding up his hook, 'if we live.' + +'It will be anything but shrewd in you, my good fellow, if we do,' +returned the Manager, with the same frankness; 'for you may rely, I give +you fair warning, upon my detecting and exposing you. I don't pretend +to be a more moral man than my neighbours, my good Captain; but the +confidence of this House, or of any member of this House, is not to be +abused and undermined while I have eyes and ears. Good day!' said Mr +Carker, nodding his head. + +Captain Cuttle, looking at him steadily (Mr Carker looked full as +steadily at the Captain), went out of the office and left him standing +astride before the fire, as calm and pleasant as if there were no more +spots upon his soul than on his pure white linen, and his smooth sleek +skin. + +The Captain glanced, in passing through the outer counting-house, at +the desk where he knew poor Walter had been used to sit, now occupied by +another young boy, with a face almost as fresh and hopeful as his on the +day when they tapped the famous last bottle but one of the old Madeira, +in the little back parlour. The nation of ideas, thus awakened, did the +Captain a great deal of good; it softened him in the very height of his +anger, and brought the tears into his eyes. + +Arrived at the wooden Midshipman's again, and sitting down in a corner +of the dark shop, the Captain's indignation, strong as it was, could +make no head against his grief. Passion seemed not only to do wrong and +violence to the memory of the dead, but to be infected by death, and +to droop and decline beside it. All the living knaves and liars in the +world, were nothing to the honesty and truth of one dead friend. + +The only thing the honest Captain made out clearly, in this state of +mind, besides the loss of Walter, was, that with him almost the whole +world of Captain Cuttle had been drowned. If he reproached himself +sometimes, and keenly too, for having ever connived at Walter's innocent +deceit, he thought at least as often of the Mr Carker whom no sea could +ever render up; and the Mr Dombey, whom he now began to perceive was as +far beyond human recall; and the 'Heart's Delight,' with whom he must +never foregather again; and the Lovely Peg, that teak-built and trim +ballad, that had gone ashore upon a rock, and split into mere planks +and beams of rhyme. The Captain sat in the dark shop, thinking of these +things, to the entire exclusion of his own injury; and looking with +as sad an eye upon the ground, as if in contemplation of their actual +fragments, as they floated past. + +But the Captain was not unmindful, for all that, of such decent and +rest observances in memory of poor Walter, as he felt within his power. +Rousing himself, and rousing Rob the Grinder (who in the unnatural +twilight was fast asleep), the Captain sallied forth with his attendant +at his heels, and the door-key in his pocket, and repairing to one of +those convenient slop-selling establishments of which there is abundant +choice at the eastern end of London, purchased on the spot two suits of +mourning--one for Rob the Grinder, which was immensely too small, and +one for himself, which was immensely too large. He also provided Rob +with a species of hat, greatly to be admired for its symmetry and +usefulness, as well as for a happy blending of the mariner with the +coal-heaver; which is usually termed a sou'wester; and which was +something of a novelty in connexion with the instrument business. In +their several garments, which the vendor declared to be such a miracle +in point of fit as nothing but a rare combination of fortuitous +circumstances ever brought about, and the fashion of which was +unparalleled within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, the Captain and +Grinder immediately arrayed themselves: presenting a spectacle fraught +with wonder to all who beheld it. + +In this altered form, the Captain received Mr Toots. 'I'm took aback, +my lad, at present,' said the Captain, 'and will only confirm that there +ill news. Tell the young woman to break it gentle to the young lady, +and for neither of 'em never to think of me no more--'special, mind you, +that is--though I will think of them, when night comes on a hurricane +and seas is mountains rowling, for which overhaul your Doctor Watts, +brother, and when found make a note on.' + +The Captain reserved, until some fitter time, the consideration of Mr +Toots's offer of friendship, and thus dismissed him. Captain Cuttle's +spirits were so low, in truth, that he half determined, that day, to +take no further precautions against surprise from Mrs MacStinger, but to +abandon himself recklessly to chance, and be indifferent to what +might happen. As evening came on, he fell into a better frame of mind, +however; and spoke much of Walter to Rob the Grinder, whose attention +and fidelity he likewise incidentally commended. Rob did not blush to +hear the Captain earnest in his praises, but sat staring at him, and +affecting to snivel with sympathy, and making a feint of being virtuous, +and treasuring up every word he said (like a young spy as he was) with +very promising deceit. + +When Rob had turned in, and was fast asleep, the Captain trimmed the +candle, put on his spectacles--he had felt it appropriate to take to +spectacles on entering into the Instrument Trade, though his eyes were +like a hawk's--and opened the prayer-book at the Burial Service. And +reading softly to himself, in the little back parlour, and stopping now +and then to wipe his eyes, the Captain, in a true and simple spirit, +committed Walter's body to the deep. + + + +CHAPTER 33. Contrasts + + +Turn we our eyes upon two homes; not lying side by side, but wide apart, +though both within easy range and reach of the great city of London. + +The first is situated in the green and wooded country near Norwood. +It is not a mansion; it is of no pretensions as to size; but it is +beautifully arranged, and tastefully kept. The lawn, the soft, smooth +slope, the flower-garden, the clumps of trees where graceful forms of +ash and willow are not wanting, the conservatory, the rustic verandah +with sweet-smelling creeping plants entwined about the pillars, the +simple exterior of the house, the well-ordered offices, though all upon +the diminutive scale proper to a mere cottage, bespeak an amount of +elegant comfort within, that might serve for a palace. This indication +is not without warrant; for, within, it is a house of refinement and +luxury. Rich colours, excellently blended, meet the eye at every turn; +in the furniture--its proportions admirably devised to suit the shapes +and sizes of the small rooms; on the walls; upon the floors; tingeing +and subduing the light that comes in through the odd glass doors and +windows here and there. There are a few choice prints and pictures too; +in quaint nooks and recesses there is no want of books; and there are +games of skill and chance set forth on tables--fantastic chessmen, dice, +backgammon, cards, and billiards. + +And yet amidst this opulence of comfort, there is something in the +general air that is not well. Is it that the carpets and the cushions +are too soft and noiseless, so that those who move or repose among +them seem to act by stealth? Is it that the prints and pictures do not +commemorate great thoughts or deeds, or render nature in the Poetry of +landscape, hall, or hut, but are of one voluptuous cast--mere shows of +form and colour--and no more? Is it that the books have all their gold +outside, and that the titles of the greater part qualify them to be +companions of the prints and pictures? Is it that the completeness and +the beauty of the place are here and there belied by an affectation of +humility, in some unimportant and inexpensive regard, which is as false +as the face of the too truly painted portrait hanging yonder, or its +original at breakfast in his easy chair below it? Or is it that, with +the daily breath of that original and master of all here, there issues +forth some subtle portion of himself, which gives a vague expression of +himself to everything about him? + +It is Mr Carker the Manager who sits in the easy chair. A gaudy parrot +in a burnished cage upon the table tears at the wires with her beak, +and goes walking, upside down, in its dome-top, shaking her house and +screeching; but Mr Carker is indifferent to the bird, and looks with a +musing smile at a picture on the opposite wall. + +'A most extraordinary accidental likeness, certainly,' says he. + +Perhaps it is a Juno; perhaps a Potiphar's Wife'; perhaps some scornful +Nymph--according as the Picture Dealers found the market, when they +christened it. It is the figure of a woman, supremely handsome, who, +turning away, but with her face addressed to the spectator, flashes her +proud glance upon him. + +It is like Edith. + +With a passing gesture of his hand at the picture--what! a menace? No; +yet something like it. A wave as of triumph? No; yet more like that. An +insolent salute wafted from his lips? No; yet like that too--he resumes +his breakfast, and calls to the chafing and imprisoned bird, who +coming down into a pendant gilded hoop within the cage, like a great +wedding-ring, swings in it, for his delight. + +The second home is on the other side of London, near to where the busy +great north road of bygone days is silent and almost deserted, except by +wayfarers who toil along on foot. It is a poor small house, barely +and sparely furnished, but very clean; and there is even an attempt to +decorate it, shown in the homely flowers trained about the porch and in +the narrow garden. The neighbourhood in which it stands has as little of +the country to recommend it, as it has of the town. It is neither of the +town nor country. The former, like the giant in his travelling boots, +has made a stride and passed it, and has set his brick-and-mortar heel +a long way in advance; but the intermediate space between the giant's +feet, as yet, is only blighted country, and not town; and, here, among +a few tall chimneys belching smoke all day and night, and among the +brick-fields and the lanes where turf is cut, and where the fences +tumble down, and where the dusty nettles grow, and where a scrap or +two of hedge may yet be seen, and where the bird-catcher still comes +occasionally, though he swears every time to come no more--this second +home is to be found.' + +She who inhabits it, is she who left the first in her devotion to an +outcast brother. She withdrew from that home its redeeming spirit, and +from its master's breast his solitary angel: but though his liking for +her is gone, after this ungrateful slight as he considers it; and though +he abandons her altogether in return, an old idea of her is not quite +forgotten even by him. Let her flower-garden, in which he never sets his +foot, but which is yet maintained, among all his costly alterations, as +if she had quitted it but yesterday, bear witness! + +Harriet Carker has changed since then, and on her beauty there has +fallen a heavier shade than Time of his unassisted self can cast, +all-potent as he is--the shadow of anxiety and sorrow, and the daily +struggle of a poor existence. But it is beauty still; and still a +gentle, quiet, and retiring beauty that must be sought out, for it +cannot vaunt itself; if it could, it would be what it is, no more. + +Yes. This slight, small, patient figure, neatly dressed in homely +stuffs, and indicating nothing but the dull, household virtues, +that have so little in common with the received idea of heroism and +greatness, unless, indeed, any ray of them should shine through the +lives of the great ones of the earth, when it becomes a constellation +and is tracked in Heaven straightway--this slight, small, patient +figure, leaning on the man still young but worn and grey, is she, his +sister, who, of all the world, went over to him in his shame and put +her hand in his, and with a sweet composure and determination, led him +hopefully upon his barren way. + +'It is early, John,' she said. 'Why do you go so early?' + +'Not many minutes earlier than usual, Harriet. If I have the time to +spare, I should like, I think--it's a fancy--to walk once by the house +where I took leave of him.' + +'I wish I had ever seen or known him, John.' + +'It is better as it is, my dear, remembering his fate.' + +'But I could not regret it more, though I had known him. Is not your +sorrow mine? And if I had, perhaps you would feel that I was a better +companion to you in speaking about him, than I may seem now.' + +'My dearest sister! Is there anything within the range of rejoicing or +regret, in which I am not sure of your companionship?' + +'I hope you think not, John, for surely there is nothing!' + +'How could you be better to me, or nearer to me then, than you are in +this, or anything?' said her brother. 'I feel that you did know him, +Harriet, and that you shared my feelings towards him.' + +She drew the hand which had been resting on his shoulder, round his +neck, and answered, with some hesitation: + +'No, not quite.' + +'True, true!' he said; 'you think I might have done him no harm if I had +allowed myself to know him better?' + +'Think! I know it.' + +'Designedly, Heaven knows I would not,' he replied, shaking his head +mournfully; 'but his reputation was too precious to be perilled by such +association. Whether you share that knowledge, or do not, my dear--' + +'I do not,' she said quietly. + +'It is still the truth, Harriet, and my mind is lighter when I think of +him for that which made it so much heavier then.' He checked himself in +his tone of melancholy, and smiled upon her as he said 'Good-bye!' + +'Good-bye, dear John! In the evening, at the old time and place, I shall +meet you as usual on your way home. Good-bye.' + +The cordial face she lifted up to his to kiss him, was his home, his +life, his universe, and yet it was a portion of his punishment and +grief; for in the cloud he saw upon it--though serene and calm as any +radiant cloud at sunset--and in the constancy and devotion of her life, +and in the sacrifice she had made of ease, enjoyment, and hope, he saw +the bitter fruits of his old crime, for ever ripe and fresh. + +She stood at the door looking after him, with her hands loosely clasped +in each other, as he made his way over the frowzy and uneven patch of +ground which lay before their house, which had once (and not long ago) +been a pleasant meadow, and was now a very waste, with a disorderly crop +of beginnings of mean houses, rising out of the rubbish, as if they had +been unskilfully sown there. Whenever he looked back--as once or twice +he did--her cordial face shone like a light upon his heart; but when he +plodded on his way, and saw her not, the tears were in her eyes as she +stood watching him. + +Her pensive form was not long idle at the door. There was daily duty to +discharge, and daily work to do--for such commonplace spirits that are +not heroic, often work hard with their hands--and Harriet was soon busy +with her household tasks. These discharged, and the poor house made +quite neat and orderly, she counted her little stock of money, with +an anxious face, and went out thoughtfully to buy some necessaries for +their table, planning and conniving, as she went, how to save. So sordid +are the lives of such low natures, who are not only not heroic to their +valets and waiting-women, but have neither valets nor waiting-women to +be heroic to withal! + +While she was absent, and there was no one in the house, there +approached it by a different way from that the brother had taken, +a gentleman, a very little past his prime of life perhaps, but of a +healthy florid hue, an upright presence, and a bright clear aspect, that +was gracious and good-humoured. His eyebrows were still black, and +so was much of his hair; the sprinkling of grey observable among the +latter, graced the former very much, and showed his broad frank brow and +honest eyes to great advantage. + +After knocking once at the door, and obtaining no response, this +gentleman sat down on a bench in the little porch to wait. A certain +skilful action of his fingers as he hummed some bars, and beat time +on the seat beside him, seemed to denote the musician; and the +extraordinary satisfaction he derived from humming something very slow +and long, which had no recognisable tune, seemed to denote that he was a +scientific one. + +The gentleman was still twirling a theme, which seemed to go round and +round and round, and in and in and in, and to involve itself like a +corkscrew twirled upon a table, without getting any nearer to anything, +when Harriet appeared returning. He rose up as she advanced, and stood +with his head uncovered. + +'You are come again, Sir!' she said, faltering. + +'I take that liberty,' he answered. 'May I ask for five minutes of your +leisure?' + +After a moment's hesitation, she opened the door, and gave him admission +to the little parlour. The gentleman sat down there, drew his chair +to the table over against her, and said, in a voice that perfectly +corresponded to his appearance, and with a simplicity that was very +engaging: + +'Miss Harriet, you cannot be proud. You signified to me, when I called +t'other morning, that you were. Pardon me if I say that I looked into +your face while you spoke, and that it contradicted you. I look into +it again,' he added, laying his hand gently on her arm, for an instant, +'and it contradicts you more and more.' + +She was somewhat confused and agitated, and could make no ready answer. + +'It is the mirror of truth,' said her visitor, 'and gentleness. Excuse +my trusting to it, and returning.' + +His manner of saying these words, divested them entirely of the +character of compliments. It was so plain, grave, unaffected, and +sincere, that she bent her head, as if at once to thank him, and +acknowledge his sincerity. + +'The disparity between our ages,' said the gentleman, 'and the plainness +of my purpose, empower me, I am glad to think, to speak my mind. That is +my mind; and so you see me for the second time.' + +'There is a kind of pride, Sir,' she returned, after a moment's silence, +'or what may be supposed to be pride, which is mere duty. I hope I +cherish no other.' + +'For yourself,' he said. + +'For myself.' + +'But--pardon me--' suggested the gentleman. 'For your brother John?' + +'Proud of his love, I am,' said Harriet, looking full upon her visitor, +and changing her manner on the instant--not that it was less composed +and quiet, but that there was a deep impassioned earnestness in it that +made the very tremble in her voice a part of her firmness, 'and proud of +him. Sir, you who strangely know the story of his life, and repeated it +to me when you were here last--' + +'Merely to make my way into your confidence,' interposed the gentleman. +'For heaven's sake, don't suppose--' + +'I am sure,' she said, 'you revived it, in my hearing, with a kind and +good purpose. I am quite sure of it.' + +'I thank you,' returned her visitor, pressing her hand hastily. 'I am +much obliged to you. You do me justice, I assure you. You were going to +say, that I, who know the story of John Carker's life--' + +'May think it pride in me,' she continued, 'when I say that I am proud +of him! I am. You know the time was, when I was not--when I could not +be--but that is past. The humility of many years, the uncomplaining +expiation, the true repentance, the terrible regret, the pain I know +he has even in my affection, which he thinks has cost me dear, though +Heaven knows I am happy, but for his sorrow I--oh, Sir, after what I +have seen, let me conjure you, if you are in any place of power, and are +ever wronged, never, for any wrong, inflict a punishment that cannot be +recalled; while there is a GOD above us to work changes in the hearts He +made.' + +'Your brother is an altered man,' returned the gentleman, +compassionately. 'I assure you I don't doubt it.' + +'He was an altered man when he did wrong,' said Harriet. 'He is an +altered man again, and is his true self now, believe me, Sir.' + +'But we go on,' said her visitor, rubbing his forehead, in an absent +manner, with his hand, and then drumming thoughtfully on the table, 'we +go on in our clockwork routine, from day to day, and can't make out, +or follow, these changes. They--they're a metaphysical sort of thing. +We--we haven't leisure for it. We--we haven't courage. They're not +taught at schools or colleges, and we don't know how to set about it. In +short, we are so d----d business-like,' said the gentleman, walking +to the window, and back, and sitting down again, in a state of extreme +dissatisfaction and vexation. + +'I am sure,' said the gentleman, rubbing his forehead again; and +drumming on the table as before, 'I have good reason to believe that +a jog-trot life, the same from day to day, would reconcile one to +anything. One don't see anything, one don't hear anything, one don't +know anything; that's the fact. We go on taking everything for granted, +and so we go on, until whatever we do, good, bad, or indifferent, we do +from habit. Habit is all I shall have to report, when I am called upon +to plead to my conscience, on my death-bed. "Habit," says I; "I was +deaf, dumb, blind, and paralytic, to a million things, from habit." +"Very business-like indeed, Mr What's-your-name," says Conscience, +"but it won't do here!"' + +The gentleman got up and walked to the window again and back: seriously +uneasy, though giving his uneasiness this peculiar expression. + +'Miss Harriet,' he said, resuming his chair, 'I wish you would let me +serve you. Look at me; I ought to look honest, for I know I am so, at +present. Do I?' + +'Yes,' she answered with a smile. + +'I believe every word you have said,' he returned. 'I am full of +self-reproach that I might have known this and seen this, and known +you and seen you, any time these dozen years, and that I never have. I +hardly know how I ever got here--creature that I am, not only of my own +habit, but of other people's! But having done so, let me do something. +I ask it in all honour and respect. You inspire me with both, in the +highest degree. Let me do something.' + +'We are contented, Sir.' + +'No, no, not quite,' returned the gentleman. 'I think not quite. There +are some little comforts that might smooth your life, and his. And his!' +he repeated, fancying that had made some impression on her. 'I have been +in the habit of thinking that there was nothing wanting to be done for +him; that it was all settled and over; in short, of not thinking at all +about it. I am different now. Let me do something for him. You too,' +said the visitor, with careful delicacy, 'have need to watch your health +closely, for his sake, and I fear it fails.' + +'Whoever you may be, Sir,' answered Harriet, raising her eyes to his +face, 'I am deeply grateful to you. I feel certain that in all you +say, you have no object in the world but kindness to us. But years have +passed since we began this life; and to take from my brother any part of +what has so endeared him to me, and so proved his better resolution--any +fragment of the merit of his unassisted, obscure, and forgotten +reparation--would be to diminish the comfort it will be to him and me, +when that time comes to each of us, of which you spoke just now. I thank +you better with these tears than any words. Believe it, pray.' + +The gentleman was moved, and put the hand she held out, to his lips, +much as a tender father might kiss the hand of a dutiful child. But more +reverently. + +'If the day should ever come,' said Harriet, 'when he is restored, in +part, to the position he lost--' + +'Restored!' cried the gentleman, quickly. 'How can that be hoped for? In +whose hands does the power of any restoration lie? It is no mistake of +mine, surely, to suppose that his having gained the priceless blessing +of his life, is one cause of the animosity shown to him by his brother.' + +'You touch upon a subject that is never breathed between us; not even +between us,' said Harriet. + +'I beg your forgiveness,' said the visitor. 'I should have known it. I +entreat you to forget that I have done so, inadvertently. And now, as I +dare urge no more--as I am not sure that I have a right to do so--though +Heaven knows, even that doubt may be habit,' said the gentleman, rubbing +his head, as despondently as before, 'let me; though a stranger, yet no +stranger; ask two favours.' + +'What are they?' she inquired. + +'The first, that if you should see cause to change your resolution, you +will suffer me to be as your right hand. My name shall then be at your +service; it is useless now, and always insignificant.' + +'Our choice of friends,' she answered, smiling faintly, 'is not so +great, that I need any time for consideration. I can promise that.' + +'The second, that you will allow me sometimes, say every Monday +morning, at nine o'clock--habit again--I must be businesslike,' said the +gentleman, with a whimsical inclination to quarrel with himself on that +head, 'in walking past, to see you at the door or window. I don't ask to +come in, as your brother will be gone out at that hour. I don't ask to +speak to you. I merely ask to see, for the satisfaction of my own mind, +that you are well, and without intrusion to remind you, by the sight of +me, that you have a friend--an elderly friend, grey-haired already, and +fast growing greyer--whom you may ever command.' + +The cordial face looked up in his; confided in it; and promised. + +'I understand, as before,' said the gentleman, rising, 'that you +purpose not to mention my visit to John Carker, lest he should be at all +distressed by my acquaintance with his history. I am glad of it, for +it is out of the ordinary course of things, and--habit again!' said the +gentleman, checking himself impatiently, 'as if there were no better +course than the ordinary course!' + +With that he turned to go, and walking, bareheaded, to the outside +of the little porch, took leave of her with such a happy mixture of +unconstrained respect and unaffected interest, as no breeding could have +taught, no truth mistrusted, and nothing but a pure and single heart +expressed. + +Many half-forgotten emotions were awakened in the sister's mind by this +visit. It was so very long since any other visitor had crossed their +threshold; it was so very long since any voice of apathy had made sad +music in her ears; that the stranger's figure remained present to her, +hours afterwards, when she sat at the window, plying her needle; and his +words seemed newly spoken, again and again. He had touched the spring +that opened her whole life; and if she lost him for a short space, it +was only among the many shapes of the one great recollection of which +that life was made. + +Musing and working by turns; now constraining herself to be steady at +her needle for a long time together, and now letting her work fall, +unregarded, on her lap, and straying wheresoever her busier thoughts +led, Harriet Carker found the hours glide by her, and the day steal on. +The morning, which had been bright and clear, gradually became overcast; +a sharp wind set in; the rain fell heavily; and a dark mist drooping +over the distant town, hid it from the view. + +She often looked with compassion, at such a time, upon the stragglers +who came wandering into London, by the great highway hard by, and who, +footsore and weary, and gazing fearfully at the huge town before them, +as if foreboding that their misery there would be but as a drop of water +in the sea, or as a grain of sea-sand on the shore, went shrinking on, +cowering before the angry weather, and looking as if the very elements +rejected them. Day after day, such travellers crept past, but always, as +she thought, in one direction--always towards the town. Swallowed up in +one phase or other of its immensity, towards which they seemed impelled +by a desperate fascination, they never returned. Food for the hospitals, +the churchyards, the prisons, the river, fever, madness, vice, and +death,--they passed on to the monster, roaring in the distance, and were +lost. + +The chill wind was howling, and the rain was falling, and the day was +darkening moodily, when Harriet, raising her eyes from the work on which +she had long since been engaged with unremitting constancy, saw one of +these travellers approaching. + +A woman. A solitary woman of some thirty years of age; tall; +well-formed; handsome; miserably dressed; the soil of many country roads +in varied weather--dust, chalk, clay, gravel--clotted on her grey cloak +by the streaming wet; no bonnet on her head, nothing to defend her rich +black hair from the rain, but a torn handkerchief; with the fluttering +ends of which, and with her hair, the wind blinded her so that she often +stopped to push them back, and look upon the way she was going. + +She was in the act of doing so, when Harriet observed her. As her hands, +parting on her sunburnt forehead, swept across her face, and threw +aside the hindrances that encroached upon it, there was a reckless and +regardless beauty in it: a dauntless and depraved indifference to more +than weather: a carelessness of what was cast upon her bare head from +Heaven or earth: that, coupled with her misery and loneliness, touched +the heart of her fellow-woman. She thought of all that was perverted and +debased within her, no less than without: of modest graces of the mind, +hardened and steeled, like these attractions of the person; of the many +gifts of the Creator flung to the winds like the wild hair; of all +the beautiful ruin upon which the storm was beating and the night was +coming. + +Thinking of this, she did not turn away with a delicate indignation--too +many of her own compassionate and tender sex too often do--but pitied +her. + +Her fallen sister came on, looking far before her, trying with her eager +eyes to pierce the mist in which the city was enshrouded, and glancing, +now and then, from side to side, with the bewildered--and uncertain +aspect of a stranger. Though her tread was bold and courageous, she was +fatigued, and after a moment of irresolution,--sat down upon a heap of +stones; seeking no shelter from the rain, but letting it rain on her as +it would. + +She was now opposite the house; raising her head after resting it for a +moment on both hands, her eyes met those of Harriet. + +In a moment, Harriet was at the door; and the other, rising from her +seat at her beck, came slowly, and with no conciliatory look, towards +her. + +'Why do you rest in the rain?' said Harriet, gently. + +'Because I have no other resting-place,' was the reply. + +'But there are many places of shelter near here. This,' referring to the +little porch, 'is better than where you were. You are very welcome to +rest here.' + +The wanderer looked at her, in doubt and surprise, but without any +expression of thankfulness; and sitting down, and taking off one of her +worn shoes to beat out the fragments of stone and dust that were inside, +showed that her foot was cut and bleeding. + +Harriet uttering an expression of pity, the traveller looked up with a +contemptuous and incredulous smile. + +'Why, what's a torn foot to such as me?' she said. 'And what's a torn +foot in such as me, to such as you?' + +'Come in and wash it,' answered Harriet, mildly, 'and let me give you +something to bind it up.' + +The woman caught her arm, and drawing it before her own eyes, hid them +against it, and wept. Not like a woman, but like a stern man surprised +into that weakness; with a violent heaving of her breast, and struggle +for recovery, that showed how unusual the emotion was with her. + +She submitted to be led into the house, and, evidently more in gratitude +than in any care for herself, washed and bound the injured place. +Harriet then put before her fragments of her own frugal dinner, and when +she had eaten of them, though sparingly, besought her, before resuming +her road (which she showed her anxiety to do), to dry her clothes before +the fire. Again, more in gratitude than with any evidence of concern +in her own behalf, she sat down in front of it, and unbinding the +handkerchief about her head, and letting her thick wet hair fall down +below her waist, sat drying it with the palms of her hands, and looking +at the blaze. + +'I daresay you are thinking,' she said, lifting her head suddenly, 'that +I used to be handsome, once. I believe I was--I know I was--Look here!' + +She held up her hair roughly with both hands; seizing it as if she would +have torn it out; then, threw it down again, and flung it back as though +it were a heap of serpents. + +'Are you a stranger in this place?' asked Harriet. + +'A stranger!' she returned, stopping between each short reply, and +looking at the fire. 'Yes. Ten or a dozen years a stranger. I have had +no almanack where I have been. Ten or a dozen years. I don't know this +part. It's much altered since I went away.' + +'Have you been far?' + +'Very far. Months upon months over the sea, and far away even then. +I have been where convicts go,' she added, looking full upon her +entertainer. 'I have been one myself.' + +'Heaven help you and forgive you!' was the gentle answer. + +'Ah! Heaven help me and forgive me!' she returned, nodding her head at +the fire. 'If man would help some of us a little more, God would forgive +us all the sooner perhaps.' + +But she was softened by the earnest manner, and the cordial face so full +of mildness and so free from judgment, of her, and said, less hardily: + +'We may be about the same age, you and me. If I am older, it is not +above a year or two. Oh think of that!' + +She opened her arms, as though the exhibition of her outward form would +show the moral wretch she was; and letting them drop at her sides, hung +down her head. + +'There is nothing we may not hope to repair; it is never too late to +amend,' said Harriet. 'You are penitent?' + +'No,' she answered. 'I am not! I can't be. I am no such thing. Why +should I be penitent, and all the world go free? They talk to me of my +penitence. Who's penitent for the wrongs that have been done to me?' + +She rose up, bound her handkerchief about her head, and turned to move +away. + +'Where are you going?' said Harriet. + +'Yonder,' she answered, pointing with her hand. 'To London.' + +'Have you any home to go to?' + +'I think I have a mother. She's as much a mother, as her dwelling is a +home,' she answered with a bitter laugh. + +'Take this,' cried Harriet, putting money in her hand. 'Try to do well. +It is very little, but for one day it may keep you from harm.' + +'Are you married?' said the other, faintly, as she took it. + +'No. I live here with my brother. We have not much to spare, or I would +give you more.' + +'Will you let me kiss you?' + +Seeing no scorn or repugnance in her face, the object of her charity +bent over her as she asked the question, and pressed her lips against +her cheek. Once more she caught her arm, and covered her eyes with it; +and then was gone. + +Gone into the deepening night, and howling wind, and pelting rain; +urging her way on towards the mist-enshrouded city where the blurred +lights gleamed; and with her black hair, and disordered head-gear, +fluttering round her reckless face. + + + +CHAPTER 34. Another Mother and Daughter + + +In an ugly and dark room, an old woman, ugly and dark too, sat listening +to the wind and rain, and crouching over a meagre fire. More constant +to the last-named occupation than the first, she never changed her +attitude, unless, when any stray drops of rain fell hissing on the +smouldering embers, to raise her head with an awakened attention to +the whistling and pattering outside, and gradually to let it fall again +lower and lower and lower as she sunk into a brooding state of thought, +in which the noises of the night were as indistinctly regarded as is +the monotonous rolling of a sea by one who sits in contemplation on its +shore. + +There was no light in the room save that which the fire afforded. +Glaring sullenly from time to time like the eye of a fierce beast half +asleep, it revealed no objects that needed to be jealous of a better +display. A heap of rags, a heap of bones, a wretched bed, two or three +mutilated chairs or stools, the black walls and blacker ceiling, were +all its winking brightness shone upon. As the old woman, with a gigantic +and distorted image of herself thrown half upon the wall behind her, +half upon the roof above, sat bending over the few loose bricks within +which it was pent, on the damp hearth of the chimney--for there was no +stove--she looked as if she were watching at some witch's altar for a +favourable token; and but that the movement of her chattering jaws and +trembling chin was too frequent and too fast for the slow flickering of +the fire, it would have seemed an illusion wrought by the light, as +it came and went, upon a face as motionless as the form to which it +belonged. + +If Florence could have stood within the room and looked upon the +original of the shadow thrown upon the wall and roof as it cowered thus +over the fire, a glance might have sufficed to recall the figure of +Good Mrs Brown; notwithstanding that her childish recollection of that +terrible old woman was as grotesque and exaggerated a presentment of the +truth, perhaps, as the shadow on the wall. But Florence was not there +to look on; and Good Mrs Brown remained unrecognised, and sat staring at +her fire, unobserved. + +Attracted by a louder sputtering than usual, as the rain came hissing +down the chimney in a little stream, the old woman raised her head, +impatiently, to listen afresh. And this time she did not drop it again; +for there was a hand upon the door, and a footstep in the room. + +'Who's that?' she said, looking over her shoulder. + +'One who brings you news, was the answer, in a woman's voice. + +'News? Where from?' + +'From abroad.' + +'From beyond seas?' cried the old woman, starting up. + +'Ay, from beyond seas.' + +The old woman raked the fire together, hurriedly, and going close to +her visitor who had entered, and shut the door, and who now stood in the +middle of the room, put her hand upon the drenched cloak, and turned the +unresisting figure, so as to have it in the full light of the fire. She +did not find what she had expected, whatever that might be; for she let +the cloak go again, and uttered a querulous cry of disappointment and +misery. + +'What is the matter?' asked her visitor. + +'Oho! Oho!' cried the old woman, turning her face upward, with a +terrible howl. + +'What is the matter?' asked the visitor again. + +'It's not my gal!' cried the old woman, tossing up her arms, and +clasping her hands above her head. 'Where's my Alice? Where's my +handsome daughter? They've been the death of her!' + +'They've not been the death of her yet, if your name's Marwood,' said +the visitor. + +'Have you seen my gal, then?' cried the old woman. 'Has she wrote to +me?' + +'She said you couldn't read,' returned the other. + +'No more I can!' exclaimed the old woman, wringing her hands. + +'Have you no light here?' said the other, looking round the room. + +The old woman, mumbling and shaking her head, and muttering to herself +about her handsome daughter, brought a candle from a cupboard in the +corner, and thrusting it into the fire with a trembling hand, lighted it +with some difficulty and set it on the table. Its dirty wick burnt dimly +at first, being choked in its own grease; and when the bleared eyes and +failing sight of the old woman could distinguish anything by its light, +her visitor was sitting with her arms folded, her eyes turned downwards, +and a handkerchief she had worn upon her head lying on the table by her +side. + +'She sent to me by word of mouth then, my gal, Alice?' mumbled the old +woman, after waiting for some moments. 'What did she say?' + +'Look,' returned the visitor. + +The old woman repeated the word in a scared uncertain way; and, shading +her eyes, looked at the speaker, round the room, and at the speaker once +again. + +'Alice said look again, mother;' and the speaker fixed her eyes upon +her. + +Again the old woman looked round the room, and at her visitor, and round +the room once more. Hastily seizing the candle, and rising from her +seat, she held it to the visitor's face, uttered a loud cry, set down +the light, and fell upon her neck! + +'It's my gal! It's my Alice! It's my handsome daughter, living and +come back!' screamed the old woman, rocking herself to and fro upon the +breast that coldly suffered her embrace. 'It's my gal! It's my Alice! +It's my handsome daughter, living and come back!' she screamed again, +dropping on the floor before her, clasping her knees, laying her head +against them, and still rocking herself to and fro with every frantic +demonstration of which her vitality was capable. + +'Yes, mother,' returned Alice, stooping forward for a moment and kissing +her, but endeavouring, even in the act, to disengage herself from her +embrace. 'I am here, at last. Let go, mother; let go. Get up, and sit in +your chair. What good does this do?' + +'She's come back harder than she went!' cried the mother, looking up in +her face, and still holding to her knees. 'She don't care for me! after +all these years, and all the wretched life I've led!' + +'Why, mother!' said Alice, shaking her ragged skirts to detach the old +woman from them: 'there are two sides to that. There have been years +for me as well as you, and there has been wretchedness for me as well as +you. Get up, get up!' + +Her mother rose, and cried, and wrung her hands, and stood at a little +distance gazing on her. Then she took the candle again, and going round +her, surveyed her from head to foot, making a low moaning all the time. +Then she put the candle down, resumed her chair, and beating her hands +together to a kind of weary tune, and rolling herself from side to side, +continued moaning and wailing to herself. + +Alice got up, took off her wet cloak, and laid it aside. That done, she +sat down as before, and with her arms folded, and her eyes gazing at the +fire, remained silently listening with a contemptuous face to her old +mother's inarticulate complainings. + +'Did you expect to see me return as youthful as I went away, mother?' +she said at length, turning her eyes upon the old woman. 'Did you think +a foreign life, like mine, was good for good looks? One would believe +so, to hear you!' + +'It ain't that!' cried the mother. 'She knows it!' + +'What is it then?' returned the daughter. 'It had best be something that +don't last, mother, or my way out is easier than my way in.' + +'Hear that!' exclaimed the mother. 'After all these years she threatens +to desert me in the moment of her coming back again!' + +'I tell you, mother, for the second time, there have been years for me +as well as you,' said Alice. 'Come back harder? Of course I have come +back harder. What else did you expect?' + +'Harder to me! To her own dear mother!' cried the old woman + +'I don't know who began to harden me, if my own dear mother didn't,' +she returned, sitting with her folded arms, and knitted brows, and +compressed lips as if she were bent on excluding, by force, every +softer feeling from her breast. 'Listen, mother, to a word or two. If +we understand each other now, we shall not fall out any more, perhaps. +I went away a girl, and have come back a woman. I went away undutiful +enough, and have come back no better, you may swear. But have you been +very dutiful to me?' + +'I!' cried the old woman. 'To my gal! A mother dutiful to her own +child!' + +'It sounds unnatural, don't it?' returned the daughter, looking coldly +on her with her stern, regardless, hardy, beautiful face; 'but I have +thought of it sometimes, in the course of my lone years, till I have got +used to it. I have heard some talk about duty first and last; but it has +always been of my duty to other people. I have wondered now and then--to +pass away the time--whether no one ever owed any duty to me.' + +Her mother sat mowing, and mumbling, and shaking her head, but +whether angrily or remorsefully, or in denial, or only in her physical +infirmity, did not appear. + +'There was a child called Alice Marwood,' said the daughter, with a +laugh, and looking down at herself in terrible derision of herself, +'born, among poverty and neglect, and nursed in it. Nobody taught her, +nobody stepped forward to help her, nobody cared for her.' + +'Nobody!' echoed the mother, pointing to herself, and striking her +breast. + +'The only care she knew,' returned the daughter, 'was to be beaten, and +stinted, and abused sometimes; and she might have done better without +that. She lived in homes like this, and in the streets, with a crowd of +little wretches like herself; and yet she brought good looks out of this +childhood. So much the worse for her. She had better have been hunted +and worried to death for ugliness.' + +'Go on! go on!' exclaimed the mother. + +'I am going on,' returned the daughter. 'There was a girl called Alice +Marwood. She was handsome. She was taught too late, and taught all +wrong. She was too well cared for, too well trained, too well helped on, +too much looked after. You were very fond of her--you were better off +then. What came to that girl comes to thousands every year. It was only +ruin, and she was born to it.' + +'After all these years!' whined the old woman. 'My gal begins with +this.' + +'She'll soon have ended,' said the daughter. 'There was a criminal +called Alice Marwood--a girl still, but deserted and an outcast. And +she was tried, and she was sentenced. And lord, how the gentlemen in the +Court talked about it! and how grave the judge was on her duty, and on +her having perverted the gifts of nature--as if he didn't know better +than anybody there, that they had been made curses to her!--and how he +preached about the strong arm of the Law--so very strong to save her, +when she was an innocent and helpless little wretch!--and how solemn and +religious it all was! I have thought of that, many times since, to be +sure!' + +She folded her arms tightly on her breast, and laughed in a tone that +made the howl of the old woman musical. + +'So Alice Marwood was transported, mother,' she pursued, 'and was sent +to learn her duty, where there was twenty times less duty, and more +wickedness, and wrong, and infamy, than here. And Alice Marwood is come +back a woman. Such a woman as she ought to be, after all this. In good +time, there will be more solemnity, and more fine talk, and more strong +arm, most likely, and there will be an end of her; but the gentlemen +needn't be afraid of being thrown out of work. There's crowds of little +wretches, boy and girl, growing up in any of the streets they live in, +that'll keep them to it till they've made their fortunes.' + +The old woman leaned her elbows on the table, and resting her face upon +her two hands, made a show of being in great distress--or really was, +perhaps. + +'There! I have done, mother,' said the daughter, with a motion of her +head, as if in dismissal of the subject. 'I have said enough. Don't let +you and I talk of being dutiful, whatever we do. Your childhood was like +mine, I suppose. So much the worse for both of us. I don't want to blame +you, or to defend myself; why should I? That's all over long ago. But +I am a woman--not a girl, now--and you and I needn't make a show of our +history, like the gentlemen in the Court. We know all about it, well +enough.' + +Lost and degraded as she was, there was a beauty in her, both of +face and form, which, even in its worst expression, could not but be +recognised as such by anyone regarding her with the least attention. As +she subsided into silence, and her face which had been harshly agitated, +quieted down; while her dark eyes, fixed upon the fire, exchanged the +reckless light that had animated them, for one that was softened by +something like sorrow; there shone through all her wayworn misery and +fatigue, a ray of the departed radiance of the fallen angel. + +Her mother, after watching her for some time without speaking, ventured +to steal her withered hand a little nearer to her across the table; and +finding that she permitted this, to touch her face, and smooth her hair. +With the feeling, as it seemed, that the old woman was at least sincere +in this show of interest, Alice made no movement to check her; so, +advancing by degrees, she bound up her daughter's hair afresh, took off +her wet shoes, if they deserved the name, spread something dry upon her +shoulders, and hovered humbly about her, muttering to herself, as she +recognised her old features and expression more and more. + +'You are very poor, mother, I see,' said Alice, looking round, when she +had sat thus for some time. + +'Bitter poor, my deary,' replied the old woman. + +She admired her daughter, and was afraid of her. Perhaps her admiration, +such as it was, had originated long ago, when she first found anything +that was beautiful appearing in the midst of the squalid fight of +her existence. Perhaps her fear was referable, in some sort, to the +retrospect she had so lately heard. Be this as it might, she stood, +submissively and deferentially, before her child, and inclined her head, +as if in a pitiful entreaty to be spared any further reproach. + +'How have you lived?' + +'By begging, my deary. + +'And pilfering, mother?' + +'Sometimes, Ally--in a very small way. I am old and timid. I have taken +trifles from children now and then, my deary, but not often. I have +tramped about the country, pet, and I know what I know. I have watched.' + +'Watched?' returned the daughter, looking at her. + +'I have hung about a family, my deary,' said the mother, even more +humbly and submissively than before. + +'What family?' + +'Hush, darling. Don't be angry with me. I did it for the love of you. In +memory of my poor gal beyond seas.' She put out her hand deprecatingly, +and drawing it back again, laid it on her lips. + +'Years ago, my deary,' she pursued, glancing timidly at the attentive +and stem face opposed to her, 'I came across his little child, by +chance.' + +'Whose child?' + +'Not his, Alice deary; don't look at me like that; not his. How could it +be his? You know he has none.' + +'Whose then?' returned the daughter. 'You said his.' + +'Hush, Ally; you frighten me, deary. Mr Dombey's--only Mr Dombey's. +Since then, darling, I have seen them often. I have seen him.' + +In uttering this last word, the old woman shrunk and recoiled, as if +with sudden fear that her daughter would strike her. But though the +daughter's face was fixed upon her, and expressed the most vehement +passion, she remained still: except that she clenched her arms tighter +and tighter within each other, on her bosom, as if to restrain them +by that means from doing an injury to herself, or someone else, in the +blind fury of the wrath that suddenly possessed her. + +'Little he thought who I was!' said the old woman, shaking her clenched +hand. + +'And little he cared!' muttered her daughter, between her teeth. + +'But there we were, said the old woman, 'face to face. I spoke to him, +and he spoke to me. I sat and watched him as he went away down a long +grove of trees: and at every step he took, I cursed him soul and body.' + +'He will thrive in spite of that,' returned the daughter disdainfully. + +'Ay, he is thriving,' said the mother. + +She held her peace; for the face and form before her were unshaped +by rage. It seemed as if the bosom would burst with the emotions that +strove within it. The effort that constrained and held it pent up, was +no less formidable than the rage itself: no less bespeaking the violent +and dangerous character of the woman who made it. But it succeeded, and +she asked, after a silence: + +'Is he married?' + +'No, deary,' said the mother. + +'Going to be?' + +'Not that I know of, deary. But his master and friend is married. Oh, we +may give him joy! We may give 'em all joy!' cried the old woman, hugging +herself with her lean arms in her exultation. 'Nothing but joy to us +will come of that marriage. Mind me!' + +The daughter looked at her for an explanation. + +'But you are wet and tired; hungry and thirsty,' said the old woman, +hobbling to the cupboard; 'and there's little here, and little'--diving +down into her pocket, and jingling a few half--pence on the +table--'little here. Have you any money, Alice, deary?' + +The covetous, sharp, eager face, with which she asked the question and +looked on, as her daughter took out of her bosom the little gift she had +so lately received, told almost as much of the history of this parent +and child as the child herself had told in words. + +'Is that all?' said the mother. + +'I have no more. I should not have this, but for charity.' + +'But for charity, eh, deary?' said the old woman, bending greedily over +the table to look at the money, which she appeared distrustful of her +daughter's still retaining in her hand, and gazing on. 'Humph! six and +six is twelve, and six eighteen--so--we must make the most of it. I'll +go buy something to eat and drink.' + +With greater alacrity than might have been expected in one of her +appearance--for age and misery seemed to have made her as decrepit as +ugly--she began to occupy her trembling hands in tying an old bonnet on +her head, and folding a torn shawl about herself: still eyeing the money +in her daughter's hand, with the same sharp desire. + +'What joy is to come to us of this marriage, mother?' asked the +daughter. 'You have not told me that.' + +'The joy,' she replied, attiring herself, with fumbling fingers, 'of no +love at all, and much pride and hate, my deary. The joy of confusion and +strife among 'em, proud as they are, and of danger--danger, Alice!' + +'What danger?' + +'I have seen what I have seen. I know what I know!' chuckled the mother. +'Let some look to it. Let some be upon their guard. My gal may keep good +company yet!' + +Then, seeing that in the wondering earnestness with which her daughter +regarded her, her hand involuntarily closed upon the money, the old +woman made more speed to secure it, and hurriedly added, 'but I'll go +buy something; I'll go buy something.' + +As she stood with her hand stretched out before her daughter, her +daughter, glancing again at the money, put it to her lips before parting +with it. + +'What, Ally! Do you kiss it?' chuckled the old woman. 'That's like me--I +often do. Oh, it's so good to us!' squeezing her own tarnished halfpence +up to her bag of a throat, 'so good to us in everything but not coming +in heaps!' + +'I kiss it, mother,' said the daughter, 'or I did then--I don't know +that I ever did before--for the giver's sake.' + +'The giver, eh, deary?' retorted the old woman, whose dimmed eyes +glistened as she took it. 'Ay! I'll kiss it for the giver's sake, too, +when the giver can make it go farther. But I'll go spend it, deary. I'll +be back directly.' + +'You seem to say you know a great deal, mother,' said the daughter, +following her to the door with her eyes. 'You have grown very wise since +we parted.' + +'Know!' croaked the old woman, coming back a step or two, 'I know more +than you think I know more than he thinks, deary, as I'll tell you by +and bye. I know all.' + +The daughter smiled incredulously. + +'I know of his brother, Alice,' said the old woman, stretching out her +neck with a leer of malice absolutely frightful, 'who might have been +where you have been--for stealing money--and who lives with his sister, +over yonder, by the north road out of London.' + +'Where?' + +'By the north road out of London, deary. You shall see the house if you +like. It ain't much to boast of, genteel as his own is. No, no, no,' +cried the old woman, shaking her head and laughing; for her daughter had +started up, 'not now; it's too far off; it's by the milestone, where the +stones are heaped;--to-morrow, deary, if it's fine, and you are in the +humour. But I'll go spend--' + +'Stop!' and the daughter flung herself upon her, with her former passion +raging like a fire. 'The sister is a fair-faced Devil, with brown hair?' + +The old woman, amazed and terrified, nodded her head. + +'I see the shadow of him in her face! It's a red house standing by +itself. Before the door there is a small green porch.' + +Again the old woman nodded. + +'In which I sat to-day! Give me back the money.' + +'Alice! Deary!' + +'Give me back the money, or you'll be hurt.' + +She forced it from the old woman's hand as she spoke, and utterly +indifferent to her complainings and entreaties, threw on the garments +she had taken off, and hurried out, with headlong speed. + +The mother followed, limping after her as she could, and expostulating +with no more effect upon her than upon the wind and rain and darkness +that encompassed them. Obdurate and fierce in her own purpose, and +indifferent to all besides, the daughter defied the weather and the +distance, as if she had known no travel or fatigue, and made for the +house where she had been relieved. After some quarter of an hour's +walking, the old woman, spent and out of breath, ventured to hold by +her skirts; but she ventured no more, and they travelled on in silence +through the wet and gloom. If the mother now and then uttered a word of +complaint, she stifled it lest her daughter should break away from her +and leave her behind; and the daughter was dumb. + +It was within an hour or so of midnight, when they left the regular +streets behind them, and entered on the deeper gloom of that neutral +ground where the house was situated. The town lay in the distance, lurid +and lowering; the bleak wind howled over the open space; all around was +black, wild, desolate. + +'This is a fit place for me!' said the daughter, stopping to look back. +'I thought so, when I was here before, to-day.' + +'Alice, my deary,' cried the mother, pulling her gently by the skirt. +'Alice!' + +'What now, mother?' + +'Don't give the money back, my darling; please don't. We can't afford +it. We want supper, deary. Money is money, whoever gives it. Say what +you will, but keep the money.' + +'See there!' was all the daughter's answer. 'That is the house I mean. +Is that it?' + +The old woman nodded in the affirmative; and a few more paces brought +them to the threshold. There was the light of fire and candle in the +room where Alice had sat to dry her clothes; and on her knocking at the +door, John Carker appeared from that room. + +He was surprised to see such visitors at such an hour, and asked Alice +what she wanted. + +'I want your sister,' she said. 'The woman who gave me money to-day.' + +At the sound of her raised voice, Harriet came out. + +'Oh!' said Alice. 'You are here! Do you remember me?' + +'Yes,' she answered, wondering. + +The face that had humbled itself before her, looked on her now with such +invincible hatred and defiance; and the hand that had gently touched +her arm, was clenched with such a show of evil purpose, as if it would +gladly strangle her; that she drew close to her brother for protection. + +'That I could speak with you, and not know you! That I could come near +you, and not feel what blood was running in your veins, by the tingling +of my own!' said Alice, with a menacing gesture. + +'What do you mean? What have I done?' + +'Done!' returned the other. 'You have sat me by your fire; you have +given me food and money; you have bestowed your compassion on me! You! +whose name I spit upon!' + +The old woman, with a malevolence that made her ugliness quite awful, +shook her withered hand at the brother and sister in confirmation of her +daughter, but plucked her by the skirts again, nevertheless, imploring +her to keep the money. + +'If I dropped a tear upon your hand, may it wither it up! If I spoke a +gentle word in your hearing, may it deafen you! If I touched you with my +lips, may the touch be poison to you! A curse upon this roof that gave +me shelter! Sorrow and shame upon your head! Ruin upon all belonging to +you!' + +As she said the words, she threw the money down upon the ground, and +spurned it with her foot. + +'I tread it in the dust: I wouldn't take it if it paved my way to +Heaven! I would the bleeding foot that brought me here to-day, had +rotted off, before it led me to your house!' + +Harriet, pale and trembling, restrained her brother, and suffered her to +go on uninterrupted. + +'It was well that I should be pitied and forgiven by you, or anyone of +your name, in the first hour of my return! It was well that you should +act the kind good lady to me! I'll thank you when I die; I'll pray for +you, and all your race, you may be sure!' + +With a fierce action of her hand, as if she sprinkled hatred on +the ground, and with it devoted those who were standing there to +destruction, she looked up once at the black sky, and strode out into +the wild night. + +The mother, who had plucked at her skirts again and again in vain, and +had eyed the money lying on the threshold with an absorbing greed that +seemed to concentrate her faculties upon it, would have prowled about, +until the house was dark, and then groped in the mire on the chance of +repossessing herself of it. But the daughter drew her away, and they +set forth, straight, on their return to their dwelling; the old woman +whimpering and bemoaning their loss upon the road, and fretfully +bewailing, as openly as she dared, the undutiful conduct of her handsome +girl in depriving her of a supper, on the very first night of their +reunion. + +Supperless to bed she went, saving for a few coarse fragments; and +those she sat mumbling and munching over a scrap of fire, long after her +undutiful daughter lay asleep. + + +Were this miserable mother, and this miserable daughter, only the +reduction to their lowest grade, of certain social vices sometimes +prevailing higher up? In this round world of many circles within +circles, do we make a weary journey from the high grade to the low, to +find at last that they lie close together, that the two extremes touch, +and that our journey's end is but our starting-place? Allowing for great +difference of stuff and texture, was the pattern of this woof repeated +among gentle blood at all? + +Say, Edith Dombey! And Cleopatra, best of mothers, let us have your +testimony! + + + +CHAPTER 35. The Happy Pair + + +The dark blot on the street is gone. Mr Dombey's mansion, if it be a gap +among the other houses any longer, is only so because it is not to be +vied with in its brightness, and haughtily casts them off. The saying +is, that home is home, be it never so homely. If it hold good in the +opposite contingency, and home is home be it never so stately, what an +altar to the Household Gods is raised up here! + +Lights are sparkling in the windows this evening, and the ruddy glow +of fires is warm and bright upon the hangings and soft carpets, and the +dinner waits to be served, and the dinner-table is handsomely set forth, +though only for four persons, and the side board is cumbrous with plate. +It is the first time that the house has been arranged for occupation +since its late changes, and the happy pair are looked for every minute. + +Only second to the wedding morning, in the interest and expectation it +engenders among the household, is this evening of the coming home. +Mrs Perch is in the kitchen taking tea; and has made the tour of +the establishment, and priced the silks and damasks by the yard, and +exhausted every interjection in the dictionary and out of it expressive +of admiration and wonder. The upholsterer's foreman, who has left +his hat, with a pocket-handkerchief in it, both smelling strongly +of varnish, under a chair in the hall, lurks about the house, gazing +upwards at the cornices, and downward at the carpets, and occasionally, +in a silent transport of enjoyment, taking a rule out of his pocket, and +skirmishingly measuring expensive objects, with unutterable feelings. +Cook is in high spirits, and says give her a place where there's plenty +of company (as she'll bet you sixpence there will be now), for she is +of a lively disposition, and she always was from a child, and she don't +mind who knows it; which sentiment elicits from the breast of Mrs Perch +a responsive murmur of support and approbation. All the housemaid hopes +is, happiness for 'em--but marriage is a lottery, and the more she +thinks about it, the more she feels the independence and the safety of +a single life. Mr Towlinson is saturnine and grim, and says that's his +opinion too, and give him War besides, and down with the French--for +this young man has a general impression that every foreigner is a +Frenchman, and must be by the laws of nature. + +At each new sound of wheels, they all stop, whatever they are saying, +and listen; and more than once there is a general starting up and a cry +of 'Here they are!' But here they are not yet; and Cook begins to mourn +over the dinner, which has been put back twice, and the upholsterer's +foreman still goes lurking about the rooms, undisturbed in his blissful +reverie! + +Florence is ready to receive her father and her new Mama Whether the +emotions that are throbbing in her breast originate in pleasure or in +pain, she hardly knows. But the fluttering heart sends added colour to +her cheeks, and brightness to her eyes; and they say downstairs, drawing +their heads together--for they always speak softly when they speak of +her--how beautiful Miss Florence looks to-night, and what a sweet young +lady she has grown, poor dear! A pause succeeds; and then Cook, feeling, +as president, that her sentiments are waited for, wonders whether--and +there stops. The housemaid wonders too, and so does Mrs Perch, who has +the happy social faculty of always wondering when other people wonder, +without being at all particular what she wonders at. Mr Towlinson, who +now descries an opportunity of bringing down the spirits of the ladies +to his own level, says wait and see; he wishes some people were well +out of this. Cook leads a sigh then, and a murmur of 'Ah, it's a +strange world, it is indeed!' and when it has gone round the table, adds +persuasively, 'but Miss Florence can't well be the worse for any change, +Tom.' Mr Towlinson's rejoinder, pregnant with frightful meaning, is 'Oh, +can't she though!' and sensible that a mere man can scarcely be more +prophetic, or improve upon that, he holds his peace. + +Mrs Skewton, prepared to greet her darling daughter and dear son-in-law +with open arms, is appropriately attired for that purpose in a very +youthful costume, with short sleeves. At present, however, her ripe +charms are blooming in the shade of her own apartments, whence she had +not emerged since she took possession of them a few hours ago, and where +she is fast growing fretful, on account of the postponement of dinner. +The maid who ought to be a skeleton, but is in truth a buxom damsel, is, +on the other hand, in a most amiable state: considering her quarterly +stipend much safer than heretofore, and foreseeing a great improvement +in her board and lodging. + +Where are the happy pair, for whom this brave home is waiting? Do +steam, tide, wind, and horses, all abate their speed, to linger on such +happiness? Does the swarm of loves and graces hovering about them retard +their progress by its numbers? Are there so many flowers in their +happy path, that they can scarcely move along, without entanglement in +thornless roses, and sweetest briar? + +They are here at last! The noise of wheels is heard, grows louder, and +a carriage drives up to the door! A thundering knock from the obnoxious +foreigner anticipates the rush of Mr Towlinson and party to open it; and +Mr Dombey and his bride alight, and walk in arm in arm. + +'My sweetest Edith!' cries an agitated voice upon the stairs. 'My +dearest Dombey!' and the short sleeves wreath themselves about the happy +couple in turn, and embrace them. + +Florence had come down to the hall too, but did not advance: reserving +her timid welcome until these nearer and dearer transports should +subside. But the eyes of Edith sought her out, upon the threshold; and +dismissing her sensitive parent with a slight kiss on the cheek, she +hurried on to Florence and embraced her. + +'How do you do, Florence?' said Mr Dombey, putting out his hand. + +As Florence, trembling, raised it to her lips, she met his glance. The +look was cold and distant enough, but it stirred her heart to think that +she observed in it something more of interest than he had ever +shown before. It even expressed a kind of faint surprise, and not a +disagreeable surprise, at sight of her. She dared not raise her eyes +to his any more; but she felt that he looked at her once again, and not +less favourably. Oh what a thrill of joy shot through her, awakened +by even this intangible and baseless confirmation of her hope that she +would learn to win him, through her new and beautiful Mama! + +'You will not be long dressing, Mrs Dombey, I presume?' said Mr Dombey. + +'I shall be ready immediately.' + +'Let them send up dinner in a quarter of an hour.' + +With that Mr Dombey stalked away to his own dressing-room, and Mrs +Dombey went upstairs to hers. Mrs Skewton and Florence repaired to the +drawing-room, where that excellent mother considered it incumbent on her +to shed a few irrepressible tears, supposed to be forced from her by her +daughter's felicity; and which she was still drying, very gingerly, with +a laced corner of her pocket-handkerchief, when her son-in-law appeared. + +'And how, my dearest Dombey, did you find that delightfullest of cities, +Paris?' she asked, subduing her emotion. + +'It was cold,' returned Mr Dombey. + +'Gay as ever,' said Mrs Skewton, 'of course. + +'Not particularly. I thought it dull,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Fie, my dearest Dombey!' archly; 'dull!' + +'It made that impression upon me, Madam,' said Mr Dombey, with grave +politeness. 'I believe Mrs Dombey found it dull too. She mentioned once +or twice that she thought it so.' + +'Why, you naughty girl!' cried Mrs Skewton, rallying her dear child, +who now entered, 'what dreadfully heretical things have you been saying +about Paris?' + +Edith raised her eyebrows with an air of weariness; and passing the +folding-doors which were thrown open to display the suite of rooms in +their new and handsome garniture, and barely glancing at them as she +passed, sat down by Florence. + +'My dear Dombey,' said Mrs Skewton, 'how charmingly these people have +carried out every idea that we hinted. They have made a perfect palace +of the house, positively.' + +'It is handsome,' said Mr Dombey, looking round. 'I directed that no +expense should be spared; and all that money could do, has been done, I +believe.' + +'And what can it not do, dear Dombey?' observed Cleopatra. + +'It is powerful, Madam,' said Mr Dombey. + +He looked in his solemn way towards his wife, but not a word said she. + +'I hope, Mrs Dombey,' addressing her after a moment's silence, with +especial distinctness; 'that these alterations meet with your approval?' + +'They are as handsome as they can be,' she returned, with haughty +carelessness. 'They should be so, of course. And I suppose they are.' + +An expression of scorn was habitual to the proud face, and seemed +inseparable from it; but the contempt with which it received any appeal +to admiration, respect, or consideration on the ground of his riches, +no matter how slight or ordinary in itself, was a new and different +expression, unequalled in intensity by any other of which it was +capable. Whether Mr Dombey, wrapped in his own greatness, was at all +aware of this, or no, there had not been wanting opportunities already +for his complete enlightenment; and at that moment it might have been +effected by the one glance of the dark eye that lighted on him, after it +had rapidly and scornfully surveyed the theme of his self-glorification. +He might have read in that one glance that nothing that his wealth could +do, though it were increased ten thousand fold, could win him for its +own sake, one look of softened recognition from the defiant woman, +linked to him, but arrayed with her whole soul against him. He might +have read in that one glance that even for its sordid and mercenary +influence upon herself, she spurned it, while she claimed its utmost +power as her right, her bargain--as the base and worthless recompense +for which she had become his wife. He might have read in it that, ever +baring her own head for the lightning of her own contempt and pride to +strike, the most innocent allusion to the power of his riches degraded +her anew, sunk her deeper in her own respect, and made the blight and +waste within her more complete. + +But dinner was announced, and Mr Dombey led down Cleopatra; Edith and +his daughter following. Sweeping past the gold and silver demonstration +on the sideboard as if it were heaped-up dirt, and deigning to bestow no +look upon the elegancies around her, she took her place at his board for +the first time, and sat, like a statue, at the feast. + +Mr Dombey, being a good deal in the statue way himself, was well enough +pleased to see his handsome wife immovable and proud and cold. Her +deportment being always elegant and graceful, this as a general +behaviour was agreeable and congenial to him. Presiding, therefore, with +his accustomed dignity, and not at all reflecting on his wife by any +warmth or hilarity of his own, he performed his share of the honours of +the table with a cool satisfaction; and the installation dinner, though +not regarded downstairs as a great success, or very promising beginning, +passed off, above, in a sufficiently polite, genteel, and frosty manner. + +Soon after tea, Mrs Skewton, who affected to be quite overcome and worn +out by her emotions of happiness, arising in the contemplation of her +dear child united to the man of her heart, but who, there is reason to +suppose, found this family party somewhat dull, as she yawned for one +hour continually behind her fan, retired to bed. Edith, also, silently +withdrew and came back no more. Thus, it happened that Florence, who +had been upstairs to have some conversation with Diogenes, returning to +the drawing-room with her little work-basket, found no one there but her +father, who was walking to and fro, in dreary magnificence. + +'I beg your pardon. Shall I go away, Papa?' said Florence faintly, +hesitating at the door. + +'No,' returned Mr Dombey, looking round over his shoulder; 'you can come +and go here, Florence, as you please. This is not my private room.' + +Florence entered, and sat down at a distant little table with her work: +finding herself for the first time in her life--for the very first time +within her memory from her infancy to that hour--alone with her father, +as his companion. She, his natural companion, his only child, who in her +lonely life and grief had known the suffering of a breaking heart; who, +in her rejected love, had never breathed his name to God at night, but +with a tearful blessing, heavier on him than a curse; who had prayed +to die young, so she might only die in his arms; who had, all through, +repaid the agony of slight and coldness, and dislike, with patient +unexacting love, excusing him, and pleading for him, like his better +angel! + +She trembled, and her eyes were dim. His figure seemed to grow in height +and bulk before her as he paced the room: now it was all blurred and +indistinct; now clear again, and plain; and now she seemed to think that +this had happened, just the same, a multitude of years ago. She yearned +towards him, and yet shrunk from his approach. Unnatural emotion in a +child, innocent of wrong! Unnatural the hand that had directed the sharp +plough, which furrowed up her gentle nature for the sowing of its seeds! + +Bent upon not distressing or offending him by her distress, Florence +controlled herself, and sat quietly at her work. After a few more turns +across and across the room, he left off pacing it; and withdrawing +into a shadowy corner at some distance, where there was an easy chair, +covered his head with a handkerchief, and composed himself to sleep. + +It was enough for Florence to sit there watching him; turning her eyes +towards his chair from time to time; watching him with her thoughts, +when her face was intent upon her work; and sorrowfully glad to think +that he could sleep, while she was there, and that he was not made +restless by her strange and long-forbidden presence. + +What would have been her thoughts if she had known that he was steadily +regarding her; that the veil upon his face, by accident or by design, +was so adjusted that his sight was free, and that it never wandered +from her face face an instant. That when she looked towards him, in the +obscure dark corner, her speaking eyes, more earnest and pathetic +in their voiceless speech than all the orators of all the world, and +impeaching him more nearly in their mute address, met his, and did not +know it! That when she bent her head again over her work, he drew +his breath more easily, but with the same attention looked upon her +still--upon her white brow and her falling hair, and busy hands; and +once attracted, seemed to have no power to turn his eyes away! + +And what were his thoughts meanwhile? With what emotions did he prolong +the attentive gaze covertly directed on his unknown daughter? Was there +reproach to him in the quiet figure and the mild eyes? Had he begun to +her disregarded claims and did they touch him home at last, and waken +him to some sense of his cruel injustice? + +There are yielding moments in the lives of the sternest and harshest +men, though such men often keep their secret well. The sight of her in +her beauty, almost changed into a woman without his knowledge, may have +struck out some such moments even in his life of pride. Some passing +thought that he had had a happy home within his reach--had had a +household spirit bending at has feet--had overlooked it in his +stiffnecked sullen arrogance, and wandered away and lost himself, may +have engendered them. Some simple eloquence distinctly heard, though +only uttered in her eyes, unconscious that he read them as 'By the +death-beds I have tended, by the childhood I have suffered, by our +meeting in this dreary house at midnight, by the cry wrung from me in +the anguish of my heart, oh, father, turn to me and seek a refuge in my +love before it is too late!' may have arrested them. Meaner and lower +thoughts, as that his dead boy was now superseded by new ties, and he +could forgive the having been supplanted in his affection, may have +occasioned them. The mere association of her as an ornament, with all +the ornament and pomp about him, may have been sufficient. But as he +looked, he softened to her, more and more. As he looked, she became +blended with the child he had loved, and he could hardly separate the +two. As he looked, he saw her for an instant by a clearer and a brighter +light, not bending over that child's pillow as his rival--monstrous +thought--but as the spirit of his home, and in the action tending +himself no less, as he sat once more with his bowed-down head upon his +hand at the foot of the little bed. He felt inclined to speak to her, +and call her to him. The words 'Florence, come here!' were rising to his +lips--but slowly and with difficulty, they were so very strange--when +they were checked and stifled by a footstep on the stair. + +It was his wife's. She had exchanged her dinner dress for a loose robe, +and unbound her hair, which fell freely about her neck. But this was not +the change in her that startled him. + +'Florence, dear,' she said, 'I have been looking for you everywhere.' + +As she sat down by the side of Florence, she stooped and kissed her +hand. He hardly knew his wife. She was so changed. It was not merely +that her smile was new to him--though that he had never seen; but her +manner, the tone of her voice, the light of her eyes, the interest, and +confidence, and winning wish to please, expressed in all-this was not +Edith. + +'Softly, dear Mama. Papa is asleep.' + +It was Edith now. She looked towards the corner where he was, and he +knew that face and manner very well. + +'I scarcely thought you could be here, Florence.' + +Again, how altered and how softened, in an instant! + +'I left here early,' pursued Edith, 'purposely to sit upstairs and talk +with you. But, going to your room, I found my bird was flown, and I have +been waiting there ever since, expecting its return. + +If it had been a bird, indeed, she could not have taken it more tenderly +and gently to her breast, than she did Florence. + +'Come, dear!' + +'Papa will not expect to find me, I suppose, when he wakes,' hesitated +Florence. + +'Do you think he will, Florence?' said Edith, looking full upon her. + +Florence drooped her head, and rose, and put up her work-basket Edith +drew her hand through her arm, and they went out of the room like +sisters. Her very step was different and new to him, Mr Dombey thought, +as his eyes followed her to the door. + +He sat in his shadowy corner so long, that the church clocks struck the +hour three times before he moved that night. All that while his face was +still intent upon the spot where Florence had been seated. The room grew +darker, as the candles waned and went out; but a darkness gathered on +his face, exceeding any that the night could cast, and rested there. + +Florence and Edith, seated before the fire in the remote room where +little Paul had died, talked together for a long time. Diogenes, who was +of the party, had at first objected to the admission of Edith, and, +even in deference to his mistress's wish, had only permitted it under +growling protest. But, emerging by little and little from the ante-room, +whither he had retired in dudgeon, he soon appeared to comprehend, that +with the most amiable intentions he had made one of those mistakes which +will occasionally arise in the best-regulated dogs' minds; as a friendly +apology for which he stuck himself up on end between the two, in a very +hot place in front of the fire, and sat panting at it, with his tongue +out, and a most imbecile expression of countenance, listening to the +conversation. + +It turned, at first, on Florence's books and favourite pursuits, and on +the manner in which she had beguiled the interval since the marriage. +The last theme opened up to her a subject which lay very near her heart, +and she said, with the tears starting to her eyes: + +'Oh, Mama! I have had a great sorrow since that day.' + +'You a great sorrow, Florence!' + +'Yes. Poor Walter is drowned.' + +Florence spread her hands before her face, and wept with all her heart. +Many as were the secret tears which Walter's fate had cost her, they +flowed yet, when she thought or spoke of him. + +'But tell me, dear,' said Edith, soothing her. 'Who was Walter? What was +he to you?' + +'He was my brother, Mama. After dear Paul died, we said we would be +brother and sister. I had known him a long time--from a little child. He +knew Paul, who liked him very much; Paul said, almost at the last, "Take +care of Walter, dear Papa! I was fond of him!" Walter had been brought +in to see him, and was there then--in this room.' + +'And did he take care of Walter?' inquired Edith, sternly. + +'Papa? He appointed him to go abroad. He was drowned in shipwreck on his +voyage,' said Florence, sobbing. + +'Does he know that he is dead?' asked Edith. + +'I cannot tell, Mama. I have no means of knowing. Dear Mama!' cried +Florence, clinging to her as for help, and hiding her face upon her +bosom, 'I know that you have seen--' + +'Stay! Stop, Florence.' Edith turned so pale, and spoke so earnestly, +that Florence did not need her restraining hand upon her lips. 'Tell me +all about Walter first; let me understand this history all through.' + +Florence related it, and everything belonging to it, even down to the +friendship of Mr Toots, of whom she could hardly speak in her distress +without a tearful smile, although she was deeply grateful to him. When +she had concluded her account, to the whole of which Edith, holding her +hand, listened with close attention, and when a silence had succeeded, +Edith said: + +'What is it that you know I have seen, Florence?' + +'That I am not,' said Florence, with the same mute appeal, and the same +quick concealment of her face as before, 'that I am not a favourite +child, Mama. I never have been. I have never known how to be. I have +missed the way, and had no one to show it to me. Oh, let me learn from +you how to become dearer to Papa Teach me! you, who can so well!' and +clinging closer to her, with some broken fervent words of gratitude and +endearment, Florence, relieved of her sad secret, wept long, but not as +painfully as of yore, within the encircling arms of her new mother. + +Pale even to her lips, and with a face that strove for composure until +its proud beauty was as fixed as death, Edith looked down upon the +weeping girl, and once kissed her. Then gradually disengaging herself, +and putting Florence away, she said, stately, and quiet as a marble +image, and in a voice that deepened as she spoke, but had no other token +of emotion in it: + +'Florence, you do not know me! Heaven forbid that you should learn from +me!' + +'Not learn from you?' repeated Florence, in surprise. + +'That I should teach you how to love, or be loved, Heaven forbid!' said +Edith. 'If you could teach me, that were better; but it is too late. You +are dear to me, Florence. I did not think that anything could ever be so +dear to me, as you are in this little time.' + +She saw that Florence would have spoken here, so checked her with her +hand, and went on. + +'I will be your true friend always. I will cherish you, as much, if not +as well as anyone in this world could. You may trust in me--I know it +and I say it, dear,--with the whole confidence even of your pure heart. +There are hosts of women whom he might have married, better and truer in +all other respects than I am, Florence; but there is not one who could +come here, his wife, whose heart could beat with greater truth to you +than mine does.' + +'I know it, dear Mama!' cried Florence. 'From that first most happy day +I have known it.' + +'Most happy day!' Edith seemed to repeat the words involuntarily, and +went on. 'Though the merit is not mine, for I thought little of you +until I saw you, let the undeserved reward be mine in your trust and +love. And in this--in this, Florence; on the first night of my taking up +my abode here; I am led on as it is best I should be, to say it for the +first and last time.' + +Florence, without knowing why, felt almost afraid to hear her proceed, +but kept her eyes riveted on the beautiful face so fixed upon her own. + +'Never seek to find in me,' said Edith, laying her hand upon her breast, +'what is not here. Never if you can help it, Florence, fall off from me +because it is not here. Little by little you will know me better, and +the time will come when you will know me, as I know myself. Then, be as +lenient to me as you can, and do not turn to bitterness the only sweet +remembrance I shall have.' + +The tears that were visible in her eyes as she kept them fixed on +Florence, showed that the composed face was but as a handsome mask; but +she preserved it, and continued: + +'I have seen what you say, and know how true it is. But believe me--you +will soon, if you cannot now--there is no one on this earth less +qualified to set it right or help you, Florence, than I. Never ask me +why, or speak to me about it or of my husband, more. There should be, so +far, a division, and a silence between us two, like the grave itself.' + +She sat for some time silent; Florence scarcely venturing to breathe +meanwhile, as dim and imperfect shadows of the truth, and all its daily +consequences, chased each other through her terrified, yet incredulous +imagination. Almost as soon as she had ceased to speak, Edith's face +began to subside from its set composure to that quieter and more +relenting aspect, which it usually wore when she and Florence were alone +together. She shaded it, after this change, with her hands; and when she +arose, and with an affectionate embrace bade Florence good-night, went +quickly, and without looking round. + +But when Florence was in bed, and the room was dark except for the glow +of the fire, Edith returned, and saying that she could not sleep, and +that her dressing-room was lonely, drew a chair upon the hearth, and +watched the embers as they died away. Florence watched them too from +her bed, until they, and the noble figure before them, crowned with its +flowing hair, and in its thoughtful eyes reflecting back their light, +became confused and indistinct, and finally were lost in slumber. + +In her sleep, however, Florence could not lose an undefined impression +of what had so recently passed. It formed the subject of her dreams, and +haunted her; now in one shape, now in another; but always oppressively; +and with a sense of fear. She dreamed of seeking her father in +wildernesses, of following his track up fearful heights, and down into +deep mines and caverns; of being charged with something that would +release him from extraordinary suffering--she knew not what, or why--yet +never being able to attain the goal and set him free. Then she saw him +dead, upon that very bed, and in that very room, and knew that he had +never loved her to the last, and fell upon his cold breast, passionately +weeping. Then a prospect opened, and a river flowed, and a plaintive +voice she knew, cried, 'It is running on, Floy! It has never stopped! +You are moving with it!' And she saw him at a distance stretching out +his arms towards her, while a figure such as Walter's used to be, stood +near him, awfully serene and still. In every vision, Edith came and +went, sometimes to her joy, sometimes to her sorrow, until they were +alone upon the brink of a dark grave, and Edith pointing down, she +looked and saw--what!--another Edith lying at the bottom. + +In the terror of this dream, she cried out and awoke, she thought. A +soft voice seemed to whisper in her ear, 'Florence, dear Florence, it +is nothing but a dream!' and stretching out her arms, she returned the +caress of her new Mama, who then went out at the door in the light of +the grey morning. In a moment, Florence sat up wondering whether this +had really taken place or not; but she was only certain that it was grey +morning indeed, and that the blackened ashes of the fire were on the +hearth, and that she was alone. + +So passed the night on which the happy pair came home. + + + +CHAPTER 36. Housewarming + + +Many succeeding days passed in like manner; except that there were +numerous visits received and paid, and that Mrs Skewton held little +levees in her own apartments, at which Major Bagstock was a frequent +attendant, and that Florence encountered no second look from her father, +although she saw him every day. Nor had she much communication in words +with her new Mama, who was imperious and proud to all the house but +her--Florence could not but observe that--and who, although she always +sent for her or went to her when she came home from visiting, and would +always go into her room at night, before retiring to rest, however late +the hour, and never lost an opportunity of being with her, was often her +silent and thoughtful companion for a long time together. + +Florence, who had hoped for so much from this marriage, could not help +sometimes comparing the bright house with the faded dreary place out of +which it had arisen, and wondering when, in any shape, it would begin to +be a home; for that it was no home then, for anyone, though everything +went on luxuriously and regularly, she had always a secret misgiving. +Many an hour of sorrowful reflection by day and night, and many a tear +of blighted hope, Florence bestowed upon the assurance her new Mama had +given her so strongly, that there was no one on the earth more powerless +than herself to teach her how to win her father's heart. And soon +Florence began to think--resolved to think would be the truer +phrase--that as no one knew so well, how hopeless of being subdued or +changed her father's coldness to her was, so she had given her this +warning, and forbidden the subject in very compassion. Unselfish here, +as in her every act and fancy, Florence preferred to bear the pain of +this new wound, rather than encourage any faint foreshadowings of the +truth as it concerned her father; tender of him, even in her wandering +thoughts. As for his home, she hoped it would become a better one, when +its state of novelty and transition should be over; and for herself, +thought little and lamented less. + +If none of the new family were particularly at home in private, it was +resolved that Mrs Dombey at least should be at home in public, without +delay. A series of entertainments in celebration of the late nuptials, +and in cultivation of society, were arranged, chiefly by Mr Dombey and +Mrs Skewton; and it was settled that the festive proceedings should +commence by Mrs Dombey's being at home upon a certain evening, and by +Mr and Mrs Dombey's requesting the honour of the company of a great many +incongruous people to dinner on the same day. + +Accordingly, Mr Dombey produced a list of sundry eastern magnates who +were to be bidden to this feast on his behalf; to which Mrs Skewton, +acting for her dearest child, who was haughtily careless on the subject, +subjoined a western list, comprising Cousin Feenix, not yet returned +to Baden-Baden, greatly to the detriment of his personal estate; and a +variety of moths of various degrees and ages, who had, at various times, +fluttered round the light of her fair daughter, or herself, without any +lasting injury to their wings. Florence was enrolled as a member of +the dinner-party, by Edith's command--elicited by a moment's doubt and +hesitation on the part of Mrs Skewton; and Florence, with a wondering +heart, and with a quick instinctive sense of everything that grated on +her father in the least, took her silent share in the proceedings of the +day. + +The proceedings commenced by Mr Dombey, in a cravat of extraordinary +height and stiffness, walking restlessly about the drawing-room +until the hour appointed for dinner; punctual to which, an East India +Director, of immense wealth, in a waistcoat apparently constructed in +serviceable deal by some plain carpenter, but really engendered in the +tailor's art, and composed of the material called nankeen, arrived and +was received by Mr Dombey alone. The next stage of the proceedings +was Mr Dombey's sending his compliments to Mrs Dombey, with a correct +statement of the time; and the next, the East India Director's falling +prostrate, in a conversational point of view, and as Mr Dombey was not +the man to pick him up, staring at the fire until rescue appeared in the +shape of Mrs Skewton; whom the director, as a pleasant start in life for +the evening, mistook for Mrs Dombey, and greeted with enthusiasm. + +The next arrival was a Bank Director, reputed to be able to buy up +anything--human Nature generally, if he should take it in his head to +influence the money market in that direction--but who was a wonderfully +modest-spoken man, almost boastfully so, and mentioned his 'little +place' at Kingston-upon-Thames, and its just being barely equal to +giving Dombey a bed and a chop, if he would come and visit it. Ladies, +he said, it was not for a man who lived in his quiet way to take upon +himself to invite--but if Mrs Skewton and her daughter, Mrs Dombey, +should ever find themselves in that direction, and would do him the +honour to look at a little bit of a shrubbery they would find there, and +a poor little flower-bed or so, and a humble apology for a pinery, and +two or three little attempts of that sort without any pretension, +they would distinguish him very much. Carrying out his character, +this gentleman was very plainly dressed, in a wisp of cambric for a +neckcloth, big shoes, a coat that was too loose for him, and a pair of +trousers that were too spare; and mention being made of the Opera by Mrs +Skewton, he said he very seldom went there, for he couldn't afford it. +It seemed greatly to delight and exhilarate him to say so: and he beamed +on his audience afterwards, with his hands in his pockets, and excessive +satisfaction twinkling in his eyes. + +Now Mrs Dombey appeared, beautiful and proud, and as disdainful and +defiant of them all as if the bridal wreath upon her head had been a +garland of steel spikes put on to force concession from her which she +would die sooner than yield. With her was Florence. When they entered +together, the shadow of the night of the return again darkened Mr +Dombey's face. But unobserved; for Florence did not venture to raise her +eyes to his, and Edith's indifference was too supreme to take the least +heed of him. + +The arrivals quickly became numerous. More directors, chairmen of public +companies, elderly ladies carrying burdens on their heads for full +dress, Cousin Feenix, Major Bagstock, friends of Mrs Skewton, with the +same bright bloom on their complexion, and very precious necklaces on +very withered necks. Among these, a young lady of sixty-five, remarkably +coolly dressed as to her back and shoulders, who spoke with an engaging +lisp, and whose eyelids wouldn't keep up well, without a great deal of +trouble on her part, and whose manners had that indefinable charm which +so frequently attaches to the giddiness of youth. As the greater part of +Mr Dombey's list were disposed to be taciturn, and the greater part +of Mrs Dombey's list were disposed to be talkative, and there was no +sympathy between them, Mrs Dombey's list, by magnetic agreement, entered +into a bond of union against Mr Dombey's list, who, wandering about +the rooms in a desolate manner, or seeking refuge in corners, entangled +themselves with company coming in, and became barricaded behind sofas, +and had doors opened smartly from without against their heads, and +underwent every sort of discomfiture. + +When dinner was announced, Mr Dombey took down an old lady like a +crimson velvet pincushion stuffed with bank notes, who might have been +the identical old lady of Threadneedle Street, she was so rich, and +looked so unaccommodating; Cousin Feenix took down Mrs Dombey; Major +Bagstock took down Mrs Skewton; the young thing with the shoulders was +bestowed, as an extinguisher, upon the East India Director; and the +remaining ladies were left on view in the drawing-room by the remaining +gentlemen, until a forlorn hope volunteered to conduct them downstairs, +and those brave spirits with their captives blocked up the dining-room +door, shutting out seven mild men in the stony-hearted hall. When +all the rest were got in and were seated, one of these mild men still +appeared, in smiling confusion, totally destitute and unprovided for, +and, escorted by the butler, made the complete circuit of the table +twice before his chair could be found, which it finally was, on Mrs +Dombey's left hand; after which the mild man never held up his head +again. + +Now, the spacious dining-room, with the company seated round the +glittering table, busy with their glittering spoons, and knives and +forks, and plates, might have been taken for a grown-up exposition +of Tom Tiddler's ground, where children pick up gold and silver. Mr +Dombey, as Tiddler, looked his character to admiration; and the long +plateau of precious metal frosted, separating him from Mrs Dombey, +whereon frosted Cupids offered scentless flowers to each of them, was +allegorical to see. + +Cousin Feenix was in great force, and looked astonishingly young. But +he was sometimes thoughtless in his good humour--his memory occasionally +wandering like his legs--and on this occasion caused the company to +shudder. It happened thus. The young lady with the back, who regarded +Cousin Feenix with sentiments of tenderness, had entrapped the East +India Director into leading her to the chair next him; in return for +which good office, she immediately abandoned the Director, who, being +shaded on the other side by a gloomy black velvet hat surmounting a bony +and speechless female with a fan, yielded to a depression of spirits and +withdrew into himself. Cousin Feenix and the young lady were very lively +and humorous, and the young lady laughed so much at something Cousin +Feenix related to her, that Major Bagstock begged leave to inquire on +behalf of Mrs Skewton (they were sitting opposite, a little lower down), +whether that might not be considered public property. + +'Why, upon my life,' said Cousin Feenix, 'there's nothing in it; it +really is not worth repeating: in point of fact, it's merely an anecdote +of Jack Adams. I dare say my friend Dombey;' for the general attention +was concentrated on Cousin Feenix; 'may remember Jack Adams, Jack Adams, +not Joe; that was his brother. Jack--little Jack--man with a cast in +his eye, and slight impediment in his speech--man who sat for somebody's +borough. We used to call him in my parliamentary time W. P. Adams, in +consequence of his being Warming Pan for a young fellow who was in his +minority. Perhaps my friend Dombey may have known the man?' + +Mr Dombey, who was as likely to have known Guy Fawkes, replied in +the negative. But one of the seven mild men unexpectedly leaped into +distinction, by saying he had known him, and adding--'always wore +Hessian boots!' + +'Exactly,' said Cousin Feenix, bending forward to see the mild man, and +smile encouragement at him down the table. 'That was Jack. Joe wore--' + +'Tops!' cried the mild man, rising in public estimation every Instant. + +'Of course,' said Cousin Feenix, 'you were intimate with em?' + +'I knew them both,' said the mild man. With whom Mr Dombey immediately +took wine. + +'Devilish good fellow, Jack!' said Cousin Feenix, again bending forward, +and smiling. + +'Excellent,' returned the mild man, becoming bold on his success. 'One +of the best fellows I ever knew.' + +'No doubt you have heard the story?' said Cousin Feenix. + +'I shall know,' replied the bold mild man, 'when I have heard your +Ludship tell it.' With that, he leaned back in his chair and smiled at +the ceiling, as knowing it by heart, and being already tickled. + +'In point of fact, it's nothing of a story in itself,' said Cousin +Feenix, addressing the table with a smile, and a gay shake of his head, +'and not worth a word of preface. But it's illustrative of the +neatness of Jack's humour. The fact is, that Jack was invited down to a +marriage--which I think took place in Berkshire?' + +'Shropshire,' said the bold mild man, finding himself appealed to. + +'Was it? Well! In point of fact it might have been in any shire,' said +Cousin Feenix. 'So my friend being invited down to this marriage in +Anyshire,' with a pleasant sense of the readiness of this joke, 'goes. +Just as some of us, having had the honour of being invited to the +marriage of my lovely and accomplished relative with my friend Dombey, +didn't require to be asked twice, and were devilish glad to be present +on so interesting an occasion.--Goes--Jack goes. Now, this marriage was, +in point of fact, the marriage of an uncommonly fine girl with a man for +whom she didn't care a button, but whom she accepted on account of +his property, which was immense. When Jack returned to town, after +the nuptials, a man he knew, meeting him in the lobby of the House +of Commons, says, "Well, Jack, how are the ill-matched couple?" +"Ill-matched," says Jack "Not at all. It's a perfectly and equal +transaction. She is regularly bought, and you may take your oath he is +as regularly sold!"' + +In his full enjoyment of this culminating point of his story, the +shudder, which had gone all round the table like an electric spark, +struck Cousin Feenix, and he stopped. Not a smile occasioned by the only +general topic of conversation broached that day, appeared on any face. +A profound silence ensued; and the wretched mild man, who had been as +innocent of any real foreknowledge of the story as the child unborn, had +the exquisite misery of reading in every eye that he was regarded as the +prime mover of the mischief. + +Mr Dombey's face was not a changeful one, and being cast in its mould of +state that day, showed little other apprehension of the story, if any, +than that which he expressed when he said solemnly, amidst the silence, +that it was 'Very good.' There was a rapid glance from Edith towards +Florence, but otherwise she remained, externally, impassive and +unconscious. + +Through the various stages of rich meats and wines, continual gold and +silver, dainties of earth, air, fire, and water, heaped-up fruits, and +that unnecessary article in Mr Dombey's banquets--ice--the dinner slowly +made its way: the later stages being achieved to the sonorous music +of incessant double knocks, announcing the arrival of visitors, whose +portion of the feast was limited to the smell thereof. When Mrs Dombey +rose, it was a sight to see her lord, with stiff throat and erect head, +hold the door open for the withdrawal of the ladies; and to see how she +swept past him with his daughter on her arm. + +Mr Dombey was a grave sight, behind the decanters, in a state of +dignity; and the East India Director was a forlorn sight near the +unoccupied end of the table, in a state of solitude; and the Major was a +military sight, relating stories of the Duke of York to six of the seven +mild men (the ambitious one was utterly quenched); and the Bank Director +was a lowly sight, making a plan of his little attempt at a pinery, +with dessert-knives, for a group of admirers; and Cousin Feenix was +a thoughtful sight, as he smoothed his long wristbands and stealthily +adjusted his wig. But all these sights were of short duration, being +speedily broken up by coffee, and the desertion of the room. + +There was a throng in the state-rooms upstairs, increasing every minute; +but still Mr Dombey's list of visitors appeared to have some native +impossibility of amalgamation with Mrs Dombey's list, and no one could +have doubted which was which. The single exception to this rule perhaps +was Mr Carker, who now smiled among the company, and who, as he stood in +the circle that was gathered about Mrs Dombey--watchful of her, of +them, his chief, Cleopatra and the Major, Florence, and everything +around--appeared at ease with both divisions of guests, and not marked +as exclusively belonging to either. + +Florence had a dread of him, which made his presence in the room a +nightmare to her. She could not avoid the recollection of it, for her +eyes were drawn towards him every now and then, by an attraction of +dislike and distrust that she could not resist. Yet her thoughts were +busy with other things; for as she sat apart--not unadmired or unsought, +but in the gentleness of her quiet spirit--she felt how little part her +father had in what was going on, and saw, with pain, how ill at ease he +seemed to be, and how little regarded he was as he lingered about +near the door, for those visitors whom he wished to distinguish with +particular attention, and took them up to introduce them to his wife, +who received them with proud coldness, but showed no interest or wish to +please, and never, after the bare ceremony of reception, in consultation +of his wishes, or in welcome of his friends, opened her lips. It was +not the less perplexing or painful to Florence, that she who acted thus, +treated her so kindly and with such loving consideration, that it almost +seemed an ungrateful return on her part even to know of what was passing +before her eyes. + +Happy Florence would have been, might she have ventured to bear her +father company, by so much as a look; and happy Florence was, in little +suspecting the main cause of his uneasiness. But afraid of seeming +to know that he was placed at any disadvantage, lest he should be +resentful of that knowledge; and divided between her impulse towards +him, and her grateful affection for Edith; she scarcely dared to raise +her eyes towards either. Anxious and unhappy for them both, the thought +stole on her through the crowd, that it might have been better for them +if this noise of tongues and tread of feet had never come there,--if +the old dulness and decay had never been replaced by novelty and +splendour,--if the neglected child had found no friend in Edith, but had +lived her solitary life, unpitied and forgotten. + +Mrs Chick had some such thoughts too, but they were not so quietly +developed in her mind. This good matron had been outraged in the first +instance by not receiving an invitation to dinner. That blow partially +recovered, she had gone to a vast expense to make such a figure before +Mrs Dombey at home, as should dazzle the senses of that lady, and heap +mortification, mountains high, on the head of Mrs Skewton. + +'But I am made,' said Mrs Chick to Mr Chick, 'of no more account than +Florence! Who takes the smallest notice of me? No one!' + +'No one, my dear,' assented Mr Chick, who was seated by the side of Mrs +Chick against the wall, and could console himself, even there, by softly +whistling. + +'Does it at all appear as if I was wanted here?' exclaimed Mrs Chick, +with flashing eyes. + +'No, my dear, I don't think it does,' said Mr Chick. + +'Paul's mad!' said Mrs Chick. + +Mr Chick whistled. + +'Unless you are a monster, which I sometimes think you are,' said Mrs +Chick with candour, 'don't sit there humming tunes. How anyone with the +most distant feelings of a man, can see that mother-in-law of Paul's, +dressed as she is, going on like that, with Major Bagstock, for whom, +among other precious things, we are indebted to your Lucretia Tox.' + +'My Lucretia Tox, my dear!' said Mr Chick, astounded. + +'Yes,' retorted Mrs Chick, with great severity, 'your Lucretia Tox--I +say how anybody can see that mother-in-law of Paul's, and that haughty +wife of Paul's, and these indecent old frights with their backs and +shoulders, and in short this at home generally, and hum--' on which +word Mrs Chick laid a scornful emphasis that made Mr Chick start, 'is, I +thank Heaven, a mystery to me!' + +Mr Chick screwed his mouth into a form irreconcilable with humming or +whistling, and looked very contemplative. + +'But I hope I know what is due to myself,' said Mrs Chick, swelling +with indignation, 'though Paul has forgotten what is due to me. I am not +going to sit here, a member of this family, to be taken no notice of. I +am not the dirt under Mrs Dombey's feet, yet--not quite yet,' said Mrs +Chick, as if she expected to become so, about the day after to-morrow. +'And I shall go. I will not say (whatever I may think) that this affair +has been got up solely to degrade and insult me. I shall merely go. I +shall not be missed!' + +Mrs Chick rose erect with these words, and took the arm of Mr Chick, who +escorted her from the room, after half an hour's shady sojourn there. +And it is due to her penetration to observe that she certainly was not +missed at all. + +But she was not the only indignant guest; for Mr Dombey's list (still +constantly in difficulties) were, as a body, indignant with Mrs Dombey's +list, for looking at them through eyeglasses, and audibly wondering who +all those people were; while Mrs Dombey's list complained of weariness, +and the young thing with the shoulders, deprived of the attentions of +that gay youth Cousin Feenix (who went away from the dinner-table), +confidentially alleged to thirty or forty friends that she was bored to +death. All the old ladies with the burdens on their heads, had greater +or less cause of complaint against Mr Dombey; and the Directors and +Chairmen coincided in thinking that if Dombey must marry, he had better +have married somebody nearer his own age, not quite so handsome, and +a little better off. The general opinion among this class of gentlemen +was, that it was a weak thing in Dombey, and he'd live to repent it. +Hardly anybody there, except the mild men, stayed, or went away, without +considering himself or herself neglected and aggrieved by Mr Dombey or +Mrs Dombey; and the speechless female in the black velvet hat was found +to have been stricken mute, because the lady in the crimson velvet +had been handed down before her. The nature even of the mild men got +corrupted, either from their curdling it with too much lemonade, or from +the general inoculation that prevailed; and they made sarcastic jokes +to one another, and whispered disparagement on stairs and in bye-places. +The general dissatisfaction and discomfort so diffused itself, that the +assembled footmen in the hall were as well acquainted with it as +the company above. Nay, the very linkmen outside got hold of it, and +compared the party to a funeral out of mourning, with none of the +company remembered in the will. + +At last, the guests were all gone, and the linkmen too; and the street, +crowded so long with carriages, was clear; and the dying lights showed no +one in the rooms, but Mr Dombey and Mr Carker, who were talking together +apart, and Mrs Dombey and her mother: the former seated on an ottoman; +the latter reclining in the Cleopatra attitude, awaiting the arrival of +her maid. Mr Dombey having finished his communication to Carker, the +latter advanced obsequiously to take leave. + +'I trust,' he said, 'that the fatigues of this delightful evening will +not inconvenience Mrs Dombey to-morrow.' + +'Mrs Dombey,' said Mr Dombey, advancing, 'has sufficiently spared +herself fatigue, to relieve you from any anxiety of that kind. I regret +to say, Mrs Dombey, that I could have wished you had fatigued yourself a +little more on this occasion. + +She looked at him with a supercilious glance, that it seemed not worth +her while to protract, and turned away her eyes without speaking. + +'I am sorry, Madam,' said Mr Dombey, 'that you should not have thought +it your duty--' + +She looked at him again. + +'Your duty, Madam,' pursued Mr Dombey, 'to have received my friends with +a little more deference. Some of those whom you have been pleased +to slight to-night in a very marked manner, Mrs Dombey, confer a +distinction upon you, I must tell you, in any visit they pay you.' + +'Do you know that there is someone here?' she returned, now looking at +him steadily. + +'No! Carker! I beg that you do not. I insist that you do not,' cried Mr +Dombey, stopping that noiseless gentleman in his withdrawal. 'Mr Carker, +Madam, as you know, possesses my confidence. He is as well acquainted +as myself with the subject on which I speak. I beg to tell you, for your +information, Mrs Dombey, that I consider these wealthy and important +persons confer a distinction upon me:' and Mr Dombey drew himself up, as +having now rendered them of the highest possible importance. + +'I ask you,' she repeated, bending her disdainful, steady gaze upon him, +'do you know that there is someone here, Sir?' + +'I must entreat,' said Mr Carker, stepping forward, 'I must beg, I must +demand, to be released. Slight and unimportant as this difference is--' + +Mrs Skewton, who had been intent upon her daughter's face, took him up +here. + +'My sweetest Edith,' she said, 'and my dearest Dombey; our excellent +friend Mr Carker, for so I am sure I ought to mention him--' + +Mr Carker murmured, 'Too much honour.' + +'--has used the very words that were in my mind, and that I have +been dying, these ages, for an opportunity of introducing. Slight and +unimportant! My sweetest Edith, and my dearest Dombey, do we not know +that any difference between you two--No, Flowers; not now.' + +Flowers was the maid, who, finding gentlemen present, retreated with +precipitation. + +'That any difference between you two,' resumed Mrs Skewton, 'with +the Heart you possess in common, and the excessively charming bond of +feeling that there is between you, must be slight and unimportant? What +words could better define the fact? None. Therefore I am glad to take +this slight occasion--this trifling occasion, that is so replete +with Nature, and your individual characters, and all that--so truly +calculated to bring the tears into a parent's eyes--to say that I attach +no importance to them in the least, except as developing these minor +elements of Soul; and that, unlike most Mamas-in-law (that odious +phrase, dear Dombey!) as they have been represented to me to exist in +this I fear too artificial world, I never shall attempt to interpose +between you, at such a time, and never can much regret, after all, such +little flashes of the torch of What's-his-name--not Cupid, but the other +delightful creature.' + +There was a sharpness in the good mother's glance at both her +children as she spoke, that may have been expressive of a direct and +well-considered purpose hidden between these rambling words. That +purpose, providently to detach herself in the beginning from all the +clankings of their chain that were to come, and to shelter herself with +the fiction of her innocent belief in their mutual affection, and their +adaptation to each other. + +'I have pointed out to Mrs Dombey,' said Mr Dombey, in his most stately +manner, 'that in her conduct thus early in our married life, to which I +object, and which, I request, may be corrected. Carker,' with a nod of +dismissal, 'good-night to you!' + +Mr Carker bowed to the imperious form of the Bride, whose sparkling eye +was fixed upon her husband; and stopping at Cleopatra's couch on his +way out, raised to his lips the hand she graciously extended to him, in +lowly and admiring homage. + +If his handsome wife had reproached him, or even changed countenance, +or broken the silence in which she remained, by one word, now that they +were alone (for Cleopatra made off with all speed), Mr Dombey would have +been equal to some assertion of his case against her. But the intense, +unutterable, withering scorn, with which, after looking upon him, she +dropped her eyes, as if he were too worthless and indifferent to her to +be challenged with a syllable--the ineffable disdain and haughtiness +in which she sat before him--the cold inflexible resolve with which her +every feature seemed to bear him down, and put him by--these, he had +no resource against; and he left her, with her whole overbearing beauty +concentrated on despising him. + +Was he coward enough to watch her, an hour afterwards, on the old well +staircase, where he had once seen Florence in the moonlight, toiling up +with Paul? Or was he in the dark by accident, when, looking up, he saw +her coming, with a light, from the room where Florence lay, and marked +again the face so changed, which he could not subdue? + +But it could never alter as his own did. It never, in its uttermost +pride and passion, knew the shadow that had fallen on his, in the dark +corner, on the night of the return; and often since; and which deepened +on it now, as he looked up. + + + +CHAPTER 37. More Warnings than One + + +Florence, Edith, and Mrs Skewton were together next day, and the +carriage was waiting at the door to take them out. For Cleopatra had +her galley again now, and Withers, no longer the-wan, stood upright in +a pigeon-breasted jacket and military trousers, behind her wheel-less +chair at dinner-time and butted no more. The hair of Withers was radiant +with pomatum, in these days of down, and he wore kid gloves and smelt of +the water of Cologne. + +They were assembled in Cleopatra's room. The Serpent of old Nile (not +to mention her disrespectfully) was reposing on her sofa, sipping her +morning chocolate at three o'clock in the afternoon, and Flowers the +Maid was fastening on her youthful cuffs and frills, and performing a +kind of private coronation ceremony on her, with a peach-coloured velvet +bonnet; the artificial roses in which nodded to uncommon advantage, as +the palsy trifled with them, like a breeze. + +'I think I am a little nervous this morning, Flowers,' said Mrs Skewton. +'My hand quite shakes.' + +'You were the life of the party last night, Ma'am, you know,' returned +Flowers, 'and you suffer for it, to-day, you see.' + +Edith, who had beckoned Florence to the window, and was looking out, +with her back turned on the toilet of her esteemed mother, suddenly +withdrew from it, as if it had lightened. + +'My darling child,' cried Cleopatra, languidly, 'you are not nervous? +Don't tell me, my dear Edith, that you, so enviably self-possessed, +are beginning to be a martyr too, like your unfortunately constituted +mother! Withers, someone at the door.' + +'Card, Ma'am,' said Withers, taking it towards Mrs Dombey. + +'I am going out,' she said without looking at it. + +'My dear love,' drawled Mrs Skewton, 'how very odd to send that message +without seeing the name! Bring it here, Withers. Dear me, my love; Mr +Carker, too! That very sensible person!' + +'I am going out,' repeated Edith, in so imperious a tone that Withers, +going to the door, imperiously informed the servant who was waiting, +'Mrs Dombey is going out. Get along with you,' and shut it on him. + +But the servant came back after a short absence, and whispered to +Withers again, who once more, and not very willingly, presented himself +before Mrs Dombey. + +'If you please, Ma'am, Mr Carker sends his respectful compliments, and +begs you would spare him one minute, if you could--for business, Ma'am, +if you please.' + +'Really, my love,' said Mrs Skewton in her mildest manner; for her +daughter's face was threatening; 'if you would allow me to offer a word, +I should recommend--' + +'Show him this way,' said Edith. As Withers disappeared to execute +the command, she added, frowning on her mother, 'As he comes at your +recommendation, let him come to your room.' + +'May I--shall I go away?' asked Florence, hurriedly. + +Edith nodded yes, but on her way to the door Florence met the visitor +coming in. With the same disagreeable mixture of familiarity and +forbearance, with which he had first addressed her, he addressed her now +in his softest manner--hoped she was quite well--needed not to ask, with +such looks to anticipate the answer--had scarcely had the honour to know +her, last night, she was so greatly changed--and held the door open for +her to pass out; with a secret sense of power in her shrinking from +him, that all the deference and politeness of his manner could not quite +conceal. + +He then bowed himself for a moment over Mrs Skewton's condescending +hand, and lastly bowed to Edith. Coldly returning his salute without +looking at him, and neither seating herself nor inviting him to be +seated, she waited for him to speak. + +Entrenched in her pride and power, and with all the obduracy of her +spirit summoned about her, still her old conviction that she and her +mother had been known by this man in their worst colours, from their +first acquaintance; that every degradation she had suffered in her own +eyes was as plain to him as to herself; that he read her life as though +it were a vile book, and fluttered the leaves before her in slight +looks and tones of voice which no one else could detect; weakened +and undermined her. Proudly as she opposed herself to him, with her +commanding face exacting his humility, her disdainful lip repulsing +him, her bosom angry at his intrusion, and the dark lashes of her +eyes sullenly veiling their light, that no ray of it might shine upon +him--and submissively as he stood before her, with an entreating injured +manner, but with complete submission to her will--she knew, in her own +soul, that the cases were reversed, and that the triumph and superiority +were his, and that he knew it full well. + +'I have presumed,' said Mr Carker, 'to solicit an interview, and I have +ventured to describe it as being one of business, because--' + +'Perhaps you are charged by Mr Dombey with some message of reproof,' +said Edit 'You possess Mr Dombey's confidence in such an unusual degree, +Sir, that you would scarcely surprise me if that were your business.' + +'I have no message to the lady who sheds a lustre upon his name,' said +Mr Carker. 'But I entreat that lady, on my own behalf to be just to a +very humble claimant for justice at her hands--a mere dependant of +Mr Dombey's--which is a position of humility; and to reflect upon my +perfect helplessness last night, and the impossibility of my avoiding +the share that was forced upon me in a very painful occasion.' + +'My dearest Edith,' hinted Cleopatra in a low voice, as she held her +eye-glass aside, 'really very charming of Mr What's-his-name. And full +of heart!' + +'For I do,' said Mr Carker, appealing to Mrs Skewton with a look of +grateful deference,--'I do venture to call it a painful occasion, though +merely because it was so to me, who had the misfortune to be present. So +slight a difference, as between the principals--between those who love +each other with disinterested devotion, and would make any sacrifice of +self in such a cause--is nothing. As Mrs Skewton herself expressed, with +so much truth and feeling last night, it is nothing.' + +Edith could not look at him, but she said after a few moments. + +'And your business, Sir--' + +'Edith, my pet,' said Mrs Skewton, 'all this time Mr Carker is standing! +My dear Mr Carker, take a seat, I beg.' + +He offered no reply to the mother, but fixed his eyes on the proud +daughter, as though he would only be bidden by her, and was resolved +to be bidden by her. Edith, in spite of herself sat down, and slightly +motioned with her hand to him to be seated too. No action could be +colder, haughtier, more insolent in its air of supremacy and disrespect, +but she had struggled against even that concession ineffectually, and it +was wrested from her. That was enough! Mr Carker sat down. + +'May I be allowed, Madam,' said Carker, turning his white teeth on Mrs +Skewton like a light--'a lady of your excellent sense and quick feeling +will give me credit, for good reason, I am sure--to address what I have +to say, to Mrs Dombey, and to leave her to impart it to you who are her +best and dearest friend--next to Mr Dombey?' + +Mrs Skewton would have retired, but Edith stopped her. Edith would have +stopped him too, and indignantly ordered him to speak openly or not at +all, but that he said, in a low Voice--'Miss Florence--the young lady +who has just left the room--' + +Edith suffered him to proceed. She looked at him now. As he bent +forward, to be nearer, with the utmost show of delicacy and respect, and +with his teeth persuasively arrayed, in a self-depreciating smile, she +felt as if she could have struck him dead. + +'Miss Florence's position,' he began, 'has been an unfortunate one. +I have a difficulty in alluding to it to you, whose attachment to her +father is naturally watchful and jealous of every word that applies to +him.' Always distinct and soft in speech, no language could describe the +extent of his distinctness and softness, when he said these words, or +came to any others of a similar import. 'But, as one who is devoted to +Mr Dombey in his different way, and whose life is passed in admiration +of Mr Dombey's character, may I say, without offence to your tenderness +as a wife, that Miss Florence has unhappily been neglected--by her +father. May I say by her father?' + +Edith replied, 'I know it.' + +'You know it!' said Mr Carker, with a great appearance of relief. 'It +removes a mountain from my breast. May I hope you know how the neglect +originated; in what an amiable phase of Mr Dombey's pride--character I +mean?' + +'You may pass that by, Sir,' she returned, 'and come the sooner to the +end of what you have to say.' + +'Indeed, I am sensible, Madam,' replied Carker,--'trust me, I am deeply +sensible, that Mr Dombey can require no justification in anything to +you. But, kindly judge of my breast by your own, and you will forgive my +interest in him, if in its excess, it goes at all astray.' + +What a stab to her proud heart, to sit there, face to face with him, and +have him tendering her false oath at the altar again and again for her +acceptance, and pressing it upon her like the dregs of a sickening +cup she could not own her loathing of, or turn away from! How shame, +remorse, and passion raged within her, when, upright and majestic in her +beauty before him, she knew that in her spirit she was down at his feet! + +'Miss Florence,' said Carker, 'left to the care--if one may call it +care--of servants and mercenary people, in every way her inferiors, +necessarily wanted some guide and compass in her younger days, and, +naturally, for want of them, has been indiscreet, and has in some degree +forgotten her station. There was some folly about one Walter, a common +lad, who is fortunately dead now: and some very undesirable association, +I regret to say, with certain coasting sailors, of anything but good +repute, and a runaway old bankrupt.' + +'I have heard the circumstances, Sir,' said Edith, flashing her +disdainful glance upon him, 'and I know that you pervert them. You may +not know it. I hope so.' + +'Pardon me,' said Mr Carker, 'I believe that nobody knows them so well +as I. Your generous and ardent nature, Madam--the same nature which is +so nobly imperative in vindication of your beloved and honoured husband, +and which has blessed him as even his merits deserve--I must respect, +defer to, bow before. But, as regards the circumstances, which is indeed +the business I presumed to solicit your attention to, I can have +no doubt, since, in the execution of my trust as Mr Dombey's +confidential--I presume to say--friend, I have fully ascertained them. +In my execution of that trust; in my deep concern, which you can so well +understand, for everything relating to him, intensified, if you will +(for I fear I labour under your displeasure), by the lower motive of +desire to prove my diligence, and make myself the more acceptable; +I have long pursued these circumstances by myself and trustworthy +instruments, and have innumerable and most minute proofs.' + +She raised her eyes no higher than his mouth, but she saw the means of +mischief vaunted in every tooth it contained. + +'Pardon me, Madam,' he continued, 'if in my perplexity, I presume to +take counsel with you, and to consult your pleasure. I think I have +observed that you are greatly interested in Miss Florence?' + +What was there in her he had not observed, and did not know? Humbled +and yet maddened by the thought, in every new presentment of it, however +faint, she pressed her teeth upon her quivering lip to force composure +on it, and distantly inclined her head in reply. + +'This interest, Madam--so touching an evidence of everything associated +with Mr Dombey being dear to you--induces me to pause before I make him +acquainted with these circumstances, which, as yet, he does not know. +It so shakes me, if I may make the confession, in my allegiance, that +on the intimation of the least desire to that effect from you, I would +suppress them.' + +Edith raised her head quickly, and starting back, bent her dark glance +upon him. He met it with his blandest and most deferential smile, and +went on. + +'You say that as I describe them, they are perverted. I fear not--I fear +not: but let us assume that they are. The uneasiness I have for some +time felt on the subject, arises in this: that the mere circumstance of +such association often repeated, on the part of Miss Florence, however +innocently and confidingly, would be conclusive with Mr Dombey, already +predisposed against her, and would lead him to take some step (I know +he has occasionally contemplated it) of separation and alienation of her +from his home. Madam, bear with me, and remember my intercourse with Mr +Dombey, and my knowledge of him, and my reverence for him, almost +from childhood, when I say that if he has a fault, it is a lofty +stubbornness, rooted in that noble pride and sense of power which belong +to him, and which we must all defer to; which is not assailable like the +obstinacy of other characters; and which grows upon itself from day to +day, and year to year.' + +She bent her glance upon him still; but, look as steadfast as she would, +her haughty nostrils dilated, and her breath came somewhat deeper, and +her lip would slightly curl, as he described that in his patron to which +they must all bow down. He saw it; and though his expression did not +change, she knew he saw it. + +'Even so slight an incident as last night's,' he said, 'if I might refer +to it once more, would serve to illustrate my meaning, better than a +greater one. Dombey and Son know neither time, nor place, nor season, +but bear them all down. But I rejoice in its occurrence, for it has +opened the way for me to approach Mrs Dombey with this subject +to-day, even if it has entailed upon me the penalty of her temporary +displeasure. Madam, in the midst of my uneasiness and apprehension on +this subject, I was summoned by Mr Dombey to Leamington. There I saw +you. There I could not help knowing what relation you would shortly +occupy towards him--to his enduring happiness and yours. There I +resolved to await the time of your establishment at home here, and to do +as I have now done. I have, at heart, no fear that I shall be wanting +in my duty to Mr Dombey, if I bury what I know in your breast; for +where there is but one heart and mind between two persons--as in such +a marriage--one almost represents the other. I can acquit my conscience +therefore, almost equally, by confidence, on such a theme, in you or +him. For the reasons I have mentioned I would select you. May I aspire +to the distinction of believing that my confidence is accepted, and that +I am relieved from my responsibility?' + +He long remembered the look she gave him--who could see it, and forget +it?--and the struggle that ensued within her. At last she said: + +'I accept it, Sir You will please to consider this matter at an end, and +that it goes no farther.' + +He bowed low, and rose. She rose too, and he took leave with all +humility. But Withers, meeting him on the stairs, stood amazed at the +beauty of his teeth, and at his brilliant smile; and as he rode away +upon his white-legged horse, the people took him for a dentist, such was +the dazzling show he made. The people took her, when she rode out in her +carriage presently, for a great lady, as happy as she was rich and fine. +But they had not seen her, just before, in her own room with no one by; +and they had not heard her utterance of the three words, 'Oh Florence, +Florence!' + +Mrs Skewton, reposing on her sofa, and sipping her chocolate, had heard +nothing but the low word business, for which she had a mortal aversion, +insomuch that she had long banished it from her vocabulary, and had gone +nigh, in a charming manner and with an immense amount of heart, to say +nothing of soul, to ruin divers milliners and others in consequence. +Therefore Mrs Skewton asked no questions, and showed no curiosity. +Indeed, the peach-velvet bonnet gave her sufficient occupation out of +doors; for being perched on the back of her head, and the day being +rather windy, it was frantic to escape from Mrs Skewton's company, +and would be coaxed into no sort of compromise. When the carriage was +closed, and the wind shut out, the palsy played among the artificial +roses again like an almshouse-full of superannuated zephyrs; and +altogether Mrs Skewton had enough to do, and got on but indifferently. + +She got on no better towards night; for when Mrs Dombey, in her +dressing-room, had been dressed and waiting for her half an hour, and Mr +Dombey, in the drawing-room, had paraded himself into a state of solemn +fretfulness (they were all three going out to dinner), Flowers the Maid +appeared with a pale face to Mrs Dombey, saying: + +'If you please, Ma'am, I beg your pardon, but I can't do nothing with +Missis!' + +'What do you mean?' asked Edith. + +'Well, Ma'am,' replied the frightened maid, 'I hardly know. She's making +faces!' + +Edith hurried with her to her mother's room. Cleopatra was arrayed in +full dress, with the diamonds, short sleeves, rouge, curls, teeth, and +other juvenility all complete; but Paralysis was not to be deceived, had +known her for the object of its errand, and had struck her at her glass, +where she lay like a horrible doll that had tumbled down. + +They took her to pieces in very shame, and put the little of her that +was real on a bed. Doctors were sent for, and soon came. Powerful +remedies were resorted to; opinions given that she would rally from this +shock, but would not survive another; and there she lay speechless, and +staring at the ceiling, for days; sometimes making inarticulate sounds +in answer to such questions as did she know who were present, and the +like: sometimes giving no reply either by sign or gesture, or in her +unwinking eyes. + +At length she began to recover consciousness, and in some degree the +power of motion, though not yet of speech. One day the use of her right +hand returned; and showing it to her maid who was in attendance on her, +and appearing very uneasy in her mind, she made signs for a pencil and +some paper. This the maid immediately provided, thinking she was going +to make a will, or write some last request; and Mrs Dombey being from +home, the maid awaited the result with solemn feelings. + +After much painful scrawling and erasing, and putting in of wrong +characters, which seemed to tumble out of the pencil of their own +accord, the old woman produced this document: + + 'Rose-coloured curtains.' + +The maid being perfectly transfixed, and with tolerable reason, +Cleopatra amended the manuscript by adding two words more, when it stood +thus: + + 'Rose-coloured curtains for doctors.' + +The maid now perceived remotely that she wished these articles to be +provided for the better presentation of her complexion to the faculty; +and as those in the house who knew her best, had no doubt of the +correctness of this opinion, which she was soon able to establish for +herself the rose-coloured curtains were added to her bed, and she mended +with increased rapidity from that hour. She was soon able to sit up, +in curls and a laced cap and nightgown, and to have a little artificial +bloom dropped into the hollow caverns of her cheeks. + +It was a tremendous sight to see this old woman in her finery leering +and mincing at Death, and playing off her youthful tricks upon him as if +he had been the Major; but an alteration in her mind that ensued on the +paralytic stroke was fraught with as much matter for reflection, and was +quite as ghastly. + +Whether the weakening of her intellect made her more cunning and false +than before, or whether it confused her between what she had assumed +to be and what she really had been, or whether it had awakened any +glimmering of remorse, which could neither struggle into light nor get +back into total darkness, or whether, in the jumble of her faculties, +a combination of these effects had been shaken up, which is perhaps the +more likely supposition, the result was this:--That she became hugely +exacting in respect of Edith's affection and gratitude and attention to +her; highly laudatory of herself as a most inestimable parent; and very +jealous of having any rival in Edith's regard. Further, in place of +remembering that compact made between them for an avoidance of the +subject, she constantly alluded to her daughter's marriage as a proof +of her being an incomparable mother; and all this, with the weakness and +peevishness of such a state, always serving for a sarcastic commentary +on her levity and youthfulness. + +'Where is Mrs Dombey?' she would say to her maid. + +'Gone out, Ma'am.' + +'Gone out! Does she go out to shun her Mama, Flowers?' + +'La bless you, no, Ma'am. Mrs Dombey has only gone out for a ride with +Miss Florence.' + +'Miss Florence. Who's Miss Florence? Don't tell me about Miss Florence. +What's Miss Florence to her, compared to me?' + +The apposite display of the diamonds, or the peach-velvet bonnet (she +sat in the bonnet to receive visitors, weeks before she could stir out +of doors), or the dressing of her up in some gaud or other, usually +stopped the tears that began to flow hereabouts; and she would remain in +a complacent state until Edith came to see her; when, at a glance of the +proud face, she would relapse again. + +'Well, I am sure, Edith!' she would cry, shaking her head. + +'What is the matter, mother?' + +'Matter! I really don't know what is the matter. The world is coming to +such an artificial and ungrateful state, that I begin to think there's +no Heart--or anything of that sort--left in it, positively. Withers is +more a child to me than you are. He attends to me much more than my own +daughter. I almost wish I didn't look so young--and all that kind of +thing--and then perhaps I should be more considered.' + +'What would you have, mother?' + +'Oh, a great deal, Edith,' impatiently. + +'Is there anything you want that you have not? It is your own fault if +there be.' + +'My own fault!' beginning to whimper. 'The parent I have been to you, +Edith: making you a companion from your cradle! And when you neglect me, +and have no more natural affection for me than if I was a stranger--not +a twentieth part of the affection that you have for Florence--but I am +only your mother, and should corrupt her in a day!--you reproach me with +its being my own fault.' + +'Mother, mother, I reproach you with nothing. Why will you always dwell +on this?' + +'Isn't it natural that I should dwell on this, when I am all affection +and sensitiveness, and am wounded in the cruellest way, whenever you +look at me?' + +'I do not mean to wound you, mother. Have you no remembrance of what has +been said between us? Let the Past rest.' + +'Yes, rest! And let gratitude to me rest; and let affection for me +rest; and let me rest in my out-of-the-way room, with no society and +no attention, while you find new relations to make much of, who have +no earthly claim upon you! Good gracious, Edith, do you know what an +elegant establishment you are at the head of?' + +'Yes. Hush!' + +'And that gentlemanly creature, Dombey? Do you know that you are married +to him, Edith, and that you have a settlement and a position, and a +carriage, and I don't know what?' + +'Indeed, I know it, mother; well.' + +'As you would have had with that delightful good soul--what did they +call him?--Granger--if he hadn't died. And who have you to thank for all +this, Edith?' + +'You, mother; you.' + +'Then put your arms round my neck, and kiss me; and show me, Edith, +that you know there never was a better Mama than I have been to you. And +don't let me become a perfect fright with teasing and wearing myself at +your ingratitude, or when I'm out again in society no soul will know me, +not even that hateful animal, the Major.' + +But, sometimes, when Edith went nearer to her, and bending down her +stately head, put her cold cheek to hers, the mother would draw back as +If she were afraid of her, and would fall into a fit of trembling, and +cry out that there was a wandering in her wits. And sometimes she would +entreat her, with humility, to sit down on the chair beside her bed, and +would look at her (as she sat there brooding) with a face that even the +rose-coloured curtains could not make otherwise than scared and wild. + +The rose-coloured curtains blushed, in course of time, on Cleopatra's +bodily recovery, and on her dress--more juvenile than ever, to repair +the ravages of illness--and on the rouge, and on the teeth, and on +the curls, and on the diamonds, and the short sleeves, and the whole +wardrobe of the doll that had tumbled down before the mirror. They +blushed, too, now and then, upon an indistinctness in her speech which +she turned off with a girlish giggle, and on an occasional failing in +her memory, that had no rule in it, but came and went fantastically, as +if in mockery of her fantastic self. + +But they never blushed upon a change in the new manner of her thought +and speech towards her daughter. And though that daughter often +came within their influence, they never blushed upon her loveliness +irradiated by a smile, or softened by the light of filial love, in its +stem beauty. + + + +CHAPTER 38. Miss Tox improves an Old Acquaintance + + +The forlorn Miss Tox, abandoned by her friend Louisa Chick, and bereft +of Mr Dombey's countenance--for no delicate pair of wedding cards, +united by a silver thread, graced the chimney-glass in Princess's +Place, or the harpsichord, or any of those little posts of display +which Lucretia reserved for holiday occupation--became depressed in her +spirits, and suffered much from melancholy. For a time the Bird Waltz +was unheard in Princess's Place, the plants were neglected, and dust +collected on the miniature of Miss Tox's ancestor with the powdered head +and pigtail. + + +Miss Tox, however, was not of an age or of a disposition long to abandon +herself to unavailing regrets. Only two notes of the harpsichord were +dumb from disuse when the Bird Waltz again warbled and trilled in +the crooked drawing-room: only one slip of geranium fell a victim to +imperfect nursing, before she was gardening at her green baskets again, +regularly every morning; the powdered-headed ancestor had not been under +a cloud for more than six weeks, when Miss Tox breathed on his benignant +visage, and polished him up with a piece of wash-leather. + +Still, Miss Tox was lonely, and at a loss. Her attachments, however +ludicrously shown, were real and strong; and she was, as she expressed +it, 'deeply hurt by the unmerited contumely she had met with from +Louisa.' But there was no such thing as anger in Miss Tox's composition. +If she had ambled on through life, in her soft spoken way, without any +opinions, she had, at least, got so far without any harsh passions. +The mere sight of Louisa Chick in the street one day, at a considerable +distance, so overpowered her milky nature, that she was fain to seek +immediate refuge in a pastrycook's, and there, in a musty little back +room usually devoted to the consumption of soups, and pervaded by an +ox-tail atmosphere, relieve her feelings by weeping plentifully. + +Against Mr Dombey Miss Tox hardly felt that she had any reason of +complaint. Her sense of that gentleman's magnificence was such, that +once removed from him, she felt as if her distance always had been +immeasurable, and as if he had greatly condescended in tolerating her at +all. No wife could be too handsome or too stately for him, according to +Miss Tox's sincere opinion. It was perfectly natural that in looking +for one, he should look high. Miss Tox with tears laid down this +proposition, and fully admitted it, twenty times a day. She never +recalled the lofty manner in which Mr Dombey had made her subservient to +his convenience and caprices, and had graciously permitted her to be +one of the nurses of his little son. She only thought, in her own words, +'that she had passed a great many happy hours in that house, which she +must ever remember with gratification, and that she could never cease to +regard Mr Dombey as one of the most impressive and dignified of men.' + +Cut off, however, from the implacable Louisa, and being shy of the Major +(whom she viewed with some distrust now), Miss Tox found it very irksome +to know nothing of what was going on in Mr Dombey's establishment. And +as she really had got into the habit of considering Dombey and Son as +the pivot on which the world in general turned, she resolved, rather +than be ignorant of intelligence which so strongly interested her, to +cultivate her old acquaintance, Mrs Richards, who she knew, since +her last memorable appearance before Mr Dombey, was in the habit of +sometimes holding communication with his servants. Perhaps Miss Tox, +in seeking out the Toodle family, had the tender motive hidden in her +breast of having somebody to whom she could talk about Mr Dombey, no +matter how humble that somebody might be. + +At all events, towards the Toodle habitation Miss Tox directed her steps +one evening, what time Mr Toodle, cindery and swart, was refreshing +himself with tea, in the bosom of his family. Mr Toodle had only three +stages of existence. He was either taking refreshment in the bosom just +mentioned, or he was tearing through the country at from twenty-five +to fifty miles an hour, or he was sleeping after his fatigues. He was +always in a whirlwind or a calm, and a peaceable, contented, easy-going +man Mr Toodle was in either state, who seemed to have made over all his +own inheritance of fuming and fretting to the engines with which he was +connected, which panted, and gasped, and chafed, and wore themselves +out, in a most unsparing manner, while Mr Toodle led a mild and equable +life. + +'Polly, my gal,' said Mr Toodle, with a young Toodle on each knee, and +two more making tea for him, and plenty more scattered about--Mr Toodle +was never out of children, but always kept a good supply on hand--'you +ain't seen our Biler lately, have you?' + +'No,' replied Polly, 'but he's almost certain to look in tonight. It's +his right evening, and he's very regular.' + +'I suppose,' said Mr Toodle, relishing his meal infinitely, 'as our +Biler is a doin' now about as well as a boy can do, eh, Polly?' + +'Oh! he's a doing beautiful!' responded Polly. + +'He ain't got to be at all secret-like--has he, Polly?' inquired Mr +Toodle. + +'No!' said Mrs Toodle, plumply. + +'I'm glad he ain't got to be at all secret-like, Polly,' observed Mr +Toodle in his slow and measured way, and shovelling in his bread and +butter with a clasp knife, as if he were stoking himself, 'because that +don't look well; do it, Polly?' + +'Why, of course it don't, father. How can you ask!' + +'You see, my boys and gals,' said Mr Toodle, looking round upon his +family, 'wotever you're up to in a honest way, it's my opinion as you +can't do better than be open. If you find yourselves in cuttings or in +tunnels, don't you play no secret games. Keep your whistles going, and +let's know where you are.' + +The rising Toodles set up a shrill murmur, expressive of their +resolution to profit by the paternal advice. + +'But what makes you say this along of Rob, father?' asked his wife, +anxiously. + +'Polly, old 'ooman,' said Mr Toodle, 'I don't know as I said it +partickler along o' Rob, I'm sure. I starts light with Rob only; I comes +to a branch; I takes on what I finds there; and a whole train of ideas +gets coupled on to him, afore I knows where I am, or where they +comes from. What a Junction a man's thoughts is,' said Mr Toodle, +'to-be-sure!' + +This profound reflection Mr Toodle washed down with a pint mug of tea, +and proceeded to solidify with a great weight of bread and butter; +charging his young daughters meanwhile, to keep plenty of hot water in +the pot, as he was uncommon dry, and should take the indefinite quantity +of 'a sight of mugs,' before his thirst was appeased. + +In satisfying himself, however, Mr Toodle was not regardless of the +younger branches about him, who, although they had made their own +evening repast, were on the look-out for irregular morsels, as +possessing a relish. These he distributed now and then to the expectant +circle, by holding out great wedges of bread and butter, to be bitten +at by the family in lawful succession, and by serving out small doses of +tea in like manner with a spoon; which snacks had such a relish in the +mouths of these young Toodles, that, after partaking of the same, they +performed private dances of ecstasy among themselves, and stood on +one leg apiece, and hopped, and indulged in other saltatory tokens of +gladness. These vents for their excitement found, they gradually closed +about Mr Toodle again, and eyed him hard as he got through more bread +and butter and tea; affecting, however, to have no further expectations +of their own in reference to those viands, but to be conversing on +foreign subjects, and whispering confidentially. + +Mr Toodle, in the midst of this family group, and setting an awful +example to his children in the way of appetite, was conveying the two +young Toodles on his knees to Birmingham by special engine, and was +contemplating the rest over a barrier of bread and butter, when Rob the +Grinder, in his sou'wester hat and mourning slops, presented himself, +and was received with a general rush of brothers and sisters. + +'Well, mother!' said Rob, dutifully kissing her; 'how are you, mother?' + +'There's my boy!' cried Polly, giving him a hug and a pat on the back. +'Secret! Bless you, father, not he!' + +This was intended for Mr Toodle's private edification, but Rob the +Grinder, whose withers were not unwrung, caught the words as they were +spoken. + +'What! father's been a saying something more again me, has he?' cried +the injured innocent. 'Oh, what a hard thing it is that when a cove +has once gone a little wrong, a cove's own father should be always +a throwing it in his face behind his back! It's enough,' cried Rob, +resorting to his coat-cuff in anguish of spirit, 'to make a cove go and +do something, out of spite!' + +'My poor boy!' cried Polly, 'father didn't mean anything.' + +'If father didn't mean anything,' blubbered the injured Grinder, 'why +did he go and say anything, mother? Nobody thinks half so bad of me as +my own father does. What a unnatural thing! I wish somebody'd take and +chop my head off. Father wouldn't mind doing it, I believe, and I'd much +rather he did that than t'other.' + +At these desperate words all the young Toodles shrieked; a pathetic +effect, which the Grinder improved by ironically adjuring them not to +cry for him, for they ought to hate him, they ought, if they was good +boys and girls; and this so touched the youngest Toodle but one, who was +easily moved, that it touched him not only in his spirit but in his wind +too; making him so purple that Mr Toodle in consternation carried him +out to the water-butt, and would have put him under the tap, but for his +being recovered by the sight of that instrument. + +Matters having reached this point, Mr Toodle explained, and the virtuous +feelings of his son being thereby calmed, they shook hands, and harmony +reigned again. + +'Will you do as I do, Biler, my boy?' inquired his father, returning to +his tea with new strength. + +'No, thank'ee, father. Master and I had tea together.' + +'And how is master, Rob?' said Polly. + +'Well, I don't know, mother; not much to boast on. There ain't no +bis'ness done, you see. He don't know anything about it--the Cap'en +don't. There was a man come into the shop this very day, and says, "I +want a so-and-so," he says--some hard name or another. "A which?" says +the Cap'en. "A so-and-so," says the man. "Brother," says the Cap'en, +"will you take a observation round the shop." "Well," says the man, +"I've done." "Do you see wot you want?" says the Cap'en "No, I don't," +says the man. "Do you know it wen you do see it?" says the Cap'en. "No, +I don't," says the man. "Why, then I tell you wot, my lad," says the +Cap'en, "you'd better go back and ask wot it's like, outside, for no +more don't I!"' + +'That ain't the way to make money, though, is it?' said Polly. + +'Money, mother! He'll never make money. He has such ways as I never see. +He ain't a bad master though, I'll say that for him. But that ain't much +to me, for I don't think I shall stop with him long.' + +'Not stop in your place, Rob!' cried his mother; while Mr Toodle opened +his eyes. + +'Not in that place, p'raps,' returned the Grinder, with a wink. 'I +shouldn't wonder--friends at court you know--but never you mind, mother, +just now; I'm all right, that's all.' + +The indisputable proof afforded in these hints, and in the Grinder's +mysterious manner, of his not being subject to that failing which Mr +Toodle had, by implication, attributed to him, might have led to a +renewal of his wrongs, and of the sensation in the family, but for the +opportune arrival of another visitor, who, to Polly's great surprise, +appeared at the door, smiling patronage and friendship on all there. + +'How do you do, Mrs Richards?' said Miss Tox. 'I have come to see you. +May I come in?' + +The cheery face of Mrs Richards shone with a hospitable reply, and Miss +Tox, accepting the proffered chair, and grab fully recognising Mr Toodle +on her way to it, untied her bonnet strings, and said that in the first +place she must beg the dear children, one and all, to come and kiss her. + +The ill-starred youngest Toodle but one, who would appear, from the +frequency of his domestic troubles, to have been born under an +unlucky planet, was prevented from performing his part in this general +salutation by having fixed the sou'wester hat (with which he had been +previously trifling) deep on his head, hind side before, and being +unable to get it off again; which accident presenting to his terrified +imagination a dismal picture of his passing the rest of his days in +darkness, and in hopeless seclusion from his friends and family, caused +him to struggle with great violence, and to utter suffocating cries. +Being released, his face was discovered to be very hot, and red, and +damp; and Miss Tox took him on her lap, much exhausted. + +'You have almost forgotten me, Sir, I daresay,' said Miss Tox to Mr +Toodle. + +'No, Ma'am, no,' said Toodle. 'But we've all on us got a little older +since then.' + +'And how do you find yourself, Sir?' inquired Miss Tox, blandly. + +'Hearty, Ma'am, thank'ee,' replied Toodle. 'How do you find yourself, +Ma'am? Do the rheumaticks keep off pretty well, Ma'am? We must all +expect to grow into 'em, as we gets on.' + +'Thank you,' said Miss Tox. 'I have not felt any inconvenience from that +disorder yet.' + +'You're wery fortunate, Ma'am,' returned Mr Toodle. 'Many people at +your time of life, Ma'am, is martyrs to it. There was my mother--' But +catching his wife's eye here, Mr Toodle judiciously buried the rest in +another mug of tea. + +'You never mean to say, Mrs Richards,' cried Miss Tox, looking at Rob, +'that that is your--' + +'Eldest, Ma'am,' said Polly. 'Yes, indeed, it is. That's the little +fellow, Ma'am, that was the innocent cause of so much.' + +'This here, Ma'am,' said Toodle, 'is him with the short legs--and they +was,' said Mr Toodle, with a touch of poetry in his tone, 'unusual short +for leathers--as Mr Dombey made a Grinder on.' + +The recollection almost overpowered Miss Tox. The subject of it had a +peculiar interest for her directly. She asked him to shake hands, and +congratulated his mother on his frank, ingenuous face. Rob, overhearing +her, called up a look, to justify the eulogium, but it was hardly the +right look. + +'And now, Mrs Richards,' said Miss Tox,--'and you too, Sir,' addressing +Toodle--'I'll tell you, plainly and truly, what I have come here for. +You may be aware, Mrs Richards--and, possibly, you may be aware too, +Sir--that a little distance has interposed itself between me and some of +my friends, and that where I used to visit a good deal, I do not visit +now.' + +Polly, who, with a woman's tact, understood this at once, expressed as +much in a little look. Mr Toodle, who had not the faintest idea of what +Miss Tox was talking about, expressed that also, in a stare. + +'Of course,' said Miss Tox, 'how our little coolness has arisen is of no +moment, and does not require to be discussed. It is sufficient for me to +say, that I have the greatest possible respect for, and interest in, +Mr Dombey;' Miss Tox's voice faltered; 'and everything that relates to +him.' + +Mr Toodle, enlightened, shook his head, and said he had heerd it said, +and, for his own part, he did think, as Mr Dombey was a difficult +subject. + +'Pray don't say so, Sir, if you please,' returned Miss Tox. 'Let me +entreat you not to say so, Sir, either now, or at any future time. Such +observations cannot but be very painful to me; and to a gentleman, +whose mind is constituted as, I am quite sure, yours is, can afford no +permanent satisfaction.' + +Mr Toodle, who had not entertained the least doubt of offering a remark +that would be received with acquiescence, was greatly confounded. + +'All that I wish to say, Mrs Richards,' resumed Miss Tox,--'and I +address myself to you too, Sir,--is this. That any intelligence of the +proceedings of the family, of the welfare of the family, of the health +of the family, that reaches you, will be always most acceptable to me. +That I shall be always very glad to chat with Mrs Richards about the +family, and about old time And as Mrs Richards and I never had the least +difference (though I could wish now that we had been better acquainted, +but I have no one but myself to blame for that), I hope she will not +object to our being very good friends now, and to my coming backwards +and forwards here, when I like, without being a stranger. Now, I really +hope, Mrs Richards,' said Miss Tox--earnestly, 'that you will take this, +as I mean it, like a good-humoured creature, as you always were.' + +Polly was gratified, and showed it. Mr Toodle didn't know whether he was +gratified or not, and preserved a stolid calmness. + +'You see, Mrs Richards,' said Miss Tox--'and I hope you see too, +Sir--there are many little ways in which I can be slightly useful +to you, if you will make no stranger of me; and in which I shall be +delighted to be so. For instance, I can teach your children something. +I shall bring a few little books, if you'll allow me, and some work, +and of an evening now and then, they'll learn--dear me, they'll learn a +great deal, I trust, and be a credit to their teacher.' + +Mr Toodle, who had a great respect for learning, jerked his head +approvingly at his wife, and moistened his hands with dawning +satisfaction. + +'Then, not being a stranger, I shall be in nobody's way,' said Miss Tox, +'and everything will go on just as if I were not here. Mrs Richards will +do her mending, or her ironing, or her nursing, whatever it is, without +minding me: and you'll smoke your pipe, too, if you're so disposed, Sir, +won't you?' + +'Thank'ee, Mum,' said Mr Toodle. 'Yes; I'll take my bit of backer.' + +'Very good of you to say so, Sir,' rejoined Miss Tox, 'and I really do +assure you now, unfeignedly, that it will be a great comfort to me, and +that whatever good I may be fortunate enough to do the children, you +will more than pay back to me, if you'll enter into this little bargain +comfortably, and easily, and good-naturedly, without another word about +it.' + +The bargain was ratified on the spot; and Miss Tox found herself so +much at home already, that without delay she instituted a preliminary +examination of the children all round--which Mr Toodle much admired--and +booked their ages, names, and acquirements, on a piece of paper. This +ceremony, and a little attendant gossip, prolonged the time until after +their usual hour of going to bed, and detained Miss Tox at the Toodle +fireside until it was too late for her to walk home alone. The gallant +Grinder, however, being still there, politely offered to attend her to +her own door; and as it was something to Miss Tox to be seen home by a +youth whom Mr Dombey had first inducted into those manly garments which +are rarely mentioned by name, she very readily accepted the proposal. + +After shaking hands with Mr Toodle and Polly, and kissing all the +children, Miss Tox left the house, therefore, with unlimited popularity, +and carrying away with her so light a heart that it might have given Mrs +Chick offence if that good lady could have weighed it. + +Rob the Grinder, in his modesty, would have walked behind, but Miss Tox +desired him to keep beside her, for conversational purposes; and, as she +afterwards expressed it to his mother, 'drew him out,' upon the road. + +He drew out so bright, and clear, and shining, that Miss Tox was charmed +with him. The more Miss Tox drew him out, the finer he came--like wire. +There never was a better or more promising youth--a more affectionate, +steady, prudent, sober, honest, meek, candid young man--than Rob drew +out, that night. + +'I am quite glad,' said Miss Tox, arrived at her own door, 'to know you. +I hope you'll consider me your friend, and that you'll come and see me +as often as you like. Do you keep a money-box?' + +'Yes, Ma'am,' returned Rob; 'I'm saving up, against I've got enough to +put in the Bank, Ma'am. + +'Very laudable indeed,' said Miss Tox. 'I'm glad to hear it. Put this +half-crown into it, if you please.' + +'Oh thank you, Ma'am,' replied Rob, 'but really I couldn't think of +depriving you.' + +'I commend your independent spirit,' said Miss Tox, 'but it's no +deprivation, I assure you. I shall be offended if you don't take it, as +a mark of my good-will. Good-night, Robin.' + +'Good-night, Ma'am,' said Rob, 'and thank you!' + +Who ran sniggering off to get change, and tossed it away with a pieman. +But they never taught honour at the Grinders' School, where the system +that prevailed was particularly strong in the engendering of hypocrisy. +Insomuch, that many of the friends and masters of past Grinders said, +if this were what came of education for the common people, let us +have none. Some more rational said, let us have a better one. But the +governing powers of the Grinders' Company were always ready for them, by +picking out a few boys who had turned out well in spite of the system, +and roundly asserting that they could have only turned out well because +of it. Which settled the business of those objectors out of hand, and +established the glory of the Grinders' Institution. + + + +CHAPTER 39. Further Adventures of Captain Edward Cuttle, Mariner + + +Time, sure of foot and strong of will, had so pressed onward, that the +year enjoined by the old Instrument-maker, as the term during which his +friend should refrain from opening the sealed packet accompanying the +letter he had left for him, was now nearly expired, and Captain Cuttle +began to look at it, of an evening, with feelings of mystery and +uneasiness. + +The Captain, in his honour, would as soon have thought of opening the +parcel one hour before the expiration of the term, as he would have +thought of opening himself, to study his own anatomy. He merely brought +it out, at a certain stage of his first evening pipe, laid it on the +table, and sat gazing at the outside of it, through the smoke, in silent +gravity, for two or three hours at a spell. Sometimes, when he had +contemplated it thus for a pretty long while, the Captain would hitch +his chair, by degrees, farther and farther off, as if to get beyond +the range of its fascination; but if this were his design, he never +succeeded: for even when he was brought up by the parlour wall, the +packet still attracted him; or if his eyes, in thoughtful wandering, +roved to the ceiling or the fire, its image immediately followed, and +posted itself conspicuously among the coals, or took up an advantageous +position on the whitewash. + +In respect of Heart's Delight, the Captain's parental and admiration +knew no change. But since his last interview with Mr Carker, Captain +Cuttle had come to entertain doubts whether his former intervention in +behalf of that young lady and his dear boy Wal'r, had proved altogether +so favourable as he could have wished, and as he at the time believed. +The Captain was troubled with a serious misgiving that he had done more +harm than good, in short; and in his remorse and modesty he made the +best atonement he could think of, by putting himself out of the way of +doing any harm to anyone, and, as it were, throwing himself overboard +for a dangerous person. + +Self-buried, therefore, among the instruments, the Captain never went +near Mr Dombey's house, or reported himself in any way to Florence or +Miss Nipper. He even severed himself from Mr Perch, on the occasion of +his next visit, by dryly informing that gentleman, that he thanked him +for his company, but had cut himself adrift from all such acquaintance, +as he didn't know what magazine he mightn't blow up, without meaning of +it. In this self-imposed retirement, the Captain passed whole days and +weeks without interchanging a word with anyone but Rob the Grinder, whom +he esteemed as a pattern of disinterested attachment and fidelity. In +this retirement, the Captain, gazing at the packet of an evening, would +sit smoking, and thinking of Florence and poor Walter, until they both +seemed to his homely fancy to be dead, and to have passed away into +eternal youth, the beautiful and innocent children of his first +remembrance. + +The Captain did not, however, in his musings, neglect his own +improvement, or the mental culture of Rob the Grinder. That young man +was generally required to read out of some book to the Captain, for one +hour, every evening; and as the Captain implicitly believed that all +books were true, he accumulated, by this means, many remarkable facts. +On Sunday nights, the Captain always read for himself, before going to +bed, a certain Divine Sermon once delivered on a Mount; and although he +was accustomed to quote the text, without book, after his own manner, +he appeared to read it with as reverent an understanding of its heavenly +spirit, as if he had got it all by heart in Greek, and had been able +to write any number of fierce theological disquisitions on its every +phrase. + +Rob the Grinder, whose reverence for the inspired writings, under +the admirable system of the Grinders' School, had been developed by +a perpetual bruising of his intellectual shins against all the proper +names of all the tribes of Judah, and by the monotonous repetition of +hard verses, especially by way of punishment, and by the parading of him +at six years old in leather breeches, three times a Sunday, very high +up, in a very hot church, with a great organ buzzing against his drowsy +head, like an exceedingly busy bee--Rob the Grinder made a mighty show +of being edified when the Captain ceased to read, and generally yawned +and nodded while the reading was in progress. The latter fact being +never so much as suspected by the good Captain. + +Captain Cuttle, also, as a man of business; took to keeping books. In +these he entered observations on the weather, and on the currents of the +waggons and other vehicles: which he observed, in that quarter, to set +westward in the morning and during the greater part of the day, and +eastward towards the evening. Two or three stragglers appearing in one +week, who 'spoke him'--so the Captain entered it--on the subject of +spectacles, and who, without positively purchasing, said they would look +in again, the Captain decided that the business was improving, and made +an entry in the day-book to that effect: the wind then blowing (which he +first recorded) pretty fresh, west and by north; having changed in the +night. + +One of the Captain's chief difficulties was Mr Toots, who called +frequently, and who without saying much seemed to have an idea that the +little back parlour was an eligible room to chuckle in, as he would sit +and avail himself of its accommodations in that regard by the half-hour +together, without at all advancing in intimacy with the Captain. The +Captain, rendered cautious by his late experience, was unable quite to +satisfy his mind whether Mr Toots was the mild subject he appeared to +be, or was a profoundly artful and dissimulating hypocrite. His frequent +reference to Miss Dombey was suspicious; but the Captain had a secret +kindness for Mr Toots's apparent reliance on him, and forbore to decide +against him for the present; merely eyeing him, with a sagacity not to +be described, whenever he approached the subject that was nearest to his +heart. + +'Captain Gills,' blurted out Mr Toots, one day all at once, as his +manner was, 'do you think you could think favourably of that proposition +of mine, and give me the pleasure of your acquaintance?' + +'Why, I tell you what it is, my lad,' replied the Captain, who had at +length concluded on a course of action; 'I've been turning that there, +over.' + +'Captain Gills, it's very kind of you,' retorted Mr Toots. 'I'm much +obliged to you. Upon my word and honour, Captain Gills, it would be a +charity to give me the pleasure of your acquaintance. It really would.' + +'You see, brother,' argued the Captain slowly, 'I don't know you.' + +'But you never can know me, Captain Gills,' replied Mr Toots, steadfast +to his point, 'if you don't give me the pleasure of your acquaintance.' + +The Captain seemed struck by the originality and power of this remark, +and looked at Mr Toots as if he thought there was a great deal more in +him than he had expected. + +'Well said, my lad,' observed the Captain, nodding his head +thoughtfully; 'and true. Now look'ee here: You've made some observations +to me, which gives me to understand as you admire a certain sweet +creetur. Hey?' + +'Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, gesticulating violently with the hand in +which he held his hat, 'Admiration is not the word. Upon my honour, you +have no conception what my feelings are. If I could be dyed black, and +made Miss Dombey's slave, I should consider it a compliment. If, at +the sacrifice of all my property, I could get transmigrated into Miss +Dombey's dog--I--I really think I should never leave off wagging my +tail. I should be so perfectly happy, Captain Gills!' + +Mr Toots said it with watery eyes, and pressed his hat against his bosom +with deep emotion. + +'My lad,' returned the Captain, moved to compassion, 'if you're in +arnest--' + +'Captain Gills,' cried Mr Toots, 'I'm in such a state of mind, and am so +dreadfully in earnest, that if I could swear to it upon a hot piece +of iron, or a live coal, or melted lead, or burning sealing-wax, Or +anything of that sort, I should be glad to hurt myself, as a relief to +my feelings.' And Mr Toots looked hurriedly about the room, as if for +some sufficiently painful means of accomplishing his dread purpose. + +The Captain pushed his glazed hat back upon his head, stroked his +face down with his heavy hand--making his nose more mottled in the +process--and planting himself before Mr Toots, and hooking him by the +lapel of his coat, addressed him in these words, while Mr Toots looked +up into his face, with much attention and some wonder. + +'If you're in arnest, you see, my lad,' said the Captain, 'you're a +object of clemency, and clemency is the brightest jewel in the crown of +a Briton's head, for which you'll overhaul the constitution as laid down +in Rule Britannia, and, when found, that is the charter as them garden +angels was a singing of, so many times over. Stand by! This here +proposal o' you'rn takes me a little aback. And why? Because I holds +my own only, you understand, in these here waters, and haven't got no +consort, and may be don't wish for none. Steady! You hailed me first, +along of a certain young lady, as you was chartered by. Now if you and +me is to keep one another's company at all, that there young creetur's +name must never be named nor referred to. I don't know what harm mayn't +have been done by naming of it too free, afore now, and thereby I brings +up short. D'ye make me out pretty clear, brother?' + +'Well, you'll excuse me, Captain Gills,' replied Mr Toots, 'if I don't +quite follow you sometimes. But upon my word I--it's a hard thing, +Captain Gills, not to be able to mention Miss Dombey. I really have +got such a dreadful load here!'--Mr Toots pathetically touched his +shirt-front with both hands--'that I feel night and day, exactly as if +somebody was sitting upon me.' + +'Them,' said the Captain, 'is the terms I offer. If they're hard upon +you, brother, as mayhap they are, give 'em a wide berth, sheer off, and +part company cheerily!' + +'Captain Gills,' returned Mr Toots, 'I hardly know how it is, but after +what you told me when I came here, for the first time, I--I feel that +I'd rather think about Miss Dombey in your society than talk about her +in almost anybody else's. Therefore, Captain Gills, if you'll give me +the pleasure of your acquaintance, I shall be very happy to accept it +on your own conditions. I wish to be honourable, Captain Gills,' said Mr +Toots, holding back his extended hand for a moment, 'and therefore I +am obliged to say that I can not help thinking about Miss Dombey. It's +impossible for me to make a promise not to think about her.' + +'My lad,' said the Captain, whose opinion of Mr Toots was much improved +by this candid avowal, 'a man's thoughts is like the winds, and nobody +can't answer for 'em for certain, any length of time together. Is it a +treaty as to words?' + +'As to words, Captain Gills,' returned Mr Toots, 'I think I can bind +myself.' + +Mr Toots gave Captain Cuttle his hand upon it, then and there; and the +Captain with a pleasant and gracious show of condescension, bestowed +his acquaintance upon him formally. Mr Toots seemed much relieved +and gladdened by the acquisition, and chuckled rapturously during the +remainder of his visit. The Captain, for his part, was not ill pleased +to occupy that position of patronage, and was exceedingly well satisfied +by his own prudence and foresight. + +But rich as Captain Cuttle was in the latter quality, he received a +surprise that same evening from a no less ingenuous and simple youth, +than Rob the Grinder. That artless lad, drinking tea at the same table, +and bending meekly over his cup and saucer, having taken sidelong +observations of his master for some time, who was reading the newspaper +with great difficulty, but much dignity, through his glasses, broke +silence by saying-- + +'Oh! I beg your pardon, Captain, but you mayn't be in want of any +pigeons, may you, Sir?' + +'No, my lad,' replied the Captain. + +'Because I was wishing to dispose of mine, Captain,' said Rob. + +'Ay, ay?' cried the Captain, lifting up his bushy eyebrows a little. + +'Yes; I'm going, Captain, if you please,' said Rob. + +'Going? Where are you going?' asked the Captain, looking round at him +over the glasses. + +'What? didn't you know that I was going to leave you, Captain?' asked +Rob, with a sneaking smile. + +The Captain put down the paper, took off his spectacles, and brought his +eyes to bear on the deserter. + +'Oh yes, Captain, I am going to give you warning. I thought you'd +have known that beforehand, perhaps,' said Rob, rubbing his hands, and +getting up. 'If you could be so good as provide yourself soon, Captain, +it would be a great convenience to me. You couldn't provide yourself by +to-morrow morning, I am afraid, Captain: could you, do you think?' + +'And you're a going to desert your colours, are you, my lad?' said the +Captain, after a long examination of his face. + +'Oh, it's very hard upon a cove, Captain,' cried the tender Rob, injured +and indignant in a moment, 'that he can't give lawful warning, without +being frowned at in that way, and called a deserter. You haven't any +right to call a poor cove names, Captain. It ain't because I'm a servant +and you're a master, that you're to go and libel me. What wrong have I +done? Come, Captain, let me know what my crime is, will you?' + +The stricken Grinder wept, and put his coat-cuff in his eye. + +'Come, Captain,' cried the injured youth, 'give my crime a name! What +have I been and done? Have I stolen any of the property? have I set the +house a-fire? If I have, why don't you give me in charge, and try it? +But to take away the character of a lad that's been a good servant to +you, because he can't afford to stand in his own light for your good, +what a injury it is, and what a bad return for faithful service! This is +the way young coves is spiled and drove wrong. I wonder at you, Captain, +I do.' + +All of which the Grinder howled forth in a lachrymose whine, and backing +carefully towards the door. + +'And so you've got another berth, have you, my lad?' said the Captain, +eyeing him intently. + +'Yes, Captain, since you put it in that shape, I have got another +berth,' cried Rob, backing more and more; 'a better berth than I've got +here, and one where I don't so much as want your good word, Captain, +which is fort'nate for me, after all the dirt you've throw'd at me, +because I'm poor, and can't afford to stand in my own light for your +good. Yes, I have got another berth; and if it wasn't for leaving you +unprovided, Captain, I'd go to it now, sooner than I'd take them names +from you, because I'm poor, and can't afford to stand in my own light +for your good. Why do you reproach me for being poor, and not standing +in my own light for your good, Captain? How can you so demean yourself?' + +'Look ye here, my boy,' replied the peaceful Captain. 'Don't you pay out +no more of them words.' + +'Well, then, don't you pay in no more of your words, Captain,' retorted +the roused innocent, getting louder in his whine, and backing into the +shop. 'I'd sooner you took my blood than my character.' + +'Because,' pursued the Captain calmly, 'you have heerd, may be, of such +a thing as a rope's end.' + +'Oh, have I though, Captain?' cried the taunting Grinder. 'No I haven't. +I never heerd of any such a article!' + +'Well,' said the Captain, 'it's my belief as you'll know more about +it pretty soon, if you don't keep a bright look-out. I can read your +signals, my lad. You may go.' + +'Oh! I may go at once, may I, Captain?' cried Rob, exulting in his +success. 'But mind! I never asked to go at once, Captain. You are not +to take away my character again, because you send me off of your own +accord. And you're not to stop any of my wages, Captain!' + +His employer settled the last point by producing the tin canister and +telling the Grinder's money out in full upon the table. Rob, snivelling +and sobbing, and grievously wounded in his feelings, took up the +pieces one by one, with a sob and a snivel for each, and tied them up +separately in knots in his pockethandkerchief; then he ascended to the +roof of the house and filled his hat and pockets with pigeons; +then, came down to his bed under the counter and made up his bundle, +snivelling and sobbing louder, as if he were cut to the heart by old +associations; then he whined, 'Good-night, Captain. I leave you without +malice!' and then, going out upon the door-step, pulled the little +Midshipman's nose as a parting indignity, and went away down the street +grinning triumphantly. + +The Captain, left to himself, resumed his perusal of the news as if +nothing unusual or unexpected had taken place, and went reading on with +the greatest assiduity. But never a word did Captain Cuttle understand, +though he read a vast number, for Rob the Grinder was scampering up one +column and down another all through the newspaper. + +It is doubtful whether the worthy Captain had ever felt himself quite +abandoned until now; but now, old Sol Gills, Walter, and Heart's Delight +were lost to him indeed, and now Mr Carker deceived and jeered him +cruelly. They were all represented in the false Rob, to whom he had held +forth many a time on the recollections that were warm within him; he had +believed in the false Rob, and had been glad to believe in him; he had +made a companion of him as the last of the old ship's company; he had +taken the command of the little Midshipman with him at his right hand; +he had meant to do his duty by him, and had felt almost as kindly +towards the boy as if they had been shipwrecked and cast upon a desert +place together. And now, that the false Rob had brought distrust, +treachery, and meanness into the very parlour, which was a kind of +sacred place, Captain Cuttle felt as if the parlour might have gone down +next, and not surprised him much by its sinking, or given him any very +great concern. + +Therefore Captain Cuttle read the newspaper with profound attention and +no comprehension, and therefore Captain Cuttle said nothing whatever +about Rob to himself, or admitted to himself that he was thinking about +him, or would recognise in the most distant manner that Rob had anything +to do with his feeling as lonely as Robinson Crusoe. + +In the same composed, business-like way, the Captain stepped over +to Leadenhall Market in the dusk, and effected an arrangement with a +private watchman on duty there, to come and put up and take down the +shutters of the wooden Midshipman every night and morning. He then +called in at the eating-house to diminish by one half the daily rations +theretofore supplied to the Midshipman, and at the public-house to stop +the traitor's beer. 'My young man,' said the Captain, in explanation to +the young lady at the bar, 'my young man having bettered himself, Miss.' +Lastly, the Captain resolved to take possession of the bed under the +counter, and to turn in there o' nights instead of upstairs, as sole +guardian of the property. + +From this bed Captain Cuttle daily rose thenceforth, and clapped on +his glazed hat at six o'clock in the morning, with the solitary air of +Crusoe finishing his toilet with his goat-skin cap; and although his +fears of a visitation from the savage tribe, MacStinger, were somewhat +cooled, as similar apprehensions on the part of that lone mariner +used to be by the lapse of a long interval without any symptoms of the +cannibals, he still observed a regular routine of defensive operations, +and never encountered a bonnet without previous survey from his castle +of retreat. In the meantime (during which he received no call from Mr +Toots, who wrote to say he was out of town) his own voice began to have +a strange sound in his ears; and he acquired such habits of profound +meditation from much polishing and stowing away of the stock, and from +much sitting behind the counter reading, or looking out of window, that +the red rim made on his forehead by the hard glazed hat, sometimes ached +again with excess of reflection. + +The year being now expired, Captain Cuttle deemed it expedient to open +the packet; but as he had always designed doing this in the presence of +Rob the Grinder, who had brought it to him, and as he had an idea +that it would be regular and ship-shape to open it in the presence +of somebody, he was sadly put to it for want of a witness. In this +difficulty, he hailed one day with unusual delight the announcement in +the Shipping Intelligence of the arrival of the Cautious Clara, Captain +John Bunsby, from a coasting voyage; and to that philosopher immediately +dispatched a letter by post, enjoining inviolable secrecy as to his +place of residence, and requesting to be favoured with an early visit, +in the evening season. + +Bunsby, who was one of those sages who act upon conviction, took +some days to get the conviction thoroughly into his mind, that he had +received a letter to this effect. But when he had grappled with the +fact, and mastered it, he promptly sent his boy with the message, 'He's +a coming to-night.' Who being instructed to deliver those words and +disappear, fulfilled his mission like a tarry spirit, charged with a +mysterious warning. + +The Captain, well pleased to receive it, made preparation of pipes and +rum and water, and awaited his visitor in the back parlour. At the hour +of eight, a deep lowing, as of a nautical Bull, outside the shop-door, +succeeded by the knocking of a stick on the panel, announced to the +listening ear of Captain Cuttle, that Bunsby was alongside; whom he +instantly admitted, shaggy and loose, and with his stolid mahogany +visage, as usual, appearing to have no consciousness of anything before +it, but to be attentively observing something that was taking place in +quite another part of the world. + +'Bunsby,' said the Captain, grasping him by the hand, 'what cheer, my +lad, what cheer?' + +'Shipmet,' replied the voice within Bunsby, unaccompanied by any sign on +the part of the Commander himself, 'hearty, hearty.' + +'Bunsby!' said the Captain, rendering irrepressible homage to his +genius, 'here you are! a man as can give an opinion as is brighter than +di'monds--and give me the lad with the tarry trousers as shines to me +like di'monds bright, for which you'll overhaul the Stanfell's Budget, +and when found make a note. Here you are, a man as gave an opinion in +this here very place, that has come true, every letter on it,' which the +Captain sincerely believed. + +'Ay, ay?' growled Bunsby. + +'Every letter,' said the Captain. + +'For why?' growled Bunsby, looking at his friend for the first time. +'Which way? If so, why not? Therefore.' With these oracular words--they +seemed almost to make the Captain giddy; they launched him upon such a +sea of speculation and conjecture--the sage submitted to be helped off +with his pilot-coat, and accompanied his friend into the back parlour, +where his hand presently alighted on the rum-bottle, from which he +brewed a stiff glass of grog; and presently afterwards on a pipe, which +he filled, lighted, and began to smoke. + +Captain Cuttle, imitating his visitor in the matter of these +particulars, though the rapt and imperturbable manner of the great +Commander was far above his powers, sat in the opposite corner of the +fireside, observing him respectfully, and as if he waited for some +encouragement or expression of curiosity on Bunsby's part which should +lead him to his own affairs. But as the mahogany philosopher gave no +evidence of being sentient of anything but warmth and tobacco, except +once, when taking his pipe from his lips to make room for his glass, he +incidentally remarked with exceeding gruffness, that his name was +Jack Bunsby--a declaration that presented but small opening for +conversation--the Captain bespeaking his attention in a short +complimentary exordium, narrated the whole history of Uncle Sol's +departure, with the change it had produced in his own life and fortunes; +and concluded by placing the packet on the table. + +After a long pause, Mr Bunsby nodded his head. + +'Open?' said the Captain. + +Bunsby nodded again. + +The Captain accordingly broke the seal, and disclosed to view two folded +papers, of which he severally read the endorsements, thus: 'Last Will +and Testament of Solomon Gills.' 'Letter for Ned Cuttle.' + +Bunsby, with his eye on the coast of Greenland, seemed to listen for the +contents. The Captain therefore hemmed to clear his throat, and read the +letter aloud. + +'"My dear Ned Cuttle. When I left home for the West Indies"--' + +Here the Captain stopped, and looked hard at Bunsby, who looked fixedly +at the coast of Greenland. + +'--"in forlorn search of intelligence of my dear boy, I knew that if you +were acquainted with my design, you would thwart it, or accompany me; +and therefore I kept it secret. If you ever read this letter, Ned, I am +likely to be dead. You will easily forgive an old friend's folly then, +and will feel for the restlessness and uncertainty in which he wandered +away on such a wild voyage. So no more of that. I have little hope that +my poor boy will ever read these words, or gladden your eyes with +the sight of his frank face any more." No, no; no more,' said Captain +Cuttle, sorrowfully meditating; 'no more. There he lays, all his days--' + +Mr Bunsby, who had a musical ear, suddenly bellowed, 'In the Bays +of Biscay, O!' which so affected the good Captain, as an appropriate +tribute to departed worth, that he shook him by the hand in +acknowledgment, and was fain to wipe his eyes. + +'Well, well!' said the Captain with a sigh, as the Lament of Bunsby +ceased to ring and vibrate in the skylight. 'Affliction sore, long time +he bore, and let us overhaul the wollume, and there find it.' + +'Physicians,' observed Bunsby, 'was in vain.' + +'Ay, ay, to be sure,' said the Captain, 'what's the good o' them in two +or three hundred fathoms o' water!' Then, returning to the letter, he +read on:--'"But if he should be by, when it is opened;"' the Captain +involuntarily looked round, and shook his head; '"or should know of it +at any other time;"' the Captain shook his head again; '"my blessing on +him! In case the accompanying paper is not legally written, it matters +very little, for there is no one interested but you and he, and my plain +wish is, that if he is living he should have what little there may be, +and if (as I fear) otherwise, that you should have it, Ned. You +will respect my wish, I know. God bless you for it, and for all your +friendliness besides, to Solomon Gills." Bunsby!' said the Captain, +appealing to him solemnly, 'what do you make of this? There you sit, a +man as has had his head broke from infancy up'ards, and has got a new +opinion into it at every seam as has been opened. Now, what do you make +o' this?' + +'If so be,' returned Bunsby, with unusual promptitude, 'as he's dead, +my opinion is he won't come back no more. If so be as he's alive, my +opinion is he will. Do I say he will? No. Why not? Because the bearings +of this obserwation lays in the application on it.' + +'Bunsby!' said Captain Cuttle, who would seem to have estimated the +value of his distinguished friend's opinions in proportion to the +immensity of the difficulty he experienced in making anything out of +them; 'Bunsby,' said the Captain, quite confounded by admiration, 'you +carry a weight of mind easy, as would swamp one of my tonnage soon. But +in regard o' this here will, I don't mean to take no steps towards the +property--Lord forbid!--except to keep it for a more rightful owner; and +I hope yet as the rightful owner, Sol Gills, is living and'll come back, +strange as it is that he ain't forwarded no dispatches. Now, what is +your opinion, Bunsby, as to stowing of these here papers away again, and +marking outside as they was opened, such a day, in the presence of John +Bunsby and Ed'ard Cuttle?' + +Bunsby, descrying no objection, on the coast of Greenland or elsewhere, +to this proposal, it was carried into execution; and that great man, +bringing his eye into the present for a moment, affixed his sign-manual +to the cover, totally abstaining, with characteristic modesty, from +the use of capital letters. Captain Cuttle, having attached his own +left-handed signature, and locked up the packet in the iron safe, +entreated his guest to mix another glass and smoke another pipe; and +doing the like himself, fell a musing over the fire on the possible +fortunes of the poor old Instrument-maker. + +And now a surprise occurred, so overwhelming and terrific that Captain +Cuttle, unsupported by the presence of Bunsby, must have sunk beneath +it, and been a lost man from that fatal hour. + +How the Captain, even in the satisfaction of admitting such a guest, +could have only shut the door, and not locked it, of which negligence +he was undoubtedly guilty, is one of those questions that must for ever +remain mere points of speculation, or vague charges against destiny. +But by that unlocked door, at this quiet moment, did the fell MacStinger +dash into the parlour, bringing Alexander MacStinger in her parental +arms, and confusion and vengeance (not to mention Juliana MacStinger, +and the sweet child's brother, Charles MacStinger, popularly known about +the scenes of his youthful sports, as Chowley) in her train. She came +so swiftly and so silently, like a rushing air from the neighbourhood of +the East India Docks, that Captain Cuttle found himself in the very act +of sitting looking at her, before the calm face with which he had been +meditating, changed to one of horror and dismay. + +But the moment Captain Cuttle understood the full extent of his +misfortune, self-preservation dictated an attempt at flight. Darting at +the little door which opened from the parlour on the steep little range +of cellar-steps, the Captain made a rush, head-foremost, at the latter, +like a man indifferent to bruises and contusions, who only sought to +hide himself in the bowels of the earth. In this gallant effort he +would probably have succeeded, but for the affectionate dispositions +of Juliana and Chowley, who pinning him by the legs--one of those +dear children holding on to each--claimed him as their friend, with +lamentable cries. In the meantime, Mrs MacStinger, who never entered +upon any action of importance without previously inverting Alexander +MacStinger, to bring him within the range of a brisk battery of slaps, +and then sitting him down to cool as the reader first beheld him, +performed that solemn rite, as if on this occasion it were a sacrifice +to the Furies; and having deposited the victim on the floor, made at the +Captain with a strength of purpose that appeared to threaten scratches +to the interposing Bunsby. + +The cries of the two elder MacStingers, and the wailing of young +Alexander, who may be said to have passed a piebald childhood, forasmuch +as he was black in the face during one half of that fairy period of +existence, combined to make this visitation the more awful. But when +silence reigned again, and the Captain, in a violent perspiration, stood +meekly looking at Mrs MacStinger, its terrors were at their height. + +'Oh, Cap'en Cuttle, Cap'en Cuttle!' said Mrs MacStinger, making her chin +rigid, and shaking it in unison with what, but for the weakness of her +sex, might be described as her fist. 'Oh, Cap'en Cuttle, Cap'en Cuttle, +do you dare to look me in the face, and not be struck down in the +berth!' + +The Captain, who looked anything but daring, feebly muttered 'Stand by!' + +'Oh I was a weak and trusting Fool when I took you under my roof, Cap'en +Cuttle, I was!' cried Mrs MacStinger. 'To think of the benefits I've +showered on that man, and the way in which I brought my children up to +love and honour him as if he was a father to 'em, when there ain't a +housekeeper, no nor a lodger in our street, don't know that I lost money +by that man, and by his guzzlings and his muzzlings'--Mrs MacStinger +used the last word for the joint sake of alliteration and aggravation, +rather than for the expression of any idea--'and when they cried out one +and all, shame upon him for putting upon an industrious woman, up early +and late for the good of her young family, and keeping her poor place so +clean that a individual might have ate his dinner, yes, and his tea too, +if he was so disposed, off any one of the floors or stairs, in spite +of all his guzzlings and his muzzlings, such was the care and pains +bestowed upon him!' + +Mrs MacStinger stopped to fetch her breath; and her face flushed with +triumph in this second happy introduction of Captain Cuttle's muzzlings. + +'And he runs awa-a-a-y!' cried Mrs MacStinger, with a lengthening out of +the last syllable that made the unfortunate Captain regard himself as +the meanest of men; 'and keeps away a twelve-month! From a woman! Such +is his conscience! He hasn't the courage to meet her hi-i-igh;' long +syllable again; 'but steals away, like a fellon. Why, if that baby of +mine,' said Mrs MacStinger, with sudden rapidity, 'was to offer to go +and steal away, I'd do my duty as a mother by him, till he was covered +with wales!' + +The young Alexander, interpreting this into a positive promise, to be +shortly redeemed, tumbled over with fear and grief, and lay upon the +floor, exhibiting the soles of his shoes and making such a deafening +outcry, that Mrs MacStinger found it necessary to take him up in her +arms, where she quieted him, ever and anon, as he broke out again, by a +shake that seemed enough to loosen his teeth. + +'A pretty sort of a man is Cap'en Cuttle,' said Mrs MacStinger, with a +sharp stress on the first syllable of the Captain's name, 'to take on +for--and to lose sleep for--and to faint along of--and to think dead +forsooth--and to go up and down the blessed town like a madwoman, asking +questions after! Oh, a pretty sort of a man! Ha ha ha ha! He's worth all +that trouble and distress of mind, and much more. That's nothing, bless +you! Ha ha ha ha! Cap'en Cuttle,' said Mrs MacStinger, with severe +reaction in her voice and manner, 'I wish to know if you're a-coming +home.' + +The frightened Captain looked into his hat, as if he saw nothing for it +but to put it on, and give himself up. + +'Cap'en Cuttle,' repeated Mrs MacStinger, in the same determined manner, +'I wish to know if you're a-coming home, Sir.' + +The Captain seemed quite ready to go, but faintly suggested something to +the effect of 'not making so much noise about it.' + +'Ay, ay, ay,' said Bunsby, in a soothing tone. 'Awast, my lass, awast!' + +'And who may you be, if you please!' retorted Mrs MacStinger, with +chaste loftiness. 'Did you ever lodge at Number Nine, Brig Place, Sir? +My memory may be bad, but not with me, I think. There was a Mrs Jollson +lived at Number Nine before me, and perhaps you're mistaking me for her. +That is my only ways of accounting for your familiarity, Sir.' + +'Come, come, my lass, awast, awast!' said Bunsby. + +Captain Cuttle could hardly believe it, even of this great man, though +he saw it done with his waking eyes; but Bunsby, advancing boldly, put +his shaggy blue arm round Mrs MacStinger, and so softened her by his +magic way of doing it, and by these few words--he said no more--that +she melted into tears, after looking upon him for a few moments, and +observed that a child might conquer her now, she was so low in her +courage. + +Speechless and utterly amazed, the Captain saw him gradually persuade +this inexorable woman into the shop, return for rum and water and a +candle, take them to her, and pacify her without appearing to utter one +word. Presently he looked in with his pilot-coat on, and said, 'Cuttle, +I'm a-going to act as convoy home;' and Captain Cuttle, more to his +confusion than if he had been put in irons himself, for safe transport +to Brig Place, saw the family pacifically filing off, with Mrs +MacStinger at their head. He had scarcely time to take down his +canister, and stealthily convey some money into the hands of Juliana +MacStinger, his former favourite, and Chowley, who had the claim upon +him that he was naturally of a maritime build, before the Midshipman was +abandoned by them all; and Bunsby whispering that he'd carry on smart, +and hail Ned Cuttle again before he went aboard, shut the door upon +himself, as the last member of the party. + +Some uneasy ideas that he must be walking in his sleep, or that he had +been troubled with phantoms, and not a family of flesh and blood, beset +the Captain at first, when he went back to the little parlour, and found +himself alone. Illimitable faith in, and immeasurable admiration of, the +Commander of the Cautious Clara, succeeded, and threw the Captain into a +wondering trance. + +Still, as time wore on, and Bunsby failed to reappear, the Captain began +to entertain uncomfortable doubts of another kind. Whether Bunsby had +been artfully decoyed to Brig Place, and was there detained in safe +custody as hostage for his friend; in which case it would become the +Captain, as a man of honour, to release him, by the sacrifice of his own +liberty. Whether he had been attacked and defeated by Mrs MacStinger, +and was ashamed to show himself after his discomfiture. Whether Mrs +MacStinger, thinking better of it, in the uncertainty of her temper, +had turned back to board the Midshipman again, and Bunsby, pretending to +conduct her by a short cut, was endeavouring to lose the family amid +the wilds and savage places of the City. Above all, what it would behove +him, Captain Cuttle, to do, in case of his hearing no more, either of +the MacStingers or of Bunsby, which, in these wonderful and unforeseen +conjunctions of events, might possibly happen. + +He debated all this until he was tired; and still no Bunsby. He made +up his bed under the counter, all ready for turning in; and still no +Bunsby. At length, when the Captain had given him up, for that night +at least, and had begun to undress, the sound of approaching wheels was +heard, and, stopping at the door, was succeeded by Bunsby's hail. + +The Captain trembled to think that Mrs MacStinger was not to be got rid +of, and had been brought back in a coach. + +But no. Bunsby was accompanied by nothing but a large box, which he +hauled into the shop with his own hands, and as soon as he had hauled +in, sat upon. Captain Cuttle knew it for the chest he had left at +Mrs MacStinger's house, and looking, candle in hand, at Bunsby more +attentively, believed that he was three sheets in the wind, or, in +plain words, drunk. It was difficult, however, to be sure of this; the +Commander having no trace of expression in his face when sober. + +'Cuttle,' said the Commander, getting off the chest, and opening the +lid, 'are these here your traps?' + +Captain Cuttle looked in and identified his property. + +'Done pretty taut and trim, hey, shipmet?' said Bunsby. + +The grateful and bewildered Captain grasped him by the hand, and was +launching into a reply expressive of his astonished feelings, when +Bunsby disengaged himself by a jerk of his wrist, and seemed to make an +effort to wink with his revolving eye, the only effect of which attempt, +in his condition, was nearly to over-balance him. He then abruptly +opened the door, and shot away to rejoin the Cautious Clara with all +speed--supposed to be his invariable custom, whenever he considered he +had made a point. + +As it was not his humour to be often sought, Captain Cuttle decided +not to go or send to him next day, or until he should make his gracious +pleasure known in such wise, or failing that, until some little time +should have lapsed. The Captain, therefore, renewed his solitary life +next morning, and thought profoundly, many mornings, noons, and nights, +of old Sol Gills, and Bunsby's sentiments concerning him, and the hopes +there were of his return. Much of such thinking strengthened Captain +Cuttle's hopes; and he humoured them and himself by watching for the +Instrument-maker at the door--as he ventured to do now, in his strange +liberty--and setting his chair in its place, and arranging the little +parlour as it used to be, in case he should come home unexpectedly. He +likewise, in his thoughtfulness, took down a certain little miniature +of Walter as a schoolboy, from its accustomed nail, lest it should +shock the old man on his return. The Captain had his presentiments, too, +sometimes, that he would come on such a day; and one particular Sunday, +even ordered a double allowance of dinner, he was so sanguine. But come, +old Solomon did not; and still the neighbours noticed how the seafaring +man in the glazed hat, stood at the shop-door of an evening, looking up +and down the street. + + + +CHAPTER 40. Domestic Relations + + +It was not in the nature of things that a man of Mr Dombey's mood, +opposed to such a spirit as he had raised against himself, should be +softened in the imperious asperity of his temper; or that the cold hard +armour of pride in which he lived encased, should be made more flexible +by constant collision with haughty scorn and defiance. It is the curse +of such a nature--it is a main part of the heavy retribution on itself +it bears within itself--that while deference and concession swell +its evil qualities, and are the food it grows upon, resistance and a +questioning of its exacting claims, foster it too, no less. The evil +that is in it finds equally its means of growth and propagation in +opposites. It draws support and life from sweets and bitters; bowed down +before, or unacknowledged, it still enslaves the breast in which it +has its throne; and, worshipped or rejected, is as hard a master as the +Devil in dark fables. + +Towards his first wife, Mr Dombey, in his cold and lofty arrogance, had +borne himself like the removed Being he almost conceived himself to be. +He had been 'Mr Dombey' with her when she first saw him, and he was 'Mr +Dombey' when she died. He had asserted his greatness during their whole +married life, and she had meekly recognised it. He had kept his distant +seat of state on the top of his throne, and she her humble station on +its lowest step; and much good it had done him, so to live in solitary +bondage to his one idea. He had imagined that the proud character of his +second wife would have been added to his own--would have merged into it, +and exalted his greatness. He had pictured himself haughtier than ever, +with Edith's haughtiness subservient to his. He had never entertained +the possibility of its arraying itself against him. And now, when he +found it rising in his path at every step and turn of his daily life, +fixing its cold, defiant, and contemptuous face upon him, this pride of +his, instead of withering, or hanging down its head beneath the shock, +put forth new shoots, became more concentrated and intense, more gloomy, +sullen, irksome, and unyielding, than it had ever been before. + +Who wears such armour, too, bears with him ever another heavy +retribution. It is of proof against conciliation, love, and confidence; +against all gentle sympathy from without, all trust, all tenderness, all +soft emotion; but to deep stabs in the self-love, it is as vulnerable as +the bare breast to steel; and such tormenting festers rankle there, +as follow on no other wounds, no, though dealt with the mailed hand of +Pride itself, on weaker pride, disarmed and thrown down. + +Such wounds were his. He felt them sharply, in the solitude of his +old rooms; whither he now began often to retire again, and pass long +solitary hours. It seemed his fate to be ever proud and powerful; ever +humbled and powerless where he would be most strong. Who seemed fated to +work out that doom? + +Who? Who was it who could win his wife as she had won his boy? Who was +it who had shown him that new victory, as he sat in the dark corner? Who +was it whose least word did what his utmost means could not? Who was it +who, unaided by his love, regard or notice, thrived and grew beautiful +when those so aided died? Who could it be, but the same child at whom +he had often glanced uneasily in her motherless infancy, with a kind of +dread, lest he might come to hate her; and of whom his foreboding was +fulfilled, for he DID hate her in his heart? + +Yes, and he would have it hatred, and he made it hatred, though some +sparkles of the light in which she had appeared before him on the +memorable night of his return home with his Bride, occasionally hung +about her still. He knew now that she was beautiful; he did not dispute +that she was graceful and winning, and that in the bright dawn of her +womanhood she had come upon him, a surprise. But he turned even this +against her. In his sullen and unwholesome brooding, the unhappy man, +with a dull perception of his alienation from all hearts, and a vague +yearning for what he had all his life repelled, made a distorted picture +of his rights and wrongs, and justified himself with it against her. The +worthier she promised to be of him, the greater claim he was disposed to +antedate upon her duty and submission. When had she ever shown him duty +and submission? Did she grace his life--or Edith's? Had her attractions +been manifested first to him--or Edith? Why, he and she had never been, +from her birth, like father and child! They had always been estranged. +She had crossed him every way and everywhere. She was leagued against +him now. Her very beauty softened natures that were obdurate to him, and +insulted him with an unnatural triumph. + +It may have been that in all this there were mutterings of an awakened +feeling in his breast, however selfishly aroused by his position of +disadvantage, in comparison with what she might have made his life. But +he silenced the distant thunder with the rolling of his sea of pride. +He would bear nothing but his pride. And in his pride, a heap of +inconsistency, and misery, and self-inflicted torment, he hated her. + +To the moody, stubborn, sullen demon, that possessed him, his wife +opposed her different pride in its full force. They never could have led +a happy life together; but nothing could have made it more unhappy, than +the wilful and determined warfare of such elements. His pride was set +upon maintaining his magnificent supremacy, and forcing recognition of +it from her. She would have been racked to death, and turned but her +haughty glance of calm inflexible disdain upon him, to the last. Such +recognition from Edith! He little knew through what a storm and struggle +she had been driven onward to the crowning honour of his hand. He little +knew how much she thought she had conceded, when she suffered him to +call her wife. + +Mr Dombey was resolved to show her that he was supreme. There must be no +will but his. Proud he desired that she should be, but she must be proud +for, not against him. As he sat alone, hardening, he would often hear +her go out and come home, treading the round of London life with no more +heed of his liking or disliking, pleasure or displeasure, than if he +had been her groom. Her cold supreme indifference--his own unquestioned +attribute usurped--stung him more than any other kind of treatment could +have done; and he determined to bend her to his magnificent and stately +will. + +He had been long communing with these thoughts, when one night he sought +her in her own apartment, after he had heard her return home late. She +was alone, in her brilliant dress, and had but that moment come from her +mother's room. Her face was melancholy and pensive, when he came upon +her; but it marked him at the door; for, glancing at the mirror before +it, he saw immediately, as in a picture-frame, the knitted brow, and +darkened beauty that he knew so well. + +'Mrs Dombey,' he said, entering, 'I must beg leave to have a few words +with you.' + +'To-morrow,' she replied. + +'There is no time like the present, Madam,' he returned. 'You mistake +your position. I am used to choose my own times; not to have them chosen +for me. I think you scarcely understand who and what I am, Mrs Dombey.' + +'I think,' she answered, 'that I understand you very well.' + +She looked upon him as she said so, and folding her white arms, +sparkling with gold and gems, upon her swelling breast, turned away her +eyes. + +If she had been less handsome, and less stately in her cold composure, +she might not have had the power of impressing him with the sense of +disadvantage that penetrated through his utmost pride. But she had the +power, and he felt it keenly. He glanced round the room: saw how the +splendid means of personal adornment, and the luxuries of dress, were +scattered here and there, and disregarded; not in mere caprice and +carelessness (or so he thought), but in a steadfast haughty disregard of +costly things: and felt it more and more. Chaplets of flowers, plumes of +feathers, jewels, laces, silks and satins; look where he would, he +saw riches, despised, poured out, and made of no account. The very +diamonds--a marriage gift--that rose and fell impatiently upon her +bosom, seemed to pant to break the chain that clasped them round her +neck, and roll down on the floor where she might tread upon them. + +He felt his disadvantage, and he showed it. Solemn and strange among +this wealth of colour and voluptuous glitter, strange and constrained +towards its haughty mistress, whose repellent beauty it repeated, and +presented all around him, as in so many fragments of a mirror, he was +conscious of embarrassment and awkwardness. Nothing that ministered +to her disdainful self-possession could fail to gall him. Galled and +irritated with himself, he sat down, and went on, in no improved humour: + +'Mrs Dombey, it is very necessary that there should be some +understanding arrived at between us. Your conduct does not please me, +Madam.' + +She merely glanced at him again, and again averted her eyes; but she +might have spoken for an hour, and expressed less. + +'I repeat, Mrs Dombey, does not please me. I have already taken occasion +to request that it may be corrected. I now insist upon it.' + +'You chose a fitting occasion for your first remonstrance, Sir, and you +adopt a fitting manner, and a fitting word for your second. You insist! +To me!' + +'Madam,' said Mr Dombey, with his most offensive air of state, 'I have +made you my wife. You bear my name. You are associated with my position +and my reputation. I will not say that the world in general may be +disposed to think you honoured by that association; but I will say that +I am accustomed to "insist," to my connexions and dependents.' + +'Which may you be pleased to consider me? she asked. + +'Possibly I may think that my wife should partake--or does partake, and +cannot help herself--of both characters, Mrs Dombey.' + +She bent her eyes upon him steadily, and set her trembling lips. He +saw her bosom throb, and saw her face flush and turn white. All this he +could know, and did: but he could not know that one word was whispering +in the deep recesses of her heart, to keep her quiet; and that the word +was Florence. + +Blind idiot, rushing to a precipice! He thought she stood in awe of him. + +'You are too expensive, Madam,' said Mr Dombey. 'You are extravagant. +You waste a great deal of money--or what would be a great deal in the +pockets of most gentlemen--in cultivating a kind of society that is +useless to me, and, indeed, that upon the whole is disagreeable to me. I +have to insist upon a total change in all these respects. I know that in +the novelty of possessing a tithe of such means as Fortune has placed +at your disposal, ladies are apt to run into a sudden extreme. There +has been more than enough of that extreme. I beg that Mrs Granger's very +different experiences may now come to the instruction of Mrs Dombey.' + +Still the fixed look, the trembling lips, the throbbing breast, the +face now crimson and now white; and still the deep whisper Florence, +Florence, speaking to her in the beating of her heart. + +His insolence of self-importance dilated as he saw this alteration in +her. Swollen no less by her past scorn of him, and his so recent feeling +of disadvantage, than by her present submission (as he took it to be), +it became too mighty for his breast, and burst all bounds. Why, who +could long resist his lofty will and pleasure! He had resolved to +conquer her, and look here! + +'You will further please, Madam,' said Mr Dombey, in a tone of sovereign +command, 'to understand distinctly, that I am to be deferred to and +obeyed. That I must have a positive show and confession of deference +before the world, Madam. I am used to this. I require it as my right. +In short I will have it. I consider it no unreasonable return for the +worldly advancement that has befallen you; and I believe nobody will +be surprised, either at its being required from you, or at your making +it.--To Me--To Me!' he added, with emphasis. + +No word from her. No change in her. Her eyes upon him. + +'I have learnt from your mother, Mrs Dombey,' said Mr Dombey, with +magisterial importance, 'what no doubt you know, namely, that Brighton is +recommended for her health. Mr Carker has been so good.' + +She changed suddenly. Her face and bosom glowed as if the red light of +an angry sunset had been flung upon them. Not unobservant of the change, +and putting his own interpretation upon it, Mr Dombey resumed: + +'Mr Carker has been so good as to go down and secure a house there, for +a time. On the return of the establishment to London, I shall take such +steps for its better management as I consider necessary. One of these, +will be the engagement at Brighton (if it is to be effected), of a very +respectable reduced person there, a Mrs Pipchin, formerly employed in a +situation of trust in my family, to act as housekeeper. An establishment +like this, presided over but nominally, Mrs Dombey, requires a competent +head.' + +She had changed her attitude before he arrived at these words, and now +sat--still looking at him fixedly--turning a bracelet round and round +upon her arm; not winding it about with a light, womanly touch, but +pressing and dragging it over the smooth skin, until the white limb +showed a bar of red. + +'I observed,' said Mr Dombey--'and this concludes what I deem it +necessary to say to you at present, Mrs Dombey--I observed a moment ago, +Madam, that my allusion to Mr Carker was received in a peculiar manner. +On the occasion of my happening to point out to you, before that +confidential agent, the objection I had to your mode of receiving my +visitors, you were pleased to object to his presence. You will have to +get the better of that objection, Madam, and to accustom yourself to +it very probably on many similar occasions; unless you adopt the remedy +which is in your own hands, of giving me no cause of complaint. Mr +Carker,' said Mr Dombey, who, after the emotion he had just seen, +set great store by this means of reducing his proud wife, and who was +perhaps sufficiently willing to exhibit his power to that gentleman in +a new and triumphant aspect, 'Mr Carker being in my confidence, Mrs +Dombey, may very well be in yours to such an extent. I hope, Mrs +Dombey,' he continued, after a few moments, during which, in his +increasing haughtiness, he had improved on his idea, 'I may not find +it necessary ever to entrust Mr Carker with any message of objection or +remonstrance to you; but as it would be derogatory to my position and +reputation to be frequently holding trivial disputes with a lady upon +whom I have conferred the highest distinction that it is in my power +to bestow, I shall not scruple to avail myself of his services if I see +occasion.' + +'And now,' he thought, rising in his moral magnificence, and rising +a stiffer and more impenetrable man than ever, 'she knows me and my +resolution.' + +The hand that had so pressed the bracelet was laid heavily upon her +breast, but she looked at him still, with an unaltered face, and said in +a low voice: + +'Wait! For God's sake! I must speak to you.' + +Why did she not, and what was the inward struggle that rendered her +incapable of doing so, for minutes, while, in the strong constraint she +put upon her face, it was as fixed as any statue's--looking upon him +with neither yielding nor unyielding, liking nor hatred, pride not +humility: nothing but a searching gaze? + +'Did I ever tempt you to seek my hand? Did I ever use any art to win +you? Was I ever more conciliating to you when you pursued me, than I +have been since our marriage? Was I ever other to you than I am?' + +'It is wholly unnecessary, Madam,' said Mr Dombey, 'to enter upon such +discussions.' + +'Did you think I loved you? Did you know I did not? Did you ever care, +Man! for my heart, or propose to yourself to win the worthless thing? +Was there any poor pretence of any in our bargain? Upon your side, or on +mine?' + +'These questions,' said Mr Dombey, 'are all wide of the purpose, Madam.' + +She moved between him and the door to prevent his going away, and +drawing her majestic figure to its height, looked steadily upon him +still. + +'You answer each of them. You answer me before I speak, I see. How can +you help it; you who know the miserable truth as well as I? Now, tell +me. If I loved you to devotion, could I do more than render up my whole +will and being to you, as you have just demanded? If my heart were pure +and all untried, and you its idol, could you ask more; could you have +more?' + +'Possibly not, Madam,' he returned coolly. + +'You know how different I am. You see me looking on you now, and you can +read the warmth of passion for you that is breathing in my face.' Not a +curl of the proud lip, not a flash of the dark eye, nothing but the same +intent and searching look, accompanied these words. 'You know my general +history. You have spoken of my mother. Do you think you can degrade, or +bend or break, me to submission and obedience?' + +Mr Dombey smiled, as he might have smiled at an inquiry whether he +thought he could raise ten thousand pounds. + +'If there is anything unusual here,' she said, with a slight motion of +her hand before her brow, which did not for a moment flinch from its +immovable and otherwise expressionless gaze, 'as I know there are +unusual feelings here,' raising the hand she pressed upon her bosom, and +heavily returning it, 'consider that there is no common meaning in the +appeal I am going to make you. Yes, for I am going;' she said it as in +prompt reply to something in his face; 'to appeal to you.' + +Mr Dombey, with a slightly condescending bend of his chin that rustled +and crackled his stiff cravat, sat down on a sofa that was near him, to +hear the appeal. + +'If you can believe that I am of such a nature now,'--he fancied he saw +tears glistening in her eyes, and he thought, complacently, that he had +forced them from her, though none fell on her cheek, and she regarded +him as steadily as ever,--'as would make what I now say almost +incredible to myself, said to any man who had become my husband, but, +above all, said to you, you may, perhaps, attach the greater weight to +it. In the dark end to which we are tending, and may come, we shall not +involve ourselves alone (that might not be much) but others.' + +Others! He knew at whom that word pointed, and frowned heavily. + +'I speak to you for the sake of others. Also your own sake; and for +mine. Since our marriage, you have been arrogant to me; and I have +repaid you in kind. You have shown to me and everyone around us, every +day and hour, that you think I am graced and distinguished by your +alliance. I do not think so, and have shown that too. It seems you do +not understand, or (so far as your power can go) intend that each of us +shall take a separate course; and you expect from me instead, a homage +you will never have.' + +Although her face was still the same, there was emphatic confirmation of +this 'Never' in the very breath she drew. + +'I feel no tenderness towards you; that you know. You would care nothing +for it, if I did or could. I know as well that you feel none towards +me. But we are linked together; and in the knot that ties us, as I have +said, others are bound up. We must both die; we are both connected with +the dead already, each by a little child. Let us forbear.' + +Mr Dombey took a long respiration, as if he would have said, Oh! was +this all! + +'There is no wealth,' she went on, turning paler as she watched him, +while her eyes grew yet more lustrous in their earnestness, 'that could +buy these words of me, and the meaning that belongs to them. Once cast +away as idle breath, no wealth or power can bring them back. I mean +them; I have weighed them; and I will be true to what I undertake. If +you will promise to forbear on your part, I will promise to forbear on +mine. We are a most unhappy pair, in whom, from different causes, every +sentiment that blesses marriage, or justifies it, is rooted out; but in +the course of time, some friendship, or some fitness for each other, may +arise between us. I will try to hope so, if you will make the endeavour +too; and I will look forward to a better and a happier use of age than I +have made of youth or prime.' + +Throughout she had spoken in a low plain voice, that neither rose nor +fell; ceasing, she dropped the hand with which she had enforced herself +to be so passionless and distinct, but not the eyes with which she had +so steadily observed him. + +'Madam,' said Mr Dombey, with his utmost dignity, 'I cannot entertain +any proposal of this extraordinary nature.' + +She looked at him yet, without the least change. + +'I cannot,' said Mr Dombey, rising as he spoke, 'consent to temporise +or treat with you, Mrs Dombey, upon a subject as to which you are in +possession of my opinions and expectations. I have stated my ultimatum, +Madam, and have only to request your very serious attention to it.' + +To see the face change to its old expression, deepened in intensity! +To see the eyes droop as from some mean and odious object! To see the +lighting of the haughty brow! To see scorn, anger, indignation, and +abhorrence starting into sight, and the pale blank earnestness vanish +like a mist! He could not choose but look, although he looked to his +dismay. + +'Go, Sir!' she said, pointing with an imperious hand towards the +door. 'Our first and last confidence is at an end. Nothing can make us +stranger to each other than we are henceforth.' + +'I shall take my rightful course, Madam,' said Mr Dombey, 'undeterred, +you may be sure, by any general declamation.' + +She turned her back upon him, and, without reply, sat down before her +glass. + +'I place my reliance on your improved sense of duty, and more correct +feeling, and better reflection, Madam,' said Mr Dombey. + +She answered not one word. He saw no more expression of any heed of +him, in the mirror, than if he had been an unseen spider on the wall, +or beetle on the floor, or rather, than if he had been the one or other, +seen and crushed when she last turned from him, and forgotten among the +ignominious and dead vermin of the ground. + +He looked back, as he went out at the door, upon the well-lighted +and luxurious room, the beautiful and glittering objects everywhere +displayed, the shape of Edith in its rich dress seated before her glass, +and the face of Edith as the glass presented it to him; and betook +himself to his old chamber of cogitation, carrying away with him a +vivid picture in his mind of all these things, and a rambling and +unaccountable speculation (such as sometimes comes into a man's head) +how they would all look when he saw them next. + +For the rest, Mr Dombey was very taciturn, and very dignified, and very +confident of carrying out his purpose; and remained so. + +He did not design accompanying the family to Brighton; but he graciously +informed Cleopatra at breakfast, on the morning of departure, which +arrived a day or two afterwards, that he might be expected down, +soon. There was no time to be lost in getting Cleopatra to any place +recommended as being salutary; for, indeed, she seemed upon the wane, +and turning of the earth, earthy. + +Without having undergone any decided second attack of her malady, the +old woman seemed to have crawled backward in her recovery from the +first. She was more lean and shrunken, more uncertain in her imbecility, +and made stranger confusions in her mind and memory. Among other +symptoms of this last affliction, she fell into the habit of confounding +the names of her two sons-in-law, the living and the deceased; and +in general called Mr Dombey, either 'Grangeby,' or 'Domber,' or +indifferently, both. + +But she was youthful, very youthful still; and in her youthfulness +appeared at breakfast, before going away, in a new bonnet made express, +and a travelling robe that was embroidered and braided like an old +baby's. It was not easy to put her into a fly-away bonnet now, or to +keep the bonnet in its place on the back of her poor nodding head, when +it was got on. In this instance, it had not only the extraneous effect +of being always on one side, but of being perpetually tapped on the +crown by Flowers the maid, who attended in the background during +breakfast to perform that duty. + +'Now, my dearest Grangeby,' said Mrs Skewton, 'you must posively prom,' +she cut some of her words short, and cut out others altogether, 'come +down very soon.' + +'I said just now, Madam,' returned Mr Dombey, loudly and laboriously, +'that I am coming in a day or two.' + +'Bless you, Domber!' + +Here the Major, who was come to take leave of the ladies, and who was +staring through his apoplectic eyes at Mrs Skewton's face with the +disinterested composure of an immortal being, said: + +'Begad, Ma'am, you don't ask old Joe to come!' + +'Sterious wretch, who's he?' lisped Cleopatra. But a tap on the bonnet +from Flowers seeming to jog her memory, she added, 'Oh! You mean +yourself, you naughty creature!' + +'Devilish queer, Sir,' whispered the Major to Mr Dombey. 'Bad case. +Never did wrap up enough;' the Major being buttoned to the chin. +'Why who should J. B. mean by Joe, but old Joe Bagstock--Joseph--your +slave--Joe, Ma'am? Here! Here's the man! Here are the Bagstock bellows, +Ma'am!' cried the Major, striking himself a sounding blow on the chest. + +'My dearest Edith--Grangeby--it's most trordinry thing,' said Cleopatra, +pettishly, 'that Major--' + +'Bagstock! J. B.!' cried the Major, seeing that she faltered for his +name. + +'Well, it don't matter,' said Cleopatra. 'Edith, my love, you know I +never could remember names--what was it? oh!--most trordinry thing that +so many people want to come down to see me. I'm not going for long. I'm +coming back. Surely they can wait, till I come back!' + +Cleopatra looked all round the table as she said it, and appeared very +uneasy. + +'I won't have visitors--really don't want visitors,' she said; 'little +repose--and all that sort of thing--is what I quire. No odious brutes +must proach me till I've shaken off this numbness;' and in a grisly +resumption of her coquettish ways, she made a dab at the Major with her +fan, but overset Mr Dombey's breakfast cup instead, which was in quite a +different direction. + +Then she called for Withers, and charged him to see particularly that +word was left about some trivial alterations in her room, which must be +all made before she came back, and which must be set about immediately, +as there was no saying how soon she might come back; for she had a great +many engagements, and all sorts of people to call upon. Withers received +these directions with becoming deference, and gave his guarantee for +their execution; but when he withdrew a pace or two behind her, it +appeared as if he couldn't help looking strangely at the Major, who +couldn't help looking strangely at Mr Dombey, who couldn't help looking +strangely at Cleopatra, who couldn't help nodding her bonnet over one +eye, and rattling her knife and fork upon her plate in using them, as if +she were playing castanets. + +Edith alone never lifted her eyes to any face at the table, and never +seemed dismayed by anything her mother said or did. She listened to +her disjointed talk, or at least, turned her head towards her when +addressed; replied in a few low words when necessary; and sometimes +stopped her when she was rambling, or brought her thoughts back with +a monosyllable, to the point from which they had strayed. The mother, +however unsteady in other things, was constant in this--that she was +always observant of her. She would look at the beautiful face, in its +marble stillness and severity, now with a kind of fearful admiration; +now in a giggling foolish effort to move it to a smile; now with +capricious tears and jealous shakings of her head, as imagining herself +neglected by it; always with an attraction towards it, that never +fluctuated like her other ideas, but had constant possession of her. +From Edith she would sometimes look at Florence, and back again at +Edith, in a manner that was wild enough; and sometimes she would try to +look elsewhere, as if to escape from her daughter's face; but back to it +she seemed forced to come, although it never sought hers unless sought, +or troubled her with one single glance. + +The breakfast concluded, Mrs Skewton, affecting to lean girlishly upon +the Major's arm, but heavily supported on the other side by Flowers the +maid, and propped up behind by Withers the page, was conducted to the +carriage, which was to take her, Florence, and Edith to Brighton. + +'And is Joseph absolutely banished?' said the Major, thrusting in his +purple face over the steps. 'Damme, Ma'am, is Cleopatra so hard-hearted +as to forbid her faithful Antony Bagstock to approach the presence?' + +'Go along!' said Cleopatra, 'I can't bear you. You shall see me when I +come back, if you are very good.' + +'Tell Joseph, he may live in hope, Ma'am,' said the Major; 'or he'll die +in despair.' + +Cleopatra shuddered, and leaned back. 'Edith, my dear,' she said. 'Tell +him--' + +'What?' + +'Such dreadful words,' said Cleopatra. 'He uses such dreadful words!' + +Edith signed to him to retire, gave the word to go on, and left the +objectionable Major to Mr Dombey. To whom he returned, whistling. + +'I'll tell you what, Sir,' said the Major, with his hands behind him, +and his legs very wide asunder, 'a fair friend of ours has removed to +Queer Street.' + +'What do you mean, Major?' inquired Mr Dombey. + +'I mean to say, Dombey,' returned the Major, 'that you'll soon be an +orphan-in-law.' + +Mr Dombey appeared to relish this waggish description of himself so very +little, that the Major wound up with the horse's cough, as an expression +of gravity. + +'Damme, Sir,' said the Major, 'there is no use in disguising a fact. Joe +is blunt, Sir. That's his nature. If you take old Josh at all, you +take him as you find him; and a devilish rusty, old rasper, of a +close-toothed, J. B. file, you do find him. Dombey,' said the Major, +'your wife's mother is on the move, Sir.' + +'I fear,' returned Mr Dombey, with much philosophy, 'that Mrs Skewton is +shaken.' + +'Shaken, Dombey!' said the Major. 'Smashed!' + +'Change, however,' pursued Mr Dombey, 'and attention, may do much yet.' + +'Don't believe it, Sir,' returned the Major. 'Damme, Sir, she never +wrapped up enough. If a man don't wrap up,' said the Major, taking in +another button of his buff waistcoat, 'he has nothing to fall back upon. +But some people will die. They will do it. Damme, they will. They're +obstinate. I tell you what, Dombey, it may not be ornamental; it may not +be refined; it may be rough and tough; but a little of the genuine old +English Bagstock stamina, Sir, would do all the good in the world to the +human breed.' + +After imparting this precious piece of information, the Major, who +was certainly true-blue, whatever other endowments he may have had or +wanted, coming within the 'genuine old English' classification, which +has never been exactly ascertained, took his lobster-eyes and his +apoplexy to the club, and choked there all day. + +Cleopatra, at one time fretful, at another self-complacent, sometimes +awake, sometimes asleep, and at all times juvenile, reached Brighton the +same night, fell to pieces as usual, and was put away in bed; where a +gloomy fancy might have pictured a more potent skeleton than the maid, +who should have been one, watching at the rose-coloured curtains, which +were carried down to shed their bloom upon her. + +It was settled in high council of medical authority that she should take +a carriage airing every day, and that it was important she should +get out every day, and walk if she could. Edith was ready to attend +her--always ready to attend her, with the same mechanical attention and +immovable beauty--and they drove out alone; for Edith had an uneasiness +in the presence of Florence, now that her mother was worse, and told +Florence, with a kiss, that she would rather they two went alone. + +Mrs Skewton, on one particular day, was in the irresolute, exacting, +jealous temper that had developed itself on her recovery from her first +attack. After sitting silent in the carriage watching Edith for some +time, she took her hand and kissed it passionately. The hand was neither +given nor withdrawn, but simply yielded to her raising of it, and being +released, dropped down again, almost as if it were insensible. At this +she began to whimper and moan, and say what a mother she had been, and +how she was forgotten! This she continued to do at capricious intervals, +even when they had alighted: when she herself was halting along with the +joint support of Withers and a stick, and Edith was walking by her side, +and the carriage slowly following at a little distance. + +It was a bleak, lowering, windy day, and they were out upon the Downs +with nothing but a bare sweep of land between them and the sky. The +mother, with a querulous satisfaction in the monotony of her complaint, +was still repeating it in a low voice from time to time, and the proud +form of her daughter moved beside her slowly, when there came advancing +over a dark ridge before them, two other figures, which in the distance, +were so like an exaggerated imitation of their own, that Edith stopped. + +Almost as she stopped, the two figures stopped; and that one which to +Edith's thinking was like a distorted shadow of her mother, spoke to the +other, earnestly, and with a pointing hand towards them. That one seemed +inclined to turn back, but the other, in which Edith recognised enough +that was like herself to strike her with an unusual feeling, not quite +free from fear, came on; and then they came on together. + +The greater part of this observation, she made while walking towards +them, for her stoppage had been momentary. Nearer observation showed her +that they were poorly dressed, as wanderers about the country; that the +younger woman carried knitted work or some such goods for sale; and that +the old one toiled on empty-handed. + +And yet, however far removed she was in dress, in dignity, in beauty, +Edith could not but compare the younger woman with herself, still. It +may have been that she saw upon her face some traces which she knew were +lingering in her own soul, if not yet written on that index; but, as +the woman came on, returning her gaze, fixing her shining eyes upon +her, undoubtedly presenting something of her own air and stature, and +appearing to reciprocate her own thoughts, she felt a chill creep over +her, as if the day were darkening, and the wind were colder. + +They had now come up. The old woman, holding out her hand importunately, +stopped to beg of Mrs Skewton. The younger one stopped too, and she and +Edith looked in one another's eyes. + +'What is it that you have to sell?' said Edith. + +'Only this,' returned the woman, holding out her wares, without looking +at them. 'I sold myself long ago.' + +'My Lady, don't believe her,' croaked the old woman to Mrs Skewton; +'don't believe what she says. She loves to talk like that. She's my +handsome and undutiful daughter. She gives me nothing but reproaches, +my Lady, for all I have done for her. Look at her now, my Lady, how she +turns upon her poor old mother with her looks.' + +As Mrs Skewton drew her purse out with a trembling hand, and eagerly +fumbled for some money, which the other old woman greedily watched +for--their heads all but touching, in their hurry and decrepitude--Edith +interposed: + +'I have seen you,' addressing the old woman, 'before.' + +'Yes, my Lady,' with a curtsey. 'Down in Warwickshire. The morning among +the trees. When you wouldn't give me nothing. But the gentleman, he give +me something! Oh, bless him, bless him!' mumbled the old woman, holding +up her skinny hand, and grinning frightfully at her daughter. + +'It's of no use attempting to stay me, Edith!' said Mrs Skewton, angrily +anticipating an objection from her. 'You know nothing about it. I won't +be dissuaded. I am sure this is an excellent woman, and a good mother.' + +'Yes, my Lady, yes,' chattered the old woman, holding out her avaricious +hand. 'Thankee, my Lady. Lord bless you, my Lady. Sixpence more, my +pretty Lady, as a good mother yourself.' + +'And treated undutifully enough, too, my good old creature, sometimes, I +assure you,' said Mrs Skewton, whimpering. 'There! Shake hands with me. +You're a very good old creature--full of what's-his-name--and all that. +You're all affection and et cetera, ain't you?' + +'Oh, yes, my Lady!' + +'Yes, I'm sure you are; and so's that gentlemanly creature Grangeby. I +must really shake hands with you again. And now you can go, you know; +and I hope,' addressing the daughter, 'that you'll show more gratitude, +and natural what's-its-name, and all the rest of it--but I never +remember names--for there never was a better mother than the good old +creature's been to you. Come, Edith!' + +As the ruin of Cleopatra tottered off whimpering, and wiping its eyes +with a gingerly remembrance of rouge in their neighbourhood, the old +woman hobbled another way, mumbling and counting her money. Not one word +more, nor one other gesture, had been exchanged between Edith and the +younger woman, but neither had removed her eyes from the other for a +moment. They had remained confronted until now, when Edith, as awakening +from a dream, passed slowly on. + +'You're a handsome woman,' muttered her shadow, looking after her; 'but +good looks won't save us. And you're a proud woman; but pride won't save +us. We had need to know each other when we meet again!' + + + +CHAPTER 41. New Voices in the Waves + + +All is going on as it was wont. The waves are hoarse with repetition of +their mystery; the dust lies piled upon the shore; the sea-birds soar +and hover; the winds and clouds go forth upon their trackless flight; +the white arms beckon, in the moonlight, to the invisible country far +away. + +With a tender melancholy pleasure, Florence finds herself again on the +old ground so sadly trodden, yet so happily, and thinks of him in +the quiet place, where he and she have many and many a time conversed +together, with the water welling up about his couch. And now, as she +sits pensive there, she hears in the wild low murmur of the sea, his +little story told again, his very words repeated; and finds that all +her life and hopes, and griefs, since--in the solitary house, and in +the pageant it has changed to--have a portion in the burden of the +marvellous song. + +And gentle Mr Toots, who wanders at a distance, looking wistfully +towards the figure that he dotes upon, and has followed there, but +cannot in his delicacy disturb at such a time, likewise hears the +requiem of little Dombey on the waters, rising and falling in the lulls +of their eternal madrigal in praise of Florence. Yes! and he faintly +understands, poor Mr Toots, that they are saying something of a time +when he was sensible of being brighter and not addle-brained; and the +tears rising in his eyes when he fears that he is dull and stupid now, +and good for little but to be laughed at, diminish his satisfaction in +their soothing reminder that he is relieved from present responsibility +to the Chicken, by the absence of that game head of poultry in the +country, training (at Toots's cost) for his great mill with the Larkey +Boy. + +But Mr Toots takes courage, when they whisper a kind thought to him; +and by slow degrees and with many indecisive stoppages on the way, +approaches Florence. Stammering and blushing, Mr Toots affects amazement +when he comes near her, and says (having followed close on the carriage +in which she travelled, every inch of the way from London, loving even +to be choked by the dust of its wheels) that he never was so surprised +in all his life. + +'And you've brought Diogenes, too, Miss Dombey!' says Mr Toots, thrilled +through and through by the touch of the small hand so pleasantly and +frankly given him. + +No doubt Diogenes is there, and no doubt Mr Toots has reason to observe +him, for he comes straightway at Mr Toots's legs, and tumbles over +himself in the desperation with which he makes at him, like a very dog +of Montargis. But he is checked by his sweet mistress. + +'Down, Di, down. Don't you remember who first made us friends, Di? For +shame!' + +Oh! Well may Di lay his loving cheek against her hand, and run off, and +run back, and run round her, barking, and run headlong at anybody coming +by, to show his devotion. Mr Toots would run headlong at anybody, too. +A military gentleman goes past, and Mr Toots would like nothing better +than to run at him, full tilt. + +'Diogenes is quite in his native air, isn't he, Miss Dombey?' says Mr +Toots. + +Florence assents, with a grateful smile. + +'Miss Dombey,' says Mr Toots, 'beg your pardon, but if you would like to +walk to Blimber's, I--I'm going there.' + +Florence puts her arm in that of Mr Toots without a word, and they walk +away together, with Diogenes going on before. Mr Toots's legs shake +under him; and though he is splendidly dressed, he feels misfits, and +sees wrinkles, in the masterpieces of Burgess and Co., and wishes he had +put on that brightest pair of boots. + +Doctor Blimber's house, outside, has as scholastic and studious an air +as ever; and up there is the window where she used to look for the pale +face, and where the pale face brightened when it saw her, and the wasted +little hand waved kisses as she passed. The door is opened by the same +weak-eyed young man, whose imbecility of grin at sight of Mr Toots is +feebleness of character personified. They are shown into the Doctor's +study, where blind Homer and Minerva give them audience as of yore, to +the sober ticking of the great clock in the hall; and where the globes +stand still in their accustomed places, as if the world were stationary +too, and nothing in it ever perished in obedience to the universal law, +that, while it keeps it on the roll, calls everything to earth. + +And here is Doctor Blimber, with his learned legs; and here is Mrs +Blimber, with her sky-blue cap; and here Cornelia, with her sandy little +row of curls, and her bright spectacles, still working like a sexton in +the graves of languages. Here is the table upon which he sat forlorn +and strange, the 'new boy' of the school; and hither comes the distant +cooing of the old boys, at their old lives in the old room on the old +principle! + +'Toots,' says Doctor Blimber, 'I am very glad to see you, Toots.' + +Mr Toots chuckles in reply. + +'Also to see you, Toots, in such good company,' says Doctor Blimber. + +Mr Toots, with a scarlet visage, explains that he has met Miss Dombey +by accident, and that Miss Dombey wishing, like himself, to see the old +place, they have come together. + +'You will like,' says Doctor Blimber, 'to step among our young friends, +Miss Dombey, no doubt. All fellow-students of yours, Toots, once. I +think we have no new disciples in our little portico, my dear,' says +Doctor Blimber to Cornelia, 'since Mr Toots left us.' + +'Except Bitherstone,' returns Cornelia. + +'Ay, truly,' says the Doctor. 'Bitherstone is new to Mr Toots.' + +New to Florence, too, almost; for, in the schoolroom, Bitherstone--no +longer Master Bitherstone of Mrs Pipchin's--shows in collars and a +neckcloth, and wears a watch. But Bitherstone, born beneath some +Bengal star of ill-omen, is extremely inky; and his Lexicon has got so +dropsical from constant reference, that it won't shut, and yawns as +if it really could not bear to be so bothered. So does Bitherstone its +master, forced at Doctor Blimber's highest pressure; but in the yawn of +Bitherstone there is malice and snarl, and he has been heard to say that +he wishes he could catch 'old Blimber' in India. He'd precious soon find +himself carried up the country by a few of his (Bitherstone's) Coolies, +and handed over to the Thugs; he can tell him that. + +Briggs is still grinding in the mill of knowledge; and Tozer, too; +and Johnson, too; and all the rest; the older pupils being principally +engaged in forgetting, with prodigious labour, everything they knew +when they were younger. All are as polite and as pale as ever; and among +them, Mr Feeder, B.A., with his bony hand and bristly head, is still +hard at it; with his Herodotus stop on just at present, and his other +barrels on a shelf behind him. + +A mighty sensation is created, even among these grave young gentlemen, +by a visit from the emancipated Toots; who is regarded with a kind of +awe, as one who has passed the Rubicon, and is pledged never to come +back, and concerning the cut of whose clothes, and fashion of whose +jewellery, whispers go about, behind hands; the bilious Bitherstone, +who is not of Mr Toots's time, affecting to despise the latter to the +smaller boys, and saying he knows better, and that he should like to +see him coming that sort of thing in Bengal, where his mother had got an +emerald belonging to him that was taken out of the footstool of a Rajah. +Come now! + +Bewildering emotions are awakened also by the sight of Florence, with +whom every young gentleman immediately falls in love, again; except, +as aforesaid, the bilious Bitherstone, who declines to do so, out of +contradiction. Black jealousies of Mr Toots arise, and Briggs is of +opinion that he ain't so very old after all. But this disparaging +insinuation is speedily made nought by Mr Toots saying aloud to Mr +Feeder, B.A., 'How are you, Feeder?' and asking him to come and dine +with him to-day at the Bedford; in right of which feats he might set up +as Old Parr, if he chose, unquestioned. + +There is much shaking of hands, and much bowing, and a great desire on +the part of each young gentleman to take Toots down in Miss Dombey's +good graces; and then, Mr Toots having bestowed a chuckle on his old +desk, Florence and he withdraw with Mrs Blimber and Cornelia; and Doctor +Blimber is heard to observe behind them as he comes out last, and shuts +the door, 'Gentlemen, we will now resume our studies,' For that and +little else is what the Doctor hears the sea say, or has heard it saying +all his life. + +Florence then steals away and goes upstairs to the old bedroom with Mrs +Blimber and Cornelia; Mr Toots, who feels that neither he nor anybody +else is wanted there, stands talking to the Doctor at the study-door, or +rather hearing the Doctor talk to him, and wondering how he ever thought +the study a great sanctuary, and the Doctor, with his round turned legs, +like a clerical pianoforte, an awful man. Florence soon comes down and +takes leave; Mr Toots takes leave; and Diogenes, who has been worrying +the weak-eyed young man pitilessly all the time, shoots out at the door, +and barks a glad defiance down the cliff; while Melia, and another of +the Doctor's female domestics, looks out of an upper window, laughing +'at that there Toots,' and saying of Miss Dombey, 'But really though, +now--ain't she like her brother, only prettier?' + +Mr Toots, who saw when Florence came down that there were tears upon her +face, is desperately anxious and uneasy, and at first fears that he did +wrong in proposing the visit. But he is soon relieved by her saying +she is very glad to have been there again, and by her talking quite +cheerfully about it all, as they walked on by the sea. What with the +voices there, and her sweet voice, when they come near Mr Dombey's +house, and Mr Toots must leave her, he is so enslaved that he has not +a scrap of free-will left; when she gives him her hand at parting, he +cannot let it go. + +'Miss Dombey, I beg your pardon,' says Mr Toots, in a sad fluster, 'but +if you would allow me to--to--' + +The smiling and unconscious look of Florence brings him to a dead stop. + +'If you would allow me to--if you would not consider it a liberty, Miss +Dombey, if I was to--without any encouragement at all, if I was to hope, +you know,' says Mr Toots. + +Florence looks at him inquiringly. + +'Miss Dombey,' says Mr Toots, who feels that he is in for it now, 'I +really am in that state of adoration of you that I don't know what to do +with myself. I am the most deplorable wretch. If it wasn't at the corner +of the Square at present, I should go down on my knees, and beg and +entreat of you, without any encouragement at all, just to let me hope +that I may--may think it possible that you--' + +'Oh, if you please, don't!' cries Florence, for the moment quite alarmed +and distressed. 'Oh, pray don't, Mr Toots. Stop, if you please. Don't +say any more. As a kindness and a favour to me, don't.' + +Mr Toots is dreadfully abashed, and his mouth opens. + +'You have been so good to me,' says Florence, 'I am so grateful to you, +I have such reason to like you for being a kind friend to me, and I do +like you so much;' and here the ingenuous face smiles upon him with the +pleasantest look of honesty in the world; 'that I am sure you are only +going to say good-bye!' + +'Certainly, Miss Dombey,' says Mr Toots, 'I--I--that's exactly what I +mean. It's of no consequence.' + +'Good-bye!' cries Florence. + +'Good-bye, Miss Dombey!' stammers Mr Toots. 'I hope you won't think +anything about it. It's--it's of no consequence, thank you. It's not of +the least consequence in the world.' + +Poor Mr Toots goes home to his hotel in a state of desperation, locks +himself into his bedroom, flings himself upon his bed, and lies +there for a long time; as if it were of the greatest consequence, +nevertheless. But Mr Feeder, B.A., is coming to dinner, which happens +well for Mr Toots, or there is no knowing when he might get up again. +Mr Toots is obliged to get up to receive him, and to give him hospitable +entertainment. + +And the generous influence of that social virtue, hospitality (to make +no mention of wine and good cheer), opens Mr Toots's heart, and warms +him to conversation. He does not tell Mr Feeder, B.A., what passed at +the corner of the Square; but when Mr Feeder asks him 'When it is to +come off?' Mr Toots replies, 'that there are certain subjects'--which +brings Mr Feeder down a peg or two immediately. Mr Toots adds, that he +don't know what right Blimber had to notice his being in Miss Dombey's +company, and that if he thought he meant impudence by it, he'd have him +out, Doctor or no Doctor; but he supposes its only his ignorance. Mr +Feeder says he has no doubt of it. + +Mr Feeder, however, as an intimate friend, is not excluded from +the subject. Mr Toots merely requires that it should be mentioned +mysteriously, and with feeling. After a few glasses of wine, he gives +Miss Dombey's health, observing, 'Feeder, you have no idea of the +sentiments with which I propose that toast.' Mr Feeder replies, 'Oh, +yes, I have, my dear Toots; and greatly they redound to your honour, old +boy.' Mr Feeder is then agitated by friendship, and shakes hands; and +says, if ever Toots wants a brother, he knows where to find him, either +by post or parcel. Mr Feeder like-wise says, that if he may advise, he +would recommend Mr Toots to learn the guitar, or, at least the flute; +for women like music, when you are paying your addresses to 'em, and he +has found the advantage of it himself. + +This brings Mr Feeder, B.A., to the confession that he has his eye +upon Cornelia Blimber. He informs Mr Toots that he don't object to +spectacles, and that if the Doctor were to do the handsome thing and +give up the business, why, there they are--provided for. He says it's +his opinion that when a man has made a handsome sum by his business, he +is bound to give it up; and that Cornelia would be an assistance in it +which any man might be proud of. Mr Toots replies by launching wildly +out into Miss Dombey's praises, and by insinuations that sometimes he +thinks he should like to blow his brains out. Mr Feeder strongly urges +that it would be a rash attempt, and shows him, as a reconcilement to +existence, Cornelia's portrait, spectacles and all. + +Thus these quiet spirits pass the evening; and when it has yielded place +to night, Mr Toots walks home with Mr Feeder, and parts with him at +Doctor Blimber's door. But Mr Feeder only goes up the steps, and when +Mr Toots is gone, comes down again, to stroll upon the beach alone, and +think about his prospects. Mr Feeder plainly hears the waves informing +him, as he loiters along, that Doctor Blimber will give up the business; +and he feels a soft romantic pleasure in looking at the outside of the +house, and thinking that the Doctor will first paint it, and put it into +thorough repair. + +Mr Toots is likewise roaming up and down, outside the casket that +contains his jewel; and in a deplorable condition of mind, and not +unsuspected by the police, gazes at a window where he sees a light, +and which he has no doubt is Florence's. But it is not, for that is Mrs +Skewton's room; and while Florence, sleeping in another chamber, dreams +lovingly, in the midst of the old scenes, and their old associations +live again, the figure which in grim reality is substituted for the +patient boy's on the same theatre, once more to connect it--but how +differently!--with decay and death, is stretched there, wakeful and +complaining. Ugly and haggard it lies upon its bed of unrest; and by it, +in the terror of her unimpassioned loveliness--for it has terror in +the sufferer's failing eyes--sits Edith. What do the waves say, in the +stillness of the night, to them? + +'Edith, what is that stone arm raised to strike me? Don't you see it?' + +'There is nothing, mother, but your fancy.' + +'But my fancy! Everything is my fancy. Look! Is it possible that you +don't see it?' + +'Indeed, mother, there is nothing. Should I sit unmoved, if there were +any such thing there?' + +'Unmoved?' looking wildly at her--'it's gone now--and why are you +so unmoved? That is not my fancy, Edith. It turns me cold to see you +sitting at my side.' + +'I am sorry, mother.' + +'Sorry! You seem always sorry. But it is not for me!' + +With that, she cries; and tossing her restless head from side to side +upon her pillow, runs on about neglect, and the mother she has been, and +the mother the good old creature was, whom they met, and the cold return +the daughters of such mothers make. In the midst of her incoherence, +she stops, looks at her daughter, cries out that her wits are going, and +hides her face upon the bed. + +Edith, in compassion, bends over her and speaks to her. The sick old +woman clutches her round the neck, and says, with a look of horror, + +'Edith! we are going home soon; going back. You mean that I shall go +home again?' + +'Yes, mother, yes.' + +'And what he said--what's-his-name, I never could remember +names--Major--that dreadful word, when we came away--it's not true? +Edith!' with a shriek and a stare, 'it's not that that is the matter +with me.' + +Night after night, the lights burn in the window, and the figure lies +upon the bed, and Edith sits beside it, and the restless waves are +calling to them both the whole night long. Night after night, the waves +are hoarse with repetition of their mystery; the dust lies piled upon +the shore; the sea-birds soar and hover; the winds and clouds are on +their trackless flight; the white arms beckon, in the moonlight, to the +invisible country far away. + +And still the sick old woman looks into the corner, where the stone +arm--part of a figure of some tomb, she says--is raised to strike her. +At last it falls; and then a dumb old woman lies upon the bed, and +she is crooked and shrunk up, and half of her is dead. + +Such is the figure, painted and patched for the sun to mock, that is +drawn slowly through the crowd from day to day; looking, as it goes, +for the good old creature who was such a mother, and making mouths as it +peers among the crowd in vain. Such is the figure that is often wheeled +down to the margin of the sea, and stationed there; but on which no +wind can blow freshness, and for which the murmur of the ocean has no +soothing word. She lies and listens to it by the hour; but its speech +is dark and gloomy to her, and a dread is on her face, and when her +eyes wander over the expanse, they see but a broad stretch of desolation +between earth and heaven. + +Florence she seldom sees, and when she does, is angry with and mows at. +Edith is beside her always, and keeps Florence away; and Florence, in +her bed at night, trembles at the thought of death in such a shape, and +often wakes and listens, thinking it has come. No one attends on her +but Edith. It is better that few eyes should see her; and her daughter +watches alone by the bedside. + +A shadow even on that shadowed face, a sharpening even of the sharpened +features, and a thickening of the veil before the eyes into a pall that +shuts out the dim world, is come. Her wandering hands upon the coverlet +join feebly palm to palm, and move towards her daughter; and a voice +not like hers, not like any voice that speaks our mortal language--says, +'For I nursed you!' + +Edith, without a tear, kneels down to bring her voice closer to the +sinking head, and answers: + +'Mother, can you hear me?' + +Staring wide, she tries to nod in answer. + +'Can you recollect the night before I married?' + +The head is motionless, but it expresses somehow that she does. + +'I told you then that I forgave your part in it, and prayed God to +forgive my own. I told you that time past was at an end between us. I +say so now, again. Kiss me, mother.' + +Edith touches the white lips, and for a moment all is still. A moment +afterwards, her mother, with her girlish laugh, and the skeleton of the +Cleopatra manner, rises in her bed. + +Draw the rose-coloured curtains. There is something else upon its flight +besides the wind and clouds. Draw the rose-coloured curtains close! + +Intelligence of the event is sent to Mr Dombey in town, who waits upon +Cousin Feenix (not yet able to make up his mind for Baden-Baden), who +has just received it too. A good-natured creature like Cousin Feenix is +the very man for a marriage or a funeral, and his position in the family +renders it right that he should be consulted. + +'Dombey,' said Cousin Feenix, 'upon my soul, I am very much shocked to +see you on such a melancholy occasion. My poor aunt! She was a devilish +lively woman.' + +Mr Dombey replies, 'Very much so.' + +'And made up,' says Cousin Feenix, 'really young, you know, considering. +I am sure, on the day of your marriage, I thought she was good +for another twenty years. In point of fact, I said so to a man at +Brooks's--little Billy Joper--you know him, no doubt--man with a glass +in his eye?' + +Mr Dombey bows a negative. 'In reference to the obsequies,' he hints, +'whether there is any suggestion--' + +'Well, upon my life,' says Cousin Feenix, stroking his chin, which he +has just enough of hand below his wristbands to do; 'I really don't +know. There's a Mausoleum down at my place, in the park, but I'm afraid +it's in bad repair, and, in point of fact, in a devil of a state. But +for being a little out at elbows, I should have had it put to rights; +but I believe the people come and make pic-nic parties there inside the +iron railings.' + +Mr Dombey is clear that this won't do. + +'There's an uncommon good church in the village,' says Cousin Feenix, +thoughtfully; 'pure specimen of the Anglo-Norman style, and admirably +well sketched too by Lady Jane Finchbury--woman with tight stays--but +they've spoilt it with whitewash, I understand, and it's a long journey.' + +'Perhaps Brighton itself,' Mr Dombey suggests. + +'Upon my honour, Dombey, I don't think we could do better,' says Cousin +Feenix. 'It's on the spot, you see, and a very cheerful place.' + +'And when,' hints Mr Dombey, 'would it be convenient?' + +'I shall make a point,' says Cousin Feenix, 'of pledging myself for any +day you think best. I shall have great pleasure (melancholy pleasure, +of course) in following my poor aunt to the confines of the--in point +of fact, to the grave,' says Cousin Feenix, failing in the other turn of +speech. + +'Would Monday do for leaving town?' says Mr Dombey. + +'Monday would suit me to perfection,' replies Cousin Feenix. Therefore +Mr Dombey arranges to take Cousin Feenix down on that day, and presently +takes his leave, attended to the stairs by Cousin Feenix, who says, at +parting, 'I'm really excessively sorry, Dombey, that you should have so +much trouble about it;' to which Mr Dombey answers, 'Not at all.' + +At the appointed time, Cousin Feenix and Mr Dombey meet, and go down to +Brighton, and representing, in their two selves, all the other mourners +for the deceased lady's loss, attend her remains to their place of rest. +Cousin Feenix, sitting in the mourning-coach, recognises innumerable +acquaintances on the road, but takes no other notice of them, in +decorum, than checking them off aloud, as they go by, for Mr Dombey's +information, as 'Tom Johnson. Man with cork leg, from White's. What, +are you here, Tommy? Foley on a blood mare. The Smalder girls'--and so +forth. At the ceremony Cousin Feenix is depressed, observing, that these +are the occasions to make a man think, in point of fact, that he is +getting shaky; and his eyes are really moistened, when it is over. But +he soon recovers; and so do the rest of Mrs Skewton's relatives and +friends, of whom the Major continually tells the club that she never +did wrap up enough; while the young lady with the back, who has so much +trouble with her eyelids, says, with a little scream, that she must have +been enormously old, and that she died of all kinds of horrors, and you +mustn't mention it. + +So Edith's mother lies unmentioned of her dear friends, who are deaf to +the waves that are hoarse with repetition of their mystery, and blind +to the dust that is piled upon the shore, and to the white arms that are +beckoning, in the moonlight, to the invisible country far away. But all +goes on, as it was wont, upon the margin of the unknown sea; and Edith +standing there alone, and listening to its waves, has dank weed cast up +at her feet, to strew her path in life withal. + + + +CHAPTER 42. Confidential and Accidental + + +Attired no more in Captain Cuttle's sable slops and sou'-wester hat, but +dressed in a substantial suit of brown livery, which, while it +affected to be a very sober and demure livery indeed, was really as +self-satisfied and confident a one as tailor need desire to make, Rob +the Grinder, thus transformed as to his outer man, and all regardless +within of the Captain and the Midshipman, except when he devoted a few +minutes of his leisure time to crowing over those inseparable worthies, +and recalling, with much applauding music from that brazen instrument, +his conscience, the triumphant manner in which he had disembarrassed +himself of their company, now served his patron, Mr Carker. Inmate of Mr +Carker's house, and serving about his person, Rob kept his round eyes +on the white teeth with fear and trembling, and felt that he had need to +open them wider than ever. + +He could not have quaked more, through his whole being, before the +teeth, though he had come into the service of some powerful enchanter, +and they had been his strongest spells. The boy had a sense of power and +authority in this patron of his that engrossed his whole attention and +exacted his most implicit submission and obedience. He hardly considered +himself safe in thinking about him when he was absent, lest he should +feel himself immediately taken by the throat again, as on the morning +when he first became bound to him, and should see every one of the teeth +finding him out, and taxing him with every fancy of his mind. Face to +face with him, Rob had no more doubt that Mr Carker read his secret +thoughts, or that he could read them by the least exertion of his will +if he were so inclined, than he had that Mr Carker saw him when he +looked at him. The ascendancy was so complete, and held him in such +enthralment, that, hardly daring to think at all, but with his +mind filled with a constantly dilating impression of his patron's +irresistible command over him, and power of doing anything with him, he +would stand watching his pleasure, and trying to anticipate his orders, +in a state of mental suspension, as to all other things. + +Rob had not informed himself perhaps--in his then state of mind it would +have been an act of no common temerity to inquire--whether he yielded +so completely to this influence in any part, because he had floating +suspicions of his patron's being a master of certain treacherous arts +in which he had himself been a poor scholar at the Grinders' School. But +certainly Rob admired him, as well as feared him. Mr Carker, perhaps, +was better acquainted with the sources of his power, which lost nothing +by his management of it. + +On the very night when he left the Captain's service, Rob, after +disposing of his pigeons, and even making a bad bargain in his hurry, +had gone straight down to Mr Carker's house, and hotly presented +himself before his new master with a glowing face that seemed to expect +commendation. + +'What, scapegrace!' said Mr Carker, glancing at his bundle 'Have you +left your situation and come to me?' + +'Oh if you please, Sir,' faltered Rob, 'you said, you know, when I come +here last--' + +'I said,' returned Mr Carker, 'what did I say?' + +'If you please, Sir, you didn't say nothing at all, Sir,' returned Rob, +warned by the manner of this inquiry, and very much disconcerted. + +His patron looked at him with a wide display of gums, and shaking his +forefinger, observed: + +'You'll come to an evil end, my vagabond friend, I foresee. There's ruin +in store for you. + +'Oh if you please, don't, Sir!' cried Rob, with his legs trembling under +him. 'I'm sure, Sir, I only want to work for you, Sir, and to wait upon +you, Sir, and to do faithful whatever I'm bid, Sir.' + +'You had better do faithfully whatever you are bid,' returned his +patron, 'if you have anything to do with me.' + +'Yes, I know that, Sir,' pleaded the submissive Rob; 'I'm sure of that, +SIr. If you'll only be so good as try me, Sir! And if ever you find me +out, Sir, doing anything against your wishes, I give you leave to kill +me.' + +'You dog!' said Mr Carker, leaning back in his chair, and smiling at him +serenely. 'That's nothing to what I'd do to you, if you tried to deceive +me.' + +'Yes, Sir,' replied the abject Grinder, 'I'm sure you would be down upon +me dreadful, Sir. I wouldn't attempt for to go and do it, Sir, not if I +was bribed with golden guineas.' + +Thoroughly checked in his expectations of commendation, the crestfallen +Grinder stood looking at his patron, and vainly endeavouring not to look +at him, with the uneasiness which a cur will often manifest in a similar +situation. + +'So you have left your old service, and come here to ask me to take you +into mine, eh?' said Mr Carker. + +'Yes, if you please, Sir,' returned Rob, who, in doing so, had acted +on his patron's own instructions, but dared not justify himself by the +least insinuation to that effect. + +'Well!' said Mr Carker. 'You know me, boy?' + +'Please, Sir, yes, Sir,' returned Rob, tumbling with his hat, and still +fixed by Mr Carker's eye, and fruitlessly endeavouring to unfix himself. + +Mr Carker nodded. 'Take care, then!' + +Rob expressed in a number of short bows his lively understanding of this +caution, and was bowing himself back to the door, greatly relieved by +the prospect of getting on the outside of it, when his patron stopped +him. + +'Halloa!' he cried, calling him roughly back. 'You have been--shut that +door.' + +Rob obeyed as if his life had depended on his alacrity. + +'You have been used to eaves-dropping. Do you know what that means?' + +'Listening, Sir?' Rob hazarded, after some embarrassed reflection. + +His patron nodded. 'And watching, and so forth.' + +'I wouldn't do such a thing here, Sir,' answered Rob; 'upon my word and +honour, I wouldn't, Sir, I wish I may die if I would, Sir, for anything +that could be promised to me. I should consider it is as much as all +the world was worth, to offer to do such a thing, unless I was ordered, +Sir.' + +'You had better not' You have been used, too, to babbling and tattling,' +said his patron with perfect coolness. 'Beware of that here, or you're +a lost rascal,' and he smiled again, and again cautioned him with his +forefinger. + +The Grinder's breath came short and thick with consternation. He tried +to protest the purity of his intentions, but could only stare at the +smiling gentleman in a stupor of submission, with which the smiling +gentleman seemed well enough satisfied, for he ordered him downstairs, +after observing him for some moments in silence, and gave him to +understand that he was retained in his employment. + +This was the manner of Rob the Grinder's engagement by Mr Carker, and +his awe-stricken devotion to that gentleman had strengthened and +increased, if possible, with every minute of his service. + +It was a service of some months' duration, when early one morning, Rob +opened the garden gate to Mr Dombey, who was come to breakfast with +his master, by appointment. At the same moment his master himself came, +hurrying forth to receive the distinguished guest, and give him welcome +with all his teeth. + +'I never thought,' said Carker, when he had assisted him to alight from +his horse, 'to see you here, I'm sure. This is an extraordinary day in +my calendar. No occasion is very special to a man like you, who may do +anything; but to a man like me, the case is widely different.' + +'You have a tasteful place here, Carker,' said Mr Dombey, condescending +to stop upon the lawn, to look about him. + +'You can afford to say so,' returned Carker. 'Thank you.' + +'Indeed,' said Mr Dombey, in his lofty patronage, 'anyone might say +so. As far as it goes, it is a very commodious and well-arranged +place--quite elegant.' + +'As far as it goes, truly,' returned Carker, with an air of +disparagement. 'It wants that qualification. Well! we have said +enough about it; and though you can afford to praise it, I thank you +nonetheless. Will you walk in?' + +Mr Dombey, entering the house, noticed, as he had reason to do, the +complete arrangement of the rooms, and the numerous contrivances for +comfort and effect that abounded there. Mr Carker, in his ostentation +of humility, received this notice with a deferential smile, and said he +understood its delicate meaning, and appreciated it, but in truth the +cottage was good enough for one in his position--better, perhaps, than +such a man should occupy, poor as it was. + +'But perhaps to you, who are so far removed, it really does look better +than it is,' he said, with his false mouth distended to its fullest +stretch. 'Just as monarchs imagine attractions in the lives of beggars.' + +He directed a sharp glance and a sharp smile at Mr Dombey as he spoke, +and a sharper glance, and a sharper smile yet, when Mr Dombey, drawing +himself up before the fire, in the attitude so often copied by his +second in command, looked round at the pictures on the walls. Cursorily +as his cold eye wandered over them, Carker's keen glance accompanied +his, and kept pace with his, marking exactly where it went, and what it +saw. As it rested on one picture in particular, Carker hardly seemed to +breathe, his sidelong scrutiny was so cat-like and vigilant, but the eye +of his great chief passed from that, as from the others, and appeared no +more impressed by it than by the rest. + +Carker looked at it--it was the picture that resembled Edith--as if it +were a living thing; and with a wicked, silent laugh upon his face, that +seemed in part addressed to it, though it was all derisive of the great +man standing so unconscious beside him. Breakfast was soon set upon the +table; and, inviting Mr Dombey to a chair which had its back towards +this picture, he took his own seat opposite to it as usual. + +Mr Dombey was even graver than it was his custom to be, and quite +silent. The parrot, swinging in the gilded hoop within her gaudy cage, +attempted in vain to attract notice, for Carker was too observant of his +visitor to heed her; and the visitor, abstracted in meditation, looked +fixedly, not to say sullenly, over his stiff neckcloth, without raising +his eyes from the table-cloth. As to Rob, who was in attendance, all his +faculties and energies were so locked up in observation of his master, +that he scarcely ventured to give shelter to the thought that the +visitor was the great gentleman before whom he had been carried as a +certificate of the family health, in his childhood, and to whom he had +been indebted for his leather smalls. + +'Allow me,' said Carker suddenly, 'to ask how Mrs Dombey is?' + +He leaned forward obsequiously, as he made the inquiry, with his chin +resting on his hand; and at the same time his eyes went up to the +picture, as if he said to it, 'Now, see, how I will lead him on!' + +Mr Dombey reddened as he answered: + +'Mrs Dombey is quite well. You remind me, Carker, of some conversation +that I wish to have with you.' + +'Robin, you can leave us,' said his master, at whose mild tones Robin +started and disappeared, with his eyes fixed on his patron to the last. +'You don't remember that boy, of course?' he added, when the enmeshed +Grinder was gone. + +'No,' said Mr Dombey, with magnificent indifference. + +'Not likely that a man like you would. Hardly possible,' murmured +Carker. 'But he is one of that family from whom you took a nurse. +Perhaps you may remember having generously charged yourself with his +education?' + +'Is it that boy?' said Mr Dombey, with a frown. 'He does little credit +to his education, I believe.' + +'Why, he is a young rip, I am afraid,' returned Carker, with a shrug. +'He bears that character. But the truth is, I took him into my service +because, being able to get no other employment, he conceived (had been +taught at home, I daresay) that he had some sort of claim upon you, and +was constantly trying to dog your heels with his petition. And although +my defined and recognised connexion with your affairs is merely of a +business character, still I have that spontaneous interest in everything +belonging to you, that--' + +He stopped again, as if to discover whether he had led Mr Dombey far +enough yet. And again, with his chin resting on his hand, he leered at +the picture. + +'Carker,' said Mr Dombey, 'I am sensible that you do not limit your--' + +'Service,' suggested his smiling entertainer. + +'No; I prefer to say your regard,' observed Mr Dombey; very sensible, as +he said so, that he was paying him a handsome and flattering compliment, +'to our mere business relations. Your consideration for my feelings, +hopes, and disappointments, in the little instance you have just now +mentioned, is an example in point. I am obliged to you, Carker.' + +Mr Carker bent his head slowly, and very softly rubbed his hands, as +if he were afraid by any action to disturb the current of Mr Dombey's +confidence. + +'Your allusion to it is opportune,' said Mr Dombey, after a little +hesitation; 'for it prepares the way to what I was beginning to say +to you, and reminds me that that involves no absolutely new relations +between us, although it may involve more personal confidence on my part +than I have hitherto--' + +'Distinguished me with,' suggested Carker, bending his head again: 'I +will not say to you how honoured I am; for a man like you well knows how +much honour he has in his power to bestow at pleasure.' + +'Mrs Dombey and myself,' said Mr Dombey, passing this compliment with +august self-denial, 'are not quite agreed upon some points. We do not +appear to understand each other yet. Mrs Dombey has something to learn.' + +'Mrs Dombey is distinguished by many rare attractions; and has been +accustomed, no doubt, to receive much adulation,' said the smooth, sleek +watcher of his slightest look and tone. 'But where there is affection, +duty, and respect, any little mistakes engendered by such causes are +soon set right.' + +Mr Dombey's thoughts instinctively flew back to the face that had looked +at him in his wife's dressing-room when an imperious hand was stretched +towards the door; and remembering the affection, duty, and respect, +expressed in it, he felt the blood rush to his own face quite as plainly +as the watchful eyes upon him saw it there. + +'Mrs Dombey and myself,' he went on to say, 'had some discussion, before +Mrs Skewton's death, upon the causes of my dissatisfaction; of which you +will have formed a general understanding from having been a witness of +what passed between Mrs Dombey and myself on the evening when you were +at our--at my house.' + +'When I so much regretted being present,' said the smiling Carker. +'Proud as a man in my position necessarily must be of your familiar +notice--though I give you no credit for it; you may do anything +you please without losing caste--and honoured as I was by an early +presentation to Mrs Dombey, before she was made eminent by bearing your +name, I almost regretted that night, I assure you, that I had been the +object of such especial good fortune.' + +That any man could, under any possible circumstances, regret the being +distinguished by his condescension and patronage, was a moral phenomenon +which Mr Dombey could not comprehend. He therefore responded, with a +considerable accession of dignity. 'Indeed! And why, Carker?' + +'I fear,' returned the confidential agent, 'that Mrs Dombey, never very +much disposed to regard me with favourable interest--one in my position +could not expect that, from a lady naturally proud, and whose pride +becomes her so well--may not easily forgive my innocent part in that +conversation. Your displeasure is no light matter, you must remember; +and to be visited with it before a third party--' + +'Carker,' said Mr Dombey, arrogantly; 'I presume that I am the first +consideration?' + +'Oh! Can there be a doubt about it?' replied the other, with the +impatience of a man admitting a notorious and incontrovertible fact. + +'Mrs Dombey becomes a secondary consideration, when we are both in +question, I imagine,' said Mr Dombey. 'Is that so?' + +'Is it so?' returned Carker. 'Do you know better than anyone, that you +have no need to ask?' + +'Then I hope, Carker,' said Mr Dombey, 'that your regret in the +acquisition of Mrs Dombey's displeasure, may be almost counterbalanced +by your satisfaction in retaining my confidence and good opinion.' + +'I have the misfortune, I find,' returned Carker, 'to have incurred that +displeasure. Mrs Dombey has expressed it to you?' + +'Mrs Dombey has expressed various opinions,' said Mr Dombey, with +majestic coldness and indifference, 'in which I do not participate, and +which I am not inclined to discuss, or to recall. I made Mr Dombey +acquainted, some time since, as I have already told you, with certain +points of domestic deference and submission on which I felt it necessary +to insist. I failed to convince Mrs Dombey of the expediency of her +immediately altering her conduct in those respects, with a view to her +own peace and welfare, and my dignity; and I informed Mrs Dombey that +if I should find it necessary to object or remonstrate again, I should +express my opinion to her through yourself, my confidential agent.' + +Blended with the look that Carker bent upon him, was a devilish look +at the picture over his head, that struck upon it like a flash of +lightning. + +'Now, Carker,' said Mr Dombey, 'I do not hesitate to say to you that +I will carry my point. I am not to be trifled with. Mrs Dombey must +understand that my will is law, and that I cannot allow of one exception +to the whole rule of my life. You will have the goodness to undertake +this charge, which, coming from me, is not unacceptable to you, I hope, +whatever regret you may politely profess--for which I am obliged to you +on behalf of Mrs Dombey; and you will have the goodness, I am persuaded, +to discharge it as exactly as any other commission.' + +'You know,' said Mr Carker, 'that you have only to command me.' + +'I know,' said Mr Dombey, with a majestic indication of assent, 'that I +have only to command you. It is necessary that I should proceed in this. +Mrs Dombey is a lady undoubtedly highly qualified, in many respects, +to--' + +'To do credit even to your choice,' suggested Carker, with a yawning +show of teeth. + +'Yes; if you please to adopt that form of words,' said Mr Dombey, in his +tone of state; 'and at present I do not conceive that Mrs Dombey does +that credit to it, to which it is entitled. There is a principle of +opposition in Mrs Dombey that must be eradicated; that must be overcome: +Mrs Dombey does not appear to understand,' said Mr Dombey, forcibly, +'that the idea of opposition to Me is monstrous and absurd.' + +'We, in the City, know you better,' replied Carker, with a smile from +ear to ear. + +'You know me better,' said Mr Dombey. 'I hope so. Though, indeed, I am +bound to do Mrs Dombey the justice of saying, however inconsistent it +may seem with her subsequent conduct (which remains unchanged), that +on my expressing my disapprobation and determination to her, with +some severity, on the occasion to which I have referred, my admonition +appeared to produce a very powerful effect.' Mr Dombey delivered himself +of those words with most portentous stateliness. 'I wish you to have +the goodness, then, to inform Mrs Dombey, Carker, from me, that I must +recall our former conversation to her remembrance, in some surprise that +it has not yet had its effect. That I must insist upon her regulating +her conduct by the injunctions laid upon her in that conversation. That +I am not satisfied with her conduct. That I am greatly dissatisfied with +it. And that I shall be under the very disagreeable necessity of making +you the bearer of yet more unwelcome and explicit communications, if +she has not the good sense and the proper feeling to adapt herself to +my wishes, as the first Mrs Dombey did, and, I believe I may add, as any +other lady in her place would.' + +'The first Mrs Dombey lived very happily,' said Carker. + +'The first Mrs Dombey had great good sense,' said Mr Dombey, in a +gentlemanly toleration of the dead, 'and very correct feeling.' + +'Is Miss Dombey like her mother, do you think?' said Carker. + +Swiftly and darkly, Mr Dombey's face changed. His confidential agent +eyed it keenly. + +'I have approached a painful subject,' he said, in a soft regretful tone +of voice, irreconcilable with his eager eye. 'Pray forgive me. I forget +these chains of association in the interest I have. Pray forgive me.' + +But for all he said, his eager eye scanned Mr Dombey's downcast face +none the less closely; and then it shot a strange triumphant look at the +picture, as appealing to it to bear witness how he led him on again, and +what was coming. + +'Carker,' said Mr Dombey, looking here and there upon the table, and +saying in a somewhat altered and more hurried voice, and with a paler +lip, 'there is no occasion for apology. You mistake. The association is +with the matter in hand, and not with any recollection, as you suppose. +I do not approve of Mrs Dombey's behaviour towards my daughter.' + +'Pardon me,' said Mr Carker, 'I don't quite understand.' + +'Understand then,' returned Mr Dombey, 'that you may make that--that you +will make that, if you please--matter of direct objection from me to +Mrs Dombey. You will please to tell her that her show of devotion for my +daughter is disagreeable to me. It is likely to be noticed. It is likely +to induce people to contrast Mrs Dombey in her relation towards my +daughter, with Mrs Dombey in her relation towards myself. You will have +the goodness to let Mrs Dombey know, plainly, that I object to it; and +that I expect her to defer, immediately, to my objection. Mrs Dombey may +be in earnest, or she may be pursuing a whim, or she may be opposing me; +but I object to it in any case, and in every case. If Mrs Dombey is in +earnest, so much the less reluctant should she be to desist; for she +will not serve my daughter by any such display. If my wife has any +superfluous gentleness, and duty over and above her proper submission +to me, she may bestow them where she pleases, perhaps; but I will have +submission first!--Carker,' said Mr Dombey, checking the unusual emotion +with which he had spoken, and falling into a tone more like that in +which he was accustomed to assert his greatness, 'you will have the +goodness not to omit or slur this point, but to consider it a very +important part of your instructions.' + +Mr Carker bowed his head, and rising from the table, and standing +thoughtfully before the fire, with his hand to his smooth chin, looked +down at Mr Dombey with the evil slyness of some monkish carving, half +human and half brute; or like a leering face on an old water-spout. Mr +Dombey, recovering his composure by degrees, or cooling his emotion +in his sense of having taken a high position, sat gradually stiffening +again, and looking at the parrot as she swung to and fro, in her great +wedding ring. + +'I beg your pardon,' said Carker, after a silence, suddenly resuming his +chair, and drawing it opposite to Mr Dombey's, 'but let me understand. +Mrs Dombey is aware of the probability of your making me the organ of +your displeasure?' + +'Yes,' replied Mr Dombey. 'I have said so.' + +'Yes,' rejoined Carker, quickly; 'but why?' + +'Why!' Mr Dombey repeated, not without hesitation. 'Because I told her.' + +'Ay,' replied Carker. 'But why did you tell her? You see,' he continued +with a smile, and softly laying his velvet hand, as a cat might have +laid its sheathed claws, on Mr Dombey's arm; 'if I perfectly understand +what is in your mind, I am so much more likely to be useful, and to have +the happiness of being effectually employed. I think I do understand. I +have not the honour of Mrs Dombey's good opinion. In my position, I have +no reason to expect it; but I take the fact to be, that I have not got +it?' + +'Possibly not,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Consequently,' pursued Carker, 'your making the communications to Mrs +Dombey through me, is sure to be particularly unpalatable to that lady?' + +'It appears to me,' said Mr Dombey, with haughty reserve, and yet with +some embarrassment, 'that Mrs Dombey's views upon the subject form no +part of it as it presents itself to you and me, Carker. But it may be +so.' + +'And--pardon me--do I misconceive you,' said Carker, 'when I think you +descry in this, a likely means of humbling Mrs Dombey's pride--I use the +word as expressive of a quality which, kept within due bounds, +adorns and graces a lady so distinguished for her beauty and +accomplishments--and, not to say of punishing her, but of reducing her +to the submission you so naturally and justly require?' + +'I am not accustomed, Carker, as you know,' said Mr Dombey, 'to give +such close reasons for any course of conduct I think proper to adopt, +but I will gainsay nothing of this. If you have any objection to found +upon it, that is indeed another thing, and the mere statement that you +have one will be sufficient. But I have not supposed, I confess, that +any confidence I could entrust to you, would be likely to degrade you--' + +'Oh! I degraded!' exclaimed Carker. 'In your service!' + +'--or to place you,' pursued Mr Dombey, 'in a false position.' + +'I in a false position!' exclaimed Carker. 'I shall be +proud--delighted--to execute your trust. I could have wished, I own, +to have given the lady at whose feet I would lay my humble duty and +devotion--for is she not your wife!--no new cause of dislike; but a wish +from you is, of course, paramount to every other consideration on +earth. Besides, when Mrs Dombey is converted from these little errors +of judgment, incidental, I would presume to say, to the novelty of her +situation, I shall hope that she will perceive in the slight part I +take, only a grain--my removed and different sphere gives room for +little more--of the respect for you, and sacrifice of all considerations +to you, of which it will be her pleasure and privilege to garner up a +great store every day.' + +Mr Dombey seemed, at the moment, again to see her with her hand +stretched out towards the door, and again to hear through the mild +speech of his confidential agent an echo of the words, 'Nothing can make +us stranger to each other than we are henceforth!' But he shook off the +fancy, and did not shake in his resolution, and said, 'Certainly, no +doubt.' + +'There is nothing more,' quoth Carker, drawing his chair back to its old +place--for they had taken little breakfast as yet--and pausing for an +answer before he sat down. + +'Nothing,' said Mr Dombey, 'but this. You will be good enough to +observe, Carker, that no message to Mrs Dombey with which you are or +may be charged, admits of reply. You will be good enough to bring me no +reply. Mrs Dombey is informed that it does not become me to temporise or +treat upon any matter that is at issue between us, and that what I say +is final.' + +Mr Carker signified his understanding of these credentials, and they +fell to breakfast with what appetite they might. The Grinder also, in +due time reappeared, keeping his eyes upon his master without a +moment's respite, and passing the time in a reverie of worshipful tenor. +Breakfast concluded, Mr Dombey's horse was ordered out again, and Mr +Carker mounting his own, they rode off for the City together. + +Mr Carker was in capital spirits, and talked much. Mr Dombey received +his conversation with the sovereign air of a man who had a right to +be talked to, and occasionally condescended to throw in a few words to +carry on the conversation. So they rode on characteristically enough. +But Mr Dombey, in his dignity, rode with very long stirrups, and a very +loose rein, and very rarely deigned to look down to see where his horse +went. In consequence of which it happened that Mr Dombey's horse, while +going at a round trot, stumbled on some loose stones, threw him, rolled +over him, and lashing out with his iron-shod feet, in his struggles to +get up, kicked him. + +Mr Carker, quick of eye, steady of hand, and a good horseman, was afoot, +and had the struggling animal upon his legs and by the bridle, in a +moment. Otherwise that morning's confidence would have been Mr Dombey's +last. Yet even with the flush and hurry of this action red upon him, he +bent over his prostrate chief with every tooth disclosed, and muttered +as he stooped down, 'I have given good cause of offence to Mrs Dombey +now, if she knew it!' + +Mr Dombey being insensible, and bleeding from the head and face, was +carried by certain menders of the road, under Carker's direction, to +the nearest public-house, which was not far off, and where he was soon +attended by divers surgeons, who arrived in quick succession from all +parts, and who seemed to come by some mysterious instinct, as vultures +are said to gather about a camel who dies in the desert. After being +at some pains to restore him to consciousness, these gentlemen examined +into the nature of his injuries. One surgeon who lived hard by was strong +for a compound fracture of the leg, which was the landlord's opinion +also; but two surgeons who lived at a distance, and were only in that +neighbourhood by accident, combated this opinion so disinterestedly, that +it was decided at last that the patient, though severely cut and bruised, +had broken no bones but a lesser rib or so, and might be carefully taken +home before night. His injuries being dressed and bandaged, which was a +long operation, and he at length left to repose, Mr Carker mounted his +horse again, and rode away to carry the intelligence home. + +Crafty and cruel as his face was at the best of times, though it was a +sufficiently fair face as to form and regularity of feature, it was at +its worst when he set forth on this errand; animated by the craft and +cruelty of thoughts within him, suggestions of remote possibility rather +than of design or plot, that made him ride as if he hunted men and +women. Drawing rein at length, and slackening in his speed, as he came +into the more public roads, he checked his white-legged horse into +picking his way along as usual, and hid himself beneath his sleek, +hushed, crouched manner, and his ivory smile, as he best could. + +He rode direct to Mr Dombey's house, alighted at the door, and begged to +see Mrs Dombey on an affair of importance. The servant who showed him to +Mr Dombey's own room, soon returned to say that it was not Mrs Dombey's +hour for receiving visitors, and that he begged pardon for not having +mentioned it before. + +Mr Carker, who was quite prepared for a cold reception, wrote upon a +card that he must take the liberty of pressing for an interview, and +that he would not be so bold as to do so, for the second time (this +he underlined), if he were not equally sure of the occasion being +sufficient for his justification. After a trifling delay, Mrs Dombey's +maid appeared, and conducted him to a morning room upstairs, where Edith +and Florence were together. + +He had never thought Edith half so beautiful before. Much as he admired +the graces of her face and form, and freshly as they dwelt within his +sensual remembrance, he had never thought her half so beautiful. + +Her glance fell haughtily upon him in the doorway; but he looked +at Florence--though only in the act of bending his head, as he came +in--with some irrepressible expression of the new power he held; and +it was his triumph to see the glance droop and falter, and to see that +Edith half rose up to receive him. + +He was very sorry, he was deeply grieved; he couldn't say with what +unwillingness he came to prepare her for the intelligence of a very +slight accident. He entreated Mrs Dombey to compose herself. Upon his +sacred word of honour, there was no cause of alarm. But Mr Dombey-- + +Florence uttered a sudden cry. He did not look at her, but at Edith. +Edith composed and reassured her. She uttered no cry of distress. No, +no. + +Mr Dombey had met with an accident in riding. His horse had slipped, and +he had been thrown. + +Florence wildly exclaimed that he was badly hurt; that he was killed! + +No. Upon his honour, Mr Dombey, though stunned at first, was soon +recovered, and though certainly hurt was in no kind of danger. If this +were not the truth, he, the distressed intruder, never could have had +the courage to present himself before Mrs Dombey. It was the truth +indeed, he solemnly assured her. + +All this he said as if he were answering Edith, and not Florence, and +with his eyes and his smile fastened on Edith. + +He then went on to tell her where Mr Dombey was lying, and to request +that a carriage might be placed at his disposal to bring him home. + +'Mama,' faltered Florence in tears, 'if I might venture to go!' + +Mr Carker, having his eyes on Edith when he heard these words, gave her +a secret look and slightly shook his head. He saw how she battled with +herself before she answered him with her handsome eyes, but he wrested +the answer from her--he showed her that he would have it, or that he +would speak and cut Florence to the heart--and she gave it to him. As +he had looked at the picture in the morning, so he looked at her +afterwards, when she turned her eyes away. + +'I am directed to request,' he said, 'that the new housekeeper--Mrs +Pipchin, I think, is the name--' + +Nothing escaped him. He saw in an instant, that she was another slight +of Mr Dombey's on his wife. + +'--may be informed that Mr Dombey wishes to have his bed prepared in +his own apartments downstairs, as he prefers those rooms to any other. +I shall return to Mr Dombey almost immediately. That every possible +attention has been paid to his comfort, and that he is the object of +every possible solicitude, I need not assure you, Madam. Let me again +say, there is no cause for the least alarm. Even you may be quite at +ease, believe me.' + +He bowed himself out, with his extremest show of deference and +conciliation; and having returned to Mr Dombey's room, and there +arranged for a carriage being sent after him to the City, mounted his +horse again, and rode slowly thither. He was very thoughtful as he went +along, and very thoughtful there, and very thoughtful in the carriage +on his way back to the place where Mr Dombey had been left. It was only +when sitting by that gentleman's couch that he was quite himself again, +and conscious of his teeth. + +About the time of twilight, Mr Dombey, grievously afflicted with aches +and pains, was helped into his carriage, and propped with cloaks and +pillows on one side of it, while his confidential agent bore him company +upon the other. As he was not to be shaken, they moved at little more +than a foot pace; and hence it was quite dark when he was brought home. +Mrs Pipchin, bitter and grim, and not oblivious of the Peruvian mines, +as the establishment in general had good reason to know, received him at +the door, and freshened the domestics with several little sprinklings +of wordy vinegar, while they assisted in conveying him to his room. Mr +Carker remained in attendance until he was safe in bed, and then, as +he declined to receive any female visitor, but the excellent Ogress who +presided over his household, waited on Mrs Dombey once more, with his +report on her lord's condition. + +He again found Edith alone with Florence, and he again addressed the +whole of his soothing speech to Edith, as if she were a prey to the +liveliest and most affectionate anxieties. So earnest he was in his +respectful sympathy, that on taking leave, he ventured--with one more +glance towards Florence at the moment--to take her hand, and bending +over it, to touch it with his lips. + +Edith did not withdraw the hand, nor did she strike his fair face with +it, despite the flush upon her cheek, the bright light in her eyes, and +the dilation of her whole form. But when she was alone in her own room, +she struck it on the marble chimney-shelf, so that, at one blow, it was +bruised, and bled; and held it from her, near the shining fire, as if +she could have thrust it in and burned it. + +Far into the night she sat alone, by the sinking blaze, in dark and +threatening beauty, watching the murky shadows looming on the wall, as +if her thoughts were tangible, and cast them there. Whatever shapes +of outrage and affront, and black foreshadowings of things that might +happen, flickered, indistinct and giant-like, before her, one resented +figure marshalled them against her. And that figure was her husband. + + + +CHAPTER 43. The Watches of the Night + + +Florence, long since awakened from her dream, mournfully observed the +estrangement between her father and Edith, and saw it widen more and +more, and knew that there was greater bitterness between them every day. +Each day's added knowledge deepened the shade upon her love and hope, +roused up the old sorrow that had slumbered for a little time, and made +it even heavier to bear than it had been before. + +It had been hard--how hard may none but Florence ever know!--to have +the natural affection of a true and earnest nature turned to agony; and +slight, or stern repulse, substituted for the tenderest protection and +the dearest care. It had been hard to feel in her deep heart what she +had felt, and never know the happiness of one touch of response. But it +was much more hard to be compelled to doubt either her father or Edith, +so affectionate and dear to her, and to think of her love for each of +them, by turns, with fear, distrust, and wonder. + +Yet Florence now began to do so; and the doing of it was a task imposed +upon her by the very purity of her soul, as one she could not fly +from. She saw her father cold and obdurate to Edith, as to her; hard, +inflexible, unyielding. Could it be, she asked herself with starting +tears, that her own dear mother had been made unhappy by such treatment, +and had pined away and died? Then she would think how proud and stately +Edith was to everyone but her, with what disdain she treated him, how +distantly she kept apart from him, and what she had said on the night +when they came home; and quickly it would come on Florence, almost as a +crime, that she loved one who was set in opposition to her father, and +that her father knowing of it, must think of her in his solitary room as +the unnatural child who added this wrong to the old fault, so much wept +for, of never having won his fatherly affection from her birth. The next +kind word from Edith, the next kind glance, would shake these thoughts +again, and make them seem like black ingratitude; for who but she had +cheered the drooping heart of Florence, so lonely and so hurt, and been +its best of comforters! Thus, with her gentle nature yearning to them +both, feeling for the misery of both, and whispering doubts of her own +duty to both, Florence in her wider and expanded love, and by the side +of Edith, endured more than when she had hoarded up her undivided secret +in the mournful house, and her beautiful Mama had never dawned upon it. + +One exquisite unhappiness that would have far outweighed this, Florence +was spared. She never had the least suspicion that Edith by her +tenderness for her widened the separation from her father, or gave him +new cause of dislike. If Florence had conceived the possibility of such +an effect being wrought by such a cause, what grief she would have felt, +what sacrifice she would have tried to make, poor loving girl, how fast +and sure her quiet passage might have been beneath it to the presence +of that higher Father who does not reject his children's love, or spurn +their tried and broken hearts, Heaven knows! But it was otherwise, and +that was well. + +No word was ever spoken between Florence and Edith now, on these +subjects. Edith had said there ought to be between them, in that wise, a +division and a silence like the grave itself: and Florence felt she was +right. + +In this state of affairs her father was brought home, suffering and +disabled; and gloomily retired to his own rooms, where he was tended by +servants, not approached by Edith, and had no friend or companion but Mr +Carker, who withdrew near midnight. + +'And nice company he is, Miss Floy,' said Susan Nipper. 'Oh, he's a +precious piece of goods! If ever he wants a character don't let him come +to me whatever he does, that's all I tell him.' + +'Dear Susan,' urged Florence, 'don't!' + +'Oh, it's very well to say "don't" Miss Floy,' returned the Nipper, much +exasperated; 'but raly begging your pardon we're coming to such passes +that it turns all the blood in a person's body into pins and needles, +with their pints all ways. Don't mistake me, Miss Floy, I don't mean +nothing again your ma-in-law who has always treated me as a lady should +though she is rather high I must say not that I have any right to object +to that particular, but when we come to Mrs Pipchinses and having them +put over us and keeping guard at your Pa's door like crocodiles +(only make us thankful that they lay no eggs!) we are a growing too +outrageous!' + +'Papa thinks well of Mrs Pipchin, Susan,' returned Florence, 'and has a +right to choose his housekeeper, you know. Pray don't!' + +'Well Miss Floy,' returned the Nipper, 'when you say don't, I never do +I hope but Mrs Pipchin acts like early gooseberries upon me Miss, and +nothing less.' + +Susan was unusually emphatic and destitute of punctuation in her +discourse on this night, which was the night of Mr Dombey's being +brought home, because, having been sent downstairs by Florence to +inquire after him, she had been obliged to deliver her message to her +mortal enemy Mrs Pipchin; who, without carrying it in to Mr Dombey, had +taken upon herself to return what Miss Nipper called a huffish answer, +on her own responsibility. This, Susan Nipper construed into presumption +on the part of that exemplary sufferer by the Peruvian mines, and a deed +of disparagement upon her young lady, that was not to be forgiven; and +so far her emphatic state was special. But she had been in a condition +of greatly increased suspicion and distrust, ever since the marriage; +for, like most persons of her quality of mind, who form a strong and +sincere attachment to one in the different station which Florence +occupied, Susan was very jealous, and her jealousy naturally attached to +Edith, who divided her old empire, and came between them. Proud and glad +as Susan Nipper truly was, that her young mistress should be advanced +towards her proper place in the scene of her old neglect, and that +she should have her father's handsome wife for her companion and +protectress, she could not relinquish any part of her own dominion to +the handsome wife, without a grudge and a vague feeling of ill-will, +for which she did not fail to find a disinterested justification in her +sharp perception of the pride and passion of the lady's character. From +the background to which she had necessarily retired somewhat, since +the marriage, Miss Nipper looked on, therefore, at domestic affairs +in general, with a resolute conviction that no good would come of Mrs +Dombey: always being very careful to publish on all possible occasions, +that she had nothing to say against her. + +'Susan,' said Florence, who was sitting thoughtfully at her table, 'it +is very late. I shall want nothing more to-night.' + +'Ah, Miss Floy!' returned the Nipper, 'I'm sure I often wish for them +old times when I sat up with you hours later than this and fell asleep +through being tired out when you was as broad awake as spectacles, +but you've ma's-in-law to come and sit with you now Miss Floy and I'm +thankful for it I'm sure. I've not a word to say against 'em.' + +'I shall not forget who was my old companion when I had none, Susan,' +returned Florence, gently, 'never!' And looking up, she put her arm +round the neck of her humble friend, drew her face down to hers, and +bidding her good-night, kissed it; which so mollified Miss Nipper, that +she fell a sobbing. + +'Now my dear Miss Floy,' said Susan, 'let me go downstairs again and +see how your Pa is, I know you're wretched about him, do let me go +downstairs again and knock at his door my own self.' + +'No,' said Florence, 'go to bed. We shall hear more in the morning. +I will inquire myself in the morning. Mama has been down, I daresay;' +Florence blushed, for she had no such hope; 'or is there now, perhaps. +Good-night!' + +Susan was too much softened to express her private opinion on the +probability of Mrs Dombey's being in attendance on her husband, and +silently withdrew. Florence left alone, soon hid her head upon her hands +as she had often done in other days, and did not restrain the tears +from coursing down her face. The misery of this domestic discord and +unhappiness; the withered hope she cherished now, if hope it could be +called, of ever being taken to her father's heart; her doubts and fears +between the two; the yearning of her innocent breast to both; the heavy +disappointment and regret of such an end as this, to what had been a +vision of bright hope and promise to her; all crowded on her mind and +made her tears flow fast. Her mother and her brother dead, her father +unmoved towards her, Edith opposed to him and casting him away, but +loving her, and loved by her, it seemed as if her affection could never +prosper, rest where it would. That weak thought was soon hushed, but the +thoughts in which it had arisen were too true and strong to be dismissed +with it; and they made the night desolate. + +Among such reflections there rose up, as there had risen up all day, +the image of her father, wounded and in pain, alone in his own room, +untended by those who should be nearest to him, and passing the tardy +hours in lonely suffering. A frightened thought which made her start and +clasp her hands--though it was not a new one in her mind--that he might +die, and never see her or pronounce her name, thrilled her whole frame. +In her agitation she thought, and trembled while she thought, of once +more stealing downstairs, and venturing to his door. + +She listened at her own. The house was quiet, and all the lights were +out. It was a long, long time, she thought, since she used to make her +nightly pilgrimages to his door! It was a long, long time, she tried to +think, since she had entered his room at midnight, and he had led her +back to the stair-foot! + +With the same child's heart within her, as of old: even with the child's +sweet timid eyes and clustering hair: Florence, as strange to her +father in her early maiden bloom, as in her nursery time, crept down the +staircase listening as she went, and drew near to his room. No one was +stirring in the house. The door was partly open to admit air; and all +was so still within, that she could hear the burning of the fire, and +count the ticking of the clock that stood upon the chimney-piece. + +She looked in. In that room, the housekeeper wrapped in a blanket was +fast asleep in an easy chair before the fire. The doors between it and +the next were partly closed, and a screen was drawn before them; but +there was a light there, and it shone upon the cornice of his bed. All +was so very still that she could hear from his breathing that he was +asleep. This gave her courage to pass round the screen, and look into +his chamber. + +It was as great a start to come upon his sleeping face as if she had not +expected to see it. Florence stood arrested on the spot, and if he had +awakened then, must have remained there. + +There was a cut upon his forehead, and they had been wetting his hair, +which lay bedabbled and entangled on the pillow. One of his arms, +resting outside the bed, was bandaged up, and he was very white. But it +was not this, that after the first quick glance, and first assurance +of his sleeping quietly, held Florence rooted to the ground. It was +something very different from this, and more than this, that made him +look so solemn in her eye. + +She had never seen his face in all her life, but there had been upon +it--or she fancied so--some disturbing consciousness of her. She had +never seen his face in all her life, but hope had sunk within her, and +her timid glance had dropped before its stern, unloving, and repelling +harshness. As she looked upon it now, she saw it, for the first time, +free from the cloud that had darkened her childhood. Calm, tranquil +night was reigning in its stead. He might have gone to sleep, for +anything she saw there, blessing her. + +Awake, unkind father! Awake, now, sullen man! The time is flitting by; +the hour is coming with an angry tread. Awake! + +There was no change upon his face; and as she watched it, awfully, its +motionless response recalled the faces that were gone. So they looked, +so would he; so she, his weeping child, who should say when! so all the +world of love and hatred and indifference around them! When that time +should come, it would not be the heavier to him, for this that she was +going to do; and it might fall something lighter upon her. + +She stole close to the bed, and drawing in her breath, bent down, and +softly kissed him on the face, and laid her own for one brief moment +by its side, and put the arm, with which she dared not touch him, round +about him on the pillow. + +Awake, doomed man, while she is near! The time is flitting by; the hour +is coming with an angry tread; its foot is in the house. Awake! + +In her mind, she prayed to God to bless her father, and to soften him +towards her, if it might be so; and if not, to forgive him if he was +wrong, and pardon her the prayer which almost seemed impiety. And doing +so, and looking back at him with blinded eyes, and stealing timidly +away, passed out of his room, and crossed the other, and was gone. + +He may sleep on now. He may sleep on while he may. But let him look for +that slight figure when he wakes, and find it near him when the hour is +come! + +Sad and grieving was the heart of Florence, as she crept upstairs. The +quiet house had grown more dismal since she came down. The sleep she had +been looking on, in the dead of night, had the solemnity to her of death +and life in one. The secrecy and silence of her own proceeding made the +night secret, silent, and oppressive. She felt unwilling, almost unable, +to go on to her own chamber; and turning into the drawing-rooms, where +the clouded moon was shining through the blinds, looked out into the +empty streets. + +The wind was blowing drearily. The lamps looked pale, and shook as if +they were cold. There was a distant glimmer of something that was not +quite darkness, rather than of light, in the sky; and foreboding night +was shivering and restless, as the dying are who make a troubled end. +Florence remembered how, as a watcher, by a sick-bed, she had noted +this bleak time, and felt its influence, as if in some hidden natural +antipathy to it; and now it was very, very gloomy. + +Her Mama had not come to her room that night, which was one cause of her +having sat late out of her bed. In her general uneasiness, no less than +in her ardent longing to have somebody to speak to, and to break the +spell of gloom and silence, Florence directed her steps towards the +chamber where she slept. + +The door was not fastened within, and yielded smoothly to her hesitating +hand. She was surprised to find a bright light burning; still more +surprised, on looking in, to see that her Mama, but partially undressed, +was sitting near the ashes of the fire, which had crumbled and dropped +away. Her eyes were intently bent upon the air; and in their light, and +in her face, and in her form, and in the grasp with which she held the +elbows of her chair as if about to start up, Florence saw such fierce +emotion that it terrified her. + +'Mama!' she cried, 'what is the matter?' + +Edith started; looking at her with such a strange dread in her face, +that Florence was more frightened than before. + +'Mama!' said Florence, hurriedly advancing. 'Dear Mama! what is the +matter?' + +'I have not been well,' said Edith, shaking, and still looking at her in +the same strange way. 'I have had bad dreams, my love.' + +'And not yet been to bed, Mama?' + +'No,' she returned. 'Half-waking dreams.' + +Her features gradually softened; and suffering Florence to come closer +to her, within her embrace, she said in a tender manner, 'But what does +my bird do here? What does my bird do here?' + +'I have been uneasy, Mama, in not seeing you to-night, and in not +knowing how Papa was; and I--' + +Florence stopped there, and said no more. + +'Is it late?' asked Edith, fondly putting back the curls that mingled +with her own dark hair, and strayed upon her face. + +'Very late. Near day.' + +'Near day!' she repeated in surprise. + +'Dear Mama, what have you done to your hand?' said Florence. + +Edith drew it suddenly away, and, for a moment, looked at her with the +same strange dread (there was a sort of wild avoidance in it) as before; +but she presently said, 'Nothing, nothing. A blow.' And then she +said, 'My Florence!' and then her bosom heaved, and she was weeping +passionately. + +'Mama!' said Florence. 'Oh Mama, what can I do, what should I do, to +make us happier? Is there anything?' + +'Nothing,' she replied. + +'Are you sure of that? Can it never be? If I speak now of what is in my +thoughts, in spite of what we have agreed,' said Florence, 'you will not +blame me, will you?' + +'It is useless,' she replied, 'useless. I have told you, dear, that I +have had bad dreams. Nothing can change them, or prevent them coming +back.' + +'I do not understand,' said Florence, gazing on her agitated face which +seemed to darken as she looked. + +'I have dreamed,' said Edith in a low voice, 'of a pride that is all +powerless for good, all powerful for evil; of a pride that has been +galled and goaded, through many shameful years, and has never recoiled +except upon itself; a pride that has debased its owner with the +consciousness of deep humiliation, and never helped its owner boldly +to resent it or avoid it, or to say, "This shall not be!" a pride that, +rightly guided, might have led perhaps to better things, but which, +misdirected and perverted, like all else belonging to the same +possessor, has been self-contempt, mere hardihood and ruin.' + +She neither looked nor spoke to Florence now, but went on as if she were +alone. + +'I have dreamed,' she said, 'of such indifference and callousness, +arising from this self-contempt; this wretched, inefficient, miserable +pride; that it has gone on with listless steps even to the altar, +yielding to the old, familiar, beckoning finger,--oh mother, oh +mother!--while it spurned it; and willing to be hateful to itself for +once and for all, rather than to be stung daily in some new form. Mean, +poor thing!' + +And now with gathering and darkening emotion, she looked as she had +looked when Florence entered. + +'And I have dreamed,' she said, 'that in a first late effort to achieve +a purpose, it has been trodden on, and trodden down by a base foot, but +turns and looks upon him. I have dreamed that it is wounded, hunted, set +upon by dogs, but that it stands at bay, and will not yield; no, that it +cannot if it would; but that it is urged on to hate.' + +Her clenched hand tightened on the trembling arm she had in hers, and as +she looked down on the alarmed and wondering face, frown subsided. 'Oh +Florence!' she said, 'I think I have been nearly mad to-night!' and +humbled her proud head upon her neck and wept again. + +'Don't leave me! be near me! I have no hope but in you!' These words she +said a score of times. + +Soon she grew calmer, and was full of pity for the tears of Florence, +and for her waking at such untimely hours. And the day now dawning, with +folded her in her arms and laid her down upon her bed, and, not lying +down herself, sat by her, and bade her try to sleep. + +'For you are weary, dearest, and unhappy, and should rest.' + +'I am indeed unhappy, dear Mama, tonight,' said Florence. 'But you are +weary and unhappy, too.' + +'Not when you lie asleep so near me, sweet.' + +They kissed each other, and Florence, worn out, gradually fell into a +gentle slumber; but as her eyes closed on the face beside her, it was +so sad to think upon the face downstairs, that her hand drew closer +to Edith for some comfort; yet, even in the act, it faltered, lest it +should be deserting him. So, in her sleep, she tried to reconcile the +two together, and to show them that she loved them both, but could not +do it, and her waking grief was part of her dreams. + +Edith, sitting by, looked down at the dark eyelashes lying wet on the +flushed cheeks, and looked with gentleness and pity, for she knew the +truth. But no sleep hung upon her own eyes. As the day came on she still +sat watching and waking, with the placid hand in hers, and sometimes +whispered, as she looked at the hushed face, 'Be near me, Florence. I +have no hope but in you!' + + + +CHAPTER 44. A Separation + + +With the day, though not so early as the sun, uprose Miss Susan Nipper. +There was a heaviness in this young maiden's exceedingly sharp black +eyes, that abated somewhat of their sparkling, and suggested--which +was not their usual character--the possibility of their being sometimes +shut. There was likewise a swollen look about them, as if they had been +crying over-night. But the Nipper, so far from being cast down, was +singularly brisk and bold, and all her energies appeared to be braced +up for some great feat. This was noticeable even in her dress, which was +much more tight and trim than usual; and in occasional twitches of her +head as she went about the house, which were mightily expressive of +determination. + +In a word, she had formed a determination, and an aspiring one: it being +nothing less than this--to penetrate to Mr Dombey's presence, and +have speech of that gentleman alone. 'I have often said I would,' she +remarked, in a threatening manner, to herself, that morning, with many +twitches of her head, 'and now I will!' + +Spurring herself on to the accomplishment of this desperate design, with +a sharpness that was peculiar to herself, Susan Nipper haunted the hall +and staircase during the whole forenoon, without finding a favourable +opportunity for the assault. Not at all baffled by this discomfiture, +which indeed had a stimulating effect, and put her on her mettle, she +diminished nothing of her vigilance; and at last discovered, towards +evening, that her sworn foe Mrs Pipchin, under pretence of having sat up +all night, was dozing in her own room, and that Mr Dombey was lying on +his sofa, unattended. + +With a twitch--not of her head merely, this time, but of her whole +self--the Nipper went on tiptoe to Mr Dombey's door, and knocked. 'Come +in!' said Mr Dombey. Susan encouraged herself with a final twitch, and +went in. + +Mr Dombey, who was eyeing the fire, gave an amazed look at his visitor, +and raised himself a little on his arm. The Nipper dropped a curtsey. + +'What do you want?' said Mr Dombey. + +'If you please, Sir, I wish to speak to you,' said Susan. + +Mr Dombey moved his lips as if he were repeating the words, but he +seemed so lost in astonishment at the presumption of the young woman as +to be incapable of giving them utterance. + +'I have been in your service, Sir,' said Susan Nipper, with her usual +rapidity, 'now twelve 'year a waiting on Miss Floy my own young lady who +couldn't speak plain when I first come here and I was old in this house +when Mrs Richards was new, I may not be Meethosalem, but I am not a +child in arms.' + +Mr Dombey, raised upon his arm and looking at her, offered no comment on +this preparatory statement of fact. + +'There never was a dearer or a blesseder young lady than is my young +lady, Sir,' said Susan, 'and I ought to know a great deal better than +some for I have seen her in her grief and I have seen her in her joy +(there's not been much of it) and I have seen her with her brother and I +have seen her in her loneliness and some have never seen her, and I +say to some and all--I do!' and here the black-eyed shook her head, and +slightly stamped her foot; 'that she's the blessedest and dearest angel +is Miss Floy that ever drew the breath of life, the more that I was torn +to pieces Sir the more I'd say it though I may not be a Fox's Martyr.' + +Mr Dombey turned yet paler than his fall had made him, with indignation +and astonishment; and kept his eyes upon the speaker as if he accused +them, and his ears too, of playing him false. + +'No one could be anything but true and faithful to Miss Floy, Sir,' +pursued Susan, 'and I take no merit for my service of twelve year, for +I love her--yes, I say to some and all I do!'--and here the black-eyed +shook her head again, and slightly stamped her foot again, and checked a +sob; 'but true and faithful service gives me right to speak I hope, and +speak I must and will now, right or wrong.' + +'What do you mean, woman?' said Mr Dombey, glaring at her. 'How do you +dare?' + +'What I mean, Sir, is to speak respectful and without offence, but out, +and how I dare I know not but I do!' said Susan. 'Oh! you don't know my +young lady Sir you don't indeed, you'd never know so little of her, if +you did.' + +Mr Dombey, in a fury, put his hand out for the bell-rope; but there was +no bell-rope on that side of the fire, and he could not rise and cross +to the other without assistance. The quick eye of the Nipper detected +his helplessness immediately, and now, as she afterwards observed, she +felt she had got him. + +'Miss Floy,' said Susan Nipper, 'is the most devoted and most patient +and most dutiful and beautiful of daughters, there ain't no gentleman, +no Sir, though as great and rich as all the greatest and richest of +England put together, but might be proud of her and would and ought. If +he knew her value right, he'd rather lose his greatness and his fortune +piece by piece and beg his way in rags from door to door, I say to some +and all, he would!' cried Susan Nipper, bursting into tears, 'than +bring the sorrow on her tender heart that I have seen it suffer in this +house!' + +'Woman,' cried Mr Dombey, 'leave the room.' + +'Begging your pardon, not even if I am to leave the situation, Sir,' +replied the steadfast Nipper, 'in which I have been so many years and +seen so much--although I hope you'd never have the heart to send me from +Miss Floy for such a cause--will I go now till I have said the rest, I +may not be a Indian widow Sir and I am not and I would not so become but +if I once made up my mind to burn myself alive, I'd do it! And I've made +my mind up to go on.' + +Which was rendered no less clear by the expression of Susan Nipper's +countenance, than by her words. + +'There ain't a person in your service, Sir,' pursued the black-eyed, +'that has always stood more in awe of you than me and you may think how +true it is when I make so bold as say that I have hundreds and hundreds +of times thought of speaking to you and never been able to make my mind +up to it till last night, but last night decided of me.' + +Mr Dombey, in a paroxysm of rage, made another grasp at the bell-rope +that was not there, and, in its absence, pulled his hair rather than +nothing. + +'I have seen,' said Susan Nipper, 'Miss Floy strive and strive when +nothing but a child so sweet and patient that the best of women might +have copied from her, I've seen her sitting nights together half the +night through to help her delicate brother with his learning, I've +seen her helping him and watching him at other times--some well know +when--I've seen her, with no encouragement and no help, grow up to be a +lady, thank God! that is the grace and pride of every company she goes +in, and I've always seen her cruelly neglected and keenly feeling +of it--I say to some and all, I have!--and never said one word, but +ordering one's self lowly and reverently towards one's betters, is not +to be a worshipper of graven images, and I will and must speak!' + +'Is there anybody there?' cried Mr Dombey, calling out. 'Where are the +men? where are the women? Is there no one there?' + +'I left my dear young lady out of bed late last night,' said Susan, +nothing checked, 'and I knew why, for you was ill Sir and she didn't +know how ill and that was enough to make her wretched as I saw it did. +I may not be a Peacock; but I have my eyes--and I sat up a little in my +own room thinking she might be lonesome and might want me, and I saw her +steal downstairs and come to this door as if it was a guilty thing to +look at her own Pa, and then steal back again and go into them lonely +drawing-rooms, a-crying so, that I could hardly bear to hear it. I can +not bear to hear it,' said Susan Nipper, wiping her black eyes, and +fixing them undauntingly on Mr Dombey's infuriated face. 'It's not the +first time I have heard it, not by many and many a time you don't know +your own daughter, Sir, you don't know what you're doing, Sir, I say to +some and all,' cried Susan Nipper, in a final burst, 'that it's a sinful +shame!' + +'Why, hoity toity!' cried the voice of Mrs Pipchin, as the black +bombazeen garments of that fair Peruvian Miner swept into the room. +'What's this, indeed?' + +Susan favoured Mrs Pipchin with a look she had invented expressly for +her when they first became acquainted, and resigned the reply to Mr +Dombey. + +'What's this?' repeated Mr Dombey, almost foaming. 'What's this, Madam? +You who are at the head of this household, and bound to keep it in +order, have reason to inquire. Do you know this woman?' + +'I know very little good of her, Sir,' croaked Mrs Pipchin. 'How dare +you come here, you hussy? Go along with you!' + +But the inflexible Nipper, merely honouring Mrs Pipchin with another +look, remained. + +'Do you call it managing this establishment, Madam,' said Mr Dombey, +'to leave a person like this at liberty to come and talk to me! +A gentleman--in his own house--in his own room--assailed with the +impertinences of women-servants!' + +'Well, Sir,' returned Mrs Pipchin, with vengeance in her hard grey eye, +'I exceedingly deplore it; nothing can be more irregular; nothing can be +more out of all bounds and reason; but I regret to say, Sir, that +this young woman is quite beyond control. She has been spoiled by +Miss Dombey, and is amenable to nobody. You know you're not,' said Mrs +Pipchin, sharply, and shaking her head at Susan Nipper. 'For shame, you +hussy! Go along with you!' + +'If you find people in my service who are not to be controlled, Mrs +Pipchin,' said Mr Dombey, turning back towards the fire, 'you know what +to do with them, I presume. You know what you are here for? Take her +away!' + +'Sir, I know what to do,' retorted Mrs Pipchin, 'and of course shall +do it. Susan Nipper,' snapping her up particularly short, 'a month's +warning from this hour.' + +'Oh indeed!' cried Susan, loftily. + +'Yes,' returned Mrs Pipchin, 'and don't smile at me, you minx, or I'll +know the reason why! Go along with you this minute!' + +'I intend to go this minute, you may rely upon it,' said the voluble +Nipper. 'I have been in this house waiting on my young lady a dozen year +and I won't stop in it one hour under notice from a person owning to the +name of Pipchin trust me, Mrs P.' + +'A good riddance of bad rubbish!' said that wrathful old lady. 'Get +along with you, or I'll have you carried out!' + +'My comfort is,' said Susan, looking back at Mr Dombey, 'that I have +told a piece of truth this day which ought to have been told long +before and can't be told too often or too plain and that no amount of +Pipchinses--I hope the number of 'em mayn't be great' (here Mrs Pipchin +uttered a very sharp 'Go along with you!' and Miss Nipper repeated the +look) 'can unsay what I have said, though they gave a whole year full of +warnings beginning at ten o'clock in the forenoon and never leaving +off till twelve at night and died of the exhaustion which would be a +Jubilee!' + +With these words, Miss Nipper preceded her foe out of the room; and +walking upstairs to her own apartments in great state, to the choking +exasperation of the ireful Pipchin, sat down among her boxes and began +to cry. + +From this soft mood she was soon aroused, with a very wholesome and +refreshing effect, by the voice of Mrs Pipchin outside the door. + +'Does that bold-faced slut,' said the fell Pipchin, 'intend to take her +warning, or does she not?' + +Miss Nipper replied from within that the person described did not +inhabit that part of the house, but that her name was Pipchin, and she +was to be found in the housekeeper's room. + +'You saucy baggage!' retorted Mrs Pipchin, rattling at the handle of the +door. 'Go along with you this minute. Pack up your things directly! How +dare you talk in this way to a gentle-woman who has seen better days?' + +To which Miss Nipper rejoined from her castle, that she pitied the +better days that had seen Mrs Pipchin; and that for her part she +considered the worst days in the year to be about that lady's mark, +except that they were much too good for her. + +'But you needn't trouble yourself to make a noise at my door,' said +Susan Nipper, 'nor to contaminate the key-hole with your eye, I'm +packing up and going you may take your affidavit.' + +The Dowager expressed her lively satisfaction at this intelligence, and +with some general opinions upon young hussies as a race, and especially +upon their demerits after being spoiled by Miss Dombey, withdrew to +prepare the Nipper's wages. Susan then bestirred herself to get +her trunks in order, that she might take an immediate and dignified +departure; sobbing heartily all the time, as she thought of Florence. + +The object of her regret was not long in coming to her, for the news +soon spread over the house that Susan Nipper had had a disturbance with +Mrs Pipchin, and that they had both appealed to Mr Dombey, and that +there had been an unprecedented piece of work in Mr Dombey's room, and +that Susan was going. The latter part of this confused rumour, Florence +found to be so correct, that Susan had locked the last trunk and was +sitting upon it with her bonnet on, when she came into her room. + +'Susan!' cried Florence. 'Going to leave me! You!' + +'Oh for goodness gracious sake, Miss Floy,' said Susan, sobbing, 'don't +speak a word to me or I shall demean myself before them Pi-i-pchinses, +and I wouldn't have 'em see me cry Miss Floy for worlds!' + +'Susan!' said Florence. 'My dear girl, my old friend! What shall I do +without you! Can you bear to go away so?' + +'No-n-o-o, my darling dear Miss Floy, I can't indeed,' sobbed Susan. +'But it can't be helped, I've done my duty, Miss, I have indeed. It's no +fault of mine. I am quite resigned. I couldn't stay my month or I could +never leave you then my darling and I must at last as well as at first, +don't speak to me Miss Floy, for though I'm pretty firm I'm not a marble +doorpost, my own dear.' + +'What is it? Why is it?' said Florence, 'Won't you tell me?' For Susan +was shaking her head. + +'No-n-no, my darling,' returned Susan. 'Don't ask me, for I mustn't, and +whatever you do don't put in a word for me to stop, for it couldn't be +and you'd only wrong yourself, and so God bless you my own precious +and forgive me any harm I have done, or any temper I have showed in all +these many years!' + +With which entreaty, very heartily delivered, Susan hugged her mistress +in her arms. + +'My darling there's a many that may come to serve you and be glad to +serve you and who'll serve you well and true,' said Susan, 'but there +can't be one who'll serve you so affectionate as me or love you half as +dearly, that's my comfort. Go-ood-bye, sweet Miss Floy!' + +'Where will you go, Susan?' asked her weeping mistress. + +'I've got a brother down in the country Miss--a farmer in Essex,' said +the heart-broken Nipper, 'that keeps ever so many co-o-ows and pigs and +I shall go down there by the coach and sto-op with him, and don't mind +me, for I've got money in the Savings Banks my dear, and needn't take +another service just yet, which I couldn't, couldn't, couldn't do, my +heart's own mistress!' Susan finished with a burst of sorrow, which was +opportunely broken by the voice of Mrs Pipchin talking downstairs; on +hearing which, she dried her red and swollen eyes, and made a melancholy +feint of calling jauntily to Mr Towlinson to fetch a cab and carry down +her boxes. + +Florence, pale and hurried and distressed, but withheld from useless +interference even here, by her dread of causing any new division between +her father and his wife (whose stern, indignant face had been a warning +to her a few moments since), and by her apprehension of being in some +way unconsciously connected already with the dismissal of her +old servant and friend, followed, weeping, downstairs to Edith's +dressing-room, whither Susan betook herself to make her parting curtsey. + +'Now, here's the cab, and here's the boxes, get along with you, do!' +said Mrs Pipchin, presenting herself at the same moment. 'I beg your +pardon, Ma'am, but Mr Dombey's orders are imperative.' + +Edith, sitting under the hands of her maid--she was going out to +dinner--preserved her haughty face, and took not the least notice. + +'There's your money,' said Mrs Pipchin, who in pursuance of her system, +and in recollection of the Mines, was accustomed to rout the servants +about, as she had routed her young Brighton boarders; to the everlasting +acidulation of Master Bitherstone, 'and the sooner this house sees your +back the better.' + +Susan had no spirits even for the look that belonged to Ma Pipchin by +right; so she dropped her curtsey to Mrs Dombey (who inclined her head +without one word, and whose eye avoided everyone but Florence), and gave +one last parting hug to her young mistress, and received her parting +embrace in return. Poor Susan's face at this crisis, in the intensity of +her feelings and the determined suffocation of her sobs, lest one should +become audible and be a triumph to Mrs Pipchin, presented a series of +the most extraordinary physiognomical phenomena ever witnessed. + +'I beg your pardon, Miss, I'm sure,' said Towlinson, outside the +door with the boxes, addressing Florence, 'but Mr Toots is in the +drawing-room, and sends his compliments, and begs to know how Diogenes +and Master is.' + +Quick as thought, Florence glided out and hastened downstairs, where +Mr Toots, in the most splendid vestments, was breathing very hard with +doubt and agitation on the subject of her coming. + +'Oh, how de do, Miss Dombey,' said Mr Toots, 'God bless my soul!' + +This last ejaculation was occasioned by Mr Toots's deep concern at the +distress he saw in Florence's face; which caused him to stop short in a +fit of chuckles, and become an image of despair. + +'Dear Mr Toots,' said Florence, 'you are so friendly to me, and so +honest, that I am sure I may ask a favour of you.' + +'Miss Dombey,' returned Mr Toots, 'if you'll only name one, +you'll--you'll give me an appetite. To which,' said Mr Toots, with some +sentiment, 'I have long been a stranger.' + +'Susan, who is an old friend of mine, the oldest friend I have,' said +Florence, 'is about to leave here suddenly, and quite alone, poor girl. +She is going home, a little way into the country. Might I ask you to +take care of her until she is in the coach?' + +'Miss Dombey,' returned Mr Toots, 'you really do me an honour and a +kindness. This proof of your confidence, after the manner in which I was +Beast enough to conduct myself at Brighton--' + +'Yes,' said Florence, hurriedly--'no--don't think of that. Then would +you have the kindness to--to go? and to be ready to meet her when she +comes out? Thank you a thousand times! You ease my mind so much. She +doesn't seem so desolate. You cannot think how grateful I feel to +you, or what a good friend I am sure you are!' and Florence in +her earnestness thanked him again and again; and Mr Toots, in his +earnestness, hurried away--but backwards, that he might lose no glimpse +of her. + +Florence had not the courage to go out, when she saw poor Susan in the +hall, with Mrs Pipchin driving her forth, and Diogenes jumping about +her, and terrifying Mrs Pipchin to the last degree by making snaps +at her bombazeen skirts, and howling with anguish at the sound of her +voice--for the good duenna was the dearest and most cherished aversion +of his breast. But she saw Susan shake hands with the servants all +round, and turn once to look at her old home; and she saw Diogenes bound +out after the cab, and want to follow it, and testify an impossibility +of conviction that he had no longer any property in the fare; and the +door was shut, and the hurry over, and her tears flowed fast for the +loss of an old friend, whom no one could replace. No one. No one. + +Mr Toots, like the leal and trusty soul he was, stopped the cabriolet in +a twinkling, and told Susan Nipper of his commission, at which she cried +more than before. + +'Upon my soul and body!' said Mr Toots, taking his seat beside her. 'I +feel for you. Upon my word and honour I think you can hardly know your +own feelings better than I imagine them. I can conceive nothing more +dreadful than to have to leave Miss Dombey.' + +Susan abandoned herself to her grief now, and it really was touching to +see her. + +'I say,' said Mr Toots, 'now, don't! at least I mean now do, you know!' + +'Do what, Mr Toots!' cried Susan. + +'Why, come home to my place, and have some dinner before you start,' +said Mr Toots. 'My cook's a most respectable woman--one of the most +motherly people I ever saw--and she'll be delighted to make you +comfortable. Her son,' said Mr Toots, as an additional recommendation, +'was educated in the Bluecoat School, and blown up in a powder-mill.' + +Susan accepting this kind offer, Mr Toots conducted her to his dwelling, +where they were received by the Matron in question who fully justified +his character of her, and by the Chicken who at first supposed, on +seeing a lady in the vehicle, that Mr Dombey had been doubled up, ably +to his old recommendation, and Miss Dombey abducted. This gentleman +awakened in Miss Nipper some considerable astonishment; for, having +been defeated by the Larkey Boy, his visage was in a state of such great +dilapidation, as to be hardly presentable in society with comfort to the +beholders. The Chicken himself attributed this punishment to his having +had the misfortune to get into Chancery early in the proceedings, when +he was severely fibbed by the Larkey one, and heavily grassed. But +it appeared from the published records of that great contest that the +Larkey Boy had had it all his own way from the beginning, and that the +Chicken had been tapped, and bunged, and had received pepper, and had +been made groggy, and had come up piping, and had endured a complication +of similar strange inconveniences, until he had been gone into and +finished. + +After a good repast, and much hospitality, Susan set out for the +coach-office in another cabriolet, with Mr Toots inside, as before, and +the Chicken on the box, who, whatever distinction he conferred on the +little party by the moral weight and heroism of his character, was +scarcely ornamental to it, physically speaking, on account of his +plasters; which were numerous. But the Chicken had registered a vow, in +secret, that he would never leave Mr Toots (who was secretly pining +to get rid of him), for any less consideration than the good-will and +fixtures of a public-house; and being ambitious to go into that line, +and drink himself to death as soon as possible, he felt it his cue to +make his company unacceptable. + +The night-coach by which Susan was to go, was on the point of departure. +Mr Toots having put her inside, lingered by the window, irresolutely, +until the driver was about to mount; when, standing on the step, +and putting in a face that by the light of the lamp was anxious and +confused, he said abruptly: + +'I say, Susan! Miss Dombey, you know--' + +'Yes, Sir.' + +'Do you think she could--you know--eh?' + +'I beg your pardon, Mr Toots,' said Susan, 'but I don't hear you.' + +'Do you think she could be brought, you know--not exactly at once, but +in time--in a long time--to--to love me, you know? There!' said poor Mr +Toots. + +'Oh dear no!' returned Susan, shaking her head. 'I should say, never. +Never!' + +'Thank'ee!' said Mr Toots. 'It's of no consequence. Good-night. It's of +no consequence, thank'ee!' + + + +CHAPTER 45. The Trusty Agent + + +Edith went out alone that day, and returned home early. It was but a few +minutes after ten o'clock, when her carriage rolled along the street in +which she lived. + +There was the same enforced composure on her face, that there had been +when she was dressing; and the wreath upon her head encircled the same +cold and steady brow. But it would have been better to have seen its +leaves and flowers reft into fragments by her passionate hand, or +rendered shapeless by the fitful searches of a throbbing and bewildered +brain for any resting-place, than adorning such tranquillity. So +obdurate, so unapproachable, so unrelenting, one would have thought that +nothing could soften such a woman's nature, and that everything in life +had hardened it. + +Arrived at her own door, she was alighting, when some one coming quietly +from the hall, and standing bareheaded, offered her his arm. The servant +being thrust aside, she had no choice but to touch it; and she then knew +whose arm it was. + +'How is your patient, Sir?' she asked, with a curled lip. + +'He is better,' returned Carker. 'He is doing very well. I have left him +for the night.' + +She bent her head, and was passing up the staircase, when he followed +and said, speaking at the bottom: + +'Madam! May I beg the favour of a minute's audience?' + +She stopped and turned her eyes back 'It is an unseasonable time, Sir, +and I am fatigued. Is your business urgent?' + +'It is very urgent, returned Carker. 'As I am so fortunate as to have +met you, let me press my petition.' + +She looked down for a moment at his glistening mouth; and he looked up +at her, standing above him in her stately dress, and thought, again, how +beautiful she was. + +'Where is Miss Dombey?' she asked the servant, aloud. + +'In the morning room, Ma'am.' + +'Show the way there!' Turning her eyes again on the attentive gentleman +at the bottom of the stairs, and informing him with a slight motion of +her head, that he was at liberty to follow, she passed on. + +'I beg your pardon! Madam! Mrs Dombey!' cried the soft and nimble +Carker, at her side in a moment. 'May I be permitted to entreat that +Miss Dombey is not present?' + +She confronted him, with a quick look, but with the same self-possession +and steadiness. + +'I would spare Miss Dombey,' said Carker, in a low voice, 'the knowledge +of what I have to say. At least, Madam, I would leave it to you to +decide whether she shall know of it or not. I owe that to you. It is my +bounden duty to you. After our former interview, it would be monstrous +in me if I did otherwise.' + +She slowly withdrew her eyes from his face, and turning to the servant, +said, 'Some other room.' He led the way to a drawing-room, which he +speedily lighted up and then left them. While he remained, not a word +was spoken. Edith enthroned herself upon a couch by the fire; and Mr +Carker, with his hat in his hand and his eyes bent upon the carpet, +stood before her, at some little distance. + +'Before I hear you, Sir,' said Edith, when the door was closed, 'I wish +you to hear me.' + +'To be addressed by Mrs Dombey,' he returned, 'even in accents of +unmerited reproach, is an honour I so greatly esteem, that although I +were not her servant in all things, I should defer to such a wish, most +readily.' + +'If you are charged by the man whom you have just now left, Sir;' Mr +Carker raised his eyes, as if he were going to counterfeit surprise, +but she met them, and stopped him, if such were his intention; 'with any +message to me, do not attempt to deliver it, for I will not receive +it. I need scarcely ask you if you are come on such an errand. I have +expected you some time.' + +'It is my misfortune,' he replied, 'to be here, wholly against my will, +for such a purpose. Allow me to say that I am here for two purposes. +That is one.' + +'That one, Sir,' she returned, 'is ended. Or, if you return to it--' + +'Can Mrs Dombey believe,' said Carker, coming nearer, 'that I would +return to it in the face of her prohibition? Is it possible that Mrs +Dombey, having no regard to my unfortunate position, is so determined to +consider me inseparable from my instructor as to do me great and wilful +injustice?' + +'Sir,' returned Edith, bending her dark gaze full upon him, and speaking +with a rising passion that inflated her proud nostril and her swelling +neck, and stirred the delicate white down upon a robe she wore, thrown +loosely over shoulders that could hear its snowy neighbourhood. 'Why do +you present yourself to me, as you have done, and speak to me of love +and duty to my husband, and pretend to think that I am happily married, +and that I honour him? How dare you venture so to affront me, when you +know--I do not know better, Sir: I have seen it in your every glance, +and heard it in your every word--that in place of affection between us +there is aversion and contempt, and that I despise him hardly less than +I despise myself for being his! Injustice! If I had done justice to the +torment you have made me feel, and to my sense of the insult you have +put upon me, I should have slain you!' + +She had asked him why he did this. Had she not been blinded by her pride +and wrath, and self-humiliation,--which she was, fiercely as she bent +her gaze upon him,--she would have seen the answer in his face. To bring +her to this declaration. + +She saw it not, and cared not whether it was there or no. She saw only +the indignities and struggles she had undergone and had to undergo, and +was writhing under them. As she sat looking fixedly at them, rather +than at him, she plucked the feathers from a pinion of some rare and +beautiful bird, which hung from her wrist by a golden thread, to serve +her as a fan, and rained them on the ground. + +He did not shrink beneath her gaze, but stood, until such outward signs +of her anger as had escaped her control subsided, with the air of a man +who had his sufficient reply in reserve and would presently deliver it. +And he then spoke, looking straight into her kindling eyes. + +'Madam,' he said, 'I know, and knew before to-day, that I have found +no favour with you; and I knew why. Yes. I knew why. You have spoken so +openly to me; I am so relieved by the possession of your confidence--' + +'Confidence!' she repeated, with disdain. + +He passed it over. + +'--that I will make no pretence of concealment. I did see from the +first, that there was no affection on your part for Mr Dombey--how could +it possibly exist between such different subjects? And I have seen, +since, that stronger feelings than indifference have been engendered in +your breast--how could that possibly be otherwise, either, circumstanced +as you have been? But was it for me to presume to avow this knowledge to +you in so many words?' + +'Was it for you, Sir,' she replied, 'to feign that other belief, and +audaciously to thrust it on me day by day?' + +'Madam, it was,' he eagerly retorted. 'If I had done less, if I had +done anything but that, I should not be speaking to you thus; and I +foresaw--who could better foresee, for who has had greater experience of +Mr Dombey than myself?--that unless your character should prove to be as +yielding and obedient as that of his first submissive lady, which I did +not believe--' + +A haughty smile gave him reason to observe that he might repeat this. + +'I say, which I did not believe,--the time was likely to come, when such +an understanding as we have now arrived at, would be serviceable.' + +'Serviceable to whom, Sir?' she demanded scornfully. + +'To you. I will not add to myself, as warning me to refrain even from +that limited commendation of Mr Dombey, in which I can honestly +indulge, in order that I may not have the misfortune of saying anything +distasteful to one whose aversion and contempt,' with great expression, +'are so keen.' + +'Is it honest in you, Sir,' said Edith, 'to confess to your "limited +commendation," and to speak in that tone of disparagement, even of him: +being his chief counsellor and flatterer!' + +'Counsellor,--yes,' said Carker. 'Flatterer,--no. A little reservation I +fear I must confess to. But our interest and convenience commonly oblige +many of us to make professions that we cannot feel. We have partnerships +of interest and convenience, friendships of interest and convenience, +dealings of interest and convenience, marriages of interest and +convenience, every day.' + +She bit her blood-red lip; but without wavering in the dark, stern watch +she kept upon him. + +'Madam,' said Mr Carker, sitting down in a chair that was near her, with +an air of the most profound and most considerate respect, 'why should +I hesitate now, being altogether devoted to your service, to speak +plainly? It was natural that a lady, endowed as you are, should think it +feasible to change her husband's character in some respects, and mould +him to a better form.' + +'It was not natural to me, Sir,' she rejoined. 'I had never any +expectation or intention of that kind.' + +The proud undaunted face showed him it was resolute to wear no mask he +offered, but was set upon a reckless disclosure of itself, indifferent +to any aspect in which it might present itself to such as he. + +'At least it was natural,' he resumed, 'that you should deem it quite +possible to live with Mr Dombey as his wife, at once without submitting +to him, and without coming into such violent collision with him. But, +Madam, you did not know Mr Dombey (as you have since ascertained), when +you thought that. You did not know how exacting and how proud he is, +or how he is, if I may say so, the slave of his own greatness, and goes +yoked to his own triumphal car like a beast of burden, with no idea on +earth but that it is behind him and is to be drawn on, over everything +and through everything.' + +His teeth gleamed through his malicious relish of this conceit, as he +went on talking: + +'Mr Dombey is really capable of no more true consideration for you, +Madam, than for me. The comparison is an extreme one; I intend it to +be so; but quite just. Mr Dombey, in the plenitude of his power, asked +me--I had it from his own lips yesterday morning--to be his go-between +to you, because he knows I am not agreeable to you, and because he +intends that I shall be a punishment for your contumacy; and besides +that, because he really does consider, that I, his paid servant, am an +ambassador whom it is derogatory to the dignity--not of the lady to whom +I have the happiness of speaking; she has no existence in his mind--but +of his wife, a part of himself, to receive. You may imagine how +regardless of me, how obtuse to the possibility of my having any +individual sentiment or opinion he is, when he tells me, openly, that I +am so employed. You know how perfectly indifferent to your feelings he +is, when he threatens you with such a messenger. As you, of course, have +not forgotten that he did.' + +She watched him still attentively. But he watched her too; and he saw +that this indication of a knowledge on his part, of something that +had passed between herself and her husband, rankled and smarted in her +haughty breast, like a poisoned arrow. + +'I do not recall all this to widen the breach between yourself and +Mr Dombey, Madam--Heaven forbid! what would it profit me?--but as an +example of the hopelessness of impressing Mr Dombey with a sense that +anybody is to be considered when he is in question. We who are about +him, have, in our various positions, done our part, I daresay, to +confirm him in his way of thinking; but if we had not done so, others +would--or they would not have been about him; and it has always been, +from the beginning, the very staple of his life. Mr Dombey has had to +deal, in short, with none but submissive and dependent persons, who have +bowed the knee, and bent the neck, before him. He has never known what +it is to have angry pride and strong resentment opposed to him.' + +'But he will know it now!' she seemed to say; though her lips did not +part, nor her eyes falter. He saw the soft down tremble once again, and +he saw her lay the plumage of the beautiful bird against her bosom for +a moment; and he unfolded one more ring of the coil into which he had +gathered himself. + +'Mr Dombey, though a most honourable gentleman,' he said, 'is so prone +to pervert even facts to his own view, when he is at all opposed, +in consequence of the warp in his mind, that he--can I give a better +instance than this!--he sincerely believes (you will excuse the folly of +what I am about to say; it not being mine) that his severe expression +of opinion to his present wife, on a certain special occasion she may +remember, before the lamented death of Mrs Skewton, produced a withering +effect, and for the moment quite subdued her!' + +Edith laughed. How harshly and unmusically need not be described. It is +enough that he was glad to hear her. + +'Madam,' he resumed, 'I have done with this. Your own opinions are so +strong, and, I am persuaded, so unalterable,' he repeated those words +slowly and with great emphasis, 'that I am almost afraid to incur your +displeasure anew, when I say that in spite of these defects and my full +knowledge of them, I have become habituated to Mr Dombey, and esteem +him. But when I say so, it is not, believe me, for the mere sake of +vaunting a feeling that is so utterly at variance with your own, and +for which you can have no sympathy'--oh how distinct and plain and +emphasized this was!--'but to give you an assurance of the zeal with +which, in this unhappy matter, I am yours, and the indignation with +which I regard the part I am to fill!' + +She sat as if she were afraid to take her eyes from his face. + +And now to unwind the last ring of the coil! + +'It is growing late,' said Carker, after a pause, 'and you are, as you +said, fatigued. But the second object of this interview, I must not +forget. I must recommend you, I must entreat you in the most earnest +manner, for sufficient reasons that I have, to be cautious in your +demonstrations of regard for Miss Dombey.' + +'Cautious! What do you mean?' + +'To be careful how you exhibit too much affection for that young lady.' + +'Too much affection, Sir!' said Edith, knitting her broad brow and +rising. 'Who judges my affection, or measures it out? You?' + +'It is not I who do so.' He was, or feigned to be, perplexed. + +'Who then?' + +'Can you not guess who then?' + +'I do not choose to guess,' she answered. + +'Madam,' he said after a little hesitation; meantime they had been, and +still were, regarding each other as before; 'I am in a difficulty here. +You have told me you will receive no message, and you have forbidden me +to return to that subject; but the two subjects are so closely entwined, +I find, that unless you will accept this vague caution from one who has +now the honour to possess your confidence, though the way to it has been +through your displeasure, I must violate the injunction you have laid +upon me.' + +'You know that you are free to do so, Sir,' said Edith. 'Do it.' + +So pale, so trembling, so impassioned! He had not miscalculated the +effect then! + +'His instructions were,' he said, in a low voice, 'that I should inform +you that your demeanour towards Miss Dombey is not agreeable to him. +That it suggests comparisons to him which are not favourable to himself. +That he desires it may be wholly changed; and that if you are in +earnest, he is confident it will be; for your continued show of +affection will not benefit its object.' + +'That is a threat,' she said. + +'That is a threat,' he answered, in his voiceless manner of assent: +adding aloud, 'but not directed against you.' + +Proud, erect, and dignified, as she stood confronting him; and looking +through him as she did, with her full bright flashing eye; and smiling, +as she was, with scorn and bitterness; she sunk as if the ground had +dropped beneath her, and in an instant would have fallen on the floor, +but that he caught her in his arms. As instantaneously she threw him +off, the moment that he touched her, and, drawing back, confronted him +again, immoveable, with her hand stretched out. + +'Please to leave me. Say no more to-night.' + +'I feel the urgency of this,' said Mr Carker, 'because it is impossible +to say what unforeseen consequences might arise, or how soon, from your +being unacquainted with his state of mind. I understand Miss Dombey is +concerned, now, at the dismissal of her old servant, which is likely +to have been a minor consequence in itself. You don't blame me for +requesting that Miss Dombey might not be present. May I hope so?' + +'I do not. Please to leave me, Sir.' + +'I knew that your regard for the young lady, which is very sincere and +strong, I am well persuaded, would render it a great unhappiness to you, +ever to be a prey to the reflection that you had injured her position +and ruined her future hopes,' said Carker hurriedly, but eagerly. + +'No more to-night. Leave me, if you please.' + +'I shall be here constantly in my attendance upon him, and in the +transaction of business matters. You will allow me to see you again, and +to consult what should be done, and learn your wishes?' + +She motioned him towards the door. + +'I cannot even decide whether to tell him I have spoken to you yet; +or to lead him to suppose that I have deferred doing so, for want of +opportunity, or for any other reason. It will be necessary that you +should enable me to consult with you very soon.' + +'At any time but now,' she answered. + +'You will understand, when I wish to see you, that Miss Dombey is not to +be present; and that I seek an interview as one who has the happiness to +possess your confidence, and who comes to render you every assistance in +his power, and, perhaps, on many occasions, to ward off evil from her?' + +Looking at him still with the same apparent dread of releasing him for +a moment from the influence of her steady gaze, whatever that might be, +she answered, 'Yes!' and once more bade him go. + +He bowed, as if in compliance; but turning back, when he had nearly +reached the door, said: + +'I am forgiven, and have explained my fault. May I--for Miss Dombey's +sake, and for my own--take your hand before I go?' + +She gave him the gloved hand she had maimed last night. He took it in +one of his, and kissed it, and withdrew. And when he had closed the +door, he waved the hand with which he had taken hers, and thrust it in +his breast. + +Edith saw no one that night, but locked her door, and kept herself +alone. + +She did not weep; she showed no greater agitation, outwardly, than when +she was riding home. She laid as proud a head upon her pillow as she had +borne in her carriage; and her prayer ran thus: + +'May this man be a liar! For if he has spoken truth, she is lost to me, +and I have no hope left!' + +This man, meanwhile, went home musing to bed, thinking, with a dainty +pleasure, how imperious her passion was, how she had sat before him in +her beauty, with the dark eyes that had never turned away but once; how +the white down had fluttered; how the bird's feathers had been strewn +upon the ground. + + + +CHAPTER 46. Recognizant and Reflective + + +Among sundry minor alterations in Mr Carker's life and habits that +began to take place at this time, none was more remarkable than the +extraordinary diligence with which he applied himself to business, and +the closeness with which he investigated every detail that the affairs +of the House laid open to him. Always active and penetrating in such +matters, his lynx-eyed vigilance now increased twenty-fold. Not only +did his weary watch keep pace with every present point that every day +presented to him in some new form, but in the midst of these engrossing +occupations he found leisure--that is, he made it--to review the past +transactions of the Firm, and his share in them, during a long series +of years. Frequently when the clerks were all gone, the offices dark and +empty, and all similar places of business shut up, Mr Carker, with the +whole anatomy of the iron room laid bare before him, would explore the +mysteries of books and papers, with the patient progress of a man who +was dissecting the minutest nerves and fibres of his subject. Perch, the +messenger, who usually remained on these occasions, to entertain himself +with the perusal of the Price Current by the light of one candle, or +to doze over the fire in the outer office, at the imminent risk every +moment of diving head foremost into the coal-box, could not withhold the +tribute of his admiration from this zealous conduct, although it much +contracted his domestic enjoyments; and again, and again, expatiated +to Mrs Perch (now nursing twins) on the industry and acuteness of their +managing gentleman in the City. + +The same increased and sharp attention that Mr Carker bestowed on the +business of the House, he applied to his own personal affairs. Though +not a partner in the concern--a distinction hitherto reserved solely to +inheritors of the great name of Dombey--he was in the receipt of some +percentage on its dealings; and, participating in all its facilities +for the employment of money to advantage, was considered, by the minnows +among the tritons of the East, a rich man. It began to be said, among +these shrewd observers, that Jem Carker, of Dombey's, was looking about +him to see what he was worth; and that he was calling in his money at +a good time, like the long-headed fellow he was; and bets were even +offered on the Stock Exchange that Jem was going to marry a rich widow. + +Yet these cares did not in the least interfere with Mr Carker's watching +of his chief, or with his cleanness, neatness, sleekness, or any +cat-like quality he possessed. It was not so much that there was a +change in him, in reference to any of his habits, as that the whole man +was intensified. Everything that had been observable in him before, was +observable now, but with a greater amount of concentration. He did each +single thing, as if he did nothing else--a pretty certain indication in +a man of that range of ability and purpose, that he is doing something +which sharpens and keeps alive his keenest powers. + +The only decided alteration in him was, that as he rode to and fro along +the streets, he would fall into deep fits of musing, like that in +which he had come away from Mr Dombey's house, on the morning of +that gentleman's disaster. At such times, he would keep clear of the +obstacles in his way, mechanically; and would appear to see and hear +nothing until arrival at his destination, or some sudden chance or +effort roused him. + +Walking his white-legged horse thus, to the counting-house of Dombey and +Son one day, he was as unconscious of the observation of two pairs of +women's eyes, as of the fascinated orbs of Rob the Grinder, who, in +waiting a street's length from the appointed place, as a demonstration +of punctuality, vainly touched and retouched his hat to attract +attention, and trotted along on foot, by his master's side, prepared to +hold his stirrup when he should alight. + +'See where he goes!' cried one of these two women, an old creature, who +stretched out her shrivelled arm to point him out to her companion, a +young woman, who stood close beside her, withdrawn like herself into a +gateway. + +Mrs Brown's daughter looked out, at this bidding on the part of Mrs +Brown; and there were wrath and vengeance in her face. + +'I never thought to look at him again,' she said, in a low voice; 'but +it's well I should, perhaps. I see. I see!' + +'Not changed!' said the old woman, with a look of eager malice. + +'He changed!' returned the other. 'What for? What has he suffered? There +is change enough for twenty in me. Isn't that enough?' + +'See where he goes!' muttered the old woman, watching her daughter with +her red eyes; 'so easy and so trim a-horseback, while we are in the +mud.' + +'And of it,' said her daughter impatiently. 'We are mud, underneath his +horse's feet. What should we be?' + +In the intentness with which she looked after him again, she made a +hasty gesture with her hand when the old woman began to reply, as if her +view could be obstructed by mere sound. Her mother watching her, and not +him, remained silent; until her kindling glance subsided, and she drew a +long breath, as if in the relief of his being gone. + +'Deary!' said the old woman then. 'Alice! Handsome gall Ally!' She +gently shook her sleeve to arouse her attention. 'Will you let him go +like that, when you can wring money from him? Why, it's a wickedness, my +daughter.' + +'Haven't I told you, that I will not have money from him?' she returned. +'And don't you yet believe me? Did I take his sister's money? Would +I touch a penny, if I knew it, that had gone through his white +hands--unless it was, indeed, that I could poison it, and send it back +to him? Peace, mother, and come away.' + +'And him so rich?' murmured the old woman. 'And us so poor!' + +'Poor in not being able to pay him any of the harm we owe him,' returned +her daughter. 'Let him give me that sort of riches, and I'll take them +from him, and use them. Come away. Its no good looking at his horse. +Come away, mother!' + +But the old woman, for whom the spectacle of Rob the Grinder returning +down the street, leading the riderless horse, appeared to have some +extraneous interest that it did not possess in itself, surveyed that +young man with the utmost earnestness; and seeming to have whatever +doubts she entertained, resolved as he drew nearer, glanced at her +daughter with brightened eyes and with her finger on her lip, and +emerging from the gateway at the moment of his passing, touched him on +the shoulder. + +'Why, where's my sprightly Rob been, all this time!' she said, as he +turned round. + +The sprightly Rob, whose sprightliness was very much diminished by the +salutation, looked exceedingly dismayed, and said, with the water rising +in his eyes: + +'Oh! why can't you leave a poor cove alone, Misses Brown, when he's +getting an honest livelihood and conducting himself respectable? What do +you come and deprive a cove of his character for, by talking to him in +the streets, when he's taking his master's horse to a honest stable--a +horse you'd go and sell for cats' and dogs' meat if you had your way! +Why, I thought,' said the Grinder, producing his concluding remark as if +it were the climax of all his injuries, 'that you was dead long ago!' + +'This is the way,' cried the old woman, appealing to her daughter, 'that +he talks to me, who knew him weeks and months together, my deary, and +have stood his friend many and many a time among the pigeon-fancying +tramps and bird-catchers.' + +'Let the birds be, will you, Misses Brown?' retorted Rob, in a tone of +the acutest anguish. 'I think a cove had better have to do with lions +than them little creeturs, for they're always flying back in your face +when you least expect it. Well, how d'ye do and what do you want?' These +polite inquiries the Grinder uttered, as it were under protest, and with +great exasperation and vindictiveness. + +'Hark how he speaks to an old friend, my deary!' said Mrs Brown, again +appealing to her daughter. 'But there's some of his old friends not so +patient as me. If I was to tell some that he knows, and has spotted and +cheated with, where to find him--' + +'Will you hold your tongue, Misses Brown?' interrupted the miserable +Grinder, glancing quickly round, as though he expected to see his +master's teeth shining at his elbow. 'What do you take a pleasure in +ruining a cove for? At your time of life too! when you ought to be +thinking of a variety of things!' + +'What a gallant horse!' said the old woman, patting the animal's neck. + +'Let him alone, will you, Misses Brown?' cried Rob, pushing away her +hand. 'You're enough to drive a penitent cove mad!' + +'Why, what hurt do I do him, child?' returned the old woman. + +'Hurt?' said Rob. 'He's got a master that would find it out if he was +touched with a straw.' And he blew upon the place where the old woman's +hand had rested for a moment, and smoothed it gently with his finger, as +if he seriously believed what he said. + +The old woman looking back to mumble and mouth at her daughter, who +followed, kept close to Rob's heels as he walked on with the bridle in +his hand; and pursued the conversation. + +'A good place, Rob, eh?' said she. 'You're in luck, my child.' + +'Oh don't talk about luck, Misses Brown,' returned the wretched Grinder, +facing round and stopping. 'If you'd never come, or if you'd go away, +then indeed a cove might be considered tolerable lucky. Can't you go +along, Misses Brown, and not foller me!' blubbered Rob, with sudden +defiance. 'If the young woman's a friend of yours, why don't she take +you away, instead of letting you make yourself so disgraceful!' + +'What!' croaked the old woman, putting her face close to his, with a +malevolent grin upon it that puckered up the loose skin down in her very +throat. 'Do you deny your old chum! Have you lurked to my house fifty +times, and slept sound in a corner when you had no other bed but the +paving-stones, and do you talk to me like this! Have I bought and sold +with you, and helped you in my way of business, schoolboy, sneak, and +what not, and do you tell me to go along? Could I raise a crowd of old +company about you to-morrow morning, that would follow you to ruin like +copies of your own shadow, and do you turn on me with your bold looks! +I'll go. Come, Alice.' + +'Stop, Misses Brown!' cried the distracted Grinder. 'What are you doing +of? Don't put yourself in a passion! Don't let her go, if you please. I +haven't meant any offence. I said "how d'ye do," at first, didn't I? +But you wouldn't answer. How you do? Besides,' said Rob piteously, 'look +here! How can a cove stand talking in the street with his master's +prad a-wanting to be took to be rubbed down, and his master up to every +individgle thing that happens!' + +The old woman made a show of being partially appeased, but shook her +head, and mouthed and muttered still. + +'Come along to the stables, and have a glass of something that's good +for you, Misses Brown, can't you?' said Rob, 'instead of going on, like +that, which is no good to you, nor anybody else. Come along with her, +will you be so kind?' said Rob. 'I'm sure I'm delighted to see her, if +it wasn't for the horse!' + +With this apology, Rob turned away, a rueful picture of despair, and +walked his charge down a bye street' The old woman, mouthing at her +daughter, followed close upon him. The daughter followed. + +Turning into a silent little square or court-yard that had a great +church tower rising above it, and a packer's warehouse, and a +bottle-maker's warehouse, for its places of business, Rob the Grinder +delivered the white-legged horse to the hostler of a quaint stable at +the corner; and inviting Mrs Brown and her daughter to seat themselves +upon a stone bench at the gate of that establishment, soon reappeared +from a neighbouring public-house with a pewter measure and a glass. + +'Here's master--Mr Carker, child!' said the old woman, slowly, as her +sentiment before drinking. 'Lord bless him!' + +'Why, I didn't tell you who he was,' observed Rob, with staring eyes. + +'We know him by sight,' said Mrs Brown, whose working mouth and nodding +head stopped for the moment, in the fixedness of her attention. 'We saw +him pass this morning, afore he got off his horse; when you were ready +to take it.' + +'Ay, ay,' returned Rob, appearing to wish that his readiness had carried +him to any other place.--'What's the matter with her? Won't she drink?' + +This inquiry had reference to Alice, who, folded in her cloak, sat a +little apart, profoundly inattentive to his offer of the replenished +glass. + +The old woman shook her head. 'Don't mind her,' she said; 'she's a +strange creetur, if you know'd her, Rob. But Mr Carker--' + +'Hush!' said Rob, glancing cautiously up at the packer's, and at the +bottle-maker's, as if, from any one of the tiers of warehouses, Mr +Carker might be looking down. 'Softly.' + +'Why, he ain't here!' cried Mrs Brown. + +'I don't know that,' muttered Rob, whose glance even wandered to the +church tower, as if he might be there, with a supernatural power of +hearing. + +'Good master?' inquired Mrs Brown. + +Rob nodded; and added, in a low voice, 'precious sharp.' + +'Lives out of town, don't he, lovey?' said the old woman. + +'When he's at home,' returned Rob; 'but we don't live at home just now.' + +'Where then?' asked the old woman. + +'Lodgings; up near Mr Dombey's,' returned Rob. + +The younger woman fixed her eyes so searchingly upon him, and so +suddenly, that Rob was quite confounded, and offered the glass again, +but with no more effect upon her than before. + +'Mr Dombey--you and I used to talk about him, sometimes, you know,' said +Rob to Mrs Brown. 'You used to get me to talk about him.' + +The old woman nodded. + +'Well, Mr Dombey, he's had a fall from his horse,' said Rob, +unwillingly; 'and my master has to be up there, more than usual, either +with him, or Mrs Dombey, or some of 'em; and so we've come to town.' + +'Are they good friends, lovey?'asked the old woman. + +'Who?' retorted Rob. + +'He and she?' + +'What, Mr and Mrs Dombey?' said Rob. 'How should I know!' + +'Not them--Master and Mrs Dombey, chick,' replied the old woman, +coaxingly. + +'I don't know,' said Rob, looking round him again. 'I suppose so. How +curious you are, Misses Brown! Least said, soonest mended.' + +'Why there's no harm in it!' exclaimed the old woman, with a laugh, and +a clap of her hands. 'Sprightly Rob, has grown tame since he has been +well off! There's no harm in it.' + +'No, there's no harm in it, I know,' returned Rob, with the same +distrustful glance at the packer's and the bottle-maker's, and the +church; 'but blabbing, if it's only about the number of buttons on my +master's coat, won't do. I tell you it won't do with him. A cove had +better drown himself. He says so. I shouldn't have so much as told you +what his name was, if you hadn't known it. Talk about somebody else.' + +As Rob took another cautious survey of the yard, the old woman made a +secret motion to her daughter. It was momentary, but the daughter, with +a slight look of intelligence, withdrew her eyes from the boy's face, +and sat folded in her cloak as before. + +'Rob, lovey!' said the old woman, beckoning him to the other end of the +bench. 'You were always a pet and favourite of mine. Now, weren't you? +Don't you know you were?' + +'Yes, Misses Brown,' replied the Grinder, with a very bad grace. + +'And you could leave me!' said the old woman, flinging her arms about +his neck. 'You could go away, and grow almost out of knowledge, and +never come to tell your poor old friend how fortunate you were, proud +lad! Oho, Oho!' + +'Oh here's a dreadful go for a cove that's got a master wide awake in +the neighbourhood!' exclaimed the wretched Grinder. 'To be howled over +like this here!' + +'Won't you come and see me, Robby?' cried Mrs Brown. 'Oho, won't you +ever come and see me?' + +'Yes, I tell you! Yes, I will!' returned the Grinder. + +'That's my own Rob! That's my lovey!' said Mrs Brown, drying the tears +upon her shrivelled face, and giving him a tender squeeze. 'At the old +place, Rob?' + +'Yes,' replied the Grinder. + +'Soon, Robby dear?' cried Mrs Brown; 'and often?' + +'Yes. Yes. Yes,' replied Rob. 'I will indeed, upon my soul and body.' + +'And then,' said Mrs Brown, with her arms uplifted towards the sky, and +her head thrown back and shaking, 'if he's true to his word, I'll never +come a-near him though I know where he is, and never breathe a syllable +about him! Never!' + +This ejaculation seemed a drop of comfort to the miserable Grinder, who +shook Mrs Brown by the hand upon it, and implored her with tears in his +eyes, to leave a cove and not destroy his prospects. Mrs Brown, +with another fond embrace, assented; but in the act of following her +daughter, turned back, with her finger stealthily raised, and asked in a +hoarse whisper for some money. + +'A shilling, dear!' she said, with her eager avaricious face, 'or +sixpence! For old acquaintance sake. I'm so poor. And my handsome +gal'--looking over her shoulder--'she's my gal, Rob--half starves me.' + +But as the reluctant Grinder put it in her hand, her daughter, coming +quietly back, caught the hand in hers, and twisted out the coin. + +'What,' she said, 'mother! always money! money from the first, and to +the last. Do you mind so little what I said but now? Here. Take it!' + +The old woman uttered a moan as the money was restored, but without in +any other way opposing its restoration, hobbled at her daughter's side +out of the yard, and along the by-street upon which it opened. The +astonished and dismayed Rob staring after them, saw that they stopped, +and fell to earnest conversation very soon; and more than once observed +a darkly threatening action of the younger woman's hand (obviously +having reference to someone of whom they spoke), and a crooning feeble +imitation of it on the part of Mrs Brown, that made him earnestly hope +he might not be the subject of their discourse. + +With the present consolation that they were gone, and with the +prospective comfort that Mrs Brown could not live for ever, and was +not likely to live long to trouble him, the Grinder, not otherwise +regretting his misdeeds than as they were attended with such +disagreeable incidental consequences, composed his ruffled features to +a more serene expression by thinking of the admirable manner in which he +had disposed of Captain Cuttle (a reflection that seldom failed to put +him in a flow of spirits), and went to the Dombey Counting House to +receive his master's orders. + +There his master, so subtle and vigilant of eye, that Rob quaked before +him, more than half expecting to be taxed with Mrs Brown, gave him the +usual morning's box of papers for Mr Dombey, and a note for Mrs Dombey: +merely nodding his head as an enjoinder to be careful, and to use +dispatch--a mysterious admonition, fraught in the Grinder's imagination +with dismal warnings and threats; and more powerful with him than any +words. + +Alone again, in his own room, Mr Carker applied himself to work, and +worked all day. He saw many visitors; overlooked a number of documents; +went in and out, to and from, sundry places of mercantile resort; and +indulged in no more abstraction until the day's business was done. But, +when the usual clearance of papers from his table was made at last, he +fell into his thoughtful mood once more. + +He was standing in his accustomed place and attitude, with his eyes +intently fixed upon the ground, when his brother entered to bring back +some letters that had been taken out in the course of the day. He put +them quietly on the table, and was going immediately, when Mr Carker the +Manager, whose eyes had rested on him, on his entrance, as if they had +all this time had him for the subject of their contemplation, instead of +the office-floor, said: + +'Well, John Carker, and what brings you here?' + +His brother pointed to the letters, and was again withdrawing. + +'I wonder,' said the Manager, 'that you can come and go, without +inquiring how our master is'. + +'We had word this morning in the Counting House, that Mr Dombey was +doing well,' replied his brother. + +'You are such a meek fellow,' said the Manager, with a smile,--'but you +have grown so, in the course of years--that if any harm came to him, +you'd be miserable, I dare swear now.' + +'I should be truly sorry, James,' returned the other. + +'He would be sorry!' said the Manager, pointing at him, as if there were +some other person present to whom he was appealing. 'He would be truly +sorry! This brother of mine! This junior of the place, this slighted +piece of lumber, pushed aside with his face to the wall, like a rotten +picture, and left so, for Heaven knows how many years he's all gratitude +and respect, and devotion too, he would have me believe!' + +'I would have you believe nothing, James,' returned the other. 'Be as +just to me as you would to any other man below you. You ask a question, +and I answer it.' + +'And have you nothing, Spaniel,' said the Manager, with unusual +irascibility, 'to complain of in him? No proud treatment to resent, no +insolence, no foolery of state, no exaction of any sort! What the devil! +are you man or mouse?' + +'It would be strange if any two persons could be together for so +many years, especially as superior and inferior, without each having +something to complain of in the other--as he thought, at all events,' +replied John Carker. 'But apart from my history here--' + +'His history here!' exclaimed the Manager. 'Why, there it is. The very +fact that makes him an extreme case, puts him out of the whole chapter! +Well?' + +'Apart from that, which, as you hint, gives me a reason to be thankful +that I alone (happily for all the rest) possess, surely there is no one +in the House who would not say and feel at least as much. You do +not think that anybody here would be indifferent to a mischance or +misfortune happening to the head of the House, or anything than truly +sorry for it?' + +'You have good reason to be bound to him too!' said the Manager, +contemptuously. 'Why, don't you believe that you are kept here, as a +cheap example, and a famous instance of the clemency of Dombey and Son, +redounding to the credit of the illustrious House?' + +'No,' replied his brother, mildly, 'I have long believed that I am kept +here for more kind and disinterested reasons.' + +'But you were going,' said the Manager, with the snarl of a tiger-cat, +'to recite some Christian precept, I observed.' + +'Nay, James,' returned the other, 'though the tie of brotherhood between +us has been long broken and thrown away--' + +'Who broke it, good Sir?' said the Manager. + +'I, by my misconduct. I do not charge it upon you.' + +The Manager replied, with that mute action of his bristling mouth, 'Oh, +you don't charge it upon me!' and bade him go on. + +'I say, though there is not that tie between us, do not, I entreat, +assail me with unnecessary taunts, or misinterpret what I say, or would +say. I was only going to suggest to you that it would be a mistake to +suppose that it is only you, who have been selected here, above all +others, for advancement, confidence and distinction (selected, in the +beginning, I know, for your great ability and trustfulness), and who +communicate more freely with Mr Dombey than anyone, and stand, it may +be said, on equal terms with him, and have been favoured and enriched by +him--that it would be a mistake to suppose that it is only you who are +tender of his welfare and reputation. There is no one in the House, +from yourself down to the lowest, I sincerely believe, who does not +participate in that feeling.' + +'You lie!' said the Manager, red with sudden anger. 'You're a hypocrite, +John Carker, and you lie.' + +'James!' cried the other, flushing in his turn. 'What do you mean by +these insulting words? Why do you so basely use them to me, unprovoked?' + +'I tell you,' said the Manager, 'that your hypocrisy and meekness--that +all the hypocrisy and meekness of this place--is not worth that to me,' +snapping his thumb and finger, 'and that I see through it as if it were +air! There is not a man employed here, standing between myself and the +lowest in place (of whom you are very considerate, and with reason, +for he is not far off), who wouldn't be glad at heart to see his master +humbled: who does not hate him, secretly: who does not wish him evil +rather than good: and who would not turn upon him, if he had the power +and boldness. The nearer to his favour, the nearer to his insolence; the +closer to him, the farther from him. That's the creed here!' + +'I don't know,' said his brother, whose roused feelings had soon yielded +to surprise, 'who may have abused your ear with such representations; +or why you have chosen to try me, rather than another. But that you +have been trying me, and tampering with me, I am now sure. You have a +different manner and a different aspect from any that I ever saw in you. +I will only say to you, once more, you are deceived.' + +'I know I am,' said the Manager. 'I have told you so.' + +'Not by me,' returned his brother. 'By your informant, if you have one. +If not, by your own thoughts and suspicions.' + +'I have no suspicions,' said the Manager. 'Mine are certainties. You +pusillanimous, abject, cringing dogs! All making the same show, all +canting the same story, all whining the same professions, all harbouring +the same transparent secret.' + +His brother withdrew, without saying more, and shut the door as he +concluded. Mr Carker the Manager drew a chair close before the fire, and +fell to beating the coals softly with the poker. + +'The faint-hearted, fawning knaves,' he muttered, with his two shining +rows of teeth laid bare. 'There's not one among them, who wouldn't feign +to be so shocked and outraged--! Bah! There's not one among them, but +if he had at once the power, and the wit and daring to use it, would +scatter Dombey's pride and lay it low, as ruthlessly as I rake out these +ashes.' + +As he broke them up and strewed them in the grate, he looked on with a +thoughtful smile at what he was doing. 'Without the same queen +beckoner too!' he added presently; 'and there is pride there, not to +be forgotten--witness our own acquaintance!' With that he fell into a +deeper reverie, and sat pondering over the blackening grate, until he +rose up like a man who had been absorbed in a book, and looking round +him took his hat and gloves, went to where his horse was waiting, +mounted, and rode away through the lighted streets, for it was evening. + +He rode near Mr Dombey's house; and falling into a walk as he approached +it, looked up at the windows The window where he had once seen Florence +sitting with her dog attracted his attention first, though there was no +light in it; but he smiled as he carried his eyes up the tall front of +the house, and seemed to leave that object superciliously behind. + +'Time was,' he said, 'when it was well to watch even your rising little +star, and know in what quarter there were clouds, to shadow you if +needful. But a planet has arisen, and you are lost in its light.' + +He turned the white-legged horse round the street corner, and sought +one shining window from among those at the back of the house. Associated +with it was a certain stately presence, a gloved hand, the remembrance +how the feathers of a beautiful bird's wing had been showered down upon +the floor, and how the light white down upon a robe had stirred and +rustled, as in the rising of a distant storm. These were the things he +carried with him as he turned away again, and rode through the darkening +and deserted Parks at a quick rate. + +In fatal truth, these were associated with a woman, a proud woman, +who hated him, but who by slow and sure degrees had been led on by his +craft, and her pride and resentment, to endure his company, and little +by little to receive him as one who had the privilege to talk to her +of her own defiant disregard of her own husband, and her abandonment of +high consideration for herself. They were associated with a woman who +hated him deeply, and who knew him, and who mistrusted him because she +knew him, and because he knew her; but who fed her fierce resentment by +suffering him to draw nearer and yet nearer to her every day, in spite +of the hate she cherished for him. In spite of it! For that very reason; +since in its depths, too far down for her threatening eye to pierce, +though she could see into them dimly, lay the dark retaliation, whose +faintest shadow seen once and shuddered at, and never seen again, would +have been sufficient stain upon her soul. + +Did the phantom of such a woman flit about him on his ride; true to the +reality, and obvious to him? + +Yes. He saw her in his mind, exactly as she was. She bore him company +with her pride, resentment, hatred, all as plain to him as her beauty; +with nothing plainer to him than her hatred of him. He saw her sometimes +haughty and repellent at his side, and some times down among his horse's +feet, fallen and in the dust. But he always saw her as she was, without +disguise, and watched her on the dangerous way that she was going. + +And when his ride was over, and he was newly dressed, and came into the +light of her bright room with his bent head, soft voice, and soothing +smile, he saw her yet as plainly. He even suspected the mystery of the +gloved hand, and held it all the longer in his own for that suspicion. +Upon the dangerous way that she was going, he was, still; and not a +footprint did she mark upon it, but he set his own there, straight. + + + +CHAPTER 47. The Thunderbolt + + +The barrier between Mr Dombey and his wife was not weakened by time. +Ill-assorted couple, unhappy in themselves and in each other, bound +together by no tie but the manacle that joined their fettered hands, and +straining that so harshly, in their shrinking asunder, that it wore and +chafed to the bone, Time, consoler of affliction and softener of anger, +could do nothing to help them. Their pride, however different in kind +and object, was equal in degree; and, in their flinty opposition, +struck out fire between them which might smoulder or might blaze, as +circumstances were, but burned up everything within their mutual reach, +and made their marriage way a road of ashes. + +Let us be just to him. In the monstrous delusion of his life, swelling +with every grain of sand that shifted in its glass, he urged her on, he +little thought to what, or considered how; but still his feeling towards +her, such as it was, remained as at first. She had the grand demerit of +unaccountably putting herself in opposition to the recognition of his +vast importance, and to the acknowledgment of her complete submission to +it, and so far it was necessary to correct and reduce her; but otherwise +he still considered her, in his cold way, a lady capable of doing +honour, if she would, to his choice and name, and of reflecting credit +on his proprietorship. + +Now, she, with all her might of passionate and proud resentment, bent +her dark glance from day to day, and hour to hour--from that night in +her own chamber, when she had sat gazing at the shadows on the wall, +to the deeper night fast coming--upon one figure directing a crowd of +humiliations and exasperations against her; and that figure, still her +husband's. + +Was Mr Dombey's master-vice, that ruled him so inexorably, an unnatural +characteristic? It might be worthwhile, sometimes, to inquire what +Nature is, and how men work to change her, and whether, in the enforced +distortions so produced, it is not natural to be unnatural. Coop any +son or daughter of our mighty mother within narrow range, and bind the +prisoner to one idea, and foster it by servile worship of it on the part +of the few timid or designing people standing round, and what is Nature +to the willing captive who has never risen up upon the wings of a free +mind--drooping and useless soon--to see her in her comprehensive truth! + +Alas! are there so few things in the world, about us, most unnatural, +and yet most natural in being so? Hear the magistrate or judge admonish +the unnatural outcasts of society; unnatural in brutal habits, unnatural +in want of decency, unnatural in losing and confounding all distinctions +between good and evil; unnatural in ignorance, in vice, in recklessness, +in contumacy, in mind, in looks, in everything. But follow the good +clergyman or doctor, who, with his life imperilled at every breath +he draws, goes down into their dens, lying within the echoes of our +carriage wheels and daily tread upon the pavement stones. Look round +upon the world of odious sights--millions of immortal creatures have no +other world on earth--at the lightest mention of which humanity revolts, +and dainty delicacy living in the next street, stops her ears, and lisps +'I don't believe it!' Breathe the polluted air, foul with every impurity +that is poisonous to health and life; and have every sense, conferred +upon our race for its delight and happiness, offended, sickened and +disgusted, and made a channel by which misery and death alone can enter. +Vainly attempt to think of any simple plant, or flower, or wholesome +weed, that, set in this foetid bed, could have its natural growth, +or put its little leaves off to the sun as GOD designed it. And then, +calling up some ghastly child, with stunted form and wicked face, hold +forth on its unnatural sinfulness, and lament its being, so early, far +away from Heaven--but think a little of its having been conceived, and +born and bred, in Hell! + +Those who study the physical sciences, and bring them to bear upon the +health of Man, tell us that if the noxious particles that rise from +vitiated air were palpable to the sight, we should see them lowering in +a dense black cloud above such haunts, and rolling slowly on to corrupt +the better portions of a town. But if the moral pestilence that rises +with them, and in the eternal laws of our Nature, is inseparable from +them, could be made discernible too, how terrible the revelation! Then +should we see depravity, impiety, drunkenness, theft, murder, and a long +train of nameless sins against the natural affections and repulsions of +mankind, overhanging the devoted spots, and creeping on, to blight the +innocent and spread contagion among the pure. Then should we see how the +same poisoned fountains that flow into our hospitals and lazar-houses, +inundate the jails, and make the convict-ships swim deep, and roll +across the seas, and over-run vast continents with crime. Then should +we stand appalled to know, that where we generate disease to strike our +children down and entail itself on unborn generations, there also we +breed, by the same certain process, infancy that knows no innocence, +youth without modesty or shame, maturity that is mature in nothing but +in suffering and guilt, blasted old age that is a scandal on the form we +bear, unnatural humanity! When we shall gather grapes from thorns, and +figs from thistles; when fields of grain shall spring up from the +offal in the bye-ways of our wicked cities, and roses bloom in the fat +churchyards that they cherish; then we may look for natural humanity, +and find it growing from such seed. + +Oh for a good spirit who would take the house-tops off, with a more +potent and benignant hand than the lame demon in the tale, and show +a Christian people what dark shapes issue from amidst their homes, to +swell the retinue of the Destroying Angel as he moves forth among them! +For only one night's view of the pale phantoms rising from the scenes of +our too-long neglect; and from the thick and sullen air where Vice and +Fever propagate together, raining the tremendous social retributions +which are ever pouring down, and ever coming thicker! Bright and blest +the morning that should rise on such a night: for men, delayed no more +by stumbling-blocks of their own making, which are but specks of dust +upon the path between them and eternity, would then apply themselves, +like creatures of one common origin, owing one duty to the Father of one +family, and tending to one common end, to make the world a better place! + +Not the less bright and blest would that day be for rousing some who +never have looked out upon the world of human life around them, to a +knowledge of their own relation to it, and for making them acquainted +with a perversion of nature in their own contracted sympathies and +estimates; as great, and yet as natural in its development when once +begun, as the lowest degradation known. + +But no such day had ever dawned on Mr Dombey, or his wife; and the +course of each was taken. + +Through six months that ensued upon his accident, they held the same +relations one towards the other. A marble rock could not have stood more +obdurately in his way than she; and no chilled spring, lying uncheered +by any ray of light in the depths of a deep cave, could be more sullen +or more cold than he. + +The hope that had fluttered within her when the promise of her new home +dawned, was quite gone from the heart of Florence now. That home was +nearly two years old; and even the patient trust that was in her, +could not survive the daily blight of such experience. If she had any +lingering fancy in the nature of hope left, that Edith and her father +might be happier together, in some distant time, she had none, now, that +her father would ever love her. The little interval in which she had +imagined that she saw some small relenting in him, was forgotten in the +long remembrance of his coldness since and before, or only remembered as +a sorrowful delusion. + +Florence loved him still, but, by degrees, had come to love him rather +as some dear one who had been, or who might have been, than as the hard +reality before her eyes. Something of the softened sadness with which +she loved the memory of little Paul, or of her mother, seemed to enter +now into her thoughts of him, and to make them, as it were, a dear +remembrance. Whether it was that he was dead to her, and that partly for +this reason, partly for his share in those old objects of her affection, +and partly for the long association of him with hopes that were withered +and tendernesses he had frozen, she could not have told; but the father +whom she loved began to be a vague and dreamy idea to her: hardly more +substantially connected with her real life, than the image she would +sometimes conjure up, of her dear brother yet alive, and growing to be a +man, who would protect and cherish her. + +The change, if it may be called one, had stolen on her like the change +from childhood to womanhood, and had come with it. Florence was almost +seventeen, when, in her lonely musings, she was conscious of these +thoughts. + +She was often alone now, for the old association between her and her +Mama was greatly changed. At the time of her father's accident, and when +he was lying in his room downstairs, Florence had first observed that +Edith avoided her. Wounded and shocked, and yet unable to reconcile this +with her affection when they did meet, she sought her in her own room at +night, once more. + +'Mama,' said Florence, stealing softly to her side, 'have I offended +you?' + +Edith answered 'No.' + +'I must have done something,' said Florence. 'Tell me what it is. You +have changed your manner to me, dear Mama. I cannot say how instantly I +feel the least change; for I love you with my whole heart.' + +'As I do you,' said Edith. 'Ah, Florence, believe me never more than +now!' + +'Why do you go away from me so often, and keep away?' asked Florence. +'And why do you sometimes look so strangely on me, dear Mama? You do so, +do you not?' + +Edith signified assent with her dark eyes. + +'Why?' returned Florence imploringly. 'Tell me why, that I may know how +to please you better; and tell me this shall not be so any more.' + +'My Florence,' answered Edith, taking the hand that embraced her neck, +and looking into the eyes that looked into hers so lovingly, as Florence +knelt upon the ground before her; 'why it is, I cannot tell you. It is +neither for me to say, nor you to hear; but that it is, and that it must +be, I know. Should I do it if I did not?' + +'Are we to be estranged, Mama?' asked Florence, gazing at her like one +frightened. + +Edith's silent lips formed 'Yes.' + +Florence looked at her with increasing fear and wonder, until she could +see her no more through the blinding tears that ran down her face. + +'Florence! my life!' said Edith, hurriedly, 'listen to me. I cannot +bear to see this grief. Be calmer. You see that I am composed, and is it +nothing to me?' + +She resumed her steady voice and manner as she said the latter words, +and added presently: + +'Not wholly estranged. Partially: and only that, in appearance, +Florence, for in my own breast I am still the same to you, and ever will +be. But what I do is not done for myself.' + +'Is it for me, Mama?' asked Florence. + +'It is enough,' said Edith, after a pause, 'to know what it is; why, +matters little. Dear Florence, it is better--it is necessary--it must +be--that our association should be less frequent. The confidence there +has been between us must be broken off.' + +'When?' cried Florence. 'Oh, Mama, when?' + +'Now,' said Edith. + +'For all time to come?' asked Florence. + +'I do not say that,' answered Edith. 'I do not know that. Nor will I +say that companionship between us is, at the best, an ill-assorted and +unholy union, of which I might have known no good could come. My way +here has been through paths that you will never tread, and my way +henceforth may lie--God knows--I do not see it--' + +Her voice died away into silence; and she sat, looking at Florence, +and almost shrinking from her, with the same strange dread and wild +avoidance that Florence had noticed once before. The same dark pride and +rage succeeded, sweeping over her form and features like an angry chord +across the strings of a wild harp. But no softness or humility ensued on +that. She did not lay her head down now, and weep, and say that she +had no hope but in Florence. She held it up as if she were a beautiful +Medusa, looking on him, face to face, to strike him dead. Yes, and she +would have done it, if she had had the charm. + +'Mama,' said Florence, anxiously, 'there is a change in you, in more +than what you say to me, which alarms me. Let me stay with you a +little.' + +'No,' said Edith, 'no, dearest. I am best left alone now, and I do best +to keep apart from you, of all else. Ask me no questions, but believe +that what I am when I seem fickle or capricious to you, I am not of my +own will, or for myself. Believe, though we are stranger to each other +than we have been, that I am unchanged to you within. Forgive me +for having ever darkened your dark home--I am a shadow on it, I know +well--and let us never speak of this again.' + +'Mama,' sobbed Florence, 'we are not to part?' + +'We do this that we may not part,' said Edith. 'Ask no more. Go, +Florence! My love and my remorse go with you!' + +She embraced her, and dismissed her; and as Florence passed out of her +room, Edith looked on the retiring figure, as if her good angel went out +in that form, and left her to the haughty and indignant passions that +now claimed her for their own, and set their seal upon her brow. + +From that hour, Florence and she were, as they had been, no more. For +days together, they would seldom meet, except at table, and when Mr +Dombey was present. Then Edith, imperious, inflexible, and silent, never +looked at her. Whenever Mr Carker was of the party, as he often was, +during the progress of Mr Dombey's recovery, and afterwards, Edith held +herself more removed from her, and was more distant towards her, than at +other times. Yet she and Florence never encountered, when there was no +one by, but she would embrace her as affectionately as of old, though +not with the same relenting of her proud aspect; and often, when she had +been out late, she would steal up to Florence's room, as she had been +used to do, in the dark, and whisper 'Good-night,' on her pillow. When +unconscious, in her slumber, of such visits, Florence would sometimes +awake, as from a dream of those words, softly spoken, and would seem +to feel the touch of lips upon her face. But less and less often as the +months went on. + +And now the void in Florence's own heart began again, indeed, to make +a solitude around her. As the image of the father whom she loved had +insensibly become a mere abstraction, so Edith, following the fate of +all the rest about whom her affections had entwined themselves, was +fleeting, fading, growing paler in the distance, every day. Little by +little, she receded from Florence, like the retiring ghost of what she +had been; little by little, the chasm between them widened and seemed +deeper; little by little, all the power of earnestness and tenderness +she had shown, was frozen up in the bold, angry hardihood with which she +stood, upon the brink of a deep precipice unseen by Florence, daring to +look down. + +There was but one consideration to set against the heavy loss of Edith, +and though it was slight comfort to her burdened heart, she tried to +think it some relief. No longer divided between her affection and duty +to the two, Florence could love both and do no injustice to either. As +shadows of her fond imagination, she could give them equal place in her +own bosom, and wrong them with no doubts. + +So she tried to do. At times, and often too, wondering speculations on +the cause of this change in Edith, would obtrude themselves upon her +mind and frighten her; but in the calm of its abandonment once more to +silent grief and loneliness, it was not a curious mind. Florence had +only to remember that her star of promise was clouded in the general +gloom that hung upon the house, and to weep and be resigned. + +Thus living, in a dream wherein the overflowing love of her young +heart expended itself on airy forms, and in a real world where she had +experienced little but the rolling back of that strong tide upon itself, +Florence grew to be seventeen. Timid and retiring as her solitary life +had made her, it had not embittered her sweet temper, or her +earnest nature. A child in innocent simplicity; a woman in her modest +self-reliance, and her deep intensity of feeling; both child and woman +seemed at once expressed in her face and fragile delicacy of shape, and +gracefully to mingle there;--as if the spring should be unwilling to +depart when summer came, and sought to blend the earlier beauties of the +flowers with their bloom. But in her thrilling voice, in her calm eyes, +sometimes in a sage ethereal light that seemed to rest upon her head, +and always in a certain pensive air upon her beauty, there was an +expression, such as had been seen in the dead boy; and the council in +the Servants' Hall whispered so among themselves, and shook their heads, +and ate and drank the more, in a closer bond of good-fellowship. + +This observant body had plenty to say of Mr and Mrs Dombey, and of Mr +Carker, who appeared to be a mediator between them, and who came and +went as if he were trying to make peace, but never could. They all +deplored the uncomfortable state of affairs, and all agreed that Mrs +Pipchin (whose unpopularity was not to be surpassed) had some hand in +it; but, upon the whole, it was agreeable to have so good a subject +for a rallying point, and they made a great deal of it, and enjoyed +themselves very much. + +The general visitors who came to the house, and those among whom Mr and +Mrs Dombey visited, thought it a pretty equal match, as to haughtiness, +at all events, and thought nothing more about it. The young lady +with the back did not appear for some time after Mrs Skewton's death; +observing to some particular friends, with her usual engaging little +scream, that she couldn't separate the family from a notion of +tombstones, and horrors of that sort; but when she did come, she saw +nothing wrong, except Mr Dombey's wearing a bunch of gold seals to his +watch, which shocked her very much, as an exploded superstition. This +youthful fascinator considered a daughter-in-law objectionable in +principle; otherwise, she had nothing to say against Florence, but that +she sadly wanted 'style'--which might mean back, perhaps. Many, who only +came to the house on state occasions, hardly knew who Florence was, and +said, going home, 'Indeed, was that Miss Dombey, in the corner? Very +pretty, but a little delicate and thoughtful in appearance!' + +None the less so, certainly, for her life of the last six months. +Florence took her seat at the dinner-table, on the day before the second +anniversary of her father's marriage to Edith (Mrs Skewton had been +lying stricken with paralysis when the first came round), with an +uneasiness, amounting to dread. She had no other warrant for it, than +the occasion, the expression of her father's face, in the hasty +glance she caught of it, and the presence of Mr Carker, which, always +unpleasant to her, was more so on this day, than she had ever felt it +before. + +Edith was richly dressed, for she and Mr Dombey were engaged in the +evening to some large assembly, and the dinner-hour that day was late. +She did not appear until they were seated at table, when Mr Carker rose +and led her to her chair. Beautiful and lustrous as she was, there was +that in her face and air which seemed to separate her hopelessly from +Florence, and from everyone, for ever more. And yet, for an instant, +Florence saw a beam of kindness in her eyes, when they were turned +on her, that made the distance to which she had withdrawn herself, a +greater cause of sorrow and regret than ever. + +There was very little said at dinner. Florence heard her father speak to +Mr Carker sometimes on business matters, and heard him softly reply, but +she paid little attention to what they said, and only wished the dinner +at an end. When the dessert was placed upon the table, and they were +left alone, with no servant in attendance, Mr Dombey, who had been +several times clearing his throat in a manner that augured no good, +said: + +'Mrs Dombey, you know, I suppose, that I have instructed the housekeeper +that there will be some company to dinner here to-morrow.' + +'I do not dine at home,' she answered. + +'Not a large party,' pursued Mr Dombey, with an indifferent assumption +of not having heard her; 'merely some twelve or fourteen. My sister, +Major Bagstock, and some others whom you know but slightly.' + +'I do not dine at home,' she repeated. + +'However doubtful reason I may have, Mrs Dombey,' said Mr Dombey, still +going majestically on, as if she had not spoken, 'to hold the occasion +in very pleasant remembrance just now, there are appearances in these +things which must be maintained before the world. If you have no respect +for yourself, Mrs Dombey--' + +'I have none,' she said. + +'Madam,' cried Mr Dombey, striking his hand upon the table, 'hear me if +you please. I say, if you have no respect for yourself--' + +'And I say I have none,' she answered. + +He looked at her; but the face she showed him in return would not have +changed, if death itself had looked. + +'Carker,' said Mr Dombey, turning more quietly to that gentleman, 'as +you have been my medium of communication with Mrs Dombey on former +occasions, and as I choose to preserve the decencies of life, so far as +I am individually concerned, I will trouble you to have the goodness to +inform Mrs Dombey that if she has no respect for herself, I have +some respect for myself, and therefore insist on my arrangements for +to-morrow.' + +'Tell your sovereign master, Sir,' said Edith, 'that I will take leave +to speak to him on this subject by-and-bye, and that I will speak to him +alone.' + +'Mr Carker, Madam,' said her husband, 'being in possession of the reason +which obliges me to refuse you that privilege, shall be absolved from +the delivery of any such message.' He saw her eyes move, while he spoke, +and followed them with his own. + +'Your daughter is present, Sir,' said Edith. + +'My daughter will remain present,' said Mr Dombey. + +Florence, who had risen, sat down again, hiding her face in her hands, +and trembling. + +'My daughter, Madam'--began Mr Dombey. + +But Edith stopped him, in a voice which, although not raised in the +least, was so clear, emphatic, and distinct, that it might have been +heard in a whirlwind. + +'I tell you I will speak to you alone,' she said. 'If you are not mad, +heed what I say.' + +'I have authority to speak to you, Madam,' returned her husband, 'when +and where I please; and it is my pleasure to speak here and now.' + +She rose up as if to leave the room; but sat down again, and looking at +him with all outward composure, said, in the same voice: + +'You shall!' + +'I must tell you first, that there is a threatening appearance in your +manner, Madam,' said Mr Dombey, 'which does not become you.' + +She laughed. The shaken diamonds in her hair started and trembled. There +are fables of precious stones that would turn pale, their wearer being +in danger. Had these been such, their imprisoned rays of light would +have taken flight that moment, and they would have been as dull as lead. + +Carker listened, with his eyes cast down. + +'As to my daughter, Madam,' said Mr Dombey, resuming the thread of his +discourse, 'it is by no means inconsistent with her duty to me, that +she should know what conduct to avoid. At present you are a very strong +example to her of this kind, and I hope she may profit by it.' + +'I would not stop you now,' returned his wife, immoveable in eye, and +voice, and attitude; 'I would not rise and go away, and save you the +utterance of one word, if the room were burning.' + +Mr Dombey moved his head, as if in a sarcastic acknowledgment of the +attention, and resumed. But not with so much self-possession as before; +for Edith's quick uneasiness in reference to Florence, and Edith's +indifference to him and his censure, chafed and galled him like a +stiffening wound. + +'Mrs Dombey,' said he, 'it may not be inconsistent with my daughter's +improvement to know how very much to be lamented, and how necessary to +be corrected, a stubborn disposition is, especially when it is indulged +in--unthankfully indulged in, I will add--after the gratification of +ambition and interest. Both of which, I believe, had some share in +inducing you to occupy your present station at this board.' + +'No! I would not rise, and go away, and save you the utterance of one +word,' she repeated, exactly as before, 'if the room were burning.' + +'It may be natural enough, Mrs Dombey,' he pursued, 'that you should +be uneasy in the presence of any auditors of these disagreeable truths; +though why'--he could not hide his real feeling here, or keep his eyes +from glancing gloomily at Florence--'why anyone can give them greater +force and point than myself, whom they so nearly concern, I do not +pretend to understand. It may be natural enough that you should object +to hear, in anybody's presence, that there is a rebellious principle +within you which you cannot curb too soon; which you must curb, +Mrs Dombey; and which, I regret to say, I remember to have seen +manifested--with some doubt and displeasure, on more than one occasion +before our marriage--towards your deceased mother. But you have the +remedy in your own hands. I by no means forgot, when I began, that my +daughter was present, Mrs Dombey. I beg you will not forget, to-morrow, +that there are several persons present; and that, with some regard to +appearances, you will receive your company in a becoming manner.' + +'So it is not enough,' said Edith, 'that you know what has passed +between yourself and me; it is not enough that you can look here,' +pointing at Carker, who still listened, with his eyes cast down, 'and be +reminded of the affronts you have put upon me; it is not enough that you +can look here,' pointing to Florence with a hand that slightly trembled +for the first and only time, 'and think of what you have done, and of +the ingenious agony, daily, hourly, constant, you have made me feel in +doing it; it is not enough that this day, of all others in the year, is +memorable to me for a struggle (well-deserved, but not conceivable by +such as you) in which I wish I had died! You add to all this, do you, +the last crowning meanness of making her a witness of the depth to which +I have fallen; when you know that you have made me sacrifice to her +peace, the only gentle feeling and interest of my life, when you know +that for her sake, I would now if I could--but I can not, my soul +recoils from you too much--submit myself wholly to your will, and be the +meekest vassal that you have!' + +This was not the way to minister to Mr Dombey's greatness. The old +feeling was roused by what she said, into a stronger and fiercer +existence than it had ever had. Again, his neglected child, at this +rough passage of his life, put forth by even this rebellious woman, as +powerful where he was powerless, and everything where he was nothing! + +He turned on Florence, as if it were she who had spoken, and bade her +leave the room. Florence with her covered face obeyed, trembling and +weeping as she went. + +'I understand, Madam,' said Mr Dombey, with an angry flush of triumph, +'the spirit of opposition that turned your affections in that channel, +but they have been met, Mrs Dombey; they have been met, and turned +back!' + +'The worse for you!' she answered, with her voice and manner still +unchanged. 'Ay!' for he turned sharply when she said so, 'what is the +worse for me, is twenty million times the worse for you. Heed that, if +you heed nothing else.' + +The arch of diamonds spanning her dark hair, flashed and glittered like +a starry bridge. There was no warning in them, or they would have turned +as dull and dim as tarnished honour. Carker still sat and listened, with +his eyes cast down. + +'Mrs Dombey,' said Mr Dombey, resuming as much as he could of his +arrogant composure, 'you will not conciliate me, or turn me from any +purpose, by this course of conduct.' + +'It is the only true although it is a faint expression of what is within +me,' she replied. 'But if I thought it would conciliate you, I would +repress it, if it were repressible by any human effort. I will do +nothing that you ask.' + +'I am not accustomed to ask, Mrs Dombey,' he observed; 'I direct.' + +'I will hold no place in your house to-morrow, or on any recurrence of +to-morrow. I will be exhibited to no one, as the refractory slave you +purchased, such a time. If I kept my marriage day, I would keep it as a +day of shame. Self-respect! appearances before the world! what are these +to me? You have done all you can to make them nothing to me, and they +are nothing.' + +'Carker,' said Mr Dombey, speaking with knitted brows, and after a +moment's consideration, 'Mrs Dombey is so forgetful of herself and me in +all this, and places me in a position so unsuited to my character, that +I must bring this state of matters to a close.' + +'Release me, then,' said Edith, immoveable in voice, in look, and +bearing, as she had been throughout, 'from the chain by which I am +bound. Let me go.' + +'Madam?' exclaimed Mr Dombey. + +'Loose me. Set me free!' + +'Madam?' he repeated, 'Mrs Dombey?' + +'Tell him,' said Edith, addressing her proud face to Carker, 'that I +wish for a separation between us, That there had better be one. That I +recommend it to him, Tell him it may take place on his own terms--his +wealth is nothing to me--but that it cannot be too soon.' + +'Good Heaven, Mrs Dombey!' said her husband, with supreme amazement, 'do +you imagine it possible that I could ever listen to such a proposition? +Do you know who I am, Madam? Do you know what I represent? Did you ever +hear of Dombey and Son? People to say that Mr Dombey--Mr Dombey!--was +separated from his wife! Common people to talk of Mr Dombey and his +domestic affairs! Do you seriously think, Mrs Dombey, that I would +permit my name to be banded about in such connexion? Pooh, pooh, Madam! +Fie for shame! You're absurd.' Mr Dombey absolutely laughed. + +But not as she did. She had better have been dead than laugh as she did, +in reply, with her intent look fixed upon him. He had better have been +dead, than sitting there, in his magnificence, to hear her. + +'No, Mrs Dombey,' he resumed. 'No, Madam. There is no possibility of +separation between you and me, and therefore I the more advise you to be +awakened to a sense of duty. And, Carker, as I was about to say to you--' + +Mr Carker, who had sat and listened all this time, now raised his eyes, +in which there was a bright unusual light. + +'--As I was about to say to you,' resumed Mr Dombey, 'I must beg you, now +that matters have come to this, to inform Mrs Dombey, that it is not +the rule of my life to allow myself to be thwarted by anybody--anybody, +Carker--or to suffer anybody to be paraded as a stronger motive for +obedience in those who owe obedience to me than I am my self. The +mention that has been made of my daughter, and the use that is made of +my daughter, in opposition to me, are unnatural. Whether my daughter is +in actual concert with Mrs Dombey, I do not know, and do not care; but +after what Mrs Dombey has said today, and my daughter has heard to-day, +I beg you to make known to Mrs Dombey, that if she continues to make +this house the scene of contention it has become, I shall consider my +daughter responsible in some degree, on that lady's own avowal, and +shall visit her with my severe displeasure. Mrs Dombey has asked +"whether it is not enough," that she had done this and that. You will +please to answer no, it is not enough.' + +'A moment!' cried Carker, interposing, 'permit me! painful as my +position is, at the best, and unusually painful in seeming to entertain +a different opinion from you,' addressing Mr Dombey, 'I must ask, had +you not better reconsider the question of a separation. I know how +incompatible it appears with your high public position, and I know how +determined you are when you give Mrs Dombey to understand'--the light +in his eyes fell upon her as he separated his words each from each, with +the distinctness of so many bells--'that nothing but death can ever part +you. Nothing else. But when you consider that Mrs Dombey, by living in +this house, and making it as you have said, a scene of contention, not +only has her part in that contention, but compromises Miss Dombey every +day (for I know how determined you are), will you not relieve her from a +continual irritation of spirit, and a continual sense of being unjust +to another, almost intolerable? Does this not seem like--I do not say +it is--sacrificing Mrs Dombey to the preservation of your preeminent and +unassailable position?' + +Again the light in his eyes fell upon her, as she stood looking at her +husband: now with an extraordinary and awful smile upon her face. + +'Carker,' returned Mr Dombey, with a supercilious frown, and in a tone +that was intended to be final, 'you mistake your position in offering +advice to me on such a point, and you mistake me (I am surprised to +find) in the character of your advice. I have no more to say.' + +'Perhaps,' said Carker, with an unusual and indefinable taunt in +his air, 'you mistook my position, when you honoured me with the +negotiations in which I have been engaged here'--with a motion of his +hand towards Mrs Dombey. + +'Not at all, Sir, not at all,' returned the other haughtily. 'You were +employed--' + +'Being an inferior person, for the humiliation of Mrs Dombey. I forgot. +Oh, yes, it was expressly understood!' said Carker. 'I beg your pardon!' + +As he bent his head to Mr Dombey, with an air of deference that accorded +ill with his words, though they were humbly spoken, he moved it round +towards her, and kept his watching eyes that way. + +She had better have turned hideous and dropped dead, than have stood up +with such a smile upon her face, in such a fallen spirit's majesty of +scorn and beauty. She lifted her hand to the tiara of bright jewels +radiant on her head, and, plucking it off with a force that dragged +and strained her rich black hair with heedless cruelty, and brought it +tumbling wildly on her shoulders, cast the gems upon the ground. From +each arm, she unclasped a diamond bracelet, flung it down, and trod upon +the glittering heap. Without a word, without a shadow on the fire of +her bright eye, without abatement of her awful smile, she looked on Mr +Dombey to the last, in moving to the door; and left him. + +Florence had heard enough before quitting the room, to know that Edith +loved her yet; that she had suffered for her sake; and that she had kept +her sacrifices quiet, lest they should trouble her peace. She did not +want to speak to her of this--she could not, remembering to whom she +was opposed--but she wished, in one silent and affectionate embrace, to +assure her that she felt it all, and thanked her. + +Her father went out alone, that evening, and Florence issuing from her +own chamber soon afterwards, went about the house in search of Edith, +but unavailingly. She was in her own rooms, where Florence had +long ceased to go, and did not dare to venture now, lest she should +unconsciously engender new trouble. Still Florence hoping to meet her +before going to bed, changed from room to room, and wandered through the +house so splendid and so dreary, without remaining anywhere. + +She was crossing a gallery of communication that opened at some little +distance on the staircase, and was only lighted on great occasions, when +she saw, through the opening, which was an arch, the figure of a man +coming down some few stairs opposite. Instinctively apprehensive of +her father, whom she supposed it was, she stopped, in the dark, gazing +through the arch into the light. But it was Mr Carker coming down alone, +and looking over the railing into the hall. No bell was rung to announce +his departure, and no servant was in attendance. He went down quietly, +opened the door for himself, glided out, and shut it softly after him. + +Her invincible repugnance to this man, and perhaps the stealthy act of +watching anyone, which, even under such innocent circumstances, is in a +manner guilty and oppressive, made Florence shake from head to foot. Her +blood seemed to run cold. As soon as she could--for at first she felt +an insurmountable dread of moving--she went quickly to her own room and +locked her door; but even then, shut in with her dog beside her, felt +a chill sensation of horror, as if there were danger brooding somewhere +near her. + +It invaded her dreams and disturbed the whole night. Rising in the +morning, unrefreshed, and with a heavy recollection of the domestic +unhappiness of the preceding day, she sought Edith again in all the +rooms, and did so, from time to time, all the morning. But she remained +in her own chamber, and Florence saw nothing of her. Learning, however, +that the projected dinner at home was put off, Florence thought it +likely that she would go out in the evening to fulfil the engagement +she had spoken of; and resolved to try and meet her, then, upon the +staircase. + +When the evening had set in, she heard, from the room in which she sat +on purpose, a footstep on the stairs that she thought to be Edith's. +Hurrying out, and up towards her room, Florence met her immediately, +coming down alone. + +What was Florence's affright and wonder when, at sight of her, with her +tearful face, and outstretched arms, Edith recoiled and shrieked! + +'Don't come near me!' she cried. 'Keep away! Let me go by!' + +'Mama!' said Florence. + +'Don't call me by that name! Don't speak to me! Don't look at +me!--Florence!' shrinking back, as Florence moved a step towards her, +'don't touch me!' + +As Florence stood transfixed before the haggard face and staring eyes, +she noted, as in a dream, that Edith spread her hands over them, and +shuddering through all her form, and crouching down against the wall, +crawled by her like some lower animal, sprang up, and fled away. + +Florence dropped upon the stairs in a swoon; and was found there by Mrs +Pipchin, she supposed. She knew nothing more, until she found herself +lying on her own bed, with Mrs Pipchin and some servants standing round +her. + +'Where is Mama?' was her first question. + +'Gone out to dinner,' said Mrs Pipchin. + +'And Papa?' + +'Mr Dombey is in his own room, Miss Dombey,' said Mrs Pipchin, 'and the +best thing you can do, is to take off your things and go to bed this +minute.' This was the sagacious woman's remedy for all complaints, +particularly lowness of spirits, and inability to sleep; for which +offences, many young victims in the days of the Brighton Castle had been +committed to bed at ten o'clock in the morning. + +Without promising obedience, but on the plea of desiring to be very +quiet, Florence disengaged herself, as soon as she could, from the +ministration of Mrs Pipchin and her attendants. Left alone, she thought +of what had happened on the staircase, at first in doubt of its reality; +then with tears; then with an indescribable and terrible alarm, like +that she had felt the night before. + +She determined not to go to bed until Edith returned, and if she could +not speak to her, at least to be sure that she was safe at home. What +indistinct and shadowy dread moved Florence to this resolution, she did +not know, and did not dare to think. She only knew that until Edith came +back, there was no repose for her aching head or throbbing heart. + +The evening deepened into night; midnight came; no Edith. + +Florence could not read, or rest a moment. She paced her own room, +opened the door and paced the staircase-gallery outside, looked out of +window on the night, listened to the wind blowing and the rain falling, +sat down and watched the faces in the fire, got up and watched the moon +flying like a storm-driven ship through the sea of clouds. + +All the house was gone to bed, except two servants who were waiting the +return of their mistress, downstairs. + +One o'clock. The carriages that rumbled in the distance, turned away, +or stopped short, or went past; the silence gradually deepened, and was +more and more rarely broken, save by a rush of wind or sweep of rain. +Two o'clock. No Edith! + +Florence, more agitated, paced her room; and paced the gallery outside; +and looked out at the night, blurred and wavy with the raindrops on the +glass, and the tears in her own eyes; and looked up at the hurry in +the sky, so different from the repose below, and yet so tranquil and +solitary. Three o'clock! There was a terror in every ash that dropped +out of the fire. No Edith yet. + +More and more agitated, Florence paced her room, and paced the gallery, +and looked out at the moon with a new fancy of her likeness to a pale +fugitive hurrying away and hiding her guilty face. Four struck! Five! No +Edith yet. + +But now there was some cautious stir in the house; and Florence found +that Mrs Pipchin had been awakened by one of those who sat up, had risen +and had gone down to her father's door. Stealing lower down the stairs, +and observing what passed, she saw her father come out in his morning +gown, and start when he was told his wife had not come home. He +dispatched a messenger to the stables to inquire whether the coachman +was there; and while the man was gone, dressed himself very hurriedly. + +The man came back, in great haste, bringing the coachman with him, who +said he had been at home and in bed, since ten o'clock. He had driven +his mistress to her old house in Brook Street, where she had been met by +Mr Carker-- + +Florence stood upon the very spot where she had seen him coming down. +Again she shivered with the nameless terror of that sight, and had +hardly steadiness enough to hear and understand what followed. + +--Who had told him, the man went on to say, that his mistress would not +want the carriage to go home in; and had dismissed him. + +She saw her father turn white in the face, and heard him ask in a quick, +trembling voice, for Mrs Dombey's maid. The whole house was roused; for +she was there, in a moment, very pale too, and speaking incoherently. + +She said she had dressed her mistress early--full two hours before she +went out--and had been told, as she often was, that she would not be +wanted at night. She had just come from her mistress's rooms, but-- + +'But what! what was it?' Florence heard her father demand like a madman. + +'But the inner dressing-room was locked and the key gone.' + +Her father seized a candle that was flaming on the ground--someone had +put it down there, and forgotten it--and came running upstairs with such +fury, that Florence, in her fear, had hardly time to fly before him. +She heard him striking in the door, as she ran on, with her hands widely +spread, and her hair streaming, and her face like a distracted person's, +back to her own room. + +When the door yielded, and he rushed in, what did he see there? No +one knew. But thrown down in a costly mass upon the ground, was every +ornament she had had, since she had been his wife; every dress she had +worn; and everything she had possessed. This was the room in which he +had seen, in yonder mirror, the proud face discard him. This was the +room in which he had wondered, idly, how these things would look when he +should see them next! + +Heaping them back into the drawers, and locking them up in a rage of +haste, he saw some papers on the table. The deed of settlement he had +executed on their marriage, and a letter. He read that she was gone. +He read that he was dishonoured. He read that she had fled, upon +her shameful wedding-day, with the man whom he had chosen for her +humiliation; and he tore out of the room, and out of the house, with +a frantic idea of finding her yet, at the place to which she had been +taken, and beating all trace of beauty out of the triumphant face with +his bare hand. + +Florence, not knowing what she did, put on a shawl and bonnet, in a +dream of running through the streets until she found Edith, and then +clasping her in her arms, to save and bring her back. But when she +hurried out upon the staircase, and saw the frightened servants going up +and down with lights, and whispering together, and falling away from her +father as he passed down, she awoke to a sense of her own powerlessness; +and hiding in one of the great rooms that had been made gorgeous for +this, felt as if her heart would burst with grief. + +Compassion for her father was the first distinct emotion that made head +against the flood of sorrow which overwhelmed her. Her constant nature +turned to him in his distress, as fervently and faithfully, as if, +in his prosperity, he had been the embodiment of that idea which had +gradually become so faint and dim. Although she did not know, otherwise +than through the suggestions of a shapeless fear, the full extent of +his calamity, he stood before her, wronged and deserted; and again her +yearning love impelled her to his side. + +He was not long away; for Florence was yet weeping in the great room and +nourishing these thoughts, when she heard him come back. He ordered the +servants to set about their ordinary occupations, and went into his own +apartment, where he trod so heavily that she could hear him walking up +and down from end to end. + +Yielding at once to the impulse of her affection, timid at all other +times, but bold in its truth to him in his adversity, and undaunted by +past repulse, Florence, dressed as she was, hurried downstairs. As she +set her light foot in the hall, he came out of his room. She hastened +towards him unchecked, with her arms stretched out, and crying 'Oh dear, +dear Papa!' as if she would have clasped him round the neck. + +And so she would have done. But in his frenzy, he lifted up his cruel +arm, and struck her, crosswise, with that heaviness, that she tottered +on the marble floor; and as he dealt the blow, he told her what Edith +was, and bade her follow her, since they had always been in league. + +She did not sink down at his feet; she did not shut out the sight of him +with her trembling hands; she did not weep; she did not utter one word +of reproach. But she looked at him, and a cry of desolation issued from +her heart. For as she looked, she saw him murdering that fond idea to +which she had held in spite of him. She saw his cruelty, neglect, and +hatred dominant above it, and stamping it down. She saw she had no +father upon earth, and ran out, orphaned, from his house. + +Ran out of his house. A moment, and her hand was on the lock, the cry +was on her lips, his face was there, made paler by the yellow candles +hastily put down and guttering away, and by the daylight coming in above +the door. Another moment, and the close darkness of the shut-up house +(forgotten to be opened, though it was long since day) yielded to the +unexpected glare and freedom of the morning; and Florence, with her head +bent down to hide her agony of tears, was in the streets. + + + +CHAPTER 48. The Flight of Florence + + +In the wildness of her sorrow, shame, and terror, the forlorn girl +hurried through the sunshine of a bright morning, as if it were the +darkness of a winter night. Wringing her hands and weeping bitterly, +insensible to everything but the deep wound in her breast, stunned by +the loss of all she loved, left like the sole survivor on a lonely shore +from the wreck of a great vessel, she fled without a thought, without a +hope, without a purpose, but to fly somewhere anywhere. + +The cheerful vista of the long street, burnished by the morning light, +the sight of the blue sky and airy clouds, the vigorous freshness of +the day, so flushed and rosy in its conquest of the night, awakened no +responsive feelings in her so hurt bosom. Somewhere, anywhere, to hide +her head! somewhere, anywhere, for refuge, never more to look upon the +place from which she fled! + +But there were people going to and fro; there were opening shops, and +servants at the doors of houses; there was the rising clash and roar +of the day's struggle. Florence saw surprise and curiosity in the faces +flitting past her; saw long shadows coming back upon the pavement; and +heard voices that were strange to her asking her where she went, and +what the matter was; and though these frightened her the more at first, +and made her hurry on the faster, they did her the good service of +recalling her in some degree to herself, and reminding her of the +necessity of greater composure. + +Where to go? Still somewhere, anywhere! still going on; but where! She +thought of the only other time she had been lost in the wild wilderness +of London--though not lost as now--and went that way. To the home of +Walter's Uncle. + +Checking her sobs, and drying her swollen eyes, and endeavouring to calm +the agitation of her manner, so as to avoid attracting notice, Florence, +resolving to keep to the more quiet streets as long as she could, was +going on more quietly herself, when a familiar little shadow darted past +upon the sunny pavement, stopped short, wheeled about, came close to +her, made off again, bounded round and round her, and Diogenes, panting +for breath, and yet making the street ring with his glad bark, was at +her feet. + +'Oh, Di! oh, dear, true, faithful Di, how did you come here? How could I +ever leave you, Di, who would never leave me?' + +Florence bent down on the pavement, and laid his rough, old, loving, +foolish head against her breast, and they got up together, and went on +together; Di more off the ground than on it, endeavouring to kiss his +mistress flying, tumbling over and getting up again without the least +concern, dashing at big dogs in a jocose defiance of his species, +terrifying with touches of his nose young housemaids who were cleaning +doorsteps, and continually stopping, in the midst of a thousand +extravagances, to look back at Florence, and bark until all the dogs +within hearing answered, and all the dogs who could come out, came out +to stare at him. + +With this last adherent, Florence hurried away in the advancing morning, +and the strengthening sunshine, to the City. The roar soon grew more +loud, the passengers more numerous, the shops more busy, until she +was carried onward in a stream of life setting that way, and +flowing, indifferently, past marts and mansions, prisons, churches, +market-places, wealth, poverty, good, and evil, like the broad river +side by side with it, awakened from its dreams of rushes, willows, and +green moss, and rolling on, turbid and troubled, among the works and +cares of men, to the deep sea. + +At length the quarters of the little Midshipman arose in view. Nearer +yet, and the little Midshipman himself was seen upon his post, intent as +ever on his observations. Nearer yet, and the door stood open, inviting +her to enter. Florence, who had again quickened her pace, as she +approached the end of her journey, ran across the road (closely followed +by Diogenes, whom the bustle had somewhat confused), ran in, and sank +upon the threshold of the well-remembered little parlour. + +The Captain, in his glazed hat, was standing over the fire, making +his morning's cocoa, with that elegant trifle, his watch, upon the +chimney-piece, for easy reference during the progress of the cookery. +Hearing a footstep and the rustle of a dress, the Captain turned with a +palpitating remembrance of the dreadful Mrs MacStinger, at the instant +when Florence made a motion with her hand towards him, reeled, and fell +upon the floor. + +The Captain, pale as Florence, pale in the very knobs upon his face +raised her like a baby, and laid her on the same old sofa upon which she +had slumbered long ago. + +'It's Heart's Delight!' said the Captain, looking intently in her face. +'It's the sweet creetur grow'd a woman!' + +Captain Cuttle was so respectful of her, and had such a reverence for +her, in this new character, that he would not have held her in his arms, +while she was unconscious, for a thousand pounds. + +'My Heart's Delight!' said the Captain, withdrawing to a little +distance, with the greatest alarm and sympathy depicted on his +countenance. 'If you can hail Ned Cuttle with a finger, do it!' + +But Florence did not stir. + +'My Heart's Delight!' said the trembling Captain. 'For the sake of Wal'r +drownded in the briny deep, turn to, and histe up something or another, +if able!' + +Finding her insensible to this impressive adjuration also, Captain +Cuttle snatched from his breakfast-table a basin of cold water, and +sprinkled some upon her face. Yielding to the urgency of the case, the +Captain then, using his immense hand with extraordinary gentleness, +relieved her of her bonnet, moistened her lips and forehead, put back +her hair, covered her feet with his own coat which he pulled off for +the purpose, patted her hand--so small in his, that he was struck with +wonder when he touched it--and seeing that her eyelids quivered, and +that her lips began to move, continued these restorative applications +with a better heart. + +'Cheerily,' said the Captain. 'Cheerily! Stand by, my pretty one, stand +by! There! You're better now. Steady's the word, and steady it is. Keep +her so! Drink a little drop o' this here,' said the Captain. 'There you +are! What cheer now, my pretty, what cheer now?' + +At this stage of her recovery, Captain Cuttle, with an imperfect +association of a Watch with a Physician's treatment of a patient, took +his own down from the mantel-shelf, and holding it out on his hook, and +taking Florence's hand in his, looked steadily from one to the other, as +expecting the dial to do something. + +'What cheer, my pretty?' said the Captain. 'What cheer now? You've done +her some good, my lad, I believe,' said the Captain, under his +breath, and throwing an approving glance upon his watch. 'Put you +back half-an-hour every morning, and about another quarter towards the +arternoon, and you're a watch as can be ekalled by few and excelled by +none. What cheer, my lady lass!' + +'Captain Cuttle! Is it you?' exclaimed Florence, raising herself a +little. + +'Yes, yes, my lady lass,' said the Captain, hastily deciding in his own +mind upon the superior elegance of that form of address, as the most +courtly he could think of. + +'Is Walter's Uncle here?' asked Florence. + +'Here, pretty?' returned the Captain. 'He ain't been here this many a +long day. He ain't been heerd on, since he sheered off arter poor Wal'r. +But,' said the Captain, as a quotation, 'Though lost to sight, to memory +dear, and England, Home, and Beauty!' + +'Do you live here?' asked Florence. + +'Yes, my lady lass,' returned the Captain. + +'Oh, Captain Cuttle!' cried Florence, putting her hands together, and +speaking wildly. 'Save me! keep me here! Let no one know where I am! +I'll tell you what has happened by-and-by, when I can. I have no one in +the world to go to. Do not send me away!' + +'Send you away, my lady lass!' exclaimed the Captain. 'You, my Heart's +Delight! Stay a bit! We'll put up this here deadlight, and take a double +turn on the key!' + +With these words, the Captain, using his one hand and his hook with the +greatest dexterity, got out the shutter of the door, put it up, made it +all fast, and locked the door itself. + +When he came back to the side of Florence, she took his hand, and kissed +it. The helplessness of the action, the appeal it made to him, the +confidence it expressed, the unspeakable sorrow in her face, the pain of +mind she had too plainly suffered, and was suffering then, his +knowledge of her past history, her present lonely, worn, and unprotected +appearance, all so rushed upon the good Captain together, that he fairly +overflowed with compassion and gentleness. + +'My lady lass,' said the Captain, polishing the bridge of his nose with +his arm until it shone like burnished copper, 'don't you say a word to +Ed'ard Cuttle, until such times as you finds yourself a riding smooth +and easy; which won't be to-day, nor yet to-morrow. And as to giving of +you up, or reporting where you are, yes verily, and by God's help, so I +won't, Church catechism, make a note on!' + +This the Captain said, reference and all, in one breath, and with much +solemnity; taking off his hat at 'yes verily,' and putting it on again, +when he had quite concluded. + +Florence could do but one thing more to thank him, and to show him how +she trusted in him; and she did it. Clinging to this rough creature as +the last asylum of her bleeding heart, she laid her head upon his honest +shoulder, and clasped him round his neck, and would have kneeled down to +bless him, but that he divined her purpose, and held her up like a true +man. + +'Steady!' said the Captain. 'Steady! You're too weak to stand, you +see, my pretty, and must lie down here again. There, there!' To see the +Captain lift her on the sofa, and cover her with his coat, would have +been worth a hundred state sights. 'And now,' said the Captain, 'you +must take some breakfast, lady lass, and the dog shall have some too. +And arter that you shall go aloft to old Sol Gills's room, and fall +asleep there, like a angel.' + +Captain Cuttle patted Diogenes when he made allusion to him, +and Diogenes met that overture graciously, half-way. During the +administration of the restoratives he had clearly been in two minds +whether to fly at the Captain or to offer him his friendship; and he had +expressed that conflict of feeling by alternate waggings of his tail, +and displays of his teeth, with now and then a growl or so. But by this +time, his doubts were all removed. It was plain that he considered the +Captain one of the most amiable of men, and a man whom it was an honour +to a dog to know. + +In evidence of these convictions, Diogenes attended on the Captain +while he made some tea and toast, and showed a lively interest in his +housekeeping. But it was in vain for the kind Captain to make such +preparations for Florence, who sorely tried to do some honour to them, +but could touch nothing, and could only weep and weep again. + +'Well, well!' said the compassionate Captain, 'arter turning in, my +Heart's Delight, you'll get more way upon you. Now, I'll serve out +your allowance, my lad.' To Diogenes. 'And you shall keep guard on your +mistress aloft.' + +Diogenes, however, although he had been eyeing his intended breakfast +with a watering mouth and glistening eyes, instead of falling to, +ravenously, when it was put before him, pricked up his ears, darted to +the shop-door, and barked there furiously: burrowing with his head at +the bottom, as if he were bent on mining his way out. + +'Can there be anybody there!' asked Florence, in alarm. + +'No, my lady lass,' returned the Captain. 'Who'd stay there, without +making any noise! Keep up a good heart, pretty. It's only people going +by.' + +But for all that, Diogenes barked and barked, and burrowed and burrowed, +with pertinacious fury; and whenever he stopped to listen, appeared to +receive some new conviction into his mind, for he set to, barking and +burrowing again, a dozen times. Even when he was persuaded to return to +his breakfast, he came jogging back to it, with a very doubtful air; and +was off again, in another paroxysm, before touching a morsel. + +'If there should be someone listening and watching,' whispered Florence. +'Someone who saw me come--who followed me, perhaps.' + +'It ain't the young woman, lady lass, is it?' said the Captain, taken +with a bright idea. + +'Susan?' said Florence, shaking her head. 'Ah no! Susan has been gone +from me a long time.' + +'Not deserted, I hope?' said the Captain. 'Don't say that that there +young woman's run, my pretty!' + +'Oh, no, no!' cried Florence. 'She is one of the truest hearts in the +world!' + +The Captain was greatly relieved by this reply, and expressed his +satisfaction by taking off his hard glazed hat, and dabbing his head +all over with his handkerchief, rolled up like a ball, observing several +times, with infinite complacency, and with a beaming countenance, that +he know'd it. + +'So you're quiet now, are you, brother?' said the Captain to Diogenes. +'There warn't nobody there, my lady lass, bless you!' + +Diogenes was not so sure of that. The door still had an attraction +for him at intervals; and he went snuffing about it, and growling to +himself, unable to forget the subject. This incident, coupled with the +Captain's observation of Florence's fatigue and faintness, decided +him to prepare Sol Gills's chamber as a place of retirement for her +immediately. He therefore hastily betook himself to the top of the +house, and made the best arrangement of it that his imagination and his +means suggested. + +It was very clean already; and the Captain being an orderly man, and +accustomed to make things ship-shape, converted the bed into a couch, +by covering it all over with a clean white drapery. By a similar +contrivance, the Captain converted the little dressing-table into +a species of altar, on which he set forth two silver teaspoons, a +flower-pot, a telescope, his celebrated watch, a pocket-comb, and +a song-book, as a small collection of rarities, that made a choice +appearance. Having darkened the window, and straightened the pieces of +carpet on the floor, the Captain surveyed these preparations with great +delight, and descended to the little parlour again, to bring Florence to +her bower. + +Nothing would induce the Captain to believe that it was possible for +Florence to walk upstairs. If he could have got the idea into his head, +he would have considered it an outrageous breach of hospitality to +allow her to do so. Florence was too weak to dispute the point, and the +Captain carried her up out of hand, laid her down, and covered her with +a great watch-coat. + +'My lady lass!' said the Captain, 'you're as safe here as if you was at +the top of St Paul's Cathedral, with the ladder cast off. Sleep is what +you want, afore all other things, and may you be able to show yourself +smart with that there balsam for the still small woice of a wounded +mind! When there's anything you want, my Heart's Delight, as this here +humble house or town can offer, pass the word to Ed'ard Cuttle, as'll +stand off and on outside that door, and that there man will wibrate with +joy.' The Captain concluded by kissing the hand that Florence stretched +out to him, with the chivalry of any old knight-errant, and walking on +tiptoe out of the room. + +Descending to the little parlour, Captain Cuttle, after holding a hasty +council with himself, decided to open the shop-door for a few minutes, +and satisfy himself that now, at all events, there was no one loitering +about it. Accordingly he set it open, and stood upon the threshold, +keeping a bright look-out, and sweeping the whole street with his +spectacles. + +'How de do, Captain Gills?' said a voice beside him. The Captain, +looking down, found that he had been boarded by Mr Toots while sweeping +the horizon. + +'How are, you, my lad?' replied the Captain. + +'Well, I'm pretty well, thank'ee, Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots. 'You +know I'm never quite what I could wish to be, now. I don't expect that I +ever shall be any more.' + +Mr Toots never approached any nearer than this to the great theme of +his life, when in conversation with Captain Cuttle, on account of the +agreement between them. + +'Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'if I could have the pleasure of a word +with you, it's--it's rather particular.' + +'Why, you see, my lad,' replied the Captain, leading the way into the +parlour, 'I ain't what you may call exactly free this morning; and +therefore if you can clap on a bit, I should take it kindly.' + +'Certainly, Captain Gills,' replied Mr Toots, who seldom had any notion +of the Captain's meaning. 'To clap on, is exactly what I could wish to +do. Naturally.' + +'If so be, my lad,' returned the Captain. 'Do it!' + +The Captain was so impressed by the possession of his tremendous +secret--by the fact of Miss Dombey being at that moment under his roof, +while the innocent and unconscious Toots sat opposite to him--that a +perspiration broke out on his forehead, and he found it impossible, +while slowly drying the same, glazed hat in hand, to keep his eyes off +Mr Toots's face. Mr Toots, who himself appeared to have some secret +reasons for being in a nervous state, was so unspeakably disconcerted by +the Captain's stare, that after looking at him vacantly for some time in +silence, and shifting uneasily on his chair, he said: + +'I beg your pardon, Captain Gills, but you don't happen to see anything +particular in me, do you?' + +'No, my lad,' returned the Captain. 'No.' + +'Because you know,' said Mr Toots with a chuckle, 'I know I'm wasting +away. You needn't at all mind alluding to that. I--I should like it. +Burgess and Co. have altered my measure, I'm in that state of thinness. +It's a gratification to me. I--I'm glad of it. I--I'd a great deal +rather go into a decline, if I could. I'm a mere brute you know, grazing +upon the surface of the earth, Captain Gills.' + +The more Mr Toots went on in this way, the more the Captain was +weighed down by his secret, and stared at him. What with this cause of +uneasiness, and his desire to get rid of Mr Toots, the Captain was in +such a scared and strange condition, indeed, that if he had been +in conversation with a ghost, he could hardly have evinced greater +discomposure. + +'But I was going to say, Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots. 'Happening to +be this way early this morning--to tell you the truth, I was coming to +breakfast with you. As to sleep, you know, I never sleep now. I might be +a Watchman, except that I don't get any pay, and he's got nothing on his +mind.' + +'Carry on, my lad!' said the Captain, in an admonitory voice. + +'Certainly, Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots. 'Perfectly true! Happening to +be this way early this morning (an hour or so ago), and finding the door +shut--' + +'What! were you waiting there, brother?' demanded the Captain. + +'Not at all, Captain Gills,' returned Mr Toots. 'I didn't stop a moment. +I thought you were out. But the person said--by the bye, you don't keep +a dog, you, Captain Gills?' + +The Captain shook his head. + +'To be sure,' said Mr Toots, 'that's exactly what I said. I knew you +didn't. There is a dog, Captain Gills, connected with--but excuse me. +That's forbidden ground.' + +The Captain stared at Mr Toots until he seemed to swell to twice his +natural size; and again the perspiration broke out on the Captain's +forehead, when he thought of Diogenes taking it into his head to come +down and make a third in the parlour. + +'The person said,' continued Mr Toots, 'that he had heard a dog barking +in the shop: which I knew couldn't be, and I told him so. But he was as +positive as if he had seen the dog.' + +'What person, my lad?' inquired the Captain. + +'Why, you see there it is, Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, with a +perceptible increase in the nervousness of his manner. 'It's not for +me to say what may have taken place, or what may not have taken place. +Indeed, I don't know. I get mixed up with all sorts of things that I +don't quite understand, and I think there's something rather weak in +my--in my head, in short.' + +The Captain nodded his own, as a mark of assent. + +'But the person said, as we were walking away,' continued Mr Toots, +'that you knew what, under existing circumstances, might occur--he +said "might," very strongly--and that if you were requested to prepare +yourself, you would, no doubt, come prepared.' + +'Person, my lad' the Captain repeated. + +'I don't know what person, I'm sure, Captain Gills,' replied Mr Toots, +'I haven't the least idea. But coming to the door, I found him waiting +there; and he said was I coming back again, and I said yes; and he +said did I know you, and I said, yes, I had the pleasure of your +acquaintance--you had given me the pleasure of your acquaintance, after +some persuasion; and he said, if that was the case, would I say to you +what I have said, about existing circumstances and coming prepared, and +as soon as ever I saw you, would I ask you to step round the corner, if +it was only for one minute, on most important business, to Mr Brogley's +the Broker's. Now, I tell you what, Captain Gills--whatever it is, I am +convinced it's very important; and if you like to step round, now, I'll +wait here till you come back.' + +The Captain, divided between his fear of compromising Florence in some +way by not going, and his horror of leaving Mr Toots in possession of +the house with a chance of finding out the secret, was a spectacle of +mental disturbance that even Mr Toots could not be blind to. But that +young gentleman, considering his nautical friend as merely in a state of +preparation for the interview he was going to have, was quite satisfied, +and did not review his own discreet conduct without chuckle. + +At length the Captain decided, as the lesser of two evils, to run round +to Brogley's the Broker's: previously locking the door that communicated +with the upper part of the house, and putting the key in his pocket. +'If so be,' said the Captain to Mr Toots, with not a little shame and +hesitation, 'as you'll excuse my doing of it, brother.' + +'Captain Gills,' returned Mr Toots, 'whatever you do, is satisfactory to +me.' + +The Captain thanked him heartily, and promising to come back in less +than five minutes, went out in quest of the person who had entrusted Mr +Toots with this mysterious message. Poor Mr Toots, left to himself, lay +down upon the sofa, little thinking who had reclined there last, and, +gazing up at the skylight and resigning himself to visions of Miss +Dombey, lost all heed of time and place. + +It was as well that he did so; for although the Captain was not gone +long, he was gone much longer than he had proposed. When he came back, +he was very pale indeed, and greatly agitated, and even looked as if he +had been shedding tears. He seemed to have lost the faculty of speech, +until he had been to the cupboard and taken a dram of rum from the +case-bottle, when he fetched a deep breath, and sat down in a chair with +his hand before his face. + +'Captain Gills,' said Toots, kindly, 'I hope and trust there's nothing +wrong?' + +'Thank'ee, my lad, not a bit,' said the Captain. 'Quite contrairy.' + +'You have the appearance of being overcome, Captain Gills,' observed Mr +Toots. + +'Why, my lad, I am took aback,' the Captain admitted. 'I am.' + +'Is there anything I can do, Captain Gills?' inquired Mr Toots. 'If +there is, make use of me.' + +The Captain removed his hand from his face, looked at him with a +remarkable expression of pity and tenderness, and took him by the hand, +and shook it hard. + +'No, thank'ee,' said the Captain. 'Nothing. Only I'll take it as a +favour if you'll part company for the present. I believe, brother,' +wringing his hand again, 'that, after Wal'r, and on a different model, +you're as good a lad as ever stepped.' + +'Upon my word and honour, Captain Gills,' returned Mr Toots, giving +the Captain's hand a preliminary slap before shaking it again, 'it's +delightful to me to possess your good opinion. Thank'ee.' + +'And bear a hand and cheer up,' said the Captain, patting him on the +back. 'What! There's more than one sweet creetur in the world!' + +'Not to me, Captain Gills,' replied Mr Toots gravely. 'Not to me, I +assure you. The state of my feelings towards Miss Dombey is of that +unspeakable description, that my heart is a desert island, and she lives +in it alone. I'm getting more used up every day, and I'm proud to be so. +If you could see my legs when I take my boots off, you'd form some idea +of what unrequited affection is. I have been prescribed bark, but I +don't take it, for I don't wish to have any tone whatever given to +my constitution. I'd rather not. This, however, is forbidden ground. +Captain Gills, goodbye!' + +Captain Cuttle cordially reciprocating the warmth of Mr Toots's +farewell, locked the door behind him, and shaking his head with the same +remarkable expression of pity and tenderness as he had regarded him with +before, went up to see if Florence wanted him. + +There was an entire change in the Captain's face as he went upstairs. He +wiped his eyes with his handkerchief, and he polished the bridge of his +nose with his sleeve as he had done already that morning, but his face +was absolutely changed. Now, he might have been thought supremely happy; +now, he might have been thought sad; but the kind of gravity that sat +upon his features was quite new to them, and was as great an improvement +to them as if they had undergone some sublimating process. + +He knocked softly, with his hook, at Florence's door, twice or thrice; +but, receiving no answer, ventured first to peep in, and then to enter: +emboldened to take the latter step, perhaps, by the familiar recognition +of Diogenes, who, stretched upon the ground by the side of her couch, +wagged his tail, and winked his eyes at the Captain, without being at +the trouble of getting up. + +She was sleeping heavily, and moaning in her sleep; and Captain Cuttle, +with a perfect awe of her youth, and beauty, and her sorrow, raised her +head, and adjusted the coat that covered her, where it had fallen off, +and darkened the window a little more that she might sleep on, and crept +out again, and took his post of watch upon the stairs. All this, with a +touch and tread as light as Florence's own. + +Long may it remain in this mixed world a point not easy of decision, +which is the more beautiful evidence of the Almighty's goodness--the +delicate fingers that are formed for sensitiveness and sympathy of +touch, and made to minister to pain and grief, or the rough hard Captain +Cuttle hand, that the heart teaches, guides, and softens in a moment! + +Florence slept upon her couch, forgetful of her homelessness and +orphanage, and Captain Cuttle watched upon the stairs. A louder sob or +moan than usual, brought him sometimes to her door; but by degrees she +slept more peacefully, and the Captain's watch was undisturbed. + + + +CHAPTER 49. The Midshipman makes a Discovery + + +It was long before Florence awoke. The day was in its prime, the day +was in its wane, and still, uneasy in mind and body, she slept on; +unconscious of her strange bed, of the noise and turmoil in the +street, and of the light that shone outside the shaded window. Perfect +unconsciousness of what had happened in the home that existed no more, +even the deep slumber of exhaustion could not produce. Some undefined +and mournful recollection of it, dozing uneasily but never sleeping, +pervaded all her rest. A dull sorrow, like a half-lulled sense of pain, +was always present to her; and her pale cheek was oftener wet with tears +than the honest Captain, softly putting in his head from time to time at +the half-closed door, could have desired to see it. + +The sun was getting low in the west, and, glancing out of a red mist, +pierced with its rays opposite loopholes and pieces of fretwork in the +spires of city churches, as if with golden arrows that struck through +and through them--and far away athwart the river and its flat banks, +it was gleaming like a path of fire--and out at sea it was irradiating +sails of ships--and, looked towards, from quiet churchyards, upon +hill-tops in the country, it was steeping distant prospects in a flush +and glow that seemed to mingle earth and sky together in one glorious +suffusion--when Florence, opening her heavy eyes, lay at first, looking +without interest or recognition at the unfamiliar walls around her, and +listening in the same regardless manner to the noises in the street. But +presently she started up upon her couch, gazed round with a surprised +and vacant look, and recollected all. + +'My pretty,' said the Captain, knocking at the door, 'what cheer?' + +'Dear friend,' cried Florence, hurrying to him, 'is it you?' + +The Captain felt so much pride in the name, and was so pleased by the +gleam of pleasure in her face, when she saw him, that he kissed his +hook, by way of reply, in speechless gratification. + +'What cheer, bright di'mond?' said the Captain. + +'I have surely slept very long,' returned Florence. 'When did I come +here? Yesterday?' + +'This here blessed day, my lady lass,' replied the Captain. + +'Has there been no night? Is it still day?' asked Florence. + +'Getting on for evening now, my pretty,' said the Captain, drawing back +the curtain of the window. 'See!' + +Florence, with her hand upon the Captain's arm, so sorrowful and +timid, and the Captain with his rough face and burly figure, so quietly +protective of her, stood in the rosy light of the bright evening sky, +without saying a word. However strange the form of speech into which he +might have fashioned the feeling, if he had had to give it utterance, +the Captain felt, as sensibly as the most eloquent of men could have +done, that there was something in the tranquil time and in its softened +beauty that would make the wounded heart of Florence overflow; and that +it was better that such tears should have their way. So not a word spake +Captain Cuttle. But when he felt his arm clasped closer, and when he +felt the lonely head come nearer to it, and lay itself against his +homely coarse blue sleeve, he pressed it gently with his rugged hand, +and understood it, and was understood. + +'Better now, my pretty!' said the Captain. 'Cheerily, cheerily, I'll go +down below, and get some dinner ready. Will you come down of your own +self, arterwards, pretty, or shall Ed'ard Cuttle come and fetch you?' + +As Florence assured him that she was quite able to walk downstairs, the +Captain, though evidently doubtful of his own hospitality in permitting +it, left her to do so, and immediately set about roasting a fowl at +the fire in the little parlour. To achieve his cookery with the greater +skill, he pulled off his coat, tucked up his wristbands, and put on his +glazed hat, without which assistant he never applied himself to any nice +or difficult undertaking. + +After cooling her aching head and burning face in the fresh water which +the Captain's care had provided for her while she slept, Florence went +to the little mirror to bind up her disordered hair. Then she knew--in +a moment, for she shunned it instantly, that on her breast there was the +darkening mark of an angry hand. + +Her tears burst forth afresh at the sight; she was ashamed and afraid of +it; but it moved her to no anger against him. Homeless and fatherless, +she forgave him everything; hardly thought that she had need to forgive +him, or that she did; but she fled from the idea of him as she had fled +from the reality, and he was utterly gone and lost. There was no such +Being in the world. + +What to do, or where to live, Florence--poor, inexperienced girl!--could +not yet consider. She had indistinct dreams of finding, a long way off, +some little sisters to instruct, who would be gentle with her, and to +whom, under some feigned name, she might attach herself, and who +would grow up in their happy home, and marry, and be good to their old +governess, and perhaps entrust her, in time, with the education of their +own daughters. And she thought how strange and sorrowful it would be, +thus to become a grey-haired woman, carrying her secret to the grave, +when Florence Dombey was forgotten. But it was all dim and clouded to +her now. She only knew that she had no Father upon earth, and she said +so, many times, with her suppliant head hidden from all, but her Father +who was in Heaven. + +Her little stock of money amounted to but a few guineas. With a part of +this, it would be necessary to buy some clothes, for she had none but +those she wore. She was too desolate to think how soon her money would +be gone--too much a child in worldly matters to be greatly troubled on +that score yet, even if her other trouble had been less. She tried +to calm her thoughts and stay her tears; to quiet the hurry in her +throbbing head, and bring herself to believe that what had happened were +but the events of a few hours ago, instead of weeks or months, as they +appeared; and went down to her kind protector. + +The Captain had spread the cloth with great care, and was making some +egg-sauce in a little saucepan: basting the fowl from time to time +during the process with a strong interest, as it turned and browned on a +string before the fire. Having propped Florence up with cushions on +the sofa, which was already wheeled into a warm corner for her greater +comfort, the Captain pursued his cooking with extraordinary skill, +making hot gravy in a second little saucepan, boiling a handful of +potatoes in a third, never forgetting the egg-sauce in the first, and +making an impartial round of basting and stirring with the most useful +of spoons every minute. Besides these cares, the Captain had to keep his +eye on a diminutive frying-pan, in which some sausages were hissing and +bubbling in a most musical manner; and there was never such a radiant +cook as the Captain looked, in the height and heat of these functions: +it being impossible to say whether his face or his glazed hat shone the +brighter. + +The dinner being at length quite ready, Captain Cuttle dished and served +it up, with no less dexterity than he had cooked it. He then dressed for +dinner, by taking off his glazed hat and putting on his coat. That done, +he wheeled the table close against Florence on the sofa, said grace, +unscrewed his hook, screwed his fork into its place, and did the honours +of the table. + +'My lady lass,' said the Captain, 'cheer up, and try to eat a deal. +Stand by, my deary! Liver wing it is. Sarse it is. Sassage it is. And +potato!' all which the Captain ranged symmetrically on a plate, and +pouring hot gravy on the whole with the useful spoon, set before his +cherished guest. + +'The whole row o' dead lights is up, for'ard, lady lass,' observed the +Captain, encouragingly, 'and everythink is made snug. Try and pick a +bit, my pretty. If Wal'r was here--' + +'Ah! If I had him for my brother now!' cried Florence. + +'Don't! don't take on, my pretty!' said the Captain, 'awast, to obleege +me! He was your nat'ral born friend like, warn't he, Pet?' + +Florence had no words to answer with. She only said, 'Oh, dear, dear +Paul! oh, Walter!' + +'The wery planks she walked on,' murmured the Captain, looking at her +drooping face, 'was as high esteemed by Wal'r, as the water brooks is +by the hart which never rejices! I see him now, the wery day as he was +rated on them Dombey books, a speaking of her with his face a glistening +with doo--leastways with his modest sentiments--like a new blowed rose, +at dinner. Well, well! If our poor Wal'r was here, my lady lass--or if +he could be--for he's drownded, ain't he?' + +Florence shook her head. + +'Yes, yes; drownded,' said the Captain, soothingly; 'as I was saying, if +he could be here he'd beg and pray of you, my precious, to pick a leetle +bit, with a look-out for your own sweet health. Whereby, hold your own, +my lady lass, as if it was for Wal'r's sake, and lay your pretty head to +the wind.' + +Florence essayed to eat a morsel, for the Captain's pleasure. The +Captain, meanwhile, who seemed to have quite forgotten his own dinner, +laid down his knife and fork, and drew his chair to the sofa. + +'Wal'r was a trim lad, warn't he, precious?' said the Captain, after +sitting for some time silently rubbing his chin, with his eyes fixed +upon her, 'and a brave lad, and a good lad?' + +Florence tearfully assented. + +'And he's drownded, Beauty, ain't he?' said the Captain, in a soothing +voice. + +Florence could not but assent again. + +'He was older than you, my lady lass,' pursued the Captain, 'but you was +like two children together, at first; wam't you?' + +Florence answered 'Yes.' + +'And Wal'r's drownded,' said the Captain. 'Ain't he?' + +The repetition of this inquiry was a curious source of consolation, but +it seemed to be one to Captain Cuttle, for he came back to it again and +again. Florence, fain to push from her her untasted dinner, and to lie +back on her sofa, gave him her hand, feeling that she had disappointed +him, though truly wishing to have pleased him after all his trouble, but +he held it in his own (which shook as he held it), and appearing to have +quite forgotten all about the dinner and her want of appetite, went on +growling at intervals, in a ruminating tone of sympathy, 'Poor Wal'r. +Ay, ay! Drownded. Ain't he?' And always waited for her answer, in which +the great point of these singular reflections appeared to consist. + +The fowl and sausages were cold, and the gravy and the egg-sauce +stagnant, before the Captain remembered that they were on the board, and +fell to with the assistance of Diogenes, whose united efforts quickly +dispatched the banquet. The Captain's delight and wonder at the quiet +housewifery of Florence in assisting to clear the table, arrange the +parlour, and sweep up the hearth--only to be equalled by the fervency of +his protest when she began to assist him--were gradually raised to that +degree, that at last he could not choose but do nothing himself, and +stand looking at her as if she were some Fairy, daintily performing +these offices for him; the red rim on his forehead glowing again, in his +unspeakable admiration. + +But when Florence, taking down his pipe from the mantel-shelf gave it +into his hand, and entreated him to smoke it, the good Captain was so +bewildered by her attention that he held it as if he had never held a +pipe, in all his life. Likewise, when Florence, looking into the little +cupboard, took out the case-bottle and mixed a perfect glass of grog for +him, unasked, and set it at his elbow, his ruddy nose turned pale, he +felt himself so graced and honoured. When he had filled his pipe in +an absolute reverie of satisfaction, Florence lighted it for him--the +Captain having no power to object, or to prevent her--and resuming +her place on the old sofa, looked at him with a smile so loving and +so grateful, a smile that showed him so plainly how her forlorn heart +turned to him, as her face did, through grief, that the smoke of the +pipe got into the Captain's throat and made him cough, and got into the +Captain's eyes, and made them blink and water. + +The manner in which the Captain tried to make believe that the cause +of these effects lay hidden in the pipe itself, and the way in which he +looked into the bowl for it, and not finding it there, pretended to blow +it out of the stem, was wonderfully pleasant. The pipe soon getting +into better condition, he fell into that state of repose becoming a good +smoker; but sat with his eyes fixed on Florence, and, with a beaming +placidity not to be described, and stopping every now and then to +discharge a little cloud from his lips, slowly puffed it forth, as if it +were a scroll coming out of his mouth, bearing the legend 'Poor Wal'r, +ay, ay. Drownded, ain't he?' after which he would resume his smoking +with infinite gentleness. + +Unlike as they were externally--and there could scarcely be a more +decided contrast than between Florence in her delicate youth and beauty, +and Captain Cuttle with his knobby face, his great broad weather-beaten +person, and his gruff voice--in simple innocence of the world's ways and +the world's perplexities and dangers, they were nearly on a level. No +child could have surpassed Captain Cuttle in inexperience of +everything but wind and weather; in simplicity, credulity, and generous +trustfulness. Faith, hope, and charity, shared his whole nature among +them. An odd sort of romance, perfectly unimaginative, yet perfectly +unreal, and subject to no considerations of worldly prudence or +practicability, was the only partner they had in his character. As +the Captain sat, and smoked, and looked at Florence, God knows what +impossible pictures, in which she was the principal figure, presented +themselves to his mind. Equally vague and uncertain, though not so +sanguine, were her own thoughts of the life before her; and even as her +tears made prismatic colours in the light she gazed at, so, through her +new and heavy grief, she already saw a rainbow faintly shining in the +far-off sky. A wandering princess and a good monster in a storybook +might have sat by the fireside, and talked as Captain Cuttle and poor +Florence talked--and not have looked very much unlike them. + +The Captain was not troubled with the faintest idea of any difficulty +in retaining Florence, or of any responsibility thereby incurred. Having +put up the shutters and locked the door, he was quite satisfied on +this head. If she had been a Ward in Chancery, it would have made no +difference at all to Captain Cuttle. He was the last man in the world to +be troubled by any such considerations. + +So the Captain smoked his pipe very comfortably, and Florence and he +meditated after their own manner. When the pipe was out, they had some +tea; and then Florence entreated him to take her to some neighbouring +shop, where she could buy the few necessaries she immediately wanted. It +being quite dark, the Captain consented: peeping carefully out first, +as he had been wont to do in his time of hiding from Mrs MacStinger; and +arming himself with his large stick, in case of an appeal to arms being +rendered necessary by any unforeseen circumstance. + +The pride Captain Cuttle had, in giving his arm to Florence, and +escorting her some two or three hundred yards, keeping a bright look-out +all the time, and attracting the attention of everyone who passed them, +by his great vigilance and numerous precautions, was extreme. Arrived at +the shop, the Captain felt it a point of delicacy to retire during the +making of the purchases, as they were to consist of wearing apparel; but +he previously deposited his tin canister on the counter, and informing +the young lady of the establishment that it contained fourteen pound +two, requested her, in case that amount of property should not be +sufficient to defray the expenses of his niece's little outfit--at +the word 'niece,' he bestowed a most significant look on Florence, +accompanied with pantomime, expressive of sagacity and mystery--to have +the goodness to 'sing out,' and he would make up the difference from his +pocket. Casually consulting his big watch, as a deep means of dazzling +the establishment, and impressing it with a sense of property, the +Captain then kissed his hook to his niece, and retired outside the +window, where it was a choice sight to see his great face looking +in from time to time, among the silks and ribbons, with an obvious +misgiving that Florence had been spirited away by a back door. + +'Dear Captain Cuttle,' said Florence, when she came out with a parcel, +the size of which greatly disappointed the Captain, who had expected to +see a porter following with a bale of goods, 'I don't want this money, +indeed. I have not spent any of it. I have money of my own.' + +'My lady lass,' returned the baffled Captain, looking straight down the +street before them, 'take care on it for me, will you be so good, till +such time as I ask ye for it?' + +'May I put it back in its usual place,' said Florence, 'and keep it +there?' + +The Captain was not at all gratified by this proposal, but he answered, +'Ay, ay, put it anywheres, my lady lass, so long as you know where to +find it again. It ain't o' no use to me,' said the Captain. 'I wonder I +haven't chucked it away afore now. + +The Captain was quite disheartened for the moment, but he revived at +the first touch of Florence's arm, and they returned with the same +precautions as they had come; the Captain opening the door of the little +Midshipman's berth, and diving in, with a suddenness which his great +practice only could have taught him. During Florence's slumber in the +morning, he had engaged the daughter of an elderly lady who usually sat +under a blue umbrella in Leadenhall Market, selling poultry, to come and +put her room in order, and render her any little services she required; +and this damsel now appearing, Florence found everything about her as +convenient and orderly, if not as handsome, as in the terrible dream she +had once called Home. + +When they were alone again, the Captain insisted on her eating a slice +of dry toast, and drinking a glass of spiced negus (which he made +to perfection); and, encouraging her with every kind word and +inconsequential quotation he could possibly think of, led her upstairs +to her bedroom. But he too had something on his mind, and was not easy +in his manner. + +'Good-night, dear heart,' said Captain Cuttle to her at her +chamber-door. + +Florence raised her lips to his face, and kissed him. + +At any other time the Captain would have been overbalanced by such a +token of her affection and gratitude; but now, although he was very +sensible of it, he looked in her face with even more uneasiness than he +had testified before, and seemed unwilling to leave her. + +'Poor Wal'r!' said the Captain. + +'Poor, poor Walter!' sighed Florence. + +'Drownded, ain't he?' said the Captain. + +Florence shook her head, and sighed. + +'Good-night, my lady lass!' said Captain Cuttle, putting out his hand. + +'God bless you, dear, kind friend!' + +But the Captain lingered still. + +'Is anything the matter, dear Captain Cuttle?' said Florence, easily +alarmed in her then state of mind. 'Have you anything to tell me?' + +'To tell you, lady lass!' replied the Captain, meeting her eyes in +confusion. 'No, no; what should I have to tell you, pretty! You don't +expect as I've got anything good to tell you, sure?' + +'No!' said Florence, shaking her head. + +The Captain looked at her wistfully, and repeated 'No,'-- still +lingering, and still showing embarrassment. + +'Poor Wal'r!' said the Captain. 'My Wal'r, as I used to call you! Old +Sol Gills's nevy! Welcome to all as knowed you, as the flowers in May! +Where are you got to, brave boy? Drownded, ain't he?' + +Concluding his apostrophe with this abrupt appeal to Florence, the +Captain bade her good-night, and descended the stairs, while Florence +remained at the top, holding the candle out to light him down. He was +lost in the obscurity, and, judging from the sound of his receding +footsteps, was in the act of turning into the little parlour, when +his head and shoulders unexpectedly emerged again, as from the deep, +apparently for no other purpose than to repeat, 'Drownded, ain't he, +pretty?' For when he had said that in a tone of tender condolence, he +disappeared. + +Florence was very sorry that she should unwittingly, though naturally, +have awakened these associations in the mind of her protector, by taking +refuge there; and sitting down before the little table where the Captain +had arranged the telescope and song-book, and those other rarities, +thought of Walter, and of all that was connected with him in the past, +until she could have almost wished to lie down on her bed and fade away. +But in her lonely yearning to the dead whom she had loved, no thought +of home--no possibility of going back--no presentation of it as yet +existing, or as sheltering her father--once entered her thoughts. She +had seen the murder done. In the last lingering natural aspect in which +she had cherished him through so much, he had been torn out of her +heart, defaced, and slain. The thought of it was so appalling to +her, that she covered her eyes, and shrunk trembling from the least +remembrance of the deed, or of the cruel hand that did it. If her fond +heart could have held his image after that, it must have broken; but it +could not; and the void was filled with a wild dread that fled from all +confronting with its shattered fragments--with such a dread as could +have risen out of nothing but the depths of such a love, so wronged. + +She dared not look into the glass; for the sight of the darkening mark +upon her bosom made her afraid of herself, as if she bore about her +something wicked. She covered it up, with a hasty, faltering hand, and +in the dark; and laid her weary head down, weeping. + +The Captain did not go to bed for a long time. He walked to and fro in +the shop and in the little parlour, for a full hour, and, appearing +to have composed himself by that exercise, sat down with a grave and +thoughtful face, and read out of a Prayer-book the forms of prayer +appointed to be used at sea. These were not easily disposed of; the good +Captain being a mighty slow, gruff reader, and frequently stopping at +a hard word to give himself such encouragement as 'Now, my lad! With a +will!' or, 'Steady, Ed'ard Cuttle, steady!' which had a great effect +in helping him out of any difficulty. Moreover, his spectacles greatly +interfered with his powers of vision. But notwithstanding these +drawbacks, the Captain, being heartily in earnest, read the service to +the very last line, and with genuine feeling too; and approving of it +very much when he had done, turned in, under the counter (but not before +he had been upstairs, and listened at Florence's door), with a serene +breast, and a most benevolent visage. + +The Captain turned out several times in the course of the night, +to assure himself that his charge was resting quietly; and once, at +daybreak, found that she was awake: for she called to know if it were +he, on hearing footsteps near her door. + +'Yes, my lady lass,' replied the Captain, in a growling whisper. 'Are +you all right, di'mond?' + +Florence thanked him, and said 'Yes.' + +The Captain could not lose so favourable an opportunity of applying +his mouth to the keyhole, and calling through it, like a hoarse breeze, +'Poor Wal'r! Drownded, ain't he?' after which he withdrew, and turning +in again, slept till seven o'clock. + +Nor was he free from his uneasy and embarrassed manner all that day; +though Florence, being busy with her needle in the little parlour, was +more calm and tranquil than she had been on the day preceding. Almost +always when she raised her eyes from her work, she observed the captain +looking at her, and thoughtfully stroking his chin; and he so often +hitched his arm-chair close to her, as if he were going to say something +very confidential, and hitched it away again, as not being able to +make up his mind how to begin, that in the course of the day he cruised +completely round the parlour in that frail bark, and more than once went +ashore against the wainscot or the closet door, in a very distressed +condition. + +It was not until the twilight that Captain Cuttle, fairly dropping +anchor, at last, by the side of Florence, began to talk at all +connectedly. But when the light of the fire was shining on the walls +and ceiling of the little room, and on the tea-board and the cups and +saucers that were ranged upon the table, and on her calm face turned +towards the flame, and reflecting it in the tears that filled her eyes, +the Captain broke a long silence thus: + +'You never was at sea, my own?' + +'No,' replied Florence. + +'Ay,' said the Captain, reverentially; 'it's a almighty element. There's +wonders in the deep, my pretty. Think on it when the winds is roaring +and the waves is rowling. Think on it when the stormy nights is so pitch +dark,' said the Captain, solemnly holding up his hook, 'as you can't +see your hand afore you, excepting when the wiwid lightning reweals the +same; and when you drive, drive, drive through the storm and dark, as +if you was a driving, head on, to the world without end, evermore, amen, +and when found making a note of. Them's the times, my beauty, when a man +may say to his messmate (previously a overhauling of the wollume), "A +stiff nor'wester's blowing, Bill; hark, don't you hear it roar now! Lord +help 'em, how I pitys all unhappy folks ashore now!"' Which quotation, +as particularly applicable to the terrors of the ocean, the Captain +delivered in a most impressive manner, concluding with a sonorous 'Stand +by!' + +'Were you ever in a dreadful storm?' asked Florence. + +'Why ay, my lady lass, I've seen my share of bad weather,' said the +Captain, tremulously wiping his head, 'and I've had my share of knocking +about; but--but it ain't of myself as I was a meaning to speak. Our dear +boy,' drawing closer to her, 'Wal'r, darling, as was drownded.' + +The Captain spoke in such a trembling voice, and looked at Florence with +a face so pale and agitated, that she clung to his hand in affright. + +'Your face is changed,' cried Florence. 'You are altered in a moment. +What is it? Dear Captain Cuttle, it turns me cold to see you!' + +'What! Lady lass,' returned the Captain, supporting her with his hand, +'don't be took aback. No, no! All's well, all's well, my dear. As I was +a saying--Wal'r--he's--he's drownded. Ain't he?' + +Florence looked at him intently; her colour came and went; and she laid +her hand upon her breast. + +'There's perils and dangers on the deep, my beauty,' said the Captain; +'and over many a brave ship, and many and many a bould heart, the secret +waters has closed up, and never told no tales. But there's escapes upon +the deep, too, and sometimes one man out of a score,--ah! maybe out of +a hundred, pretty,--has been saved by the mercy of God, and come home +after being given over for dead, and told of all hands lost. I--I know +a story, Heart's Delight,' stammered the Captain, 'o' this natur, as +was told to me once; and being on this here tack, and you and me sitting +alone by the fire, maybe you'd like to hear me tell it. Would you, +deary?' + +Florence, trembling with an agitation which she could not control or +understand, involuntarily followed his glance, which went behind her +into the shop, where a lamp was burning. The instant that she turned her +head, the Captain sprung out of his chair, and interposed his hand. + +'There's nothing there, my beauty,' said the Captain. 'Don't look +there.' + +'Why not?' asked Florence. + +The Captain murmured something about its being dull that way, and about +the fire being cheerful. He drew the door ajar, which had been standing +open until now, and resumed his seat. Florence followed him with her +eyes, and looked intently in his face. + +'The story was about a ship, my lady lass,' began the Captain, 'as +sailed out of the Port of London, with a fair wind and in fair weather, +bound for--don't be took aback, my lady lass, she was only out'ard +bound, pretty, only out'ard bound!' + +The expression on Florence's face alarmed the Captain, who was himself +very hot and flurried, and showed scarcely less agitation than she did. + +'Shall I go on, Beauty?' said the Captain. + +'Yes, yes, pray!' cried Florence. + +The Captain made a gulp as if to get down something that was sticking in +his throat, and nervously proceeded: + +'That there unfort'nate ship met with such foul weather, out at sea, as +don't blow once in twenty year, my darling. There was hurricanes ashore +as tore up forests and blowed down towns, and there was gales at sea in +them latitudes, as not the stoutest wessel ever launched could live in. +Day arter day that there unfort'nate ship behaved noble, I'm told, and +did her duty brave, my pretty, but at one blow a'most her bulwarks +was stove in, her masts and rudder carved away, her best man swept +overboard, and she left to the mercy of the storm as had no mercy but +blowed harder and harder yet, while the waves dashed over her, and beat +her in, and every time they come a thundering at her, broke her like a +shell. Every black spot in every mountain of water that rolled away was +a bit o' the ship's life or a living man, and so she went to pieces, +Beauty, and no grass will never grow upon the graves of them as manned +that ship.' + +'They were not all lost!' cried Florence. 'Some were saved!--Was one?' + +'Aboard o' that there unfort'nate wessel,' said the Captain, rising from +his chair, and clenching his hand with prodigious energy and exultation, +'was a lad, a gallant lad--as I've heerd tell--that had loved, when +he was a boy, to read and talk about brave actions in shipwrecks--I've +heerd him! I've heerd him!--and he remembered of 'em in his hour of +need; for when the stoutest and oldest hands was hove down, he was firm +and cheery. It warn't the want of objects to like and love ashore that +gave him courage, it was his nat'ral mind. I've seen it in his face, +when he was no more than a child--ay, many a time!--and when I thought +it nothing but his good looks, bless him!' + +'And was he saved!' cried Florence. 'Was he saved!' + +'That brave lad,' said the Captain,--'look at me, pretty! Don't look +round--' + +Florence had hardly power to repeat, 'Why not?' + +'Because there's nothing there, my deary,' said the Captain. 'Don't be +took aback, pretty creetur! Don't, for the sake of Wal'r, as was dear +to all on us! That there lad,' said the Captain, 'arter working with the +best, and standing by the faint-hearted, and never making no complaint +nor sign of fear, and keeping up a spirit in all hands that made +'em honour him as if he'd been a admiral--that lad, along with the +second-mate and one seaman, was left, of all the beatin' hearts that +went aboard that ship, the only living creeturs--lashed to a fragment of +the wreck, and driftin' on the stormy sea.' + +'Were they saved?' cried Florence. + +'Days and nights they drifted on them endless waters,' said the Captain, +'until at last--No! Don't look that way, pretty!--a sail bore down upon +'em, and they was, by the Lord's mercy, took aboard: two living and one +dead.' + +'Which of them was dead?' cried Florence. + +'Not the lad I speak on,' said the Captain. + +'Thank God! oh thank God!' + +'Amen!' returned the Captain hurriedly. 'Don't be took aback! A minute +more, my lady lass! with a good heart!--aboard that ship, they went a +long voyage, right away across the chart (for there warn't no touching +nowhere), and on that voyage the seaman as was picked up with him died. +But he was spared, and--' + +The Captain, without knowing what he did, had cut a slice of bread from +the loaf, and put it on his hook (which was his usual toasting-fork), +on which he now held it to the fire; looking behind Florence with great +emotion in his face, and suffering the bread to blaze and burn like +fuel. + +'Was spared,' repeated Florence, 'and--?' + +'And come home in that ship,' said the Captain, still looking in the +same direction, 'and--don't be frightened, pretty--and landed; and one +morning come cautiously to his own door to take a obserwation, knowing +that his friends would think him drownded, when he sheered off at the +unexpected--' + +'At the unexpected barking of a dog?' cried Florence, quickly. + +'Yes,' roared the Captain. 'Steady, darling! courage! Don't look round +yet. See there! upon the wall!' + +There was the shadow of a man upon the wall close to her. She started +up, looked round, and with a piercing cry, saw Walter Gay behind her! + +She had no thought of him but as a brother, a brother rescued from the +grave; a shipwrecked brother saved and at her side; and rushed into his +arms. In all the world, he seemed to be her hope, her comfort, refuge, +natural protector. 'Take care of Walter, I was fond of Walter!' The dear +remembrance of the plaintive voice that said so, rushed upon her soul, +like music in the night. 'Oh welcome home, dear Walter! Welcome to this +stricken breast!' She felt the words, although she could not utter them, +and held him in her pure embrace. + +Captain Cuttle, in a fit of delirium, attempted to wipe his head +with the blackened toast upon his hook: and finding it an uncongenial +substance for the purpose, put it into the crown of his glazed hat, +put the glazed hat on with some difficulty, essayed to sing a verse of +Lovely Peg, broke down at the first word, and retired into the shop, +whence he presently came back express, with a face all flushed and +besmeared, and the starch completely taken out of his shirt-collar, to +say these words: + +'Wal'r, my lad, here is a little bit of property as I should wish to +make over, jintly!' + +The Captain hastily produced the big watch, the teaspoons, the +sugar-tongs, and the canister, and laying them on the table, swept them +with his great hand into Walter's hat; but in handing that singular +strong box to Walter, he was so overcome again, that he was fain to make +another retreat into the shop, and absent himself for a longer space of +time than on his first retirement. + +But Walter sought him out, and brought him back; and then the Captain's +great apprehension was, that Florence would suffer from this new shock. +He felt it so earnestly, that he turned quite rational, and positively +interdicted any further allusion to Walter's adventures for some days +to come. Captain Cuttle then became sufficiently composed to relieve +himself of the toast in his hat, and to take his place at the tea-board; +but finding Walter's grasp upon his shoulder, on one side, and Florence +whispering her tearful congratulations on the other, the Captain +suddenly bolted again, and was missing for a good ten minutes. + +But never in all his life had the Captain's face so shone and glistened, +as when, at last, he sat stationary at the tea-board, looking from +Florence to Walter, and from Walter to Florence. Nor was this effect +produced or at all heightened by the immense quantity of polishing +he had administered to his face with his coat-sleeve during the last +half-hour. It was solely the effect of his internal emotions. There was +a glory and delight within the Captain that spread itself over his whole +visage, and made a perfect illumination there. + +The pride with which the Captain looked upon the bronzed cheek and the +courageous eyes of his recovered boy; with which he saw the generous +fervour of his youth, and all its frank and hopeful qualities, shining +once more, in the fresh, wholesome manner, and the ardent face, would +have kindled something of this light in his countenance. The admiration +and sympathy with which he turned his eyes on Florence, whose beauty, +grace, and innocence could have won no truer or more zealous champion +than himself, would have had an equal influence upon him. But the +fulness of the glow he shed around him could only have been engendered +in his contemplation of the two together, and in all the fancies +springing out of that association, that came sparkling and beaming into +his head, and danced about it. + +How they talked of poor old Uncle Sol, and dwelt on every little +circumstance relating to his disappearance; how their joy was moderated +by the old man's absence and by the misfortunes of Florence; how they +released Diogenes, whom the Captain had decoyed upstairs some time +before, lest he should bark again; the Captain, though he was in one +continual flutter, and made many more short plunges into the shop, fully +comprehended. But he no more dreamed that Walter looked on Florence, as +it were, from a new and far-off place; that while his eyes often sought +the lovely face, they seldom met its open glance of sisterly affection, +but withdrew themselves when hers were raised towards him; than he +believed that it was Walter's ghost who sat beside him. He saw them +together in their youth and beauty, and he knew the story of their +younger days, and he had no inch of room beneath his great blue +waistcoat for anything save admiration of such a pair, and gratitude for +their being reunited. + +They sat thus, until it grew late. The Captain would have been content +to sit so for a week. But Walter rose, to take leave for the night. + +'Going, Walter!' said Florence. 'Where?' + +'He slings his hammock for the present, lady lass,' said Captain Cuttle, +'round at Brogley's. Within hail, Heart's Delight.' + +'I am the cause of your going away, Walter,' said Florence. 'There is a +houseless sister in your place.' + +'Dear Miss Dombey,' replied Walter, hesitating--'if it is not too bold +to call you so!--' + +'Walter!' she exclaimed, surprised. + +'--If anything could make me happier in being allowed to see and speak +to you, would it not be the discovery that I had any means on earth of +doing you a moment's service! Where would I not go, what would I not do, +for your sake?' + +She smiled, and called him brother. + +'You are so changed,' said Walter-- + +'I changed!' she interrupted. + +'--To me,' said Walter, softly, as if he were thinking aloud, 'changed to +me. I left you such a child, and find you--oh! something so different--' + +'But your sister, Walter. You have not forgotten what we promised to +each other, when we parted?' + +'Forgotten!' But he said no more. + +'And if you had--if suffering and danger had driven it from your +thoughts--which it has not--you would remember it now, Walter, when you +find me poor and abandoned, with no home but this, and no friends but +the two who hear me speak!' + +'I would! Heaven knows I would!' said Walter. + +'Oh, Walter,' exclaimed Florence, through her sobs and tears. 'Dear +brother! Show me some way through the world--some humble path that I may +take alone, and labour in, and sometimes think of you as one who will +protect and care for me as for a sister! Oh, help me, Walter, for I need +help so much!' + +'Miss Dombey! Florence! I would die to help you. But your friends are +proud and rich. Your father--' + +'No, no! Walter!' She shrieked, and put her hands up to her head, in an +attitude of terror that transfixed him where he stood. 'Don't say that +word!' + +He never, from that hour, forgot the voice and look with which she +stopped him at the name. He felt that if he were to live a hundred +years, he never could forget it. + +Somewhere--anywhere--but never home! All past, all gone, all lost, and +broken up! The whole history of her untold slight and suffering was in +the cry and look; and he felt he never could forget it, and he never +did. + +She laid her gentle face upon the Captain's shoulder, and related how +and why she had fled. If every sorrowing tear she shed in doing so, had +been a curse upon the head of him she never named or blamed, it would +have been better for him, Walter thought, with awe, than to be renounced +out of such a strength and might of love. + +'There, precious!' said the Captain, when she ceased; and deep attention +the Captain had paid to her while she spoke; listening, with his glazed +hat all awry and his mouth wide open. 'Awast, awast, my eyes! Wal'r, +dear lad, sheer off for to-night, and leave the pretty one to me!' + +Walter took her hand in both of his, and put it to his lips, and kissed +it. He knew now that she was, indeed, a homeless wandering fugitive; +but, richer to him so, than in all the wealth and pride of her right +station, she seemed farther off than even on the height that had made +him giddy in his boyish dreams. + +Captain Cuttle, perplexed by no such meditations, guarded Florence to +her room, and watched at intervals upon the charmed ground outside her +door--for such it truly was to him--until he felt sufficiently easy +in his mind about her, to turn in under the counter. On abandoning his +watch for that purpose, he could not help calling once, rapturously, +through the keyhole, 'Drownded. Ain't he, pretty?'--or, when he got +downstairs, making another trial at that verse of Lovely Peg. But it +stuck in his throat somehow, and he could make nothing of it; so he went +to bed, and dreamed that old Sol Gills was married to Mrs MacStinger, +and kept prisoner by that lady in a secret chamber on a short allowance +of victuals. + + + +CHAPTER 50. Mr Toots's Complaint + + +There was an empty room above-stairs at the wooden Midshipman's, which, +in days of yore, had been Walter's bedroom. Walter, rousing up the +Captain betimes in the morning, proposed that they should carry thither +such furniture out of the little parlour as would grace it best, so that +Florence might take possession of it when she rose. As nothing could be +more agreeable to Captain Cuttle than making himself very red and short +of breath in such a cause, he turned to (as he himself said) with a +will; and, in a couple of hours, this garret was transformed into a +species of land-cabin, adorned with all the choicest moveables out of +the parlour, inclusive even of the Tartar frigate, which the Captain +hung up over the chimney-piece with such extreme delight, that he could +do nothing for half-an-hour afterwards but walk backward from it, lost +in admiration. + +The Captain could be induced by no persuasion of Walter's to wind up the +big watch, or to take back the canister, or to touch the sugar-tongs and +teaspoons. 'No, no, my lad;' was the Captain's invariable reply to any +solicitation of the kind, 'I've made that there little property over, +jintly.' These words he repeated with great unction and gravity, +evidently believing that they had the virtue of an Act of Parliament, +and that unless he committed himself by some new admission of ownership, +no flaw could be found in such a form of conveyance. + +It was an advantage of the new arrangement, that besides the greater +seclusion it afforded Florence, it admitted of the Midshipman being +restored to his usual post of observation, and also of the shop shutters +being taken down. The latter ceremony, however little importance the +unconscious Captain attached to it, was not wholly superfluous; for, +on the previous day, so much excitement had been occasioned in +the neighbourhood, by the shutters remaining unopened, that the +Instrument-maker's house had been honoured with an unusual share of +public observation, and had been intently stared at from the opposite +side of the way, by groups of hungry gazers, at any time between sunrise +and sunset. The idlers and vagabonds had been particularly interested in +the Captain's fate; constantly grovelling in the mud to apply their +eyes to the cellar-grating, under the shop-window, and delighting their +imaginations with the fancy that they could see a piece of his coat as +he hung in a corner; though this settlement of him was stoutly disputed +by an opposite faction, who were of opinion that he lay murdered with +a hammer, on the stairs. It was not without exciting some discontent, +therefore, that the subject of these rumours was seen early in the +morning standing at his shop-door as hale and hearty as if nothing +had happened; and the beadle of that quarter, a man of an ambitious +character, who had expected to have the distinction of being present at +the breaking open of the door, and of giving evidence in full uniform +before the coroner, went so far as to say to an opposite neighbour, that +the chap in the glazed hat had better not try it on there--without more +particularly mentioning what--and further, that he, the beadle, would +keep his eye upon him. + +'Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, musing, when they stood resting from +their labours at the shop-door, looking down the old familiar street; it +being still early in the morning; 'nothing at all of Uncle Sol, in all +that time!' + +'Nothing at all, my lad,' replied the Captain, shaking his head. + +'Gone in search of me, dear, kind old man,' said Walter: 'yet never +write to you! But why not? He says, in effect, in this packet that you +gave me,' taking the paper from his pocket, which had been opened in +the presence of the enlightened Bunsby, 'that if you never hear from +him before opening it, you may believe him dead. Heaven forbid! But +you would have heard of him, even if he were dead! Someone would have +written, surely, by his desire, if he could not; and have said, "on such +a day, there died in my house," or "under my care," or so forth, "Mr +Solomon Gills of London, who left this last remembrance and this last +request to you".' + +The Captain, who had never climbed to such a clear height of probability +before, was greatly impressed by the wide prospect it opened, and +answered, with a thoughtful shake of his head, 'Well said, my lad; wery +well said.' + +'I have been thinking of this, or, at least,' said Walter, colouring, +'I have been thinking of one thing and another, all through a sleepless +night, and I cannot believe, Captain Cuttle, but that my Uncle Sol (Lord +bless him!) is alive, and will return. I don't so much wonder at his +going away, because, leaving out of consideration that spice of the +marvellous which was always in his character, and his great affection +for me, before which every other consideration of his life became +nothing, as no one ought to know so well as I who had the best of +fathers in him,'--Walter's voice was indistinct and husky here, and he +looked away, along the street,--'leaving that out of consideration, I +say, I have often read and heard of people who, having some near and +dear relative, who was supposed to be shipwrecked at sea, have gone down +to live on that part of the sea-shore where any tidings of the missing +ship might be expected to arrive, though only an hour or two sooner than +elsewhere, or have even gone upon her track to the place whither she was +bound, as if their going would create intelligence. I think I should do +such a thing myself, as soon as another, or sooner than many, perhaps. +But why my Uncle shouldn't write to you, when he so clearly intended +to do so, or how he should die abroad, and you not know it through some +other hand, I cannot make out.' + +Captain Cuttle observed, with a shake of his head, that Jack Bunsby +himself hadn't made it out, and that he was a man as could give a pretty +taut opinion too. + +'If my Uncle had been a heedless young man, likely to be entrapped by +jovial company to some drinking-place, where he was to be got rid of for +the sake of what money he might have about him,' said Walter; 'or if he +had been a reckless sailor, going ashore with two or three months' pay +in his pocket, I could understand his disappearing, and leaving no trace +behind. But, being what he was--and is, I hope--I can't believe it.' + +'Wal'r, my lad,' inquired the Captain, wistfully eyeing him as he +pondered and pondered, 'what do you make of it, then?' + +'Captain Cuttle,' returned Walter, 'I don't know what to make of it. I +suppose he never has written! There is no doubt about that?' + +'If so be as Sol Gills wrote, my lad,' replied the Captain, +argumentatively, 'where's his dispatch?' + +'Say that he entrusted it to some private hand,' suggested Walter, 'and +that it has been forgotten, or carelessly thrown aside, or lost. Even +that is more probable to me, than the other event. In short, I not +only cannot bear to contemplate that other event, Captain Cuttle, but I +can't, and won't.' + +'Hope, you see, Wal'r,' said the Captain, sagely, 'Hope. It's that +as animates you. Hope is a buoy, for which you overhaul your Little +Warbler, sentimental diwision, but Lord, my lad, like any other buoy, it +only floats; it can't be steered nowhere. Along with the figure-head of +Hope,' said the Captain, 'there's a anchor; but what's the good of my +having a anchor, if I can't find no bottom to let it go in?' + +Captain Cuttle said this rather in his character of a sagacious citizen +and householder, bound to impart a morsel from his stores of wisdom to +an inexperienced youth, than in his own proper person. Indeed, his face +was quite luminous as he spoke, with new hope, caught from Walter; and +he appropriately concluded by slapping him on the back; and saying, +with enthusiasm, 'Hooroar, my lad! Indiwidually, I'm o' your opinion.' + +Walter, with his cheerful laugh, returned the salutation, and said: + +'Only one word more about my Uncle at present, Captain Cuttle. I suppose +it is impossible that he can have written in the ordinary course--by +mail packet, or ship letter, you understand--' + +'Ay, ay, my lad,' said the Captain approvingly. + +'--And that you have missed the letter, anyhow?' + +'Why, Wal'r,' said the Captain, turning his eyes upon him with a faint +approach to a severe expression, 'ain't I been on the look-out for +any tidings of that man o' science, old Sol Gills, your Uncle, day and +night, ever since I lost him? Ain't my heart been heavy and watchful +always, along of him and you? Sleeping and waking, ain't I been upon my +post, and wouldn't I scorn to quit it while this here Midshipman held +together!' + +'Yes, Captain Cuttle,' replied Walter, grasping his hand, 'I know you +would, and I know how faithful and earnest all you say and feel is. I am +sure of it. You don't doubt that I am as sure of it as I am that my foot +is again upon this door-step, or that I again have hold of this true +hand. Do you?' + +'No, no, Wal'r,' returned the Captain, with his beaming + +'I'll hazard no more conjectures,' said Walter, fervently shaking the +hard hand of the Captain, who shook his with no less goodwill. 'All I +will add is, Heaven forbid that I should touch my Uncle's possessions, +Captain Cuttle! Everything that he left here, shall remain in the care +of the truest of stewards and kindest of men--and if his name is not +Cuttle, he has no name! Now, best of friends, about--Miss Dombey.' + +There was a change in Walter's manner, as he came to these two words; +and when he uttered them, all his confidence and cheerfulness appeared +to have deserted him. + +'I thought, before Miss Dombey stopped me when I spoke of her father +last night,' said Walter, '--you remember how?' + +The Captain well remembered, and shook his head. + +'I thought,' said Walter, 'before that, that we had but one hard duty +to perform, and that it was, to prevail upon her to communicate with her +friends, and to return home.' + +The Captain muttered a feeble 'Awast!' or a 'Stand by!' or something +or other, equally pertinent to the occasion; but it was rendered so +extremely feeble by the total discomfiture with which he received this +announcement, that what it was, is mere matter of conjecture. + +'But,' said Walter, 'that is over. I think so, no longer. I would sooner +be put back again upon that piece of wreck, on which I have so often +floated, since my preservation, in my dreams, and there left to drift, +and drive, and die!' + +'Hooroar, my lad!' exclaimed the Captain, in a burst of uncontrollable +satisfaction. 'Hooroar! hooroar! hooroar!' + +'To think that she, so young, so good, and beautiful,' said Walter, +'so delicately brought up, and born to such a different fortune, should +strive with the rough world! But we have seen the gulf that cuts off all +behind her, though no one but herself can know how deep it is; and there +is no return.' + +Captain Cuttle, without quite understanding this, greatly approved of +it, and observed in a tone of strong corroboration, that the wind was +quite abaft. + +'She ought not to be alone here; ought she, Captain Cuttle?' said +Walter, anxiously. + +'Well, my lad,' replied the Captain, after a little sagacious +consideration. 'I don't know. You being here to keep her company, you +see, and you two being jintly--' + +'Dear Captain Cuttle!' remonstrated Walter. 'I being here! Miss Dombey, +in her guileless innocent heart, regards me as her adopted brother; but +what would the guile and guilt of my heart be, if I pretended to believe +that I had any right to approach her, familiarly, in that character--if +I pretended to forget that I am bound, in honour, not to do it?' + +'Wal'r, my lad,' hinted the Captain, with some revival of his +discomfiture, 'ain't there no other character as--' + +'Oh!' returned Walter, 'would you have me die in her esteem--in such +esteem as hers--and put a veil between myself and her angel's face for +ever, by taking advantage of her being here for refuge, so trusting and +so unprotected, to endeavour to exalt myself into her lover? What do I +say? There is no one in the world who would be more opposed to me if I +could do so, than you.' + +'Wal'r, my lad,' said the Captain, drooping more and more, 'prowiding +as there is any just cause or impediment why two persons should not be +jined together in the house of bondage, for which you'll overhaul the +place and make a note, I hope I should declare it as promised and wowed +in the banns. So there ain't no other character; ain't there, my lad?' + +Walter briskly waved his hand in the negative. + +'Well, my lad,' growled the Captain slowly, 'I won't deny but what I +find myself wery much down by the head, along o' this here, or but +what I've gone clean about. But as to Lady lass, Wal'r, mind you, wot's +respect and duty to her, is respect and duty in my articles, howsumever +disapinting; and therefore I follows in your wake, my lad, and feel +as you are, no doubt, acting up to yourself. And there ain't no other +character, ain't there?' said the Captain, musing over the ruins of his +fallen castle, with a very despondent face. + +'Now, Captain Cuttle,' said Walter, starting a fresh point with a gayer +air, to cheer the Captain up--but nothing could do that; he was too much +concerned--'I think we should exert ourselves to find someone who would +be a proper attendant for Miss Dombey while she remains here, and who +may be trusted. None of her relations may. It's clear Miss Dombey feels +that they are all subservient to her father. What has become of Susan?' + +'The young woman?' returned the Captain. 'It's my belief as she was sent +away again the will of Heart's Delight. I made a signal for her when +Lady lass first come, and she rated of her wery high, and said she had +been gone a long time.' + +'Then,' said Walter, 'do you ask Miss Dombey where she's gone, and we'll +try to find her. The morning's getting on, and Miss Dombey will soon be +rising. You are her best friend. Wait for her upstairs, and leave me to +take care of all down here.' + +The Captain, very crest-fallen indeed, echoed the sigh with which Walter +said this, and complied. Florence was delighted with her new room, +anxious to see Walter, and overjoyed at the prospect of greeting her old +friend Susan. But Florence could not say where Susan was gone, except +that it was in Essex, and no one could say, she remembered, unless it +were Mr Toots. + +With this information the melancholy Captain returned to Walter, and +gave him to understand that Mr Toots was the young gentleman whom he had +encountered on the door-step, and that he was a friend of his, and that +he was a young gentleman of property, and that he hopelessly adored +Miss Dombey. The Captain also related how the intelligence of Walter's +supposed fate had first made him acquainted with Mr Toots, and how there +was solemn treaty and compact between them, that Mr Toots should be mute +upon the subject of his love. + +The question then was, whether Florence could trust Mr Toots; and +Florence saying, with a smile, 'Oh, yes, with her whole heart!' it +became important to find out where Mr Toots lived. This, Florence didn't +know, and the Captain had forgotten; and the Captain was telling Walter, +in the little parlour, that Mr Toots was sure to be there soon, when in +came Mr Toots himself. + +'Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, rushing into the parlour without any +ceremony, 'I'm in a state of mind bordering on distraction!' + +Mr Toots had discharged those words, as from a mortar, before he +observed Walter, whom he recognised with what may be described as a +chuckle of misery. + +'You'll excuse me, Sir,' said Mr Toots, holding his forehead, 'but +I'm at present in that state that my brain is going, if not gone, and +anything approaching to politeness in an individual so situated would +be a hollow mockery. Captain Gills, I beg to request the favour of a +private interview.' + +'Why, Brother,' returned the Captain, taking him by the hand, 'you are +the man as we was on the look-out for.' + +'Oh, Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'what a look-out that must be, of +which I am the object! I haven't dared to shave, I'm in that rash state. +I haven't had my clothes brushed. My hair is matted together. I told the +Chicken that if he offered to clean my boots, I'd stretch him a Corpse +before me!' + +All these indications of a disordered mind were verified in Mr Toots's +appearance, which was wild and savage. + +'See here, Brother,' said the Captain. 'This here's old Sol Gills's nevy +Wal'r. Him as was supposed to have perished at sea.' + +Mr Toots took his hand from his forehead, and stared at Walter. + +'Good gracious me!' stammered Mr Toots. 'What a complication of misery! +How-de-do? I--I--I'm afraid you must have got very wet. Captain Gills, +will you allow me a word in the shop?' + +He took the Captain by the coat, and going out with him whispered: + +'That then, Captain Gills, is the party you spoke of, when you said that +he and Miss Dombey were made for one another?' + +'Why, ay, my lad,' replied the disconsolate Captain; 'I was of that mind +once.' + +'And at this time!' exclaimed Mr Toots, with his hand to his forehead +again. 'Of all others!--a hated rival! At least, he ain't a hated +rival,' said Mr Toots, stopping short, on second thoughts, and taking +away his hand; 'what should I hate him for? No. If my affection has been +truly disinterested, Captain Gills, let me prove it now!' + +Mr Toots shot back abruptly into the parlour, and said, wringing Walter +by the hand: + +'How-de-do? I hope you didn't take any cold. I--I shall be very glad if +you'll give me the pleasure of your acquaintance. I wish you many happy +returns of the day. Upon my word and honour,' said Mr Toots, warming +as he became better acquainted with Walter's face and figure, 'I'm very +glad to see you!' + +'Thank you, heartily,' said Walter. 'I couldn't desire a more genuine +and genial welcome.' + +'Couldn't you, though?' said Mr Toots, still shaking his hand. 'It's +very kind of you. I'm much obliged to you. How-de-do? I hope you left +everybody quite well over the--that is, upon the--I mean wherever you +came from last, you know.' + +All these good wishes, and better intentions, Walter responded to +manfully. + +'Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'I should wish to be strictly +honourable; but I trust I may be allowed now, to allude to a certain +subject that--' + +'Ay, ay, my lad,' returned the Captain. 'Freely, freely.' + +'Then, Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'and Lieutenant Walters--are you +aware that the most dreadful circumstances have been happening at Mr +Dombey's house, and that Miss Dombey herself has left her father, who, +in my opinion,' said Mr Toots, with great excitement, 'is a Brute, +that it would be a flattery to call a--a marble monument, or a bird +of prey,--and that she is not to be found, and has gone no one knows +where?' + +'May I ask how you heard this?' inquired Walter. + +'Lieutenant Walters,' said Mr Toots, who had arrived at that appellation +by a process peculiar to himself; probably by jumbling up his Christian +name with the seafaring profession, and supposing some relationship +between him and the Captain, which would extend, as a matter of course, +to their titles; 'Lieutenant Walters, I can have no objection to make a +straightforward reply. The fact is, that feeling extremely interested +in everything that relates to Miss Dombey--not for any selfish reason, +Lieutenant Walters, for I am well aware that the most able thing I could +do for all parties would be to put an end to my existence, which can +only be regarded as an inconvenience--I have been in the habit of +bestowing a trifle now and then upon a footman; a most respectable young +man, of the name of Towlinson, who has lived in the family some time; +and Towlinson informed me, yesterday evening, that this was the state of +things. Since which, Captain Gills--and Lieutenant Walters--I have been +perfectly frantic, and have been lying down on the sofa all night, the +Ruin you behold.' + +'Mr Toots,' said Walter, 'I am happy to be able to relieve your mind. +Pray calm yourself. Miss Dombey is safe and well.' + +'Sir!' cried Mr Toots, starting from his chair and shaking hands with +him anew, 'the relief is so excessive, and unspeakable, that if you were +to tell me now that Miss Dombey was married even, I could smile. Yes, +Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, appealing to him, 'upon my soul and body, +I really think, whatever I might do to myself immediately afterwards, +that I could smile, I am so relieved.' + +'It will be a greater relief and delight still, to such a generous mind +as yours,' said Walter, not at all slow in returning his greeting, 'to +find that you can render service to Miss Dombey. Captain Cuttle, will +you have the kindness to take Mr Toots upstairs?' + +The Captain beckoned to Mr Toots, who followed him with a bewildered +countenance, and, ascending to the top of the house, was introduced, +without a word of preparation from his conductor, into Florence's new +retreat. + +Poor Mr Toots's amazement and pleasure at sight of her were such, that +they could find a vent in nothing but extravagance. He ran up to her, +seized her hand, kissed it, dropped it, seized it again, fell upon one +knee, shed tears, chuckled, and was quite regardless of his danger of +being pinned by Diogenes, who, inspired by the belief that there was +something hostile to his mistress in these demonstrations, worked round +and round him, as if only undecided at what particular point to go in +for the assault, but quite resolved to do him a fearful mischief. + +'Oh Di, you bad, forgetful dog! Dear Mr Toots, I am so rejoiced to see +you!' + +'Thankee,' said Mr Toots, 'I am pretty well, I'm much obliged to you, +Miss Dombey. I hope all the family are the same.' + +Mr Toots said this without the least notion of what he was talking +about, and sat down on a chair, staring at Florence with the liveliest +contention of delight and despair going on in his face that any face +could exhibit. + +'Captain Gills and Lieutenant Walters have mentioned, Miss Dombey,' +gasped Mr Toots, 'that I can do you some service. If I could by any +means wash out the remembrance of that day at Brighton, when I conducted +myself--much more like a Parricide than a person of independent +property,' said Mr Toots, with severe self-accusation, 'I should sink +into the silent tomb with a gleam of joy.' + +'Pray, Mr Toots,' said Florence, 'do not wish me to forget anything in +our acquaintance. I never can, believe me. You have been far too kind +and good to me always.' + +'Miss Dombey,' returned Mr Toots, 'your consideration for my feelings is +a part of your angelic character. Thank you a thousand times. It's of no +consequence at all.' + +'What we thought of asking you,' said Florence, 'is, whether you +remember where Susan, whom you were so kind as to accompany to the +coach-office when she left me, is to be found.' + +'Why I do not certainly, Miss Dombey,' said Mr Toots, after a little +consideration, 'remember the exact name of the place that was on the +coach; and I do recollect that she said she was not going to stop there, +but was going farther on. But, Miss Dombey, if your object is to find +her, and to have her here, myself and the Chicken will produce her with +every dispatch that devotion on my part, and great intelligence on the +Chicken's, can ensure.' + +Mr Toots was so manifestly delighted and revived by the prospect of +being useful, and the disinterested sincerity of his devotion was so +unquestionable, that it would have been cruel to refuse him. Florence, +with an instinctive delicacy, forbore to urge the least obstacle, though +she did not forbear to overpower him with thanks; and Mr Toots proudly +took the commission upon himself for immediate execution. + +'Miss Dombey,' said Mr Toots, touching her proffered hand, with a pang +of hopeless love visibly shooting through him, and flashing out in +his face, 'Good-bye! Allow me to take the liberty of saying, that your +misfortunes make me perfectly wretched, and that you may trust me, +next to Captain Gills himself. I am quite aware, Miss Dombey, of my own +deficiencies--they're not of the least consequence, thank you--but I am +entirely to be relied upon, I do assure you, Miss Dombey.' + +With that Mr Toots came out of the room, again accompanied by the +Captain, who, standing at a little distance, holding his hat under his +arm and arranging his scattered locks with his hook, had been a not +uninterested witness of what passed. And when the door closed behind +them, the light of Mr Toots's life was darkly clouded again. + +'Captain Gills,' said that gentleman, stopping near the bottom of the +stairs, and turning round, 'to tell you the truth, I am not in a frame +of mind at the present moment, in which I could see Lieutenant Walters +with that entirely friendly feeling towards him that I should wish to +harbour in my breast. We cannot always command our feelings, Captain +Gills, and I should take it as a particular favour if you'd let me out +at the private door.' + +'Brother,' returned the Captain, 'you shall shape your own course. +Wotever course you take, is plain and seamanlike, I'm wery sure.' + +'Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'you're extremely kind. Your good +opinion is a consolation to me. There is one thing,' said Mr Toots, +standing in the passage, behind the half-opened door, 'that I hope +you'll bear in mind, Captain Gills, and that I should wish Lieutenant +Walters to be made acquainted with. I have quite come into my property +now, you know, and--and I don't know what to do with it. If I could +be at all useful in a pecuniary point of view, I should glide into the +silent tomb with ease and smoothness.' + +Mr Toots said no more, but slipped out quietly and shut the door upon +himself, to cut the Captain off from any reply. + +Florence thought of this good creature, long after he had left her, +with mingled emotions of pain and pleasure. He was so honest and +warm-hearted, that to see him again and be assured of his truth to her +in her distress, was a joy and comfort beyond all price; but for that +very reason, it was so affecting to think that she caused him a moment's +unhappiness, or ruffled, by a breath, the harmless current of his life, +that her eyes filled with tears, and her bosom overflowed with pity. +Captain Cuttle, in his different way, thought much of Mr Toots too; +and so did Walter; and when the evening came, and they were all +sitting together in Florence's new room, Walter praised him in a most +impassioned manner, and told Florence what he had said on leaving +the house, with every graceful setting-off in the way of comment and +appreciation that his own honesty and sympathy could surround it with. + +Mr Toots did not return upon the next day, or the next, or for several +days; and in the meanwhile Florence, without any new alarm, lived like +a quiet bird in a cage, at the top of the old Instrument-maker's house. +But Florence drooped and hung her head more and more plainly, as the +days went on; and the expression that had been seen in the face of the +dead child, was often turned to the sky from her high window, as if it +sought his angel out, on the bright shore of which he had spoken: lying +on his little bed. + +Florence had been weak and delicate of late, and the agitation she had +undergone was not without its influences on her health. But it was no +bodily illness that affected her now. She was distressed in mind; and +the cause of her distress was Walter. + +Interested in her, anxious for her, proud and glad to serve her, and +showing all this with the enthusiasm and ardour of his character, +Florence saw that he avoided her. All the long day through, he seldom +approached her room. If she asked for him, he came, again for the moment +as earnest and as bright as she remembered him when she was a lost +child in the staring streets; but he soon became constrained--her quick +affection was too watchful not to know it--and uneasy, and soon left +her. Unsought, he never came, all day, between the morning and the +night. When the evening closed in, he was always there, and that was +her happiest time, for then she half believed that the old Walter of her +childhood was not changed. But, even then, some trivial word, look, +or circumstance would show her that there was an indefinable division +between them which could not be passed. + +And she could not but see that these revealings of a great alteration +in Walter manifested themselves in despite of his utmost efforts to hide +them. In his consideration for her, she thought, and in the earnestness +of his desire to spare her any wound from his kind hand, he resorted +to innumerable little artifices and disguises. So much the more did +Florence feel the greatness of the alteration in him; so much the +oftener did she weep at this estrangement of her brother. + +The good Captain--her untiring, tender, ever zealous friend--saw it, +too, Florence thought, and it pained him. He was less cheerful and +hopeful than he had been at first, and would steal looks at her and +Walter, by turns, when they were all three together of an evening, with +quite a sad face. + +Florence resolved, at last, to speak to Walter. She believed she knew +now what the cause of his estrangement was, and she thought it would be +a relief to her full heart, and would set him more at ease, if she +told him she had found it out, and quite submitted to it, and did not +reproach him. + +It was on a certain Sunday afternoon, that Florence took this +resolution. The faithful Captain, in an amazing shirt-collar, was +sitting by her, reading with his spectacles on, and she asked him where +Walter was. + +'I think he's down below, my lady lass,' returned the Captain. + +'I should like to speak to him,' said Florence, rising hurriedly as if +to go downstairs. + +'I'll rouse him up here, Beauty,' said the Captain, 'in a trice.' + +Thereupon the Captain, with much alacrity, shouldered his book--for he +made it a point of duty to read none but very large books on a Sunday, +as having a more staid appearance: and had bargained, years ago, for +a prodigious volume at a book-stall, five lines of which utterly +confounded him at any time, insomuch that he had not yet ascertained of +what subject it treated--and withdrew. Walter soon appeared. + +'Captain Cuttle tells me, Miss Dombey,' he eagerly began on coming +in--but stopped when he saw her face. + +'You are not so well to-day. You look distressed. You have been +weeping.' + +He spoke so kindly, and with such a fervent tremor in his voice, that +the tears gushed into her eyes at the sound of his words. + +'Walter,' said Florence, gently, 'I am not quite well, and I have been +weeping. I want to speak to you.' + +He sat down opposite to her, looking at her beautiful and innocent face; +and his own turned pale, and his lips trembled. + +'You said, upon the night when I knew that you were saved--and oh! dear +Walter, what I felt that night, and what I hoped!--' + +He put his trembling hand upon the table between them, and sat looking +at her. + +'--that I was changed. I was surprised to hear you say so, but I +understand, now, that I am. Don't be angry with me, Walter. I was too +much overjoyed to think of it, then.' + +She seemed a child to him again. It was the ingenuous, confiding, loving +child he saw and heard. Not the dear woman, at whose feet he would have +laid the riches of the earth. + +'You remember the last time I saw you, Walter, before you went away?' + +He put his hand into his breast, and took out a little purse. + +'I have always worn it round my neck! If I had gone down in the deep, it +would have been with me at the bottom of the sea.' + +'And you will wear it still, Walter, for my old sake?' + +'Until I die!' + +She laid her hand on his, as fearlessly and simply, as if not a day had +intervened since she gave him the little token of remembrance. + +'I am glad of that. I shall be always glad to think so, Walter. Do you +recollect that a thought of this change seemed to come into our minds at +the same time that evening, when we were talking together?' + +'No!' he answered, in a wondering tone. + +'Yes, Walter. I had been the means of injuring your hopes and prospects +even then. I feared to think so, then, but I know it now. If you were +able, then, in your generosity, to hide from me that you knew it too, +you cannot do so now, although you try as generously as before. You do. +I thank you for it, Walter, deeply, truly; but you cannot succeed. +You have suffered too much in your own hardships, and in those of your +dearest relation, quite to overlook the innocent cause of all the peril +and affliction that has befallen you. You cannot quite forget me in that +character, and we can be brother and sister no longer. But, dear +Walter, do not think that I complain of you in this. I might have known +it--ought to have known it--but forgot it in my joy. All I hope is that +you may think of me less irksomely when this feeling is no more a secret +one; and all I ask is, Walter, in the name of the poor child who was +your sister once, that you will not struggle with yourself, and pain +yourself, for my sake, now that I know all!' + +Walter had looked upon her while she said this, with a face so full of +wonder and amazement, that it had room for nothing else. Now he caught +up the hand that touched his, so entreatingly, and held it between his +own. + +'Oh, Miss Dombey,' he said, 'is it possible that while I have been +suffering so much, in striving with my sense of what is due to you, and +must be rendered to you, I have made you suffer what your words disclose +to me? Never, never, before Heaven, have I thought of you but as the +single, bright, pure, blessed recollection of my boyhood and my youth. +Never have I from the first, and never shall I to the last, regard your +part in my life, but as something sacred, never to be lightly thought +of, never to be esteemed enough, never, until death, to be forgotten. +Again to see you look, and hear you speak, as you did on that night when +we parted, is happiness to me that there are no words to utter; and to +be loved and trusted as your brother, is the next gift I could receive +and prize!' + +'Walter,' said Florence, looking at him earnestly, but with a changing +face, 'what is that which is due to me, and must be rendered to me, at +the sacrifice of all this?' + +'Respect,' said Walter, in a low tone. 'Reverence.' + +The colour dawned in her face, and she timidly and thoughtfully withdrew +her hand; still looking at him with unabated earnestness. + +'I have not a brother's right,' said Walter. 'I have not a brother's +claim. I left a child. I find a woman.' + +The colour overspread her face. She made a gesture as if of entreaty +that he would say no more, and her face dropped upon her hands. + +They were both silent for a time; she weeping. + +'I owe it to a heart so trusting, pure, and good,' said Walter, 'even +to tear myself from it, though I rend my own. How dare I say it is my +sister's!' + +She was weeping still. + +'If you had been happy; surrounded as you should be by loving and +admiring friends, and by all that makes the station you were born to +enviable,' said Walter; 'and if you had called me brother, then, in your +affectionate remembrance of the past, I could have answered to the name +from my distant place, with no inward assurance that I wronged your +spotless truth by doing so. But here--and now!' + +'Oh thank you, thank you, Walter! Forgive my having wronged you so much. +I had no one to advise me. I am quite alone.' + +'Florence!' said Walter, passionately. 'I am hurried on to say, what I +thought, but a few moments ago, nothing could have forced from my lips. +If I had been prosperous; if I had any means or hope of being one day +able to restore you to a station near your own; I would have told you +that there was one name you might bestow upon--me--a right above all +others, to protect and cherish you--that I was worthy of in nothing but +the love and honour that I bore you, and in my whole heart being yours. +I would have told you that it was the only claim that you could give me +to defend and guard you, which I dare accept and dare assert; but that +if I had that right, I would regard it as a trust so precious and so +priceless, that the undivided truth and fervour of my life would poorly +acknowledge its worth.' + +The head was still bent down, the tears still falling, and the bosom +swelling with its sobs. + +'Dear Florence! Dearest Florence! whom I called so in my thoughts before +I could consider how presumptuous and wild it was. One last time let me +call you by your own dear name, and touch this gentle hand in token of +your sisterly forgetfulness of what I have said.' + +She raised her head, and spoke to him with such a solemn sweetness in +her eyes; with such a calm, bright, placid smile shining on him through +her tears; with such a low, soft tremble in her frame and voice; that +the innermost chords of his heart were touched, and his sight was dim as +he listened. + +'No, Walter, I cannot forget it. I would not forget it, for the world. +Are you--are you very poor?' + +'I am but a wanderer,' said Walter, 'making voyages to live, across the +sea. That is my calling now.' + +'Are you soon going away again, Walter?' + +'Very soon.' + +She sat looking at him for a moment; then timidly put her trembling hand +in his. + +'If you will take me for your wife, Walter, I will love you dearly. +If you will let me go with you, Walter, I will go to the world's end +without fear. I can give up nothing for you--I have nothing to resign, +and no one to forsake; but all my love and life shall be devoted to you, +and with my last breath I will breathe your name to God if I have sense +and memory left.' + +He caught her to his heart, and laid her cheek against his own, and now, +no more repulsed, no more forlorn, she wept indeed, upon the breast of +her dear lover. + +Blessed Sunday Bells, ringing so tranquilly in their entranced and happy +ears! Blessed Sunday peace and quiet, harmonising with the calmness in +their souls, and making holy air around them! Blessed twilight stealing +on, and shading her so soothingly and gravely, as she falls asleep, like +a hushed child, upon the bosom she has clung to! + +Oh load of love and trustfulness that lies to lightly there! Ay, look +down on the closed eyes, Walter, with a proudly tender gaze; for in all +the wide wide world they seek but thee now--only thee! + + +The Captain remained in the little parlour until it was quite dark. He +took the chair on which Walter had been sitting, and looked up at the +skylight, until the day, by little and little, faded away, and the stars +peeped down. He lighted a candle, lighted a pipe, smoked it out, and +wondered what on earth was going on upstairs, and why they didn't call +him to tea. + +Florence came to his side while he was in the height of his wonderment. + +'Ay! lady lass!' cried the Captain. 'Why, you and Wal'r have had a long +spell o' talk, my beauty.' + +Florence put her little hand round one of the great buttons of his coat, +and said, looking down into his face: + +'Dear Captain, I want to tell you something, if you please. + +The Captain raised his head pretty smartly, to hear what it was. +Catching by this means a more distinct view of Florence, he pushed back +his chair, and himself with it, as far as they could go. + +'What! Heart's Delight!' cried the Captain, suddenly elated, 'Is it +that?' + +'Yes!' said Florence, eagerly. + +'Wal'r! Husband! THAT?' roared the Captain, tossing up his glazed hat +into the skylight. + +'Yes!' cried Florence, laughing and crying together. + +The Captain immediately hugged her; and then, picking up the glazed hat +and putting it on, drew her arm through his, and conducted her upstairs +again; where he felt that the great joke of his life was now to be made. + +'What, Wal'r my lad!' said the Captain, looking in at the door, with his +face like an amiable warming-pan. 'So there ain't NO other character, +ain't there?' + +He had like to have suffocated himself with this pleasantry, which he +repeated at least forty times during tea; polishing his radiant face +with the sleeve of his coat, and dabbing his head all over with his +pocket-handkerchief, in the intervals. But he was not without a graver +source of enjoyment to fall back upon, when so disposed, for he was +repeatedly heard to say in an undertone, as he looked with ineffable +delight at Walter and Florence: + +'Ed'ard Cuttle, my lad, you never shaped a better course in your life, +than when you made that there little property over, jintly!' + + + +CHAPTER 51. Mr Dombey and the World + + +What is the proud man doing, while the days go by? Does he ever think of +his daughter, or wonder where she is gone? Does he suppose she has come +home, and is leading her old life in the weary house? No one can answer +for him. He has never uttered her name, since. His household dread him +too much to approach a subject on which he is resolutely dumb; and the +only person who dares question him, he silences immediately. + +'My dear Paul!' murmurs his sister, sidling into the room, on the day +of Florence's departure, 'your wife! that upstart woman! Is it possible +that what I hear confusedly, is true, and that this is her return for +your unparalleled devotion to her; extending, I am sure, even to the +sacrifice of your own relations, to her caprices and haughtiness? My +poor brother!' + +With this speech feelingly reminiscent of her not having been asked to +dinner on the day of the first party, Mrs Chick makes great use of +her pocket-handkerchief, and falls on Mr Dombey's neck. But Mr Dombey +frigidly lifts her off, and hands her to a chair. + +'I thank you, Louisa,' he says, 'for this mark of your affection; but +desire that our conversation may refer to any other subject. When +I bewail my fate, Louisa, or express myself as being in want of +consolation, you can offer it, if you will have the goodness.' + +'My dear Paul,' rejoins his sister, with her handkerchief to her face, +and shaking her head, 'I know your great spirit, and will say no more +upon a theme so painful and revolting;' on the heads of which two +adjectives, Mrs Chick visits scathing indignation; 'but pray let me +ask you--though I dread to hear something that will shock and distress +me--that unfortunate child Florence--' + +'Louisa!' says her brother, sternly, 'silence! Not another word of +this!' + +Mrs Chick can only shake her head, and use her handkerchief, and moan +over degenerate Dombeys, who are no Dombeys. But whether Florence has +been inculpated in the flight of Edith, or has followed her, or has done +too much, or too little, or anything, or nothing, she has not the least +idea. + +He goes on, without deviation, keeping his thoughts and feelings close +within his own breast, and imparting them to no one. He makes no search +for his daughter. He may think that she is with his sister, or that she +is under his own roof. He may think of her constantly, or he may never +think about her. It is all one for any sign he makes. + +But this is sure; he does not think that he has lost her. He has no +suspicion of the truth. He has lived too long shut up in his towering +supremacy, seeing her, a patient gentle creature, in the path below it, +to have any fear of that. Shaken as he is by his disgrace, he is not +yet humbled to the level earth. The root is broad and deep, and in the +course of years its fibres have spread out and gathered nourishment from +everything around it. The tree is struck, but not down. + +Though he hide the world within him from the world without--which +he believes has but one purpose for the time, and that, to watch him +eagerly wherever he goes--he cannot hide those rebel traces of it, +which escape in hollow eyes and cheeks, a haggard forehead, and a moody, +brooding air. Impenetrable as before, he is still an altered man; and, +proud as ever, he is humbled, or those marks would not be there. + +The world. What the world thinks of him, how it looks at him, what it +sees in him, and what it says--this is the haunting demon of his mind. +It is everywhere where he is; and, worse than that, it is everywhere +where he is not. It comes out with him among his servants, and yet +he leaves it whispering behind; he sees it pointing after him in the +street; it is waiting for him in his counting-house; it leers over +the shoulders of rich men among the merchants; it goes beckoning and +babbling among the crowd; it always anticipates him, in every place; and +is always busiest, he knows, when he has gone away. When he is shut +up in his room at night, it is in his house, outside it, audible in +footsteps on the pavement, visible in print upon the table, steaming to +and fro on railroads and in ships; restless and busy everywhere, with +nothing else but him. + +It is not a phantom of his imagination. It is as active in other +people's minds as in his. Witness Cousin Feenix, who comes from +Baden-Baden, purposely to talk to him. Witness Major Bagstock, who +accompanies Cousin Feenix on that friendly mission. + +Mr Dombey receives them with his usual dignity, and stands erect, in his +old attitude, before the fire. He feels that the world is looking at +him out of their eyes. That it is in the stare of the pictures. That Mr +Pitt, upon the bookcase, represents it. That there are eyes in its own +map, hanging on the wall. + +'An unusually cold spring,' says Mr Dombey--to deceive the world. + +'Damme, Sir,' says the Major, in the warmth of friendship, 'Joseph +Bagstock is a bad hand at a counterfeit. If you want to hold your +friends off, Dombey, and to give them the cold shoulder, J. B. is not +the man for your purpose. Joe is rough and tough, Sir; blunt, Sir, +blunt, is Joe. His Royal Highness the late Duke of York did me the +honour to say, deservedly or undeservedly--never mind that--"If there is +a man in the service on whom I can depend for coming to the point, that +man is Joe--Joe Bagstock."' + +Mr Dombey intimates his acquiescence. + +'Now, Dombey,' says the Major, 'I am a man of the world. Our friend +Feenix--if I may presume to--' + +'Honoured, I am sure,' says Cousin Feenix. + +'--is,' proceeds the Major, with a wag of his head, 'also a man of the +world. Dombey, you are a man of the world. Now, when three men of the +world meet together, and are friends--as I believe--' again appealing to +Cousin Feenix. + +'I am sure,' says Cousin Feenix, 'most friendly.' + +'--and are friends,' resumes the Major, 'Old Joe's opinion is (I may be +wrong), that the opinion of the world on any particular subject, is very +easily got at.' + +'Undoubtedly,' says Cousin Feenix. 'In point of fact, it's quite a +self-evident sort of thing. I am extremely anxious, Major, that my +friend Dombey should hear me express my very great astonishment and +regret, that my lovely and accomplished relative, who was possessed of +every qualification to make a man happy, should have so far forgotten +what was due to--in point of fact, to the world--as to commit herself +in such a very extraordinary manner. I have been in a devilish state of +depression ever since; and said indeed to Long Saxby last night--man of +six foot ten, with whom my friend Dombey is probably acquainted--that it +had upset me in a confounded way, and made me bilious. It induces a man +to reflect, this kind of fatal catastrophe,' says Cousin Feenix, 'that +events do occur in quite a providential manner; for if my Aunt had been +living at the time, I think the effect upon a devilish lively woman like +herself, would have been prostration, and that she would have fallen, in +point of fact, a victim.' + +'Now, Dombey!--' says the Major, resuming his discourse with great +energy. + +'I beg your pardon,' interposes Cousin Feenix. 'Allow me another word. +My friend Dombey will permit me to say, that if any circumstance could +have added to the most infernal state of pain in which I find myself +on this occasion, it would be the natural amazement of the world at my +lovely and accomplished relative (as I must still beg leave to call +her) being supposed to have so committed herself with a person--man with +white teeth, in point of fact--of very inferior station to her husband. +But while I must, rather peremptorily, request my friend Dombey not to +criminate my lovely and accomplished relative until her criminality is +perfectly established, I beg to assure my friend Dombey that the family +I represent, and which is now almost extinct (devilish sad reflection +for a man), will interpose no obstacle in his way, and will be happy +to assent to any honourable course of proceeding, with a view to the +future, that he may point out. I trust my friend Dombey will give me +credit for the intentions by which I am animated in this very melancholy +affair, and--a--in point of fact, I am not aware that I need trouble my +friend Dombey with any further observations.' + +Mr Dombey bows, without raising his eyes, and is silent. + +'Now, Dombey,' says the Major, 'our friend Feenix having, with an amount +of eloquence that Old Joe B. has never heard surpassed--no, by the Lord, +Sir! never!'--says the Major, very blue, indeed, and grasping his cane +in the middle--'stated the case as regards the lady, I shall presume +upon our friendship, Dombey, to offer a word on another aspect of it. +Sir,' says the Major, with the horse's cough, 'the world in these things +has opinions, which must be satisfied.' + +'I know it,' rejoins Mr Dombey. + +'Of course you know it, Dombey,' says the Major, 'Damme, Sir, I know you +know it. A man of your calibre is not likely to be ignorant of it.' + +'I hope not,' replies Mr Dombey. + +'Dombey!' says the Major, 'you will guess the rest. I speak +out--prematurely, perhaps--because the Bagstock breed have always +spoke out. Little, Sir, have they ever got by doing it; but it's in the +Bagstock blood. A shot is to be taken at this man. You have J. B. at +your elbow. He claims the name of friend. God bless you!' + +'Major,' returns Mr Dombey, 'I am obliged. I shall put myself in your +hands when the time comes. The time not being come, I have forborne to +speak to you.' + +'Where is the fellow, Dombey?' inquires the Major, after gasping and +looking at him, for a minute. + +'I don't know.' + +'Any intelligence of him?' asks the Major. + +'Yes.' + +'Dombey, I am rejoiced to hear it,' says the Major. 'I congratulate +you.' + +'You will excuse--even you, Major,' replies Mr Dombey, 'my entering into +any further detail at present. The intelligence is of a singular kind, +and singularly obtained. It may turn out to be valueless; it may turn +out to be true; I cannot say at present. My explanation must stop here.' + +Although this is but a dry reply to the Major's purple enthusiasm, the +Major receives it graciously, and is delighted to think that the world +has such a fair prospect of soon receiving its due. Cousin Feenix is +then presented with his meed of acknowledgment by the husband of his +lovely and accomplished relative, and Cousin Feenix and Major Bagstock +retire, leaving that husband to the world again, and to ponder at +leisure on their representation of its state of mind concerning his +affairs, and on its just and reasonable expectations. + +But who sits in the housekeeper's room, shedding tears, and talking to +Mrs Pipchin in a low tone, with uplifted hands? It is a lady with her +face concealed in a very close black bonnet, which appears not to belong +to her. It is Miss Tox, who has borrowed this disguise from her servant, +and comes from Princess's Place, thus secretly, to revive her old +acquaintance with Mrs Pipchin, in order to get certain information of +the state of Mr Dombey. + +'How does he bear it, my dear creature?' asks Miss Tox. + +'Well,' says Mrs Pipchin, in her snappish way, 'he's pretty much as +usual.' + +'Externally,' suggests Miss Tox 'But what he feels within!' + +Mrs Pipchin's hard grey eye looks doubtful as she answers, in three +distinct jerks, 'Ah! Perhaps. I suppose so.' + +'To tell you my mind, Lucretia,' says Mrs Pipchin; she still calls Miss +Tox Lucretia, on account of having made her first experiments in the +child-quelling line of business on that lady, when an unfortunate and +weazen little girl of tender years; 'to tell you my mind, Lucretia, I +think it's a good riddance. I don't want any of your brazen faces here, +myself!' + +'Brazen indeed! Well may you say brazen, Mrs Pipchin!' returned Miss +Tox. 'To leave him! Such a noble figure of a man!' And here Miss Tox is +overcome. + +'I don't know about noble, I'm sure,' observes Mrs Pipchin; irascibly +rubbing her nose. 'But I know this--that when people meet with trials, +they must bear 'em. Hoity, toity! I have had enough to bear myself, in +my time! What a fuss there is! She's gone, and well got rid of. Nobody +wants her back, I should think!' + +This hint of the Peruvian Mines, causes Miss Tox to rise to go away; when +Mrs Pipchin rings the bell for Towlinson to show her out, Mr Towlinson, +not having seen Miss Tox for ages, grins, and hopes she's well; observing +that he didn't know her at first, in that bonnet. + +'Pretty well, Towlinson, I thank you,' says Miss Tox. 'I beg you'll +have the goodness, when you happen to see me here, not to mention it. My +visits are merely to Mrs Pipchin.' + +'Very good, Miss,' says Towlinson. + +'Shocking circumstances occur, Towlinson,' says Miss Tox. + +'Very much so indeed, Miss,' rejoins Towlinson. + +'I hope, Towlinson,' says Miss Tox, who, in her instruction of the +Toodle family, has acquired an admonitorial tone, and a habit of +improving passing occasions, 'that what has happened here, will be a +warning to you, Towlinson.' + +'Thank you, Miss, I'm sure,' says Towlinson. + +He appears to be falling into a consideration of the manner in which +this warning ought to operate in his particular case, when the vinegary +Mrs Pipchin, suddenly stirring him up with a 'What are you doing? Why +don't you show the lady to the door?' he ushers Miss Tox forth. As she +passes Mr Dombey's room, she shrinks into the inmost depths of the black +bonnet, and walks, on tip-toe; and there is not another atom in the +world which haunts him so, that feels such sorrow and solicitude about +him, as Miss Tox takes out under the black bonnet into the street, and +tries to carry home shadowed it from the newly-lighted lamps. + +But Miss Tox is not a part of Mr Dombey's world. She comes back every +evening at dusk; adding clogs and an umbrella to the bonnet on wet +nights; and bears the grins of Towlinson, and the huffs and rebuffs +of Mrs Pipchin, and all to ask how he does, and how he bears his +misfortune: but she has nothing to do with Mr Dombey's world. Exacting +and harassing as ever, it goes on without her; and she, a by no means +bright or particular star, moves in her little orbit in the corner of +another system, and knows it quite well, and comes, and cries, and goes +away, and is satisfied. Verily Miss Tox is easier of satisfaction than +the world that troubles Mr Dombey so much! + +At the Counting House, the clerks discuss the great disaster in all its +lights and shades, but chiefly wonder who will get Mr Carker's place. +They are generally of opinion that it will be shorn of some of +its emoluments, and made uncomfortable by newly-devised checks and +restrictions; and those who are beyond all hope of it are quite sure +they would rather not have it, and don't at all envy the person for whom +it may prove to be reserved. Nothing like the prevailing sensation has +existed in the Counting House since Mr Dombey's little son died; but all +such excitements there take a social, not to say a jovial turn, and lead +to the cultivation of good fellowship. A reconciliation is established +on this propitious occasion between the acknowledged wit of the Counting +House and an aspiring rival, with whom he has been at deadly feud for +months; and a little dinner being proposed, in commemoration of their +happily restored amity, takes place at a neighbouring tavern; the wit +in the chair; the rival acting as Vice-President. The orations following +the removal of the cloth are opened by the Chair, who says, Gentlemen, +he can't disguise from himself that this is not a time for private +dissensions. Recent occurrences to which he need not more particularly +allude, but which have not been altogether without notice in some Sunday +Papers, and in a daily paper which he need not name (here every other +member of the company names it in an audible murmur), have caused him +to reflect; and he feels that for him and Robinson to have any personal +differences at such a moment, would be for ever to deny that good +feeling in the general cause, for which he has reason to think and hope +that the gentlemen in Dombey's House have always been distinguished. +Robinson replies to this like a man and a brother; and one gentleman who +has been in the office three years, under continual notice to quit on +account of lapses in his arithmetic, appears in a perfectly new light, +suddenly bursting out with a thrilling speech, in which he says, May +their respected chief never again know the desolation which has fallen +on his hearth! and says a great variety of things, beginning with 'May +he never again,' which are received with thunders of applause. In short, +a most delightful evening is passed, only interrupted by a difference +between two juniors, who, quarrelling about the probable amount of Mr +Carker's late receipts per annum, defy each other with decanters, and +are taken out greatly excited. Soda water is in general request at the +office next day, and most of the party deem the bill an imposition. + +As to Perch, the messenger, he is in a fair way of being ruined for +life. He finds himself again constantly in bars of public-houses, being +treated and lying dreadfully. It appears that he met everybody concerned +in the late transaction, everywhere, and said to them, 'Sir,' or +'Madam,' as the case was, 'why do you look so pale?' at which each +shuddered from head to foot, and said, 'Oh, Perch!' and ran away. Either +the consciousness of these enormities, or the reaction consequent on +liquor, reduces Mr Perch to an extreme state of low spirits at that hour +of the evening when he usually seeks consolation in the society of Mrs +Perch at Balls Pond; and Mrs Perch frets a good deal, for she fears his +confidence in woman is shaken now, and that he half expects on coming +home at night to find her gone off with some Viscount--'which,' as she +observes to an intimate female friend, 'is what these wretches in the +form of woman have to answer for, Mrs P. It ain't the harm they do +themselves so much as what they reflect upon us, Ma'am; and I see it in +Perch's eye.' + +Mr Dombey's servants are becoming, at the same time, quite dissipated, +and unfit for other service. They have hot suppers every night, and +'talk it over' with smoking drinks upon the board. Mr Towlinson is +always maudlin after half-past ten, and frequently begs to know whether +he didn't say that no good would ever come of living in a corner house? +They whisper about Miss Florence, and wonder where she is; but agree +that if Mr Dombey don't know, Mrs Dombey does. This brings them to the +latter, of whom Cook says, She had a stately way though, hadn't she? +But she was too high! They all agree that she was too high, and Mr +Towlinson's old flame, the housemaid (who is very virtuous), entreats +that you will never talk to her any more about people who hold their +heads up, as if the ground wasn't good enough for 'em. + +Everything that is said and done about it, except by Mr Dombey, is done +in chorus. Mr Dombey and the world are alone together. + + + +CHAPTER 52. Secret Intelligence + + +Good Mrs Brown and her daughter Alice kept silent company together, in +their own dwelling. It was early in the evening, and late in the spring. +But a few days had elapsed since Mr Dombey had told Major Bagstock of +his singular intelligence, singularly obtained, which might turn out +to be valueless, and might turn out to be true; and the world was not +satisfied yet. + +The mother and daughter sat for a long time without interchanging a +word: almost without motion. The old woman's face was shrewdly anxious +and expectant; that of her daughter was expectant too, but in a +less sharp degree, and sometimes it darkened, as if with gathering +disappointment and incredulity. The old woman, without heeding these +changes in its expression, though her eyes were often turned towards it, +sat mumbling and munching, and listening confidently. + +Their abode, though poor and miserable, was not so utterly wretched as +in the days when only Good Mrs Brown inhabited it. Some few attempts at +cleanliness and order were manifest, though made in a reckless, gipsy +way, that might have connected them, at a glance, with the younger +woman. The shades of evening thickened and deepened as the two kept +silence, until the blackened walls were nearly lost in the prevailing +gloom. + +Then Alice broke the silence which had lasted so long, and said: + +'You may give him up, mother. He'll not come here.' + +'Death give him up!' returned the old woman, impatiently. 'He will come +here.' + +'We shall see,' said Alice. + +'We shall see him,' returned her mother. + +'And doomsday,' said the daughter. + +'You think I'm in my second childhood, I know!' croaked the old woman. +'That's the respect and duty that I get from my own gal, but I'm wiser +than you take me for. He'll come. T'other day when I touched his coat +in the street, he looked round as if I was a toad. But Lord, to see him +when I said their names, and asked him if he'd like to find out where +they was!' + +'Was it so angry?' asked her daughter, roused to interest in a moment. + +'Angry? ask if it was bloody. That's more like the word. Angry? Ha, ha! +To call that only angry!' said the old woman, hobbling to the cupboard, +and lighting a candle, which displayed the workings of her mouth to ugly +advantage, as she brought it to the table. 'I might as well call your +face only angry, when you think or talk about 'em.' + +It was something different from that, truly, as she sat as still as a +crouched tigress, with her kindling eyes. + +'Hark!' said the old woman, triumphantly. 'I hear a step coming. It's +not the tread of anyone that lives about here, or comes this way often. +We don't walk like that. We should grow proud on such neighbours! Do you +hear him?' + +'I believe you are right, mother,' replied Alice, in a low voice. +'Peace! open the door.' + +As she drew herself within her shawl, and gathered it about her, the +old woman complied; and peering out, and beckoning, gave admission to Mr +Dombey, who stopped when he had set his foot within the door, and looked +distrustfully around. + +'It's a poor place for a great gentleman like your worship,' said the +old woman, curtseying and chattering. 'I told you so, but there's no +harm in it.' + +'Who is that?' asked Mr Dombey, looking at her companion. + +'That's my handsome daughter,' said the old woman. 'Your worship won't +mind her. She knows all about it.' + +A shadow fell upon his face not less expressive than if he had groaned +aloud, 'Who does not know all about it!' but he looked at her steadily, +and she, without any acknowledgment of his presence, looked at him. The +shadow on his face was darker when he turned his glance away from her; +and even then it wandered back again, furtively, as if he were haunted +by her bold eyes, and some remembrance they inspired. + +'Woman,' said Mr Dombey to the old witch who was chuckling and leering +close at his elbow, and who, when he turned to address her, pointed +stealthily at her daughter, and rubbed her hands, and pointed again, +'Woman! I believe that I am weak and forgetful of my station in coming +here, but you know why I come, and what you offered when you stopped +me in the street the other day. What is it that you have to tell me +concerning what I want to know; and how does it happen that I can find +voluntary intelligence in a hovel like this,' with a disdainful glance +about him, 'when I have exerted my power and means to obtain it in vain? +I do not think,' he said, after a moment's pause, during which he had +observed her, sternly, 'that you are so audacious as to mean to trifle +with me, or endeavour to impose upon me. But if you have that purpose, +you had better stop on the threshold of your scheme. My humour is not a +trifling one, and my acknowledgment will be severe.' + +'Oh a proud, hard gentleman!' chuckled the old woman, shaking her head, +and rubbing her shrivelled hands, 'oh hard, hard, hard! But your worship +shall see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears; not with +ours--and if your worship's put upon their track, you won't mind paying +something for it, will you, honourable deary?' + +'Money,' returned Mr Dombey, apparently relieved, and assured by this +inquiry, 'will bring about unlikely things, I know. It may turn even +means as unexpected and unpromising as these, to account. Yes. For +any reliable information I receive, I will pay. But I must have the +information first, and judge for myself of its value.' + +'Do you know nothing more powerful than money?' asked the younger woman, +without rising, or altering her attitude. + +'Not here, I should imagine,' said Mr Dombey. + +'You should know of something that is more powerful elsewhere, as I +judge,' she returned. 'Do you know nothing of a woman's anger?' + +'You have a saucy tongue, Jade,' said Mr Dombey. + +'Not usually,' she answered, without any show of emotion: 'I speak +to you now, that you may understand us better, and rely more on us. A +woman's anger is pretty much the same here, as in your fine house. I am +angry. I have been so, many years. I have as good cause for my anger as +you have for yours, and its object is the same man.' + +He started, in spite of himself, and looked at her with astonishment. + +'Yes,' she said, with a kind of laugh. 'Wide as the distance may seem +between us, it is so. How it is so, is no matter; that is my story, and +I keep my story to myself. I would bring you and him together, because +I have a rage against him. My mother there, is avaricious and poor; and +she would sell any tidings she could glean, or anything, or anybody, for +money. It is fair enough, perhaps, that you should pay her some, if she +can help you to what you want to know. But that is not my motive. I have +told you what mine is, and it would be as strong and all-sufficient with +me if you haggled and bargained with her for a sixpence. I have done. My +saucy tongue says no more, if you wait here till sunrise tomorrow.' + +The old woman, who had shown great uneasiness during this speech, which +had a tendency to depreciate her expected gains, pulled Mr Dombey softly +by the sleeve, and whispered to him not to mind her. He glared at them +both, by turns, with a haggard look, and said, in a deeper voice than +was usual with him: + +'Go on--what do you know?' + +'Oh, not so fast, your worship! we must wait for someone,' answered the +old woman. 'It's to be got from someone else--wormed out--screwed and +twisted from him.' + +'What do you mean?' said Mr Dombey. + +'Patience,' she croaked, laying her hand, like a claw, upon his arm. +'Patience. I'll get at it. I know I can! If he was to hold it back from +me,' said Good Mrs Brown, crooking her ten fingers, 'I'd tear it out of +him!' + +Mr Dombey followed her with his eyes as she hobbled to the door, and +looked out again: and then his glance sought her daughter; but she +remained impassive, silent, and regardless of him. + +'Do you tell me, woman,' he said, when the bent figure of Mrs Brown came +back, shaking its head and chattering to itself, 'that there is another +person expected here?' + +'Yes!' said the old woman, looking up into his face, and nodding. + +'From whom you are to exact the intelligence that is to be useful to +me?' + +'Yes,' said the old woman, nodding again. + +'A stranger?' + +'Chut!' said the old woman, with a shrill laugh. 'What signifies! Well, +well; no. No stranger to your worship. But he won't see you. He'd be +afraid of you, and wouldn't talk. You'll stand behind that door, and +judge him for yourself. We don't ask to be believed on trust What! Your +worship doubts the room behind the door? Oh the suspicion of you rich +gentlefolks! Look at it, then.' + +Her sharp eye had detected an involuntary expression of this feeling +on his part, which was not unreasonable under the circumstances. In +satisfaction of it she now took the candle to the door she spoke of. Mr +Dombey looked in; assured himself that it was an empty, crazy room; and +signed to her to put the light back in its place. + +'How long,' he asked, 'before this person comes?' + +'Not long,' she answered. 'Would your worship sit down for a few odd +minutes?' + +He made no answer; but began pacing the room with an irresolute air, as +if he were undecided whether to remain or depart, and as if he had some +quarrel with himself for being there at all. But soon his tread grew +slower and heavier, and his face more sternly thoughtful; as the object +with which he had come, fixed itself in his mind, and dilated there +again. + +While he thus walked up and down with his eyes on the ground, Mrs Brown, +in the chair from which she had risen to receive him, sat listening +anew. The monotony of his step, or the uncertainty of age, made her so +slow of hearing, that a footfall without had sounded in her daughter's +ears for some moments, and she had looked up hastily to warn her mother +of its approach, before the old woman was roused by it. But then she +started from her seat, and whispering 'Here he is!' hurried her visitor +to his place of observation, and put a bottle and glass upon the table, +with such alacrity, as to be ready to fling her arms round the neck of +Rob the Grinder on his appearance at the door. + +'And here's my bonny boy,' cried Mrs Brown, 'at last!--oho, oho! You're +like my own son, Robby!' + +'Oh! Misses Brown!' remonstrated the Grinder. 'Don't! Can't you be fond +of a cove without squeedging and throttling of him? Take care of the +birdcage in my hand, will you?' + +'Thinks of a birdcage, afore me!' cried the old woman, apostrophizing +the ceiling. 'Me that feels more than a mother for him!' + +'Well, I'm sure I'm very much obliged to you, Misses Brown,' said the +unfortunate youth, greatly aggravated; 'but you're so jealous of a +cove. I'm very fond of you myself, and all that, of course; but I don't +smother you, do I, Misses Brown?' + +He looked and spoke as if he would have been far from objecting to do +so, however, on a favourable occasion. + +'And to talk about birdcages, too!' whimpered the Grinder. 'As If that +was a crime! Why, look'ee here! Do you know who this belongs to?' + +'To Master, dear?' said the old woman with a grin. + +'Ah!' replied the Grinder, lifting a large cage tied up in a wrapper, +on the table, and untying it with his teeth and hands. 'It's our parrot, +this is.' + +'Mr Carker's parrot, Rob?' + +'Will you hold your tongue, Misses Brown?' returned the goaded Grinder. +'What do you go naming names for? I'm blest,' said Rob, pulling his +hair with both hands in the exasperation of his feelings, 'if she ain't +enough to make a cove run wild!' + +'What! Do you snub me, thankless boy!' cried the old woman, with ready +vehemence. + +'Good gracious, Misses Brown, no!' returned the Grinder, with tears +in his eyes. 'Was there ever such a--! Don't I dote upon you, Misses +Brown?' + +'Do you, sweet Rob? Do you truly, chickabiddy?' With that, Mrs Brown +held him in her fond embrace once more; and did not release him until +he had made several violent and ineffectual struggles with his legs, and +his hair was standing on end all over his head. + +'Oh!' returned the Grinder, 'what a thing it is to be perfectly pitched +into with affection like this here. I wish she was--How have you been, +Misses Brown?' + +'Ah! Not here since this night week!' said the old woman, contemplating +him with a look of reproach. + +'Good gracious, Misses Brown,' returned the Grinder, 'I said tonight's a +week, that I'd come tonight, didn't I? And here I am. How you do go on! +I wish you'd be a little rational, Misses Brown. I'm hoarse with saying +things in my defence, and my very face is shiny with being hugged!' He +rubbed it hard with his sleeve, as if to remove the tender polish in +question. + +'Drink a little drop to comfort you, my Robin,' said the old woman, +filling the glass from the bottle and giving it to him. + +'Thank'ee, Misses Brown,' returned the Grinder. 'Here's your health. And +long may you--et ceterer.' Which, to judge from the expression of +his face, did not include any very choice blessings. 'And here's her +health,' said the Grinder, glancing at Alice, who sat with her eyes +fixed, as it seemed to him, on the wall behind him, but in reality on Mr +Dombey's face at the door, 'and wishing her the same and many of 'em!' + +He drained the glass to these two sentiments, and set it down. + +'Well, I say, Misses Brown!' he proceeded. 'To go on a little rational +now. You're a judge of birds, and up to their ways, as I know to my +cost.' + +'Cost!' repeated Mrs Brown. + +'Satisfaction, I mean,' returned the Grinder. 'How you do take up a +cove, Misses Brown! You've put it all out of my head again.' + +'Judge of birds, Robby,' suggested the old woman. + +'Ah!' said the Grinder. 'Well, I've got to take care of this +parrot--certain things being sold, and a certain establishment broke +up--and as I don't want no notice took at present, I wish you'd attend +to her for a week or so, and give her board and lodging, will you? If +I must come backwards and forwards,' mused the Grinder with a dejected +face, 'I may as well have something to come for.' + +'Something to come for?' screamed the old woman. + +'Besides you, I mean, Misses Brown,' returned the craven Rob. 'Not that +I want any inducement but yourself, Misses Brown, I'm sure. Don't begin +again, for goodness' sake.' + +'He don't care for me! He don't care for me, as I care for him!' cried +Mrs Brown, lifting up her skinny hands. 'But I'll take care of his +bird.' + +'Take good care of it too, you know, Mrs Brown,' said Rob, shaking his +head. 'If you was so much as to stroke its feathers once the wrong way, +I believe it would be found out.' + +'Ah, so sharp as that, Rob?' said Mrs Brown, quickly. + +'Sharp, Misses Brown!' repeated Rob. 'But this is not to be talked +about.' + +Checking himself abruptly, and not without a fearful glance across the +room, Rob filled the glass again, and having slowly emptied it, shook +his head, and began to draw his fingers across and across the wires of +the parrot's cage by way of a diversion from the dangerous theme that +had just been broached. + +The old woman eyed him slily, and hitching her chair nearer his, and +looking in at the parrot, who came down from the gilded dome at her +call, said: + +'Out of place now, Robby?' + +'Never you mind, Misses Brown,' returned the Grinder, shortly. + +'Board wages, perhaps, Rob?' said Mrs Brown. + +'Pretty Polly!' said the Grinder. + +The old woman darted a glance at him that might have warned him to +consider his ears in danger, but it was his turn to look in at the +parrot now, and however expressive his imagination may have made her +angry scowl, it was unseen by his bodily eyes. + +'I wonder Master didn't take you with him, Rob,' said the old woman, in +a wheedling voice, but with increased malignity of aspect. + +Rob was so absorbed in contemplation of the parrot, and in trolling his +forefinger on the wires, that he made no answer. + +The old woman had her clutch within a hair's breadth of his shock of +hair as it stooped over the table; but she restrained her fingers, and +said, in a voice that choked with its efforts to be coaxing: + +'Robby, my child.' + +'Well, Misses Brown,' returned the Grinder. + +'I say I wonder Master didn't take you with him, dear.' + +'Never you mind, Misses Brown,' returned the Grinder. + +Mrs Brown instantly directed the clutch of her right hand at his hair, +and the clutch of her left hand at his throat, and held on to the object +of her fond affection with such extraordinary fury, that his face began +to blacken in a moment. + +'Misses Brown!' exclaimed the Grinder, 'let go, will you? What are you +doing of? Help, young woman! Misses Brow--Brow--!' + +The young woman, however, equally unmoved by his direct appeal to her, +and by his inarticulate utterance, remained quite neutral, until, after +struggling with his assailant into a corner, Rob disengaged himself, +and stood there panting and fenced in by his own elbows, while the old +woman, panting too, and stamping with rage and eagerness, appeared to be +collecting her energies for another swoop upon him. At this crisis Alice +interposed her voice, but not in the Grinder's favour, by saying, + +'Well done, mother. Tear him to pieces!' + +'What, young woman!' blubbered Rob; 'are you against me too? What have +I been and done? What am I to be tore to pieces for, I should like to +know? Why do you take and choke a cove who has never done you any harm, +neither of you? Call yourselves females, too!' said the frightened and +afflicted Grinder, with his coat-cuff at his eye. 'I'm surprised at you! +Where's your feminine tenderness?' + +'You thankless dog!' gasped Mrs Brown. 'You impudent insulting dog!' + +'What have I been and done to go and give you offence, Misses Brown?' +retorted the fearful Rob. 'You was very much attached to me a minute +ago.' + +'To cut me off with his short answers and his sulky words,' said the +old woman. 'Me! Because I happen to be curious to have a little bit of +gossip about Master and the lady, to dare to play at fast and loose with +me! But I'll talk to you no more, my lad. Now go!' + +'I'm sure, Misses Brown,' returned the abject Grinder, 'I never +insiniwated that I wished to go. Don't talk like that, Misses Brown, if +you please.' + +'I won't talk at all,' said Mrs Brown, with an action of her crooked +fingers that made him shrink into half his natural compass in the +corner. 'Not another word with him shall pass my lips. He's an +ungrateful hound. I cast him off. Now let him go! And I'll slip those +after him that shall talk too much; that won't be shook away; that'll +hang to him like leeches, and slink arter him like foxes. What! He knows +'em. He knows his old games and his old ways. If he's forgotten 'em, +they'll soon remind him. Now let him go, and see how he'll do Master's +business, and keep Master's secrets, with such company always following +him up and down. Ha, ha, ha! He'll find 'em a different sort from you +and me, Ally; Close as he is with you and me. Now let him go, now let +him go!' + +The old woman, to the unspeakable dismay of the Grinder, walked her +twisted figure round and round, in a ring of some four feet in diameter, +constantly repeating these words, and shaking her fist above her head, +and working her mouth about. + +'Misses Brown,' pleaded Rob, coming a little out of his corner, 'I'm +sure you wouldn't injure a cove, on second thoughts, and in cold blood, +would you?' + +'Don't talk to me,' said Mrs Brown, still wrathfully pursuing her +circle. 'Now let him go, now let him go!' + +'Misses Brown,' urged the tormented Grinder, 'I didn't mean to--Oh, what +a thing it is for a cove to get into such a line as this!--I was only +careful of talking, Misses Brown, because I always am, on account of his +being up to everything; but I might have known it wouldn't have gone any +further. I'm sure I'm quite agreeable,' with a wretched face, 'for +any little bit of gossip, Misses Brown. Don't go on like this, if +you please. Oh, couldn't you have the goodness to put in a word for a +miserable cove, here?' said the Grinder, appealing in desperation to the +daughter. + +'Come, mother, you hear what he says,' she interposed, in her stern +voice, and with an impatient action of her head; 'try him once more, +and if you fall out with him again, ruin him, if you like, and have done +with him.' + +Mrs Brown, moved as it seemed by this very tender exhortation, presently +began to howl; and softening by degrees, took the apologetic Grinder to +her arms, who embraced her with a face of unutterable woe, and like +a victim as he was, resumed his former seat, close by the side of +his venerable friend, whom he suffered, not without much constrained +sweetness of countenance, combating very expressive physiognomical +revelations of an opposite character to draw his arm through hers, and +keep it there. + +'And how's Master, deary dear?' said Mrs Brown, when, sitting in this +amicable posture, they had pledged each other. + +'Hush! If you'd be so good, Misses Brown, as to speak a little lower,' +Rob implored. 'Why, he's pretty well, thank'ee, I suppose.' + +'You're not out of place, Robby?' said Mrs Brown, in a wheedling tone. + +'Why, I'm not exactly out of place, nor in,' faltered Rob. 'I--I'm still +in pay, Misses Brown.' + +'And nothing to do, Rob?' + +'Nothing particular to do just now, Misses Brown, but to--keep my eyes +open,' said the Grinder, rolling them in a forlorn way. + +'Master abroad, Rob?' + +'Oh, for goodness' sake, Misses Brown, couldn't you gossip with a cove +about anything else?' cried the Grinder, in a burst of despair. + +The impetuous Mrs Brown rising directly, the tortured Grinder detained +her, stammering 'Ye-es, Misses Brown, I believe he's abroad. What's +she staring at?' he added, in allusion to the daughter, whose eyes were +fixed upon the face that now again looked out behind. + +'Don't mind her, lad,' said the old woman, holding him closer to prevent +his turning round. 'It's her way--her way. Tell me, Rob. Did you ever +see the lady, deary?' + +'Oh, Misses Brown, what lady?' cried the Grinder in a tone of piteous +supplication. + +'What lady?' she retorted. 'The lady; Mrs Dombey.' + +'Yes, I believe I see her once,' replied Rob. + +'The night she went away, Robby, eh?' said the old woman in his ear, +and taking note of every change in his face. 'Aha! I know it was that +night.' + +'Well, if you know it was that night, you know, Misses Brown,' replied +Rob, 'it's no use putting pinchers into a cove to make him say so. + +'Where did they go that night, Rob? Straight away? How did they go? +Where did you see her? Did she laugh? Did she cry? Tell me all about +it,' cried the old hag, holding him closer yet, patting the hand that +was drawn through his arm against her other hand, and searching every +line in his face with her bleared eyes. 'Come! Begin! I want to be told +all about it. What, Rob, boy! You and me can keep a secret together, eh? +We've done so before now. Where did they go first, Rob?' + +The wretched Grinder made a gasp, and a pause. + +'Are you dumb?' said the old woman, angrily. + +'Lord, Misses Brown, no! You expect a cove to be a flash of lightning. I +wish I was the electric fluency,' muttered the bewildered Grinder. 'I'd +have a shock at somebody, that would settle their business.' + +'What do you say?' asked the old woman, with a grin. + +'I'm wishing my love to you, Misses Brown,' returned the false Rob, +seeking consolation in the glass. 'Where did they go to first was it? +Him and her, do you mean?' + +'Ah!' said the old woman, eagerly. 'Them two.' + +'Why, they didn't go nowhere--not together, I mean,' answered Rob. + +The old woman looked at him, as though she had a strong impulse upon her +to make another clutch at his head and throat, but was restrained by a +certain dogged mystery in his face. + +'That was the art of it,' said the reluctant Grinder; 'that's the way +nobody saw 'em go, or has been able to say how they did go. They went +different ways, I tell you Misses Brown.' + +'Ay, ay, ay! To meet at an appointed place,' chuckled the old woman, +after a moment's silent and keen scrutiny of his face. + +'Why, if they weren't a going to meet somewhere, I suppose they might as +well have stayed at home, mightn't they, Brown?' returned the unwilling +Grinder. + +'Well, Rob? Well?' said the old woman, drawing his arm yet tighter +through her own, as if, in her eagerness, she were afraid of his +slipping away. + +'What, haven't we talked enough yet, Misses Brown?' returned the +Grinder, who, between his sense of injury, his sense of liquor, and his +sense of being on the rack, had become so lachrymose, that at almost +every answer he scooped his coats into one or other of his eyes, and +uttered an unavailing whine of remonstrance. 'Did she laugh that night, +was it? Didn't you ask if she laughed, Misses Brown?' + +'Or cried?' added the old woman, nodding assent. + +'Neither,' said the Grinder. 'She kept as steady when she and me--oh, I +see you will have it out of me, Misses Brown! But take your solemn oath +now, that you'll never tell anybody.' + +This Mrs Brown very readily did: being naturally Jesuitical; and having +no other intention in the matter than that her concealed visitor should +hear for himself. + +'She kept as steady, then, when she and me went down to Southampton,' +said the Grinder, 'as a image. In the morning she was just the same, +Misses Brown. And when she went away in the packet before daylight, +by herself--me pretending to be her servant, and seeing her safe +aboard--she was just the same. Now, are you contented, Misses Brown?' + +'No, Rob. Not yet,' answered Mrs Brown, decisively. + +'Oh, here's a woman for you!' cried the unfortunate Rob, in an outburst +of feeble lamentation over his own helplessness. 'What did you wish to +know next, Misses Brown?' + +'What became of Master? Where did he go?' she inquired, still holding +him tight, and looking close into his face, with her sharp eyes. + +'Upon my soul, I don't know, Misses Brown,' answered Rob. 'Upon my soul +I don't know what he did, nor where he went, nor anything about him I +only know what he said to me as a caution to hold my tongue, when we +parted; and I tell you this, Misses Brown, as a friend, that sooner than +ever repeat a word of what we're saying now, you had better take and +shoot yourself, or shut yourself up in this house, and set it a-fire, for +there's nothing he wouldn't do, to be revenged upon you. You don't know +him half as well as I do, Misses Brown. You're never safe from him, I +tell you.' + +'Haven't I taken an oath,' retorted the old woman, 'and won't I keep +it?' + +'Well, I'm sure I hope you will, Misses Brown,' returned Rob, somewhat +doubtfully, and not without a latent threatening in his manner. 'For +your own sake, quite as much as mine.' + +He looked at her as he gave her this friendly caution, and emphasized +it with a nodding of his head; but finding it uncomfortable to encounter +the yellow face with its grotesque action, and the ferret eyes with +their keen old wintry gaze, so close to his own, he looked down uneasily +and sat skulking in his chair, as if he were trying to bring himself +to a sullen declaration that he would answer no more questions. The old +woman, still holding him as before, took this opportunity of raising the +forefinger of her right hand, in the air, as a stealthy signal to the +concealed observer to give particular attention to what was about to +follow. + +'Rob,' she said, in her most coaxing tone. + +'Good gracious, Misses Brown, what's the matter now?' returned the +exasperated Grinder. + +'Rob! where did the lady and Master appoint to meet?' + +Rob shuffled more and more, and looked up and looked down, and bit +his thumb, and dried it on his waistcoat, and finally said, eyeing his +tormentor askance, 'How should I know, Misses Brown?' + +The old woman held up her finger again, as before, and replying, 'Come, +lad! It's no use leading me to that, and there leaving me. I want to +know' waited for his answer. Rob, after a discomfited pause, suddenly +broke out with, 'How can I pronounce the names of foreign places, Mrs +Brown? What an unreasonable woman you are!' + +'But you have heard it said, Robby,' she retorted firmly, 'and you know +what it sounded like. Come!' + +'I never heard it said, Misses Brown,' returned the Grinder. + +'Then,' retorted the old woman quickly, 'you have seen it written, and +you can spell it.' + +Rob, with a petulant exclamation between laughing and crying--for he +was penetrated with some admiration of Mrs Brown's cunning, even through +this persecution--after some reluctant fumbling in his waistcoat pocket, +produced from it a little piece of chalk. The old woman's eyes sparkled +when she saw it between his thumb and finger, and hastily clearing a +space on the deal table, that he might write the word there, she once +more made her signal with a shaking hand. + +'Now I tell you beforehand what it is, Misses Brown,' said Rob, 'it's no +use asking me anything else. I won't answer anything else; I can't. How +long it was to be before they met, or whose plan it was that they was to +go away alone, I don't know no more than you do. I don't know any more +about it. If I was to tell you how I found out this word, you'd believe +that. Shall I tell you, Misses Brown?' + +'Yes, Rob.' + +'Well then, Misses Brown. The way--now you won't ask any more, you +know?' said Rob, turning his eyes, which were now fast getting drowsy +and stupid, upon her. + +'Not another word,' said Mrs Brown. + +'Well then, the way was this. When a certain person left the lady with +me, he put a piece of paper with a direction written on it in the lady's +hand, saying it was in case she should forget. She wasn't afraid of +forgetting, for she tore it up as soon as his back was turned, and +when I put up the carriage steps, I shook out one of the pieces--she +sprinkled the rest out of the window, I suppose, for there was none +there afterwards, though I looked for 'em. There was only one word on +it, and that was this, if you must and will know. But remember! You're +upon your oath, Misses Brown!' + +Mrs Brown knew that, she said. Rob, having nothing more to say, began to +chalk, slowly and laboriously, on the table. + +'"D,"' the old woman read aloud, when he had formed the letter. + +'Will you hold your tongue, Misses Brown?' he exclaimed, covering it +with his hand, and turning impatiently upon her. 'I won't have it read +out. Be quiet, will you!' + +'Then write large, Rob,' she returned, repeating her secret signal; 'for +my eyes are not good, even at print.' + +Muttering to himself, and returning to his work with an ill will, Rob +went on with the word. As he bent his head down, the person for whose +information he so unconsciously laboured, moved from the door behind him +to within a short stride of his shoulder, and looked eagerly towards the +creeping track of his hand upon the table. At the same time, Alice, from +her opposite chair, watched it narrowly as it shaped the letters, and +repeated each one on her lips as he made it, without articulating it +aloud. At the end of every letter her eyes and Mr Dombey's met, as if +each of them sought to be confirmed by the other; and thus they both +spelt D.I.J.O.N. + +'There!' said the Grinder, moistening the palm of his hand hastily, to +obliterate the word; and not content with smearing it out, rubbing and +planing all trace of it away with his coat-sleeve, until the very colour +of the chalk was gone from the table. 'Now, I hope you're contented, +Misses Brown!' + +The old woman, in token of her being so, released his arm and patted his +back; and the Grinder, overcome with mortification, cross-examination, +and liquor, folded his arms on the table, laid his head upon them, and +fell asleep. + +Not until he had been heavily asleep some time, and was snoring roundly, +did the old woman turn towards the door where Mr Dombey stood concealed, +and beckon him to come through the room, and pass out. Even then, she +hovered over Rob, ready to blind him with her hands, or strike his head +down, if he should raise it while the secret step was crossing to the +door. But though her glance took sharp cognizance of the sleeper, it was +sharp too for the waking man; and when he touched her hand with his, and +in spite of all his caution, made a chinking, golden sound, it was as +bright and greedy as a raven's. + +The daughter's dark gaze followed him to the door, and noted well how +pale he was, and how his hurried tread indicated that the least delay +was an insupportable restraint upon him, and how he was burning to be +active and away. As he closed the door behind him, she looked round at +her mother. The old woman trotted to her; opened her hand to show what +was within; and, tightly closing it again in her jealousy and avarice, +whispered: + +'What will he do, Ally?' + +'Mischief,' said the daughter. + +'Murder?' asked the old woman. + +'He's a madman, in his wounded pride, and may do that, for anything we +can say, or he either.' + +Her glance was brighter than her mother's, and the fire that shone in it +was fiercer; but her face was colourless, even to her lips. + +They said no more, but sat apart; the mother communing with her money; +the daughter with her thoughts; the glance of each, shining in the gloom +of the feebly lighted room. Rob slept and snored. The disregarded parrot +only was in action. It twisted and pulled at the wires of its cage, with +its crooked beak, and crawled up to the dome, and along its roof like +a fly, and down again head foremost, and shook, and bit, and rattled at +every slender bar, as if it knew its master's danger, and was wild to +force a passage out, and fly away to warn him of it. + + + +CHAPTER 53. More Intelligence + + +There were two of the traitor's own blood--his renounced brother and +sister--on whom the weight of his guilt rested almost more heavily, at +this time, than on the man whom he had so deeply injured. Prying and +tormenting as the world was, it did Mr Dombey the service of nerving him +to pursuit and revenge. It roused his passion, stung his pride, twisted +the one idea of his life into a new shape, and made some gratification +of his wrath, the object into which his whole intellectual existence +resolved itself. All the stubbornness and implacability of his nature, +all its hard impenetrable quality, all its gloom and moroseness, all its +exaggerated sense of personal importance, all its jealous disposition +to resent the least flaw in the ample recognition of his importance by +others, set this way like many streams united into one, and bore him on +upon their tide. The most impetuously passionate and violently impulsive +of mankind would have been a milder enemy to encounter than the sullen +Mr Dombey wrought to this. A wild beast would have been easier turned +or soothed than the grave gentleman without a wrinkle in his starched +cravat. + +But the very intensity of his purpose became almost a substitute for +action in it. While he was yet uninformed of the traitor's retreat, it +served to divert his mind from his own calamity, and to entertain it +with another prospect. The brother and sister of his false favourite had +no such relief; everything in their history, past and present, gave his +delinquency a more afflicting meaning to them. + +The sister may have sometimes sadly thought that if she had remained +with him, the companion and friend she had been once, he might have +escaped the crime into which he had fallen. If she ever thought so, it +was still without regret for what she had done, without the least doubt +of her duty, without any pricing or enhancing of her self-devotion. +But when this possibility presented itself to the erring and repentant +brother, as it sometimes did, it smote upon his heart with such a keen, +reproachful touch as he could hardly bear. No idea of retort upon his +cruel brother came into his mind. New accusation of himself, fresh +inward lamentings over his own unworthiness, and the ruin in which it +was at once his consolation and his self-reproach that he did not stand +alone, were the sole kind of reflections to which the discovery gave +rise in him. + +It was on the very same day whose evening set upon the last chapter, and +when Mr Dombey's world was busiest with the elopement of his wife, that +the window of the room in which the brother and sister sat at their +early breakfast, was darkened by the unexpected shadow of a man coming +to the little porch: which man was Perch the Messenger. + +'I've stepped over from Balls Pond at a early hour,' said Mr Perch, +confidentially looking in at the room door, and stopping on the mat to +wipe his shoes all round, which had no mud upon them, 'agreeable to my +instructions last night. They was, to be sure and bring a note to you, +Mr Carker, before you went out in the morning. I should have been here a +good hour and a half ago,' said Mr Perch, meekly, 'but for the state of +health of Mrs P., who I thought I should have lost in the night, I do +assure you, five distinct times.' + +'Is your wife so ill?' asked Harriet. + +'Why, you see,' said Mr Perch, first turning round to shut the door +carefully, 'she takes what has happened in our House so much to heart, +Miss. Her nerves is so very delicate, you see, and soon unstrung. Not +but what the strongest nerves had good need to be shook, I'm sure. You +feel it very much yourself, no doubts.' + +Harriet repressed a sigh, and glanced at her brother. + +'I'm sure I feel it myself, in my humble way,' Mr Perch went on to say, +with a shake of his head, 'in a manner I couldn't have believed if I +hadn't been called upon to undergo. It has almost the effect of drink +upon me. I literally feels every morning as if I had been taking more +than was good for me over-night.' + +Mr Perch's appearance corroborated this recital of his symptoms. There +was an air of feverish lassitude about it, that seemed referable to +drams; and, which, in fact, might no doubt have been traced to those +numerous discoveries of himself in the bars of public-houses, being +treated and questioned, which he was in the daily habit of making. + +'Therefore I can judge,' said Mr Perch, shaking his head and speaking +in a silvery murmur, 'of the feelings of such as is at all peculiarly +sitiwated in this most painful rewelation.' + +Here Mr Perch waited to be confided in; and receiving no confidence, +coughed behind his hand. This leading to nothing, he coughed behind +his hat; and that leading to nothing, he put his hat on the ground and +sought in his breast pocket for the letter. + +'If I rightly recollect, there was no answer,' said Mr Perch, with an +affable smile; 'but perhaps you'll be so good as cast your eye over it, +Sir.' + +John Carker broke the seal, which was Mr Dombey's, and possessing +himself of the contents, which were very brief, replied, 'No. No answer +is expected.' + +'Then I shall wish you good morning, Miss,' said Perch, taking a step +toward the door, and hoping, I'm sure, that you'll not permit yourself +to be more reduced in mind than you can help, by the late painful +rewelation. The Papers,' said Mr Perch, taking two steps back again, and +comprehensively addressing both the brother and sister in a whisper +of increased mystery, 'is more eager for news of it than you'd suppose +possible. One of the Sunday ones, in a blue cloak and a white hat, +that had previously offered for to bribe me--need I say with what +success?--was dodging about our court last night as late as twenty +minutes after eight o'clock. I see him myself, with his eye at the +counting-house keyhole, which being patent is impervious. Another one,' +said Mr Perch, 'with military frogs, is in the parlour of the King's +Arms all the blessed day. I happened, last week, to let a little +obserwation fall there, and next morning, which was Sunday, I see it +worked up in print, in a most surprising manner.' + +Mr Perch resorted to his breast pocket, as if to produce the paragraph +but receiving no encouragement, pulled out his beaver gloves, picked up +his hat, and took his leave; and before it was high noon, Mr Perch had +related to several select audiences at the King's Arms and elsewhere, +how Miss Carker, bursting into tears, had caught him by both hands, and +said, 'Oh! dear dear Perch, the sight of you is all the comfort I have +left!' and how Mr John Carker had said, in an awful voice, 'Perch, I +disown him. Never let me hear him mentioned as a brother more!' + +'Dear John,' said Harriet, when they were left alone, and had remained +silent for some few moments. 'There are bad tidings in that letter.' + +'Yes. But nothing unexpected,' he replied. 'I saw the writer yesterday.' + +'The writer?' + +'Mr Dombey. He passed twice through the Counting House while I was +there. I had been able to avoid him before, but of course could not +hope to do that long. I know how natural it was that he should regard my +presence as something offensive; I felt it must be so, myself.' + +'He did not say so?' + +'No; he said nothing: but I saw that his glance rested on me for a +moment, and I was prepared for what would happen--for what has happened. +I am dismissed!' + +She looked as little shocked and as hopeful as she could, but it was +distressing news, for many reasons. + +'"I need not tell you,"' said John Carker, reading the letter, '"why +your name would henceforth have an unnatural sound, in however remote +a connexion with mine, or why the daily sight of anyone who bears +it, would be unendurable to me. I have to notify the cessation of all +engagements between us, from this date, and to request that no renewal +of any communication with me, or my establishment, be ever attempted by +you."--Enclosed is an equivalent in money to a generously long notice, +and this is my discharge. Heaven knows, Harriet, it is a lenient and +considerate one, when we remember all!' + +'If it be lenient and considerate to punish you at all, John, for the +misdeed of another,' she replied gently, 'yes.' + +'We have been an ill-omened race to him,' said John Carker. 'He has +reason to shrink from the sound of our name, and to think that there is +something cursed and wicked in our blood. I should almost think it too, +Harriet, but for you.' + +'Brother, don't speak like this. If you have any special reason, as you +say you have, and think you have--though I say, No!--to love me, spare +me the hearing of such wild mad words!' + +He covered his face with both his hands; but soon permitted her, coming +near him, to take one in her own. + +'After so many years, this parting is a melancholy thing, I know,' said +his sister, 'and the cause of it is dreadful to us both. We have to +live, too, and must look about us for the means. Well, well! We can do +so, undismayed. It is our pride, not our trouble, to strive, John, and +to strive together!' + +A smile played on her lips, as she kissed his cheek, and entreated him +to be of of good cheer. + +'Oh, dearest sister! Tied, of your own noble will, to a ruined man! +whose reputation is blighted; who has no friend himself, and has driven +every friend of yours away!' + +'John!' she laid her hand hastily upon his lips, 'for my sake! In +remembrance of our long companionship!' He was silent 'Now, let me tell +you, dear,' quietly sitting by his side, 'I have, as you have, expected +this; and when I have been thinking of it, and fearing that it would +happen, and preparing myself for it, as well as I could, I have resolved +to tell you, if it should be so, that I have kept a secret from you, and +that we have a friend.' + +'What's our friend's name, Harriet?' he answered with a sorrowful smile. + +'Indeed, I don't know, but he once made a very earnest protestation to +me of his friendship and his wish to serve us: and to this day I believe +him.' + +'Harriet!' exclaimed her wondering brother, 'where does this friend +live?' + +'Neither do I know that,' she returned. 'But he knows us both, and our +history--all our little history, John. That is the reason why, at his +own suggestion, I have kept the secret of his coming, here, from you, +lest his acquaintance with it should distress you.' + +'Here! Has he been here, Harriet?' + +'Here, in this room. Once.' + +'What kind of man?' + +'Not young. "Grey-headed," as he said, "and fast growing greyer." But +generous, and frank, and good, I am sure.' + +'And only seen once, Harriet?' + +'In this room only once,' said his sister, with the slightest and most +transient glow upon her cheek; 'but when here, he entreated me to suffer +him to see me once a week as he passed by, in token of our being well, +and continuing to need nothing at his hands. For I told him, when he +proffered us any service he could render--which was the object of his +visit--that we needed nothing.' + +'And once a week--' + +'Once every week since then, and always on the same day, and at the +same hour, he his gone past; always on foot; always going in the same +direction--towards London; and never pausing longer than to bow to me, +and wave his hand cheerfully, as a kind guardian might. He made that +promise when he proposed these curious interviews, and has kept it so +faithfully and pleasantly, that if I ever felt any trifling uneasiness +about them in the beginning (which I don't think I did, John; his manner +was so plain and true) It very soon vanished, and left me quite glad +when the day was coming. Last Monday--the first since this terrible +event--he did not go by; and I have wondered whether his absence can +have been in any way connected with what has happened.' + +'How?' inquired her brother. + +'I don't know how. I have only speculated on the coincidence; I have not +tried to account for it. I feel sure he will return. When he does, dear +John, let me tell him that I have at last spoken to you, and let me +bring you together. He will certainly help us to a new livelihood. His +entreaty was that he might do something to smooth my life and yours; and +I gave him my promise that if we ever wanted a friend, I would remember +him. Then his name was to be no secret.' + +'Harriet,' said her brother, who had listened with close attention, +'describe this gentleman to me. I surely ought to know one who knows me +so well.' + +His sister painted, as vividly as she could, the features, stature, and +dress of her visitor; but John Carker, either from having no knowledge +of the original, or from some fault in her description, or from some +abstraction of his thoughts as he walked to and fro, pondering, could +not recognise the portrait she presented to him. + +However, it was agreed between them that he should see the original when +he next appeared. This concluded, the sister applied herself, with a +less anxious breast, to her domestic occupations; and the grey-haired +man, late Junior of Dombey's, devoted the first day of his unwonted +liberty to working in the garden. + +It was quite late at night, and the brother was reading aloud while the +sister plied her needle, when they were interrupted by a knocking at the +door. In the atmosphere of vague anxiety and dread that lowered about +them in connexion with their fugitive brother, this sound, unusual +there, became almost alarming. The brother going to the door, the sister +sat and listened timidly. Someone spoke to him, and he replied and +seemed surprised; and after a few words, the two approached together. + +'Harriet,' said her brother, lighting in their late visitor, and +speaking in a low voice, 'Mr Morfin--the gentleman so long in Dombey's +House with James.' + +His sister started back, as if a ghost had entered. In the doorway stood +the unknown friend, with the dark hair sprinkled with grey, the ruddy +face, the broad clear brow, and hazel eyes, whose secret she had kept so +long! + +'John!' she said, half-breathless. 'It is the gentleman I told you of, +today!' + +'The gentleman, Miss Harriet,' said the visitor, coming in--for he had +stopped a moment in the doorway--'is greatly relieved to hear you +say that: he has been devising ways and means, all the way here, of +explaining himself, and has been satisfied with none. Mr John, I am not +quite a stranger here. You were stricken with astonishment when you saw +me at your door just now. I observe you are more astonished at present. +Well! That's reasonable enough under existing circumstances. If we were +not such creatures of habit as we are, we shouldn't have reason to be +astonished half so often.' + +By this time, he had greeted Harriet with that able mingling of +cordiality and respect which she recollected so well, and had sat down +near her, pulled off his gloves, and thrown them into his hat upon the +table. + +'There's nothing astonishing,' he said, 'in my having conceived a desire +to see your sister, Mr John, or in my having gratified it in my own way. +As to the regularity of my visits since (which she may have mentioned +to you), there is nothing extraordinary in that. They soon grew into a +habit; and we are creatures of habit--creatures of habit!' + +Putting his hands into his pockets, and leaning back in his chair, he +looked at the brother and sister as if it were interesting to him to +see them together; and went on to say, with a kind of irritable +thoughtfulness: 'It's this same habit that confirms some of us, who are +capable of better things, in Lucifer's own pride and stubbornness--that +confirms and deepens others of us in villainy--more of us in indifference +--that hardens us from day to day, according to the temper of our clay, +like images, and leaves us as susceptible as images to new impressions +and convictions. You shall judge of its influence on me, John. For more +years than I need name, I had my small, and exactly defined share, in the +management of Dombey's House, and saw your brother (who has proved +himself a scoundrel! Your sister will forgive my being obliged to mention +it) extending and extending his influence, until the business and its +owner were his football; and saw you toiling at your obscure desk every +day; and was quite content to be as little troubled as I might be, out of +my own strip of duty, and to let everything about me go on, day by day, +unquestioned, like a great machine--that was its habit and mine--and to +take it all for granted, and consider it all right. My Wednesday nights +came regularly round, our quartette parties came regularly off, my +violoncello was in good tune, and there was nothing wrong in my world--or +if anything not much--or little or much, it was no affair of mine.' + +'I can answer for your being more respected and beloved during all that +time than anybody in the House, Sir,' said John Carker. + +'Pooh! Good-natured and easy enough, I daresay,' returned the other, 'a +habit I had. It suited the Manager; it suited the man he managed: it +suited me best of all. I did what was allotted to me to do, made no +court to either of them, and was glad to occupy a station in which none +was required. So I should have gone on till now, but that my room had +a thin wall. You can tell your sister that it was divided from the +Manager's room by a wainscot partition.' + +'They were adjoining rooms; had been one, Perhaps, originally; and were +separated, as Mr Morfin says,' said her brother, looking back to him for +the resumption of his explanation. + +'I have whistled, hummed tunes, gone accurately through the whole of +Beethoven's Sonata in B, to let him know that I was within hearing,' +said Mr Morfin; 'but he never heeded me. It happened seldom enough that +I was within hearing of anything of a private nature, certainly. But +when I was, and couldn't otherwise avoid knowing something of it, I +walked out. I walked out once, John, during a conversation between two +brothers, to which, in the beginning, young Walter Gay was a party. +But I overheard some of it before I left the room. You remember it +sufficiently, perhaps, to tell your sister what its nature was?' + +'It referred, Harriet,' said her brother in a low voice, 'to the past, +and to our relative positions in the House.' + +'Its matter was not new to me, but was presented in a new aspect. +It shook me in my habit--the habit of nine-tenths of the world--of +believing that all was right about me, because I was used to it,' +said their visitor; 'and induced me to recall the history of the two +brothers, and to ponder on it. I think it was almost the first time in +my life when I fell into this train of reflection--how will many things +that are familiar, and quite matters of course to us now, look, when we +come to see them from that new and distant point of view which we must +all take up, one day or other? I was something less good-natured, as the +phrase goes, after that morning, less easy and complacent altogether.' + +He sat for a minute or so, drumming with one hand on the table; and +resumed in a hurry, as if he were anxious to get rid of his confession. + +'Before I knew what to do, or whether I could do anything, there was a +second conversation between the same two brothers, in which their sister +was mentioned. I had no scruples of conscience in suffering all the +waifs and strays of that conversation to float to me as freely as they +would. I considered them mine by right. After that, I came here to see +the sister for myself. The first time I stopped at the garden gate, I +made a pretext of inquiring into the character of a poor neighbour; but +I wandered out of that tract, and I think Miss Harriet mistrusted me. +The second time I asked leave to come in; came in; and said what I +wished to say. Your sister showed me reasons which I dared not dispute, +for receiving no assistance from me then; but I established a means of +communication between us, which remained unbroken until within these +few days, when I was prevented, by important matters that have lately +devolved upon me, from maintaining them.' + +'How little I have suspected this,' said John Carker, 'when I have seen +you every day, Sir! If Harriet could have guessed your name--' + +'Why, to tell you the truth, John,' interposed the visitor, 'I kept it +to myself for two reasons. I don't know that the first might have +been binding alone; but one has no business to take credit for good +intentions, and I made up my mind, at all events, not to disclose myself +until I should be able to do you some real service or other. My +second reason was, that I always hoped there might be some lingering +possibility of your brother's relenting towards you both; and in that +case, I felt that where there was the chance of a man of his suspicious, +watchful character, discovering that you had been secretly befriended +by me, there was the chance of a new and fatal cause of division. I +resolved, to be sure, at the risk of turning his displeasure against +myself--which would have been no matter--to watch my opportunity of +serving you with the head of the House; but the distractions of death, +courtship, marriage, and domestic unhappiness, have left us no head but +your brother for this long, long time. And it would have been better +for us,' said the visitor, dropping his voice, 'to have been a lifeless +trunk.' + +He seemed conscious that these latter words had escaped hIm against +his will, and stretching out a hand to the brother, and a hand to the +sister, continued: + +'All I could desire to say, and more, I have now said. All I mean goes +beyond words, as I hope you understand and believe. The time has come, +John--though most unfortunately and unhappily come--when I may help you +without interfering with that redeeming struggle, which has lasted +through so many years; since you were discharged from it today by no act +of your own. It is late; I need say no more to-night. You will guard the +treasure you have here, without advice or reminder from me.' + +With these words he rose to go. + +'But go you first, John,' he said goodhumouredly, 'with a light, without +saying what you want to say, whatever that maybe;' John Carker's heart +was full, and he would have relieved it in speech, if he could; 'and +let me have a word with your sister. We have talked alone before, and in +this room too; though it looks more natural with you here.' + +Following him out with his eyes, he turned kindly to Harriet, and said +in a lower voice, and with an altered and graver manner: + +'You wish to ask me something of the man whose sister it is your +misfortune to be.' + +'I dread to ask,' said Harriet. + +'You have looked so earnestly at me more than once,' rejoined the +visitor, 'that I think I can divine your question. Has he taken money? +Is it that?' + +'Yes.' + +'He has not.' + +'I thank Heaven!' said Harriet. 'For the sake of John.' + +'That he has abused his trust in many ways,' said Mr Morfin; 'that he +has oftener dealt and speculated to advantage for himself, than for +the House he represented; that he has led the House on, to prodigious +ventures, often resulting in enormous losses; that he has always +pampered the vanity and ambition of his employer, when it was his duty +to have held them in check, and shown, as it was in his power to do, +to what they tended here or there; will not, perhaps, surprise you now. +Undertakings have been entered on, to swell the reputation of the House +for vast resources, and to exhibit it in magnificent contrast to other +merchants' Houses, of which it requires a steady head to contemplate +the possibly--a few disastrous changes of affairs might render them the +probably--ruinous consequences. In the midst of the many transactions of +the House, in most parts of the world: a great labyrinth of which only +he has held the clue: he has had the opportunity, and he seems to have +used it, of keeping the various results afloat, when ascertained, and +substituting estimates and generalities for facts. But latterly--you +follow me, Miss Harriet?' + +'Perfectly, perfectly,' she answered, with her frightened face fixed on +his. 'Pray tell me all the worst at once.' + +'Latterly, he appears to have devoted the greatest pains to making these +results so plain and clear, that reference to the private books enables +one to grasp them, numerous and varying as they are, with extraordinary +ease. As if he had resolved to show his employer at one broad view what +has been brought upon him by ministration to his ruling passion! That it +has been his constant practice to minister to that passion basely, and +to flatter it corruptly, is indubitable. In that, his criminality, as it +is connected with the affairs of the House, chiefly consists.' + +'One other word before you leave me, dear Sir,' said Harriet. 'There is +no danger in all this?' + +'How danger?' he returned, with a little hesitation. + +'To the credit of the House?' + +'I cannot help answering you plainly, and trusting you completely,' said +Mr Morfin, after a moment's survey of her face. + +'You may. Indeed you may!' + +'I am sure I may. Danger to the House's credit? No; none There may be +difficulty, greater or less difficulty, but no danger, unless--unless, +indeed--the head of the House, unable to bring his mind to the reduction +of its enterprises, and positively refusing to believe that it is, +or can be, in any position but the position in which he has always +represented it to himself, should urge it beyond its strength. Then it +would totter.' + +'But there is no apprehension of that?' said Harriet. + +'There shall be no half-confidence,' he replied, shaking her hand, +'between us. Mr Dombey is unapproachable by anyone, and his state of +mind is haughty, rash, unreasonable, and ungovernable, now. But he is +disturbed and agitated now beyond all common bounds, and it may +pass. You now know all, both worst and best. No more to-night, and +good-night!' + +With that he kissed her hand, and, passing out to the door where her +brother stood awaiting his coming, put him cheerfully aside when he +essayed to speak; told him that, as they would see each other soon and +often, he might speak at another time, if he would, but there was no +leisure for it then; and went away at a round pace, in order that no +word of gratitude might follow him. + +The brother and sister sat conversing by the fireside, until it was +almost day; made sleepless by this glimpse of the new world that opened +before them, and feeling like two people shipwrecked long ago, upon a +solitary coast, to whom a ship had come at last, when they were old in +resignation, and had lost all thought of any other home. But another and +different kind of disquietude kept them waking too. The darkness out of +which this light had broken on them gathered around; and the shadow of +their guilty brother was in the house where his foot had never trod. + +Nor was it to be driven out, nor did it fade before the sun. Next +morning it was there; at noon; at night Darkest and most distinct at +night, as is now to be told. + +John Carker had gone out, in pursuance of a letter of appointment from +their friend, and Harriet was left in the house alone. She had been +alone some hours. A dull, grave evening, and a deepening twilight, were +not favourable to the removal of the oppression on her spirits. The idea +of this brother, long unseen and unknown, flitted about her in frightful +shapes. He was dead, dying, calling to her, staring at her, frowning on +her. The pictures in her mind were so obtrusive and exact that, as the +twilight deepened, she dreaded to raise her head and look at the dark +corners of the room, lest his wraith, the offspring of her excited +imagination, should be waiting there, to startle her. Once she had such +a fancy of his being in the next room, hiding--though she knew quite +well what a distempered fancy it was, and had no belief in it--that she +forced herself to go there, for her own conviction. But in vain. The +room resumed its shadowy terrors, the moment she left it; and she had no +more power to divest herself of these vague impressions of dread, than +if they had been stone giants, rooted in the solid earth. + +It was almost dark, and she was sitting near the window, with her head +upon her hand, looking down, when, sensible of a sudden increase in the +gloom of the apartment, she raised her eyes, and uttered an involuntary +cry. Close to the glass, a pale scared face gazed in; vacantly, for an +instant, as searching for an object; then the eyes rested on herself, +and lighted up. + +'Let me in! Let me in! I want to speak to you!' and the hand rattled on +the glass. + +She recognised immediately the woman with the long dark hair, to whom +she had given warmth, food, and shelter, one wet night. Naturally afraid +of her, remembering her violent behaviour, Harriet, retreating a little +from the window, stood undecided and alarmed. + +'Let me in! Let me speak to you! I am thankful--quiet--humble--anything +you like. But let me speak to you.' + +The vehement manner of the entreaty, the earnest expression of the face, +the trembling of the two hands that were raised imploringly, a certain +dread and terror in the voice akin to her own condition at the moment, +prevailed with Harriet. She hastened to the door and opened it. + +'May I come in, or shall I speak here?' said the woman, catching at her +hand. + +'What is it that you want? What is it that you have to say?' + +'Not much, but let me say it out, or I shall never say it. I am tempted +now to go away. There seem to be hands dragging me from the door. Let me +come in, if you can trust me for this once!' + +Her energy again prevailed, and they passed into the firelight of +the little kitchen, where she had before sat, and ate, and dried her +clothes. + +'Sit there,' said Alice, kneeling down beside her, 'and look at me. You +remember me?' + +'I do.' + +'You remember what I told you I had been, and where I came from, ragged +and lame, with the fierce wind and weather beating on my head?' + +'Yes.' + +'You know how I came back that night, and threw your money in the +dirt, and you and your race. Now, see me here, upon my knees. Am I less +earnest now, than I was then?' + +'If what you ask,' said Harriet, gently, 'is forgiveness--' + +'But it's not!' returned the other, with a proud, fierce look 'What I +ask is to be believed. Now you shall judge if I am worthy of belief, +both as I was, and as I am.' + +Still upon her knees, and with her eyes upon the fire, and the fire +shining on her ruined beauty and her wild black hair, one long tress +of which she pulled over her shoulder, and wound about her hand, and +thoughtfully bit and tore while speaking, she went on: + +'When I was young and pretty, and this,' plucking contemptuously at +the hair she held, 'was only handled delicately, and couldn't be admired +enough, my mother, who had not been very mindful of me as a child, found +out my merits, and was fond of me, and proud of me. She was covetous and +poor, and thought to make a sort of property of me. No great lady ever +thought that of a daughter yet, I'm sure, or acted as if she did--it's +never done, we all know--and that shows that the only instances of +mothers bringing up their daughters wrong, and evil coming of it, are +among such miserable folks as us.' + +Looking at the fire, as if she were forgetful, for the moment, of having +any auditor, she continued in a dreamy way, as she wound the long tress +of hair tight round and round her hand. + +'What came of that, I needn't say. Wretched marriages don't come of such +things, in our degree; only wretchedness and ruin. Wretchedness and ruin +came on me--came on me.' + +Raising her eyes swiftly from their moody gaze upon the fire, to +Harriet's face, she said: + +'I am wasting time, and there is none to spare; yet if I hadn't thought +of all, I shouldn't be here now. Wretchedness and ruin came on me, I +say. I was made a short-lived toy, and flung aside more cruelly and +carelessly than even such things are. By whose hand do you think?' + +'Why do you ask me?' said Harriet. + +'Why do you tremble?' rejoined Alice, with an eager look. 'His usage +made a Devil of me. I sunk in wretchedness and ruin, lower and +lower yet. I was concerned in a robbery--in every part of it but the +gains--and was found out, and sent to be tried, without a friend, +without a penny. Though I was but a girl, I would have gone to Death, +sooner than ask him for a word, if a word of his could have saved me. +I would! To any death that could have been invented. But my mother, +covetous always, sent to him in my name, told the true story of my case, +and humbly prayed and petitioned for a small last gift--for not so many +pounds as I have fingers on this hand. Who was it, do you think, who +snapped his fingers at me in my misery, lying, as he believed, at his +feet, and left me without even this poor sign of remembrance; well +satisfied that I should be sent abroad, beyond the reach of farther +trouble to him, and should die, and rot there? Who was this, do you +think?' + +'Why do you ask me?' repeated Harriet. + +'Why do you tremble?' said Alice, laying her hand upon her arm, and +looking in her face, 'but that the answer is on your lips! It was your +brother James.' + +Harriet trembled more and more, but did not avert her eyes from the +eager look that rested on them. + +'When I knew you were his sister--which was on that night--I came back, +weary and lame, to spurn your gift. I felt that night as if I could have +travelled, weary and lame, over the whole world, to stab him, if I could +have found him in a lonely place with no one near. Do you believe that I +was earnest in all that?' + +'I do! Good Heaven, why are you come again?' + +'Since then,' said Alice, with the same grasp of her arm, and the same +look in her face, 'I have seen him! I have followed him with my eyes, In +the broad day. If any spark of my resentment slumbered in my bosom, it +sprung into a blaze when my eyes rested on him. You know he has +wronged a proud man, and made him his deadly enemy. What if I had given +information of him to that man?' + +'Information!' repeated Harriet. + +'What if I had found out one who knew your brother's secret; who knew +the manner of his flight, who knew where he and the companion of his +flight were gone? What if I had made him utter all his knowledge, word +by word, before his enemy, concealed to hear it? What if I had sat by at +the time, looking into this enemy's face, and seeing it change till it +was scarcely human? What if I had seen him rush away, mad, in pursuit? +What if I knew, now, that he was on his road, more fiend than man, and +must, in so many hours, come up with him?' + +'Remove your hand!' said Harriet, recoiling. 'Go away! Your touch is +dreadful to me!' + +'I have done this,' pursued the other, with her eager look, regardless +of the interruption. 'Do I speak and look as if I really had? Do you +believe what I am saying?' + +'I fear I must. Let my arm go!' + +'Not yet. A moment more. You can think what my revengeful purpose must +have been, to last so long, and urge me to do this?' + +'Dreadful!' said Harriet. + +'Then when you see me now,' said Alice hoarsely, 'here again, kneeling +quietly on the ground, with my touch upon your arm, with my eyes upon +your face, you may believe that there is no common earnestness in what +I say, and that no common struggle has been battling in my breast. I +am ashamed to speak the words, but I relent. I despise myself; I have +fought with myself all day, and all last night; but I relent towards him +without reason, and wish to repair what I have done, if it is possible. +I wouldn't have them come together while his pursuer is so blind and +headlong. If you had seen him as he went out last night, you would know +the danger better.' + +'How can it be prevented? What can I do?' cried Harriet. + +'All night long,' pursued the other, hurriedly, 'I had dreams of +him--and yet I didn't sleep--in his blood. All day, I have had him near +me.' + +'What can I do?' cried Harriet, shuddering at these words. + +'If there is anyone who'll write, or send, or go to him, let them lose +no time. He is at Dijon. Do you know the name, and where it is?' + +'Yes.' + +'Warn him that the man he has made his enemy is in a frenzy, and that he +doesn't know him if he makes light of his approach. Tell him that he is +on the road--I know he is!--and hurrying on. Urge him to get away while +there is time--if there is time--and not to meet him yet. A month or +so will make years of difference. Let them not encounter, through me. +Anywhere but there! Any time but now! Let his foe follow him, and +find him for himself, but not through me! There is enough upon my head +without.' + +The fire ceased to be reflected in her jet black hair, uplifted face, +and eager eyes; her hand was gone from Harriet's arm; and the place +where she had been was empty. + + + +CHAPTER 54. The Fugitives + + +Tea-time, an hour short of midnight; the place, a French apartment, +comprising some half-dozen rooms;--a dull cold hall or corridor, a +dining-room, a drawing-room, a bed-room, and an inner drawingroom, or +boudoir, smaller and more retired than the rest. All these shut in by +one large pair of doors on the main staircase, but each room provided +with two or three pairs of doors of its own, establishing several means +of communication with the remaining portion of the apartment, or with +certain small passages within the wall, leading, as is not unusual in +such houses, to some back stairs with an obscure outlet below. The whole +situated on the first floor of so large an Hotel, that it did not absorb +one entire row of windows upon one side of the square court-yard in the +centre, upon which the whole four sides of the mansion looked. + +An air of splendour, sufficiently faded to be melancholy, and +sufficiently dazzling to clog and embarrass the details of life with a +show of state, reigned in these rooms The walls and ceilings were gilded +and painted; the floors were waxed and polished; crimson drapery hung +in festoons from window, door, and mirror; and candelabra, gnarled and +intertwisted like the branches of trees, or horns of animals, stuck +out from the panels of the wall. But in the day-time, when the +lattice-blinds (now closely shut) were opened, and the light let in, +traces were discernible among this finery, of wear and tear and dust, +of sun and damp and smoke, and lengthened intervals of want of use and +habitation, when such shows and toys of life seem sensitive like life, +and waste as men shut up in prison do. Even night, and clusters of +burning candles, could not wholly efface them, though the general +glitter threw them in the shade. + +The glitter of bright tapers, and their reflection in looking-glasses, +scraps of gilding and gay colours, were confined, on this night, to one +room--that smaller room within the rest, just now enumerated. Seen from +the hall, where a lamp was feebly burning, through the dark perspective +of open doors, it looked as shining and precious as a gem. In the heart +of its radiance sat a beautiful woman--Edith. + +She was alone. The same defiant, scornful woman still. The cheek a +little worn, the eye a little larger in appearance, and more lustrous, +but the haughty bearing just the same. No shame upon her brow; no late +repentance bending her disdainful neck. Imperious and stately yet, and +yet regardless of herself and of all else, she sat with her dark eyes +cast down, waiting for someone. + +No book, no work, no occupation of any kind but her own thought, +beguiled the tardy time. Some purpose, strong enough to fill up any +pause, possessed her. With her lips pressed together, and quivering +if for a moment she released them from her control; with her nostril +inflated; her hands clasped in one another; and her purpose swelling in +her breast; she sat, and waited. + +At the sound of a key in the outer door, and a footstep in the hall, she +started up, and cried 'Who's that?' The answer was in French, and two +men came in with jingling trays, to make preparation for supper. + +'Who had bade them to do so?' she asked. + +'Monsieur had commanded it, when it was his pleasure to take the +apartment. Monsieur had said, when he stayed there for an hour, en +route, and left the letter for Madame--Madame had received it surely?' + +'Yes.' + +'A thousand pardons! The sudden apprehension that it might have been +forgotten had struck hIm;' a bald man, with a large beard from a +neighbouring restaurant; 'with despair! Monsieur had said that supper +was to be ready at that hour: also that he had forewarned Madame of the +commands he had given, in his letter. Monsieur had done the Golden Head +the honour to request that the supper should be choice and delicate. +Monsieur would find that his confidence in the Golden Head was not +misplaced.' + +Edith said no more, but looked on thoughtfully while they prepared the +table for two persons, and set the wine upon it. She arose before they +had finished, and taking a lamp, passed into the bed-chamber and into +the drawing-room, where she hurriedly but narrowly examined all the +doors; particularly one in the former room that opened on the passage in +the wall. From this she took the key, and put it on the outer side. She +then came back. + +The men--the second of whom was a dark, bilious subject, in a jacket, +close shaved, and with a black head of hair close cropped--had completed +their preparation of the table, and were standing looking at it. He +who had spoken before, inquired whether Madame thought it would be long +before Monsieur arrived? + +'She couldn't say. It was all one.' + +'Pardon! There was the supper! It should be eaten on the instant. +Monsieur (who spoke French like an Angel--or a Frenchman--it was all the +same) had spoken with great emphasis of his punctuality. But the English +nation had so grand a genius for punctuality. Ah! what noise! Great +Heaven, here was Monsieur. Behold him!' + +In effect, Monsieur, admitted by the other of the two, came, with his +gleaming teeth, through the dark rooms, like a mouth; and arriving in +that sanctuary of light and colour, a figure at full length, embraced +Madame, and addressed her in the French tongue as his charming wife. + +'My God! Madame is going to faint. Madame is overcome with joy!' The +bald man with the beard observed it, and cried out. + +Madame had only shrunk and shivered. Before the words were spoken, she +was standing with her hand upon the velvet back of a great chair; her +figure drawn up to its full height, and her face immoveable. + +'Francois has flown over to the Golden Head for supper. He flies on +these occasions like an angel or a bird. The baggage of Monsieur is in +his room. All is arranged. The supper will be here this moment.' These +facts the bald man notified with bows and smiles, and presently the +supper came. + +The hot dishes were on a chafing-dish; the cold already set forth, with +the change of service on a sideboard. Monsieur was satisfied with this +arrangement. The supper table being small, it pleased him very well. Let +them set the chafing-dish upon the floor, and go. He would remove the +dishes with his own hands. + +'Pardon!' said the bald man, politely. 'It was impossible!' + +Monsieur was of another opinion. He required no further attendance that +night. + +'But Madame--' the bald man hinted. + +'Madame,' replied Monsieur, 'had her own maid. It was enough.' + +'A million pardons! No! Madame had no maid!' + +'I came here alone,' said Edith 'It was my choice to do so. I am well +used to travelling; I want no attendance. They need send nobody to me. + +Monsieur accordingly, persevering in his first proposed impossibility, +proceeded to follow the two attendants to the outer door, and secure it +after them for the night. The bald man turning round to bow, as he went +out, observed that Madame still stood with her hand upon the velvet +back of the great chair, and that her face was quite regardless of him, +though she was looking straight before her. + +As the sound of Carker's fastening the door resounded through the +intermediate rooms, and seemed to come hushed and stilled into that last +distant one, the sound of the Cathedral clock striking twelve mingled +with it, in Edith's ears She heard him pause, as if he heard it too +and listened; and then came back towards her, laying a long train of +footsteps through the silence, and shutting all the doors behind him as +he came along. Her hand, for a moment, left the velvet chair to bring a +knife within her reach upon the table; then she stood as she had stood +before. + +'How strange to come here by yourself, my love!' he said as he entered. + +'What?' she returned. + +Her tone was so harsh; the quick turn of her head so fierce; her +attitude so repellent; and her frown so black; that he stood, with the +lamp in his hand, looking at her, as if she had struck him motionless. + +'I say,' he at length repeated, putting down the lamp, and smiling his +most courtly smile, 'how strange to come here alone! It was unnecessarty +caution surely, and might have defeated itself. You were to have engaged +an attendant at Havre or Rouen, and have had abundance of time for the +purpose, though you had been the most capricious and difficult (as you +are the most beautiful, my love) of women.' + +Her eyes gleamed strangely on him, but she stood with her hand resting +on the chair, and said not a word. + +'I have never,' resumed Carker, 'seen you look so handsome, as you do +to-night. Even the picture I have carried in my mind during this cruel +probation, and which I have contemplated night and day, is exceeded by +the reality.' + +Not a word. Not a look Her eyes completely hidden by their drooping +lashes, but her head held up. + +'Hard, unrelenting terms they were!' said Carker, with a smile, 'but +they are all fulfilled and passed, and make the present more delicious +and more safe. Sicily shall be the place of our retreat. In the idlest +and easiest part of the world, my soul, we'll both seek compensation for +old slavery.' + +He was coming gaily towards her, when, in an instant, she caught the +knife up from the table, and started one pace back. + +'Stand still!' she said, 'or I shall murder you!' + +The sudden change in her, the towering fury and intense abhorrence +sparkling in her eyes and lighting up her brow, made him stop as if a +fire had stopped him. + +'Stand still!' she said, 'come no nearer me, upon your life!' + +They both stood looking at each other. Rage and astonishment were in his +face, but he controlled them, and said lightly, + +'Come, come! Tush, we are alone, and out of everybody's sight and +hearing. Do you think to frighten me with these tricks of virtue?' + +'Do you think to frighten me,' she answered fiercely, 'from any purpose +that I have, and any course I am resolved upon, by reminding me of the +solitude of this place, and there being no help near? Me, who am here +alone, designedly? If I feared you, should I not have avoided you? If I +feared you, should I be here, in the dead of night, telling you to your +face what I am going to tell?' + +'And what is that,' he said, 'you handsome shrew? Handsomer so, than any +other woman in her best humour?' + +'I tell you nothing,' she returned, until you go back to that +chair--except this, once again--Don't come near me! Not a step nearer. I +tell you, if you do, as Heaven sees us, I shall murder you!' + +'Do you mistake me for your husband?' he retorted, with a grin. + +Disdaining to reply, she stretched her arm out, pointing to the chair. +He bit his lip, frowned, laughed, and sat down in it, with a baffled, +irresolute, impatient air, he was unable to conceal; and biting his nail +nervously, and looking at her sideways, with bitter discomfiture, even +while he feigned to be amused by her caprice. + +She put the knife down upon the table, and touching her bosom with her +hand, said: + +'I have something lying here that is no love trinket, and sooner than +endure your touch once more, I would use it on you--and you know it, +while I speak--with less reluctance than I would on any other creeping +thing that lives.' + +He affected to laugh jestingly, and entreated her to act her play out +quickly, for the supper was growing cold. But the secret look with which +he regarded her, was more sullen and lowering, and he struck his foot +once upon the floor with a muttered oath. + +'How many times,' said Edith, bending her darkest glance upon him, 'has +your bold knavery assailed me with outrage and insult? How many times +in your smooth manner, and mocking words and looks, have I been twitted +with my courtship and my marriage? How many times have you laid bare my +wound of love for that sweet, injured girl and lacerated it? How often +have you fanned the fire on which, for two years, I have writhed; and +tempted me to take a desperate revenge, when it has most tortured me?' + +'I have no doubt, Ma'am,' he replied, 'that you have kept a good +account, and that it's pretty accurate. Come, Edith. To your husband, +poor wretch, this was well enough--' + +'Why, if,' she said, surveying him with a haughty contempt and disgust, +that he shrunk under, let him brave it as he would, 'if all my other +reasons for despising him could have been blown away like feathers, +his having you for his counsellor and favourite, would have almost been +enough to hold their place.' + +'Is that a reason why you have run away with me?' he asked her, +tauntingly. + +'Yes, and why we are face to face for the last time. Wretch! We meet +tonight, and part tonight. For not one moment after I have ceased to +speak, will I stay here!' + +He turned upon her with his ugliest look, and gripped the table with his +hand; but neither rose, nor otherwise answered or threatened her. + +'I am a woman,' she said, confronting him steadfastly, 'who from her +childhood has been shamed and steeled. I have been offered and rejected, +put up and appraised, until my very soul has sickened. I have not had +an accomplishment or grace that might have been a resource to me, but it +has been paraded and vended to enhance my value, as if the common crier +had called it through the streets. My poor, proud friends, have looked +on and approved; and every tie between us has been deadened in my +breast. There is not one of them for whom I care, as I could care for +a pet dog. I stand alone in the world, remembering well what a hollow +world it has been to me, and what a hollow part of it I have been +myself. You know this, and you know that my fame with it is worthless to +me.' + +'Yes; I imagined that,' he said. + +'And calculated on it,' she rejoined, 'and so pursued me. Grown too +indifferent for any opposition but indifference, to the daily working +of the hands that had moulded me to this; and knowing that my marriage +would at least prevent their hawking of me up and down; I suffered +myself to be sold, as infamously as any woman with a halter round her +neck is sold in any market-place. You know that.' + +'Yes,' he said, showing all his teeth 'I know that.' + +'And calculated on it,' she rejoined once more, 'and so pursued me. +From my marriage day, I found myself exposed to such new shame--to such +solicitation and pursuit (expressed as clearly as if it had been written +in the coarsest words, and thrust into my hand at every turn) from one +mean villain, that I felt as if I had never known humiliation till +that time. This shame my husband fixed upon me; hemmed me round with, +himself; steeped me in, with his own hands, and of his own act, repeated +hundreds of times. And thus--forced by the two from every point of +rest I had--forced by the two to yield up the last retreat of love +and gentleness within me, or to be a new misfortune on its innocent +object--driven from each to each, and beset by one when I escaped the +other--my anger rose almost to distraction against both I do not know +against which it rose higher--the master or the man!' + +He watched her closely, as she stood before him in the very triumph of +her indignant beauty. She was resolute, he saw; undauntable; with no +more fear of him than of a worm. + +'What should I say of honour or of chastity to you!' she went on. 'What +meaning would it have to you; what meaning would it have from me! But if +I tell you that the lightest touch of your hand makes my blood cold with +antipathy; that from the hour when I first saw and hated you, to now, +when my instinctive repugnance is enhanced by every minute's knowledge +of you I have since had, you have been a loathsome creature to me which +has not its like on earth; how then?' + +He answered with a faint laugh, 'Ay! How then, my queen?' + +'On that night, when, emboldened by the scene you had assisted at, you +dared come to my room and speak to me,' she said, 'what passed?' + +He shrugged his shoulders, and laughed + +'What passed?' she said. + +'Your memory is so distinct,' he said, 'that I have no doubt you can +recall it.' + +'I can,' she said. 'Hear it! Proposing then, this flight--not this +flight, but the flight you thought it--you told me that in the having +given you that meeting, and leaving you to be discovered there, if you +so thought fit; and in the having suffered you to be alone with me many +times before,--and having made the opportunities, you said,--and in the +having openly avowed to you that I had no feeling for my husband but +aversion, and no care for myself--I was lost; I had given you the power +to traduce my name; and I lived, in virtuous reputation, at the pleasure +of your breath.' + +'All stratagems in love---' he interrupted, smiling. 'The old adage--' + +'On that night,' said Edith, 'and then, the struggle that I long had had +with something that was not respect for my good fame--that was I know +not what--perhaps the clinging to that last retreat--was ended. On that +night, and then, I turned from everything but passion and resentment. +I struck a blow that laid your lofty master in the dust, and set you +there, before me, looking at me now, and knowing what I mean.' + +He sprung up from his chair with a great oath. She put her hand into her +bosom, and not a finger trembled, not a hair upon her head was stirred. +He stood still: she too: the table and chair between them. + +'When I forget that this man put his lips to mine that night, and held +me in his arms as he has done again to-night,' said Edith, pointing at +him; 'when I forget the taint of his kiss upon my cheek--the cheek that +Florence would have laid her guiltless face against--when I forget my +meeting with her, while that taint was hot upon me, and in what a flood +the knowledge rushed upon me when I saw her, that in releasing her +from the persecution I had caused by my love, I brought a shame and +degradation on her name through mine, and in all time to come should be +the solitary figure representing in her mind her first avoidance of a +guilty creature--then, Husband, from whom I stand divorced henceforth, +I will forget these last two years, and undo what I have done, and +undeceive you!' + +Her flashing eyes, uplifted for a moment, lighted again on Carker, and +she held some letters out in her left hand. + +'See these!' she said, contemptuously. 'You have addressed these to me +in the false name you go by; one here, some elsewhere on my road. The +seals are unbroken. Take them back!' + +She crunched them in her hand, and tossed them to his feet. And as she +looked upon him now, a smile was on her face. + +'We meet and part to-night,' she said. 'You have fallen on Sicilian +days and sensual rest, too soon. You might have cajoled, and fawned, +and played your traitor's part, a little longer, and grown richer. You +purchase your voluptuous retirement dear!' + +'Edith!' he retorted, menacing her with his hand. 'Sit down! Have done +with this! What devil possesses you?' + +'Their name is Legion,' she replied, uprearing her proud form as if +she would have crushed him; 'you and your master have raised them in a +fruitful house, and they shall tear you both. False to him, false to his +innocent child, false every way and everywhere, go forth and boast of +me, and gnash your teeth, for once, to know that you are lying!' + +He stood before her, muttering and menacing, and scowling round as if +for something that would help him to conquer her; but with the same +indomitable spirit she opposed him, without faltering. + +'In every vaunt you make,' she said, 'I have my triumph I single out in +you the meanest man I know, the parasite and tool of the proud tyrant, +that his wound may go the deeper, and may rankle more. Boast, and +revenge me on him! You know how you came here to-night; you know how you +stand cowering there; you see yourself in colours quite as despicable, +if not as odious, as those in which I see you. Boast then, and revenge +me on yourself.' + +The foam was on his lips; the wet stood on his forehead. If she would +have faltered once for only one half-moment, he would have pinioned her; +but she was as firm as rock, and her searching eyes never left him. + +'We don't part so,' he said. 'Do you think I am drivelling, to let you +go in your mad temper?' + +'Do you think,' she answered, 'that I am to be stayed?' + +'I'll try, my dear,' he said with a ferocious gesture of his head. + +'God's mercy on you, if you try by coming near me!' she replied. + +'And what,' he said, 'if there are none of these same boasts and vaunts +on my part? What if I were to turn too? Come!' and his teeth fairly +shone again. 'We must make a treaty of this, or I may take some +unexpected course. Sit down, sit down!' + +'Too late!' she cried, with eyes that seemed to sparkle fire. 'I have +thrown my fame and good name to the winds! I have resolved to bear +the shame that will attach to me--resolved to know that it attaches +falsely--that you know it too--and that he does not, never can, and +never shall. I'll die, and make no sign. For this, I am here alone with +you, at the dead of night. For this, I have met you here, in a false +name, as your wife. For this, I have been seen here by those men, and +left here. Nothing can save you now.' + +He would have sold his soul to root her, in her beauty, to the floor, +and make her arms drop at her sides, and have her at his mercy. But +he could not look at her, and not be afraid of her. He saw a strength +within her that was resistless. He saw that she was desperate, and that +her unquenchable hatred of him would stop at nothing. His eyes followed +the hand that was put with such rugged uncongenial purpose into her +white bosom, and he thought that if it struck at hIm, and failed, it +would strike there, just as soon. + +He did not venture, therefore, to advance towards her; but the door by +which he had entered was behind him, and he stepped back to lock it. + +'Lastly, take my warning! Look to yourself!' she said, and smiled again. +'You have been betrayed, as all betrayers are. It has been made known +that you are in this place, or were to be, or have been. If I live, I +saw my husband in a carriage in the street to-night!' + +'Strumpet, it's false!' cried Carker. + +At the moment, the bell rang loudly in the hall. He turned white, as she +held her hand up like an enchantress, at whose invocation the sound had +come. + +'Hark! do you hear it?' + +He set his back against the door; for he saw a change in her, and +fancied she was coming on to pass him. But, in a moment, she was gone +through the opposite doors communicating with the bed-chamber, and they +shut upon her. + +Once turned, once changed in her inflexible unyielding look, he felt +that he could cope with her. He thought a sudden terror, occasioned +by this night-alarm, had subdued her; not the less readily, for her +overwrought condition. Throwing open the doors, he followed, almost +instantly. + +But the room was dark; and as she made no answer to his call, he +was fain to go back for the lamp. He held it up, and looked round, +everywhere, expecting to see her crouching in some corner; but the +room was empty. So, into the drawing-room and dining-room he went, +in succession, with the uncertain steps of a man in a strange place; +looking fearfully about, and prying behind screens and couches; but she +was not there. No, nor in the hall, which was so bare that he could see +that, at a glance. + +All this time, the ringing at the bell was constantly renewed, and those +without were beating at the door. He put his lamp down at a distance, +and going near it, listened. There were several voices talking together: +at least two of them in English; and though the door was thick, and +there was great confusion, he knew one of these too well to doubt whose +voice it was. + +He took up his lamp again, and came back quickly through all the rooms, +stopping as he quitted each, and looking round for her, with the light +raised above his head. He was standing thus in the bed-chamber, when the +door, leading to the little passage in the wall, caught his eye. He went +to it, and found it fastened on the other side; but she had dropped a +veil in going through, and shut it in the door. + +All this time the people on the stairs were ringing at the bell, and +knocking with their hands and feet. + +He was not a coward: but these sounds; what had gone before; the +strangeness of the place, which had confused him, even in his return +from the hall; the frustration of his schemes (for, strange to say, he +would have been much bolder, if they had succeeded); the unseasonable +time; the recollection of having no one near to whom he could appeal for +any friendly office; above all, the sudden sense, which made even his +heart beat like lead, that the man whose confidence he had outraged, +and whom he had so treacherously deceived, was there to recognise and +challenge him with his mask plucked off his face; struck a panic through +him. He tried the door in which the veil was shut, but couldn't force +it. He opened one of the windows, and looked down through the lattice of +the blind, into the court-yard; but it was a high leap, and the stones +were pitiless. + +The ringing and knocking still continuing--his panic too--he went back +to the door in the bed-chamber, and with some new efforts, each more +stubborn than the last, wrenched it open. Seeing the little staircase +not far off, and feeling the night-air coming up, he stole back for his +hat and coat, made the door as secure after hIm as he could, crept down +lamp in hand, extinguished it on seeing the street, and having put it in +a corner, went out where the stars were shining. + + + +CHAPTER 55. Rob the Grinder loses his Place + + +The Porter at the iron gate which shut the court-yard from the street, +had left the little wicket of his house open, and was gone away; no +doubt to mingle in the distant noise at the door of the great staircase. +Lifting the latch softly, Carker crept out, and shutting the jangling +gate after him with as little noise as possible, hurried off. + +In the fever of his mortification and unavailing rage, the panic that +had seized upon him mastered him completely. It rose to such a height +that he would have blindly encountered almost any risk, rather than +meet the man of whom, two hours ago, he had been utterly regardless. +His fierce arrival, which he had never expected; the sound of his voice; +their having been so near a meeting, face to face; he would have braved +out this, after the first momentary shock of alarm, and would have put +as bold a front upon his guilt as any villain. But the springing of his +mine upon himself, seemed to have rent and shivered all his hardihood +and self-reliance. Spurned like any reptile; entrapped and mocked; +turned upon, and trodden down by the proud woman whose mind he had +slowly poisoned, as he thought, until she had sunk into the mere +creature of his pleasure; undeceived in his deceit, and with his fox's +hide stripped off, he sneaked away, abashed, degraded, and afraid. + +Some other terror came upon hIm quite removed from this of being +pursued, suddenly, like an electric shock, as he was creeping through +the streets Some visionary terror, unintelligible and inexplicable, +associated with a trembling of the ground,--a rush and sweep of +something through the air, like Death upon the wing. He shrunk, as if to +let the thing go by. It was not gone, it never had been there, yet what +a startling horror it had left behind. + +He raised his wicked face so full of trouble, to the night sky, where +the stars, so full of peace, were shining on him as they had been when +he first stole out into the air; and stopped to think what he should +do. The dread of being hunted in a strange remote place, where the laws +might not protect him--the novelty of the feeling that it was strange +and remote, originating in his being left alone so suddenly amid the +ruins of his plans--his greater dread of seeking refuge now, in Italy or +in Sicily, where men might be hired to assassinate him, he thought, at +any dark street corner--the waywardness of guilt and fear--perhaps some +sympathy of action with the turning back of all his schemes--impelled +him to turn back too, and go to England. + +'I am safer there, in any case. If I should not decide,' he thought, +'to give this fool a meeting, I am less likely to be traced there, than +abroad here, now. And if I should (this cursed fit being over), at least +I shall not be alone, without a soul to speak to, or advise with, or +stand by me. I shall not be run in upon and worried like a rat.' + +He muttered Edith's name, and clenched his hand. As he crept along, +in the shadow of the massive buildings, he set his teeth, and muttered +dreadful imprecations on her head, and looked from side to side, as +if in search of her. Thus, he stole on to the gate of an inn-yard. The +people were a-bed; but his ringing at the bell soon produced a man with +a lantern, in company with whom he was presently in a dim coach-house, +bargaining for the hire of an old phaeton, to Paris. + +The bargain was a short one; and the horses were soon sent for. Leaving +word that the carriage was to follow him when they came, he stole away +again, beyond the town, past the old ramparts, out on the open road, +which seemed to glide away along the dark plain, like a stream. + +Whither did it flow? What was the end of it? As he paused, with some +such suggestion within him, looking over the gloomy flat where the +slender trees marked out the way, again that flight of Death came +rushing up, again went on, impetuous and resistless, again was nothing +but a horror in his mind, dark as the scene and undefined as its +remotest verge. + +There was no wind; there was no passing shadow on the deep shade of the +night; there was no noise. The city lay behind hIm, lighted here and +there, and starry worlds were hidden by the masonry of spire and +roof that hardly made out any shapes against the sky. Dark and lonely +distance lay around him everywhere, and the clocks were faintly striking +two. + +He went forward for what appeared a long time, and a long way; often +stopping to listen. At last the ringing of horses' bells greeted his +anxious ears. Now softer, and now louder, now inaudible, now ringing +very slowly over bad ground, now brisk and merry, it came on; until with +a loud shouting and lashing, a shadowy postillion muffled to the eyes, +checked his four struggling horses at his side. + +'Who goes there! Monsieur?' + +'Yes.' + +'Monsieur has walked a long way in the dark midnight.' + +'No matter. Everyone to his task. Were there any other horses ordered at +the Post-house?' + +'A thousand devils!--and pardons! other horses? at this hour? No.' + +'Listen, my friend. I am much hurried. Let us see how fast we can +travel! The faster, the more money there will be to drink. Off we go +then! Quick!' + +'Halloa! whoop! Halloa! Hi!' Away, at a gallop, over the black +landscape, scattering the dust and dirt like spray! + +The clatter and commotion echoed to the hurry and discordance of the +fugitive's ideas. Nothing clear without, and nothing clear within. +Objects flitting past, merging into one another, dimly descried, +confusedly lost sight of, gone! Beyond the changing scraps of fence and +cottage immediately upon the road, a lowering waste. Beyond the shifting +images that rose up in his mind and vanished as they showed themselves, +a black expanse of dread and rage and baffled villainy. Occasionally, a +sigh of mountain air came from the distant Jura, fading along the +plain. Sometimes that rush which was so furious and horrible, again +came sweeping through his fancy, passed away, and left a chill upon his +blood. + +The lamps, gleaming on the medley of horses' heads, jumbled with +the shadowy driver, and the fluttering of his cloak, made a thousand +indistinct shapes, answering to his thoughts. Shadows of familiar +people, stooping at their desks and books, in their remembered +attitudes; strange apparitions of the man whom he was flying from, or +of Edith; repetitions in the ringing bells and rolling wheels, of words +that had been spoken; confusions of time and place, making last night +a month ago, a month ago last night--home now distant beyond hope, now +instantly accessible; commotion, discord, hurry, darkness, and confusion +in his mind, and all around him.--Hallo! Hi! away at a gallop over the +black landscape; dust and dirt flying like spray, the smoking horses +snorting and plunging as if each of them were ridden by a demon, away in +a frantic triumph on the dark road--whither? + +Again the nameless shock comes speeding up, and as it passes, the bells +ring in his ears 'whither?' The wheels roar in his ears 'whither?' All +the noise and rattle shapes itself into that cry. The lights and shadows +dance upon the horses' heads like imps. No stopping now: no slackening! +On, on! Away with him upon the dark road wildly! + +He could not think to any purpose. He could not separate one subject of +reflection from another, sufficiently to dwell upon it, by itself, for +a minute at a time. The crash of his project for the gaining of a +voluptuous compensation for past restraint; the overthrow of his +treachery to one who had been true and generous to him, but whose least +proud word and look he had treasured up, at interest, for years--for +false and subtle men will always secretly despise and dislike the object +upon which they fawn and always resent the payment and receipt of homage +that they know to be worthless; these were the themes uppermost in his +mind. A lurking rage against the woman who had so entrapped him and +avenged herself was always there; crude and misshapen schemes of +retaliation upon her, floated in his brain; but nothing was distinct. A +hurry and contradiction pervaded all his thoughts. Even while he was so +busy with this fevered, ineffectual thinking, his one constant idea was, +that he would postpone reflection until some indefinite time. + +Then, the old days before the second marriage rose up in his +remembrance. He thought how jealous he had been of the boy, how jealous +he had been of the girl, how artfully he had kept intruders at a +distance, and drawn a circle round his dupe that none but himself should +cross; and then he thought, had he done all this to be flying now, like +a scared thief, from only the poor dupe? + +He could have laid hands upon himself for his cowardice, but it was the +very shadow of his defeat, and could not be separated from it. To have +his confidence in his own knavery so shattered at a blow--to be within +his own knowledge such a miserable tool--was like being paralysed. With +an impotent ferocity he raged at Edith, and hated Mr Dombey and hated +himself, but still he fled, and could do nothing else. + +Again and again he listened for the sound of wheels behind. Again and +again his fancy heard it, coming on louder and louder. At last he was so +persuaded of this, that he cried out, 'Stop' preferring even the loss of +ground to such uncertainty. + +The word soon brought carriage, horses, driver, all in a heap together, +across the road. + +'The devil!' cried the driver, looking over his shoulder, 'what's the +matter?' + +'Hark! What's that?' + +'What?' + +'That noise?' + +'Ah Heaven, be quiet, cursed brigand!' to a horse who shook his bells +'What noise?' + +'Behind. Is it not another carriage at a gallop? There! what's that?' + +'Miscreant with a Pig's head, stand still!' to another horse, who bit +another, who frightened the other two, who plunged and backed. 'There is +nothing coming.' + +'Nothing.' + +'No, nothing but the day yonder.' + +'You are right, I think. I hear nothing now, indeed. Go on!' + +The entangled equipage, half hidden in the reeking cloud from the +horses, goes on slowly at first, for the driver, checked unnecessarily +in his progress, sulkily takes out a pocket-knife, and puts a new lash +to his whip. Then 'Hallo, whoop! Hallo, hi!' Away once more, savagely. + +And now the stars faded, and the day glimmered, and standing in the +carriage, looking back, he could discern the track by which he had +come, and see that there was no traveller within view, on all the +heavy expanse. And soon it was broad day, and the sun began to shine +on cornfields and vineyards; and solitary labourers, risen from little +temporary huts by heaps of stones upon the road, were, here and there, +at work repairing the highway, or eating bread. By and by, there were +peasants going to their daily labour, or to market, or lounging at the +doors of poor cottages, gazing idly at him as he passed. And then there +was a postyard, ankle-deep in mud, with steaming dunghills and vast +outhouses half ruined; and looking on this dainty prospect, an immense, +old, shadeless, glaring, stone chateau, with half its windows blinded, +and green damp crawling lazily over it, from the balustraded terrace to +the taper tips of the extinguishers upon the turrets. + +Gathered up moodily in a corner of the carriage, and only intent on +going fast--except when he stood up, for a mile together, and looked +back; which he would do whenever there was a piece of open country--he +went on, still postponing thought indefinitely, and still always +tormented with thinking to no purpose. + +Shame, disappointment, and discomfiture gnawed at his heart; a constant +apprehension of being overtaken, or met--for he was groundlessly +afraid even of travellers, who came towards him by the way he was +going--oppressed him heavily. The same intolerable awe and dread that +had come upon him in the night, returned unweakened in the day. The +monotonous ringing of the bells and tramping of the horses; the monotony +of his anxiety, and useless rage; the monotonous wheel of fear, regret, +and passion, he kept turning round and round; made the journey like a +vision, in which nothing was quite real but his own torment. + +It was a vision of long roads, that stretched away to an horizon, always +receding and never gained; of ill-paved towns, up hill and down, where +faces came to dark doors and ill-glazed windows, and where rows of +mudbespattered cows and oxen were tied up for sale in the long narrow +streets, butting and lowing, and receiving blows on their blunt heads +from bludgeons that might have beaten them in; of bridges, crosses, +churches, postyards, new horses being put in against their wills, and +the horses of the last stage reeking, panting, and laying their drooping +heads together dolefully at stable doors; of little cemeteries with +black crosses settled sideways in the graves, and withered wreaths upon +them dropping away; again of long, long roads, dragging themselves out, +up hill and down, to the treacherous horizon. + +Of morning, noon, and sunset; night, and the rising of an early moon. +Of long roads temporarily left behind, and a rough pavement reached; of +battering and clattering over it, and looking up, among house-roofs, at +a great church-tower; of getting out and eating hastily, and drinking +draughts of wine that had no cheering influence; of coming forth afoot, +among a host of beggars--blind men with quivering eyelids, led by +old women holding candles to their faces; idiot girls; the lame, the +epileptic, and the palsied--of passing through the clamour, and looking +from his seat at the upturned countenances and outstretched hands, +with a hurried dread of recognising some pursuer pressing forward--of +galloping away again, upon the long, long road, gathered up, dull and +stunned, in his corner, or rising to see where the moon shone faintly on +a patch of the same endless road miles away, or looking back to see who +followed. + +Of never sleeping, but sometimes dozing with unclosed eyes, and +springing up with a start, and a reply aloud to an imaginary voice. Of +cursing himself for being there, for having fled, for having let her +go, for not having confronted and defied him. Of having a deadly quarrel +with the whole world, but chiefly with himself. Of blighting everything +with his black mood as he was carried on and away. + +It was a fevered vision of things past and present all confounded +together; of his life and journey blended into one. Of being madly +hurried somewhere, whither he must go. Of old scenes starting up among +the novelties through which he travelled. Of musing and brooding over +what was past and distant, and seeming to take no notice of the actual +objects he encountered, but with a wearisome exhausting consciousness of +being bewildered by them, and having their images all crowded in his hot +brain after they were gone. + +A vision of change upon change, and still the same monotony of bells and +wheels, and horses' feet, and no rest. Of town and country, postyards, +horses, drivers, hill and valley, light and darkness, road and pavement, +height and hollow, wet weather and dry, and still the same monotony of +bells and wheels, and horses' feet, and no rest. A vision of tending +on at last, towards the distant capital, by busier roads, and sweeping +round, by old cathedrals, and dashing through small towns and villages, +less thinly scattered on the road than formerly, and sitting shrouded in +his corner, with his cloak up to his face, as people passing by looked +at him. + +Of rolling on and on, always postponing thought, and always racked with +thinking; of being unable to reckon up the hours he had been upon the +road, or to comprehend the points of time and place in his journey. Of +being parched and giddy, and half mad. Of pressing on, in spite of all, +as if he could not stop, and coming into Paris, where the turbid river +held its swift course undisturbed, between two brawling streams of life +and motion. + +A troubled vision, then, of bridges, quays, interminable streets; of +wine-shops, water-carriers, great crowds of people, soldiers, coaches, +military drums, arcades. Of the monotony of bells and wheels and horses' +feet being at length lost in the universal din and uproar. Of the +gradual subsidence of that noise as he passed out in another carriage +by a different barrier from that by which he had entered. Of the +restoration, as he travelled on towards the seacoast, of the monotony of +bells and wheels, and horses' feet, and no rest. + +Of sunset once again, and nightfall. Of long roads again, and dead of +night, and feeble lights in windows by the roadside; and still the old +monotony of bells and wheels, and horses' feet, and no rest. Of dawn, +and daybreak, and the rising of the sun. Of tolling slowly up a hill, +and feeling on its top the fresh sea-breeze; and seeing the morning +light upon the edges of the distant waves. Of coming down into a harbour +when the tide was at its full, and seeing fishing-boats float on, and +glad women and children waiting for them. Of nets and seamen's clothes +spread out to dry upon the shore; of busy sailors, and their voices high +among ships' masts and rigging; of the buoyancy and brightness of the +water, and the universal sparkling. + +Of receding from the coast, and looking back upon it from the deck when +it was a haze upon the water, with here and there a little opening of +bright land where the Sun struck. Of the swell, and flash, and murmur of +the calm sea. Of another grey line on the ocean, on the vessel's +track, fast growing clearer and higher. Of cliffs and buildings, and +a windmill, and a church, becoming more and more visible upon it. Of +steaming on at last into smooth water, and mooring to a pier +whence groups of people looked down, greeting friends on board. Of +disembarking, passing among them quickly, shunning every one; and of +being at last again in England. + +He had thought, in his dream, of going down into a remote country-place +he knew, and lying quiet there, while he secretly informed himself of +what transpired, and determined how to act, Still in the same stunned +condition, he remembered a certain station on the railway, where he +would have to branch off to his place of destination, and where there +was a quiet Inn. Here, he indistinctly resolved to tarry and rest. + +With this purpose he slunk into a railway carriage as quickly as he +could, and lying there wrapped in his cloak as if he were asleep, +was soon borne far away from the sea, and deep into the inland green. +Arrived at his destination he looked out, and surveyed it carefully. He +was not mistaken in his impression of the place. It was a retired spot, +on the borders of a little wood. Only one house, newly-built or altered +for the purpose, stood there, surrounded by its neat garden; the small +town that was nearest, was some miles away. Here he alighted then; and +going straight into the tavern, unobserved by anyone, secured two rooms +upstairs communicating with each other, and sufficiently retired. + +His object was to rest, and recover the command of himself, and the +balance of his mind. Imbecile discomfiture and rage--so that, as he +walked about his room, he ground his teeth--had complete possession of +him. His thoughts, not to be stopped or directed, still wandered where +they would, and dragged him after them. He was stupefied, and he was +wearied to death. + +But, as if there were a curse upon him that he should never rest again, +his drowsy senses would not lose their consciousness. He had no more +influence with them, in this regard, than if they had been another +man's. It was not that they forced him to take note of present sounds +and objects, but that they would not be diverted from the whole hurried +vision of his journey. It was constantly before him all at once. She +stood there, with her dark disdainful eyes again upon him; and he was +riding on nevertheless, through town and country, light and darkness, +wet weather and dry, over road and pavement, hill and valley, height +and hollow, jaded and scared by the monotony of bells and wheels, and +horses' feet, and no rest. + +'What day is this?' he asked of the waiter, who was making preparations +for his dinner. + +'Day, Sir?' + +'Is it Wednesday?' + +'Wednesday, Sir? No, Sir. Thursday, Sir.' + +'I forgot. How goes the time? My watch is unwound.' + +'Wants a few minutes of five o'clock, Sir. Been travelling a long time, +Sir, perhaps?' + +'Yes' + +'By rail, Sir?' + +'Yes' + +'Very confusing, Sir. Not much in the habit of travelling by rail +myself, Sir, but gentlemen frequently say so.' + +'Do many gentlemen come here? + +'Pretty well, Sir, in general. Nobody here at present. Rather slack just +now, Sir. Everything is slack, Sir.' + +He made no answer; but had risen into a sitting posture on the sofa +where he had been lying, and leaned forward with an arm on each knee, +staring at the ground. He could not master his own attention for a +minute together. It rushed away where it would, but it never, for an +instant, lost itself in sleep. + +He drank a quantity of wine after dinner, in vain. No such artificial +means would bring sleep to his eyes. His thoughts, more incoherent, +dragged him more unmercifully after them--as if a wretch, condemned to +such expiation, were drawn at the heels of wild horses. No oblivion, and +no rest. + +How long he sat, drinking and brooding, and being dragged in imagination +hither and thither, no one could have told less correctly than he. But +he knew that he had been sitting a long time by candle-light, when he +started up and listened, in a sudden terror. + +For now, indeed, it was no fancy. The ground shook, the house rattled, +the fierce impetuous rush was in the air! He felt it come up, and go +darting by; and even when he had hurried to the window, and saw what it +was, he stood, shrinking from it, as if it were not safe to look. + +A curse upon the fiery devil, thundering along so smoothly, tracked +through the distant valley by a glare of light and lurid smoke, and +gone! He felt as if he had been plucked out of its path, and saved from +being torn asunder. It made him shrink and shudder even now, when its +faintest hum was hushed, and when the lines of iron road he could trace +in the moonlight, running to a point, were as empty and as silent as a +desert. + +Unable to rest, and irresistibly attracted--or he thought so--to this +road, he went out, and lounged on the brink of it, marking the way the +train had gone, by the yet smoking cinders that were lying in its +track. After a lounge of some half hour in the direction by which it had +disappeared, he turned and walked the other way--still keeping to the +brink of the road--past the inn garden, and a long way down; looking +curiously at the bridges, signals, lamps, and wondering when another +Devil would come by. + +A trembling of the ground, and quick vibration in his ears; a distant +shriek; a dull light advancing, quickly changed to two red eyes, and +a fierce fire, dropping glowing coals; an irresistible bearing on of a +great roaring and dilating mass; a high wind, and a rattle--another come +and gone, and he holding to a gate, as if to save himself! + +He waited for another, and for another. He walked back to his former +point, and back again to that, and still, through the wearisome vision +of his journey, looked for these approaching monsters. He loitered about +the station, waiting until one should stay to call there; and when one +did, and was detached for water, he stood parallel with it, watching its +heavy wheels and brazen front, and thinking what a cruel power and might +it had. Ugh! To see the great wheels slowly turning, and to think of +being run down and crushed! + +Disordered with wine and want of rest--that want which nothing, although +he was so weary, would appease--these ideas and objects assumed a +diseased importance in his thoughts. When he went back to his room, +which was not until near midnight, they still haunted him, and he sat +listening for the coming of another. + +So in his bed, whither he repaired with no hope of sleep. He still lay +listening; and when he felt the trembling and vibration, got up and went +to the window, to watch (as he could from its position) the dull light +changing to the two red eyes, and the fierce fire dropping glowing +coals, and the rush of the giant as it fled past, and the track of glare +and smoke along the valley. Then he would glance in the direction by +which he intended to depart at sunrise, as there was no rest for him +there; and would lie down again, to be troubled by the vision of his +journey, and the old monotony of bells and wheels and horses' feet, +until another came. This lasted all night. So far from resuming the +mastery of himself, he seemed, if possible, to lose it more and more, as +the night crept on. When the dawn appeared, he was still tormented with +thinking, still postponing thought until he should be in a better state; +the past, present, and future all floated confusedly before him, and he +had lost all power of looking steadily at any one of them. + +'At what time,' he asked the man who had waited on hIm over-night, now +entering with a candle, 'do I leave here, did you say?' + +'About a quarter after four, Sir. Express comes through at four, +Sir.--It don't stop.' + +He passed his hand across his throbbing head, and looked at his watch. +Nearly half-past three. + +'Nobody going with you, Sir, probably,' observed the man. 'Two gentlemen +here, Sir, but they're waiting for the train to London.' + +'I thought you said there was nobody here,' said Carker, turning upon +him with the ghost of his old smile, when he was angry or suspicious. + +'Not then, sir. Two gentlemen came in the night by the short train that +stops here, Sir. Warm water, Sir?' + +'No; and take away the candle. There's day enough for me.' + +Having thrown himself upon the bed, half-dressed he was at the window as +the man left the room. The cold light of morning had succeeded to night +and there was already, in the sky, the red suffusion of the coming sun. +He bathed his head and face with water--there was no cooling influence +in it for him--hurriedly put on his clothes, paid what he owed, and went +out. + +The air struck chill and comfortless as it breathed upon him. There was +a heavy dew; and, hot as he was, it made him shiver. After a glance +at the place where he had walked last night, and at the signal-lights +burning in the morning, and bereft of their significance, he turned to +where the sun was rising, and beheld it, in its glory, as it broke upon +the scene. + +So awful, so transcendent in its beauty, so divinely solemn. As he cast +his faded eyes upon it, where it rose, tranquil and serene, unmoved +by all the wrong and wickedness on which its beams had shone since the +beginning of the world, who shall say that some weak sense of virtue +upon Earth, and its in Heaven, did not manifest itself, even to him? +If ever he remembered sister or brother with a touch of tenderness and +remorse, who shall say it was not then? + +He needed some such touch then. Death was on him. He was marked off--the +living world, and going down into his grave. + +He paid the money for his journey to the country-place he had thought +of; and was walking to and fro, alone, looking along the lines of iron, +across the valley in one direction, and towards a dark bridge near at +hand in the other; when, turning in his walk, where it was bounded by +one end of the wooden stage on which he paced up and down, he saw the +man from whom he had fled, emerging from the door by which he himself +had entered. And their eyes met. + +In the quick unsteadiness of the surprise, he staggered, and slipped on +to the road below him. But recovering his feet immediately, he stepped +back a pace or two upon that road, to interpose some wider space between +them, and looked at his pursuer, breathing short and quick. + +He heard a shout--another--saw the face change from its vindictive +passion to a faint sickness and terror--felt the earth tremble--knew in +a moment that the rush was come--uttered a shriek--looked round--saw the +red eyes, bleared and dim, in the daylight, close upon him--was beaten +down, caught up, and whirled away upon a jagged mill, that spun him +round and round, and struck him limb from limb, and licked his stream +of life up with its fiery heat, and cast his mutilated fragments in the +air. + +When the traveller, who had been recognised, recovered from a swoon, he +saw them bringing from a distance something covered, that lay heavy and +still, upon a board, between four men, and saw that others drove some +dogs away that sniffed upon the road, and soaked his blood up, with a +train of ashes. + + + +CHAPTER 56. Several People delighted, and the Game Chicken disgusted + + +The Midshipman was all alive. Mr Toots and Susan had arrived at last. +Susan had run upstairs like a young woman bereft of her senses, and Mr +Toots and the Chicken had gone into the Parlour. + +'Oh my own pretty darling sweet Miss Floy!' cried the Nipper, running +into Florence's room, 'to think that it should come to this and I should +find you here my own dear dove with nobody to wait upon you and no home +to call your own but never never will I go away again Miss Floy for +though I may not gather moss I'm not a rolling stone nor is my heart a +stone or else it wouldn't bust as it is busting now oh dear oh dear!' + +Pouring out these words, without the faintest indication of a stop, +of any sort, Miss Nipper, on her knees beside her mistress, hugged her +close. + +'Oh love!' cried Susan, 'I know all that's past I know it all my tender +pet and I'm a choking give me air!' + +'Susan, dear good Susan!' said Florence. + +'Oh bless her! I that was her little maid when she was a little child! +and is she really, really truly going to be married?' exclaimed Susan, +in a burst of pain and pleasure, pride and grief, and Heaven knows how +many other conflicting feelings. + +'Who told you so?' said Florence. + +'Oh gracious me! that innocentest creetur Toots,' returned Susan +hysterically. 'I knew he must be right my dear, because he took on so. +He's the devotedest and innocentest infant! And is my darling,' pursued +Susan, with another close embrace and burst of tears, 'really really +going to be married!' + +The mixture of compassion, pleasure, tenderness, protection, and regret +with which the Nipper constantly recurred to this subject, and at every +such once, raised her head to look in the young face and kiss it, and +then laid her head again upon her mistress's shoulder, caressing her and +sobbing, was as womanly and good a thing, in its way, as ever was seen +in the world. + +'There, there!' said the soothing voice of Florence presently. 'Now +you're quite yourself, dear Susan!' + +Miss Nipper, sitting down upon the floor, at her mistress's feet, +laughing and sobbing, holding her pocket-handkerchief to her eyes with +one hand, and patting Diogenes with the other as he licked her face, +confessed to being more composed, and laughed and cried a little more in +proof of it. + +'I-I-I never did see such a creetur as that Toots,' said Susan, 'in all +my born days never!' + +'So kind,' suggested Florence. + +'And so comic!' Susan sobbed. 'The way he's been going on inside with me +with that disrespectable Chicken on the box!' + +'About what, Susan?' inquired Florence, timidly. + +'Oh about Lieutenant Walters, and Captain Gills, and you my dear Miss +Floy, and the silent tomb,' said Susan. + +'The silent tomb!' repeated Florence. + +'He says,' here Susan burst into a violent hysterical laugh, 'that he'll +go down into it now immediately and quite comfortable, but bless your +heart my dear Miss Floy he won't, he's a great deal too happy in seeing +other people happy for that, he may not be a Solomon,' pursued the +Nipper, with her usual volubility, 'nor do I say he is but this I do +say a less selfish human creature human nature never knew!' + +Miss Nipper being still hysterical, laughed immoderately after making +this energetic declaration, and then informed Florence that he was +waiting below to see her; which would be a rich repayment for the +trouble he had had in his late expedition. + +Florence entreated Susan to beg of Mr Toots as a favour that she might +have the pleasure of thanking him for his kindness; and Susan, in a few +moments, produced that young gentleman, still very much dishevelled in +appearance, and stammering exceedingly. + +'Miss Dombey,' said Mr Toots. 'To be again permitted to--to--gaze--at +least, not to gaze, but--I don't exactly know what I was going to say, +but it's of no consequence.' + +'I have to thank you so often,' returned Florence, giving him both her +hands, with all her innocent gratitude beaming in her face, 'that I have +no words left, and don't know how to do it.' + +'Miss Dombey,' said Mr Toots, in an awful voice, 'if it was possible +that you could, consistently with your angelic nature, Curse me, you +would--if I may be allowed to say so--floor me infinitely less, than by +these undeserved expressions of kindness Their effect upon me--is--but,' +said Mr Toots, abruptly, 'this is a digression, and of no consequence at +all.' + +As there seemed to be no means of replying to this, but by thanking him +again, Florence thanked him again. + +'I could wish,' said Mr Toots, 'to take this opportunity, Miss Dombey, +if I might, of entering into a word of explanation. I should have had +the pleasure of--of returning with Susan at an earlier period; but, in +the first place, we didn't know the name of the relation to whose house +she had gone, and, in the second, as she had left that relation's and +gone to another at a distance, I think that scarcely anything short of +the sagacity of the Chicken, would have found her out in the time.' + +Florence was sure of it. + +'This, however,' said Mr Toots, 'is not the point. The company of Susan +has been, I assure you, Miss Dombey, a consolation and satisfaction +to me, in my state of mind, more easily conceived than described. The +journey has been its own reward. That, however, still, is not the +point. Miss Dombey, I have before observed that I know I am not what is +considered a quick person. I am perfectly aware of that. I don't think +anybody could be better acquainted with his own--if it was not too +strong an expression, I should say with the thickness of his own +head--than myself. But, Miss Dombey, I do, notwithstanding, perceive the +state of--of things--with Lieutenant Walters. Whatever agony that state +of things may have caused me (which is of no consequence at all), I +am bound to say, that Lieutenant Walters is a person who appears to be +worthy of the blessing that has fallen on his--on his brow. May he +wear it long, and appreciate it, as a very different, and very unworthy +individual, that it is of no consequence to name, would have done! That, +however, still, is not the point. Miss Dombey, Captain Gills is a friend +of mine; and during the interval that is now elapsing, I believe it +would afford Captain Gills pleasure to see me occasionally coming +backwards and forwards here. It would afford me pleasure so to come. But +I cannot forget that I once committed myself, fatally, at the corner of +the Square at Brighton; and if my presence will be, in the least degree, +unpleasant to you, I only ask you to name it to me now, and assure you +that I shall perfectly understand you. I shall not consider it at all +unkind, and shall only be too delighted and happy to be honoured with +your confidence.' + +'Mr Toots,' returned Florence, 'if you, who are so old and true a friend +of mine, were to stay away from this house now, you would make me very +unhappy. It can never, never, give me any feeling but pleasure to see +you. + +'Miss Dombey,' said Mr Toots, taking out his pocket-handkerchief, 'if I +shed a tear, it is a tear of joy. It is of no consequence, and I am very +much obliged to you. I may be allowed to remark, after what you have +so kindly said, that it is not my intention to neglect my person any +longer.' + +Florence received this intimation with the prettiest expression of +perplexity possible. + +'I mean,' said Mr Toots, 'that I shall consider it my duty as a +fellow-creature generally, until I am claimed by the silent tomb, to +make the best of myself, and to--to have my boots as brightly polished, +as--as--circumstances will admit of. This is the last time, Miss Dombey, +of my intruding any observation of a private and personal nature. I +thank you very much indeed. If I am not, in a general way, as sensible +as my friends could wish me to be, or as I could wish myself, I +really am, upon my word and honour, particularly sensible of what is +considerate and kind. I feel,' said Mr Toots, in an impassioned tone, +'as if I could express my feelings, at the present moment, in a most +remarkable manner, if--if--I could only get a start.' + +Appearing not to get it, after waiting a minute or two to see if it +would come, Mr Toots took a hasty leave, and went below to seek the +Captain, whom he found in the shop. + +'Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'what is now to take place between +us, takes place under the sacred seal of confidence. It is the sequel, +Captain Gills, of what has taken place between myself and Miss Dombey, +upstairs.' + +'Alow and aloft, eh, my lad?' murmured the Captain. + +'Exactly so, Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, whose fervour of +acquiescence was greatly heightened by his entire ignorance of the +Captain's meaning. 'Miss Dombey, I believe, Captain Gills, is to be +shortly united to Lieutenant Walters?' + +'Why, ay, my lad. We're all shipmets here,--Wal'r and sweet--heart will +be jined together in the house of bondage, as soon as the askings is +over,' whispered Captain Cuttle, in his ear. + +'The askings, Captain Gills!' repeated Mr Toots. + +'In the church, down yonder,' said the Captain, pointing his thumb over +his shoulder. + +'Oh! Yes!' returned Mr Toots. + +'And then,' said the Captain, in his hoarse whisper, and tapping Mr +Toots on the chest with the back of his hand, and falling from him with +a look of infinite admiration, 'what follers? That there pretty creetur, +as delicately brought up as a foreign bird, goes away upon the roaring +main with Wal'r on a woyage to China!' + +'Lord, Captain Gills!' said Mr Toots. + +'Ay!' nodded the Captain. 'The ship as took him up, when he was wrecked +in the hurricane that had drove her clean out of her course, was a +China trader, and Wal'r made the woyage, and got into favour, aboard +and ashore--being as smart and good a lad as ever stepped--and so, the +supercargo dying at Canton, he got made (having acted as clerk afore), +and now he's supercargo aboard another ship, same owners. And so, you +see,' repeated the Captain, thoughtfully, 'the pretty creetur goes away +upon the roaring main with Wal'r, on a woyage to China.' + +Mr Toots and Captain Cuttle heaved a sigh in concert. 'What then?' said +the Captain. 'She loves him true. He loves her true. Them as should have +loved and tended of her, treated of her like the beasts as perish. When +she, cast out of home, come here to me, and dropped upon them planks, +her wownded heart was broke. I know it. I, Ed'ard Cuttle, see it. +There's nowt but true, kind, steady love, as can ever piece it up again. +If so be I didn't know that, and didn't know as Wal'r was her true love, +brother, and she his, I'd have these here blue arms and legs chopped +off, afore I'd let her go. But I know it, and what then! Why, then, I +say, Heaven go with 'em both, and so it will! Amen!' + +'Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'let me have the pleasure of shaking +hands You've a way of saying things, that gives me an agreeable warmth, +all up my back. I say Amen. You are aware, Captain Gills, that I, too, +have adored Miss Dombey.' + +'Cheer up!' said the Captain, laying his hand on Mr Toots's shoulder. +'Stand by, boy!' + +'It is my intention, Captain Gills,' returned the spirited Mr Toots, +'to cheer up. Also to standby, as much as possible. When the silent tomb +shall yawn, Captain Gills, I shall be ready for burial; not before. But +not being certain, just at present, of my power over myself, what I wish +to say to you, and what I shall take it as a particular favour if you +will mention to Lieutenant Walters, is as follows.' + +'Is as follers,' echoed the Captain. 'Steady!' + +'Miss Dombey being so inexpressably kind,' continued Mr Toots with +watery eyes, 'as to say that my presence is the reverse of disagreeable +to her, and you and everybody here being no less forbearing and +tolerant towards one who--who certainly,' said Mr Toots, with momentary +dejection, 'would appear to have been born by mistake, I shall come +backwards and forwards of an evening, during the short time we can all +be together. But what I ask is this. If, at any moment, I find that +I cannot endure the contemplation of Lieutenant Walters's bliss, and +should rush out, I hope, Captain Gills, that you and he will both +consider it as my misfortune and not my fault, or the want of inward +conflict. That you'll feel convinced I bear no malice to any living +creature-least of all to Lieutenant Walters himself--and that you'll +casually remark that I have gone out for a walk, or probably to see what +o'clock it is by the Royal Exchange. Captain Gills, if you could enter +into this arrangement, and could answer for Lieutenant Walters, it would +be a relief to my feelings that I should think cheap at the sacrifice of +a considerable portion of my property.' + +'My lad,' returned the Captain, 'say no more. There ain't a colour you +can run up, as won't be made out, and answered to, by Wal'r and self.' + +'Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'my mind is greatly relieved. I wish to +preserve the good opinion of all here. I--I--mean well, upon my honour, +however badly I may show it. You know,' said Mr Toots, 'it's as exactly +as Burgess and Co. wished to oblige a customer with a most extraordinary +pair of trousers, and could not cut out what they had in their minds.' + +With this apposite illustration, of which he seemed a little Proud, Mr +Toots gave Captain Cuttle his blessing and departed. + +The honest Captain, with his Heart's Delight in the house, and Susan +tending her, was a beaming and a happy man. As the days flew by, he +grew more beaming and more happy, every day. After some conferences with +Susan (for whose wisdom the Captain had a profound respect, and whose +valiant precipitation of herself on Mrs MacStinger he could never +forget), he proposed to Florence that the daughter of the elderly lady +who usually sat under the blue umbrella in Leadenhall Market, should, +for prudential reasons and considerations of privacy, be superseded in +the temporary discharge of the household duties, by someone who was not +unknown to them, and in whom they could safely confide. Susan, being +present, then named, in furtherance of a suggestion she had previously +offered to the Captain, Mrs Richards. Florence brightened at the name. +And Susan, setting off that very afternoon to the Toodle domicile, to +sound Mrs Richards, returned in triumph the same evening, accompanied by +the identical rosy-cheeked apple-faced Polly, whose demonstrations, when +brought into Florence's presence, were hardly less affectionate than +those of Susan Nipper herself. + +This piece of generalship accomplished; from which the Captain derived +uncommon satisfaction, as he did, indeed, from everything else that was +done, whatever it happened to be; Florence had next to prepare Susan for +their approaching separation. This was a much more difficult task, as +Miss Nipper was of a resolute disposition, and had fully made up her +mind that she had come back never to be parted from her old mistress any +more. + +'As to wages dear Miss Floy,' she said, 'you wouldn't hint and wrong me +so as think of naming them, for I've put money by and wouldn't sell my +love and duty at a time like this even if the Savings' Banks and me were +total strangers or the Banks were broke to pieces, but you've never been +without me darling from the time your poor dear Ma was took away, and +though I'm nothing to be boasted of you're used to me and oh my own dear +mistress through so many years don't think of going anywhere without me, +for it mustn't and can't be!' + +'Dear Susan, I am going on a long, long voyage.' + +'Well Miss Floy, and what of that? the more you'll want me. Lengths of +voyages ain't an object in my eyes, thank God!' said the impetuous Susan +Nipper. + +'But, Susan, I am going with Walter, and I would go with Walter +anywhere--everywhere! Walter is poor, and I am very poor, and I must +learn, now, both to help myself, and help him.' + +'Dear Miss Floy!' cried Susan, bursting out afresh, and shaking her head +violently, 'it's nothing new to you to help yourself and others too +and be the patientest and truest of noble hearts, but let me talk to Mr +Walter Gay and settle it with him, for suffer you to go away across the +world alone I cannot, and I won't.' + +'Alone, Susan?' returned Florence. 'Alone? and Walter taking me with +him!' Ah, what a bright, amazed, enraptured smile was on her face!--He +should have seen it. 'I am sure you will not speak to Walter if I ask +you not,' she added tenderly; 'and pray don't, dear.' + +Susan sobbed 'Why not, Miss Floy?' + +'Because,' said Florence, 'I am going to be his wife, to give him up my +whole heart, and to live with him and die with him. He might think, if +you said to him what you have said to me, that I am afraid of what is +before me, or that you have some cause to be afraid for me. Why, Susan, +dear, I love him!' + +Miss Nipper was so much affected by the quiet fervour of these words, +and the simple, heartfelt, all-pervading earnestness expressed in them, +and making the speaker's face more beautiful and pure than ever, that +she could only cling to her again, crying. Was her little mistress +really, really going to be married, and pitying, caressing, and +protecting her, as she had done before. + +But the Nipper, though susceptible of womanly weaknesses, was almost as +capable of putting constraint upon herself as of attacking the +redoubtable MacStinger. From that time, she never returned to the +subject, but was always cheerful, active, bustling, and hopeful. She did, +indeed, inform Mr Toots privately, that she was only 'keeping up' for the +time, and that when it was all over, and Miss Dombey was gone, she might +be expected to become a spectacle distressful; and Mr Toots did also +express that it was his case too, and that they would mingle their tears +together; but she never otherwise indulged her private feelings in the +presence of Florence or within the precincts of the Midshipman. + +Limited and plain as Florence's wardrobe was--what a contrast to that +prepared for the last marriage in which she had taken part!--there was a +good deal to do in getting it ready, and Susan Nipper worked away at +her side, all day, with the concentrated zeal of fifty sempstresses. The +wonderful contributions Captain Cuttle would have made to this branch +of the outfit, if he had been permitted--as pink parasols, tinted +silk stockings, blue shoes, and other articles no less necessary on +shipboard--would occupy some space in the recital. He was induced, +however, by various fraudulent representations, to limit his +contributions to a work-box and dressing case, of each of which he +purchased the very largest specimen that could be got for money. For +ten days or a fortnight afterwards, he generally sat, during the +greater part of the day, gazing at these boxes; divided between extreme +admiration of them, and dejected misgivings that they were not gorgeous +enough, and frequently diving out into the street to purchase some +wild article that he deemed necessary to their completeness. But his +master-stroke was, the bearing of them both off, suddenly, one morning, +and getting the two words FLORENCE GAY engraved upon a brass heart +inlaid over the lid of each. After this, he smoked four pipes +successively in the little parlour by himself, and was discovered +chuckling, at the expiration of as many hours. + +Walter was busy and away all day, but came there every morning early +to see Florence, and always passed the evening with her. Florence never +left her high rooms but to steal downstairs to wait for him when it was +his time to come, or, sheltered by his proud, encircling arm, to bear +him company to the door again, and sometimes peep into the street. In +the twilight they were always together. Oh blessed time! Oh wandering +heart at rest! Oh deep, exhaustless, mighty well of love, in which so +much was sunk! + +The cruel mark was on her bosom yet. It rose against her father with the +breath she drew, it lay between her and her lover when he pressed her to +his heart. But she forgot it. In the beating of that heart for her, and +in the beating of her own for him, all harsher music was unheard, all +stern unloving hearts forgotten. Fragile and delicate she was, but with +a might of love within her that could, and did, create a world to fly +to, and to rest in, out of his one image. + +How often did the great house, and the old days, come before her in the +twilight time, when she was sheltered by the arm, so proud, so fond, +and, creeping closer to him, shrunk within it at the recollection! How +often, from remembering the night when she went down to that room and +met the never-to-be forgotten look, did she raise her eyes to those that +watched her with such loving earnestness, and weep with happiness in +such a refuge! The more she clung to it, the more the dear dead child +was in her thoughts: but as if the last time she had seen her father, +had been when he was sleeping and she kissed his face, she always left +him so, and never, in her fancy, passed that hour. + +'Walter, dear,' said Florence, one evening, when it was almost dark. 'Do +you know what I have been thinking to-day?' + +'Thinking how the time is flying on, and how soon we shall be upon the +sea, sweet Florence?' + +'I don't mean that, Walter, though I think of that too. I have been +thinking what a charge I am to you.' + +'A precious, sacred charge, dear heart! Why, I think that sometimes.' + +'You are laughing, Walter. I know that's much more in your thoughts than +mine. But I mean a cost. + +'A cost, my own?' + +'In money, dear. All these preparations that Susan and I are so busy +with--I have been able to purchase very little for myself. You were poor +before. But how much poorer I shall make you, Walter!' + +'And how much richer, Florence!' + +Florence laughed, and shook her head. + +'Besides,' said Walter, 'long ago--before I went to sea--I had a little +purse presented to me, dearest, which had money in it.' + +'Ah!' returned Florence, laughing sorrowfully, 'very little! very +little, Walter! But, you must not think,' and here she laid her light +hand on his shoulder, and looked into his face, 'that I regret to be +this burden on you. No, dear love, I am glad of it. I am happy in it. I +wouldn't have it otherwise for all the world!' + +'Nor I, indeed, dear Florence.' + +'Ay! but, Walter, you can never feel it as I do. I am so proud of you! +It makes my heart swell with such delight to know that those who speak +of you must say you married a poor disowned girl, who had taken shelter +here; who had no other home, no other friends; who had nothing--nothing! +Oh, Walter, if I could have brought you millions, I never could have +been so happy for your sake, as I am!' + +'And you, dear Florence? are you nothing?' he returned. + +'No, nothing, Walter. Nothing but your wife.' The light hand stole about +his neck, and the voice came nearer--nearer. 'I am nothing any more, +that is not you. I have no earthly hope any more, that is not you. I +have nothing dear to me any more, that is not you.' + +Oh! well might Mr Toots leave the little company that evening, and twice +go out to correct his watch by the Royal Exchange, and once to keep an +appointment with a banker which he suddenly remembered, and once to take +a little turn to Aldgate Pump and back! + +But before he went upon these expeditions, or indeed before he came, and +before lights were brought, Walter said: + +'Florence, love, the lading of our ship is nearly finished, and probably +on the very day of our marriage she will drop down the river. Shall we +go away that morning, and stay in Kent until we go on board at Gravesend +within a week?' + +'If you please, Walter. I shall be happy anywhere. But--' + +'Yes, my life?' + +'You know,' said Florence, 'that we shall have no marriage party, and +that nobody will distinguish us by our dress from other people. As we +leave the same day, will you--will you take me somewhere that morning, +Walter--early--before we go to church?' + +Walter seemed to understand her, as so true a lover so truly loved +should, and confirmed his ready promise with a kiss--with more than one +perhaps, or two or three, or five or six; and in the grave, peaceful +evening, Florence was very happy. + +Then into the quiet room came Susan Nipper and the candles; shortly +afterwards, the tea, the Captain, and the excursive Mr Toots, who, as +above mentioned, was frequently on the move afterwards, and passed but a +restless evening. This, however, was not his habit: for he generally got +on very well, by dint of playing at cribbage with the Captain under the +advice and guidance of Miss Nipper, and distracting his mind with +the calculations incidental to the game; which he found to be a very +effectual means of utterly confounding himself. + +The Captain's visage on these occasions presented one of the finest +examples of combination and succession of expression ever observed. His +instinctive delicacy and his chivalrous feeling towards Florence, +taught him that it was not a time for any boisterous jollity, or violent +display of satisfaction; floating reminiscences of Lovely Peg, on +the other hand, were constantly struggling for a vent, and urging the +Captain to commit himself by some irreparable demonstration. Anon, his +admiration of Florence and Walter--well-matched, truly, and full of +grace and interest in their youth, and love, and good looks, as they +sat apart--would take such complete possession of hIm, that he would lay +down his cards, and beam upon them, dabbing his head all over with his +pocket-handkerchief; until warned, perhaps, by the sudden rushing forth +of Mr Toots, that he had unconsciously been very instrumental, indeed, +in making that gentleman miserable. This reflection would make the +Captain profoundly melancholy, until the return of Mr Toots; when he +would fall to his cards again, with many side winks and nods, and polite +waves of his hook at Miss Nipper, importing that he wasn't going to do +so any more. The state that ensued on this, was, perhaps, his best; for +then, endeavouring to discharge all expression from his face, he would +sit staring round the room, with all these expressions conveyed into +it at once, and each wrestling with the other. Delighted admiration of +Florence and Walter always overthrew the rest, and remained victorious +and undisguised, unless Mr Toots made another rush into the air, and +then the Captain would sit, like a remorseful culprit, until he came +back again, occasionally calling upon himself, in a low reproachful +voice, to 'Stand by!' or growling some remonstrance to 'Ed'ard Cuttle, +my lad,' on the want of caution observable in his behaviour. + +One of Mr Toots's hardest trials, however, was of his own seeking. +On the approach of the Sunday which was to witness the last of those +askings in church of which the Captain had spoken, Mr Toots thus stated +his feelings to Susan Nipper. + +'Susan,' said Mr Toots, 'I am drawn towards the building. The words +which cut me off from Miss Dombey for ever, will strike upon my ears +like a knell you know, but upon my word and honour, I feel that I must +hear them. Therefore,' said Mr Toots, 'will you accompany me to-morrow, +to the sacred edifice?' + +Miss Nipper expressed her readiness to do so, if that would be any +satisfaction to Mr Toots, but besought him to abandon his idea of going. + +'Susan,' returned Mr Toots, with much solemnity, 'before my whiskers +began to be observed by anybody but myself, I adored Miss Dombey. While +yet a victim to the thraldom of Blimber, I adored Miss Dombey. When I +could no longer be kept out of my property, in a legal point of view, +and--and accordingly came into it--I adored Miss Dombey. The banns which +consign her to Lieutenant Walters, and me to--to Gloom, you know,' said +Mr Toots, after hesitating for a strong expression, 'may be dreadful, +will be dreadful; but I feel that I should wish to hear them spoken. I +feel that I should wish to know that the ground was certainly cut from +under me, and that I hadn't a hope to cherish, or a--or a leg, in short, +to--to go upon.' + +Susan Nipper could only commiserate Mr Toots's unfortunate condition, +and agree, under these circumstances, to accompany him; which she did +next morning. + +The church Walter had chosen for the purpose, was a mouldy old church +in a yard, hemmed in by a labyrinth of back streets and courts, with a +little burying-ground round it, and itself buried in a kind of vault, +formed by the neighbouring houses, and paved with echoing stones It was +a great dim, shabby pile, with high old oaken pews, among which about +a score of people lost themselves every Sunday; while the clergyman's +voice drowsily resounded through the emptiness, and the organ +rumbled and rolled as if the church had got the colic, for want of a +congregation to keep the wind and damp out. But so far was this city +church from languishing for the company of other churches, that spires +were clustered round it, as the masts of shipping cluster on the river. +It would have been hard to count them from its steeple-top, they were so +many. In almost every yard and blind-place near, there was a church. The +confusion of bells when Susan and Mr Toots betook themselves towards it +on the Sunday morning, was deafening. There were twenty churches close +together, clamouring for people to come in. + +The two stray sheep in question were penned by a beadle in a commodious +pew, and, being early, sat for some time counting the congregation, +listening to the disappointed bell high up in the tower, or looking at +a shabby little old man in the porch behind the screen, who was ringing +the same, like the Bull in Cock Robin, with his foot in a stirrup. Mr +Toots, after a lengthened survey of the large books on the reading-desk, +whispered Miss Nipper that he wondered where the banns were kept, but +that young lady merely shook her head and frowned; repelling for the +time all approaches of a temporal nature. + +Mr Toots, however, appearing unable to keep his thoughts from the banns, +was evidently looking out for them during the whole preliminary portion +of the service. As the time for reading them approached, the poor +young gentleman manifested great anxiety and trepidation, which was not +diminished by the unexpected apparition of the Captain in the front row +of the gallery. When the clerk handed up a list to the clergyman, Mr +Toots, being then seated, held on by the seat of the pew; but when the +names of Walter Gay and Florence Dombey were read aloud as being in the +third and last stage of that association, he was so entirley conquered +by his feelings as to rush from the church without his hat, followed by +the beadle and pew-opener, and two gentlemen of the medical profeesion, +who happened to be present; of whom the first-named presently returned +for that article, informing Miss Nipper in a whisper that she was not +to make herself uneasy about the gentleman, as the gentleman said his +indisposition was of no consequence. + +Miss Nipper, feeling that the eyes of that integral portion of Europe +which lost itself weekly among the high-backed pews, were upon her, +would have been sufficient embarrassed by this incident, though it had +terminated here; the more so, as the Captain in the front row of the +gallery, was in a state of unmitigated consciousness which could +hardly fail to express to the congregation that he had some mysterious +connection with it. But the extreme restlessness of Mr Toots painfully +increased and protracted the delicacy of her situation. That young +gentleman, incapable, in his state of mind, of remaining alone in the +churchyard, a prey to solitary meditation, and also desirous, no +doubt, of testifying his respect for the offices he had in some +measure interrupted, suddenly returned--not coming back to the pew, +but stationing himself on a free seat in the aisle, between two elderly +females who were in the habit of receiving their portion of a +weekly dole of bread then set forth on a shelf in the porch. In this +conjunction Mr Toots remained, greatly disturbing the congregation, who +felt it impossible to avoid looking at him, until his feelings overcame +him again, when he departed silently and suddenly. Not venturing to +trust himself in the church any more, and yet wishing to have some +social participation in what was going on there, Mr Toots was, after +this, seen from time to time, looking in, with a lorn aspect, at one or +other of the windows; and as there were several windows accessible to +him from without, and as his restlessness was very great, it not only +became difficult to conceive at which window he would appear next, but +likewise became necessary, as it were, for the whole congregation +to speculate upon the chances of the different windows, during the +comparative leisure afforded them by the sermon. Mr Toots's movements in +the churchyard were so eccentric, that he seemed generally to defeat +all calculation, and to appear, like the conjuror's figure, where he +was least expected; and the effect of these mysterious presentations +was much increased by its being difficult to him to see in, and easy to +everybody else to see out: which occasioned his remaining, every time, +longer than might have been expected, with his face close to the glass, +until he all at once became aware that all eyes were upon him, and +vanished. + +These proceedings on the part of Mr Toots, and the strong individual +consciousness of them that was exhibited by the Captain, rendered Miss +Nipper's position so responsible a one, that she was mightily relieved +by the conclusion of the service; and was hardly so affable to Mr Toots +as usual, when he informed her and the Captain, on the way back, that +now he was sure he had no hope, you know, he felt more comfortable--at +least not exactly more comfortable, but more comfortably and completely +miserable. + +Swiftly now, indeed, the time flew by until it was the evening before +the day appointed for the marriage. They were all assembled in the upper +room at the Midshipman's, and had no fear of interruption; for there +were no lodgers in the house now, and the Midshipman had it all to +himself. They were grave and quiet in the prospect of to-morrow, but +moderately cheerful too. Florence, with Walter close beside her, was +finishing a little piece of work intended as a parting gift to the +Captain. The Captain was playing cribbage with Mr Toots. Mr Toots was +taking counsel as to his hand, of Susan Nipper. Miss Nipper was giving +it, with all due secrecy and circumspection. Diogenes was listening, +and occasionally breaking out into a gruff half-smothered fragment of +a bark, of which he afterwards seemed half-ashamed, as if he doubted +having any reason for it. + +'Steady, steady!' said the Captain to Diogenes, 'what's amiss with you? +You don't seem easy in your mind to-night, my boy!' + +Diogenes wagged his tail, but pricked up his ears immediately +afterwards, and gave utterance to another fragment of a bark; for which +he apologised to the Captain, by again wagging his tail. + +'It's my opinion, Di,' said the Captain, looking thoughtfully at his +cards, and stroking his chin with his hook, 'as you have your doubts of +Mrs Richards; but if you're the animal I take you to be, you'll think +better o' that; for her looks is her commission. Now, Brother:' to Mr +Toots: 'if so be as you're ready, heave ahead.' + +The Captain spoke with all composure and attention to the game, but +suddenly his cards dropped out of his hand, his mouth and eyes opened +wide, his legs drew themselves up and stuck out in front of his chair, +and he sat staring at the door with blank amazement. Looking round upon +the company, and seeing that none of them observed him or the cause +of his astonishment, the Captain recovered himself with a great gasp, +struck the table a tremendous blow, cried in a stentorian roar, 'Sol +Gills ahoy!' and tumbled into the arms of a weather-beaten pea-coat that +had come with Polly into the room. + +In another moment, Walter was in the arms of the weather-beaten +pea-coat. In another moment, Florence was in the arms of the +weather-beaten pea-coat. In another moment, Captain Cuttle had embraced +Mrs Richards and Miss Nipper, and was violently shaking hands with Mr +Toots, exclaiming, as he waved his hook above his head, 'Hooroar, my +lad, hooroar!' To which Mr Toots, wholly at a loss to account for these +proceedings, replied with great politeness, 'Certainly, Captain Gills, +whatever you think proper!' + +The weather-beaten pea-coat, and a no less weather-beaten cap and +comforter belonging to it, turned from the Captain and from Florence +back to Walter, and sounds came from the weather-beaten pea-coat, cap, +and comforter, as of an old man sobbing underneath them; while the +shaggy sleeves clasped Walter tight. During this pause, there was +an universal silence, and the Captain polished his nose with great +diligence. But when the pea-coat, cap, and comforter lifted themselves +up again, Florence gently moved towards them; and she and Walter taking +them off, disclosed the old Instrument-maker, a little thinner and more +careworn than of old, in his old Welsh wig and his old coffee-coloured +coat and basket buttons, with his old infallible chronometer ticking +away in his pocket. + +'Chock full o' science,' said the radiant Captain, 'as ever he was! Sol +Gills, Sol Gills, what have you been up to, for this many a long day, my +ould boy?' + +'I'm half blind, Ned,' said the old man, 'and almost deaf and dumb with +joy.' + +'His wery woice,' said the Captain, looking round with an exultation +to which even his face could hardly render justice--'his wery woice as +chock full o' science as ever it was! Sol Gills, lay to, my lad, upon +your own wines and fig-trees like a taut ould patriark as you are, and +overhaul them there adwentures o' yourn, in your own formilior woice. +'Tis the woice,' said the Captain, impressively, and announcing a +quotation with his hook, 'of the sluggard, I heerd him complain, you +have woke me too soon, I must slumber again. Scatter his ene-mies, and +make 'em fall!' + +The Captain sat down with the air of a man who had happily expressed the +feeling of everybody present, and immediately rose again to present Mr +Toots, who was much disconcerted by the arrival of anybody, appearing to +prefer a claim to the name of Gills. + +'Although,' stammered Mr Toots, 'I had not the pleasure of your +acquaintance, Sir, before you were--you were--' + +'Lost to sight, to memory dear,' suggested the Captain, in a low voice. + +'Exactly so, Captain Gills!' assented Mr Toots. 'Although I had not the +pleasure of your acquaintance, Mr--Mr Sols,' said Toots, hitting on that +name in the inspiration of a bright idea, 'before that happened, I have +the greatest pleasure, I assure you, in--you know, in knowing you. I +hope,' said Mr Toots, 'that you're as well as can be expected.' + +With these courteous words, Mr Toots sat down blushing and chuckling. + +The old Instrument-maker, seated in a corner between Walter and +Florence, and nodding at Polly, who was looking on, all smiles and +delight, answered the Captain thus: + +'Ned Cuttle, my dear boy, although I have heard something of the changes +of events here, from my pleasant friend there--what a pleasant face she +has to be sure, to welcome a wanderer home!' said the old man, breaking +off, and rubbing his hands in his old dreamy way. + +'Hear him!' cried the Captain gravely. ''Tis woman as seduces all +mankind. For which,' aside to Mr Toots, 'you'll overhaul your Adam and +Eve, brother.' + +'I shall make a point of doing so, Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots. + +'Although I have heard something of the changes of events, from her,' +resumed the Instrument-maker, taking his old spectacles from his pocket, +and putting them on his forehead in his old manner, 'they are so great +and unexpected, and I am so overpowered by the sight of my dear boy, and +by the,'--glancing at the downcast eyes of Florence, and not attempting +to finish the sentence--'that I--I can't say much to-night. But my dear +Ned Cuttle, why didn't you write?' + +The astonishment depicted in the Captain's features positively +frightened Mr Toots, whose eyes were quite fixed by it, so that he could +not withdraw them from his face. + +'Write!' echoed the Captain. 'Write, Sol Gills?' + +'Ay,' said the old man, 'either to Barbados, or Jamaica, or Demerara, +That was what I asked.' + +'What you asked, Sol Gills?' repeated the Captain. + +'Ay,' said the old man. 'Don't you know, Ned? Sure you have not +forgotten? Every time I wrote to you.' + +The Captain took off his glazed hat, hung it on his hook, and smoothing +his hair from behind with his hand, sat gazing at the group around him: +a perfect image of wondering resignation. + +'You don't appear to understand me, Ned!' observed old Sol. + +'Sol Gills,' returned the Captain, after staring at him and the rest +for a long time, without speaking, 'I'm gone about and adrift. Pay out +a word or two respecting them adwenturs, will you! Can't I bring up, +nohows? Nohows?' said the Captain, ruminating, and staring all round. + +'You know, Ned,' said Sol Gills, 'why I left here. Did you open my +packet, Ned?' + +'Why, ay, ay,' said the Captain. 'To be sure, I opened the packet.' + +'And read it?' said the old man. + +'And read it,' answered the Captain, eyeing him attentively, and +proceeding to quote it from memory. '"My dear Ned Cuttle, when I left +home for the West Indies in forlorn search of intelligence of my dear-" +There he sits! There's Wal'r!' said the Captain, as if he were relieved +by getting hold of anything that was real and indisputable. + +'Well, Ned. Now attend a moment!' said the old man. 'When I wrote +first--that was from Barbados--I said that though you would receive that +letter long before the year was out, I should be glad if you would open +the packet, as it explained the reason of my going away. Very good, Ned. +When I wrote the second, third, and perhaps the fourth times--that was +from Jamaica--I said I was in just the same state, couldn't rest, and +couldn't come away from that part of the world, without knowing that +my boy was lost or saved. When I wrote next--that, I think, was from +Demerara, wasn't it?' + +'That he thinks was from Demerara, warn't it!' said the Captain, looking +hopelessly round. + +'--I said,' proceeded old Sol, 'that still there was no certain +information got yet. That I found many captains and others, in that part +of the world, who had known me for years, and who assisted me with a +passage here and there, and for whom I was able, now and then, to do a +little in return, in my own craft. That everyone was sorry for me, and +seemed to take a sort of interest in my wanderings; and that I began +to think it would be my fate to cruise about in search of tidings of my +boy, until I died.' + +'Began to think as how he was a scientific Flying Dutchman!' said the +Captain, as before, and with great seriousness. + +'But when the news come one day, Ned,--that was to Barbados, after I got +back there,--that a China trader home'ard bound had been spoke, that had +my boy aboard, then, Ned, I took passage in the next ship and came home; +arrived at home to-night to find it true, thank God!' said the old man, +devoutly. + +The Captain, after bowing his head with great reverence, stared +all round the circle, beginning with Mr Toots, and ending with the +Instrument-maker; then gravely said: + +'Sol Gills! The observation as I'm a-going to make is calc'lated to blow +every stitch of sail as you can carry, clean out of the bolt-ropes, and +bring you on your beam ends with a lurch. Not one of them letters was +ever delivered to Ed'ard Cuttle. Not one o' them letters,' repeated the +Captain, to make his declaration the more solemn and impressive, 'was +ever delivered unto Ed'ard Cuttle, Mariner, of England, as lives at home +at ease, and doth improve each shining hour!' + +'And posted by my own hand! And directed by my own hand, Number nine +Brig Place!' exclaimed old Sol. + +The colour all went out of the Captain's face and all came back again in +a glow. + +'What do you mean, Sol Gills, my friend, by Number nine Brig Place?' +inquired the Captain. + +'Mean? Your lodgings, Ned,' returned the old man. 'Mrs What's-her-name! +I shall forget my own name next, but I am behind the present time--I +always was, you recollect--and very much confused. Mrs--' + +'Sol Gills!' said the Captain, as if he were putting the most improbable +case in the world, 'it ain't the name of MacStinger as you're a trying +to remember?' + +'Of course it is!' exclaimed the Instrument-maker. 'To be sure Ned. Mrs +MacStinger!' + +Captain Cuttle, whose eyes were now as wide open as they would be, and +the knobs upon whose face were perfectly luminous, gave a long shrill +whistle of a most melancholy sound, and stood gazing at everybody in a +state of speechlessness. + +'Overhaul that there again, Sol Gills, will you be so kind?' he said at +last. + +'All these letters,' returned Uncle Sol, beating time with the +forefinger of his right hand upon the palm of his left, with a +steadiness and distinctness that might have done honour, even to the +infallible chronometer in his pocket, 'I posted with my own hand, and +directed with my own hand, to Captain Cuttle, at Mrs MacStinger's, +Number nine Brig Place.' + +The Captain took his glazed hat off his hook, looked into it, put it on, +and sat down. + +'Why, friends all,' said the Captain, staring round in the last state of +discomfiture, 'I cut and run from there!' + +'And no one knew where you were gone, Captain Cuttle?' cried Walter +hastily. + +'Bless your heart, Wal'r,' said the Captain, shaking his head, 'she'd +never have allowed o' my coming to take charge o' this here property. +Nothing could be done but cut and run. Lord love you, Wal'r!' said the +Captain, 'you've only seen her in a calm! But see her when her angry +passions rise--and make a note on!' + +'I'd give it her!' remarked the Nipper, softly. + +'Would you, do you think, my dear?' returned the Captain, with feeble +admiration. 'Well, my dear, it does you credit. But there ain't no wild +animal I wouldn't sooner face myself. I only got my chest away by means +of a friend as nobody's a match for. It was no good sending any letter +there. She wouldn't take in any letter, bless you,' said the Captain, +'under them circumstances! Why, you could hardly make it worth a man's +while to be the postman!' + +'Then it's pretty clear, Captain Cuttle, that all of us, and you and +Uncle Sol especially,' said Walter, 'may thank Mrs MacStinger for no +small anxiety.' + +The general obligation in this wise to the determined relict of the late +Mr MacStinger, was so apparent, that the Captain did not contest the +point; but being in some measure ashamed of his position, though nobody +dwelt upon the subject, and Walter especially avoided it, remembering +the last conversation he and the Captain had held together respecting +it, he remained under a cloud for nearly five minutes--an extraordinary +period for him when that sun, his face, broke out once more, shining on +all beholders with extraordinary brilliancy; and he fell into a fit of +shaking hands with everybody over and over again. + +At an early hour, but not before Uncle Sol and Walter had questioned +each other at some length about their voyages and dangers, they all, +except Walter, vacated Florence's room, and went down to the parlour. +Here they were soon afterwards joined by Walter, who told them Florence +was a little sorrowful and heavy-hearted, and had gone to bed. Though +they could not have disturbed her with their voices down there, they all +spoke in a whisper after this: and each, in his different way, felt +very lovingly and gently towards Walter's fair young bride: and a +long explanation there was of everything relating to her, for the +satisfaction of Uncle Sol; and very sensible Mr Toots was of the +delicacy with which Walter made his name and services important, and his +presence necessary to their little council. + +'Mr Toots,' said Walter, on parting with him at the house door, 'we +shall see each other to-morrow morning?' + +'Lieutenant Walters,' returned Mr Toots, grasping his hand fervently, 'I +shall certainly be present.' + +'This is the last night we shall meet for a long time--the last night we +may ever meet,' said Walter. 'Such a noble heart as yours, must feel, I +think, when another heart is bound to it. I hope you know that I am very +grateful to you?' + +'Walters,' replied Mr Toots, quite touched, 'I should be glad to feel +that you had reason to be so.' + +'Florence,' said Walter, 'on this last night of her bearing her own +name, has made me promise--it was only just now, when you left us +together--that I would tell you--with her dear love--' + +Mr Toots laid his hand upon the doorpost, and his eyes upon his +hand. + +'--With her dear love,' said Walter, 'that she can never have a friend +whom she will value above you. That the recollection of your true +consideration for her always, can never be forgotten by her. That she +remembers you in her prayers to-night, and hopes that you will think of +her when she is far away. Shall I say anything for you?' + +'Say, Walter,' replied Mr Toots indistinctly, 'that I shall think of her +every day, but never without feeling happy to know that she is married +to the man she loves, and who loves her. Say, if you please, that I +am sure her husband deserves her--even her!--and that I am glad of her +choice.' + +Mr Toots got more distinct as he came to these last words, and raising +his eyes from the doorpost, said them stoutly. He then shook Walter's +hand again with a fervour that Walter was not slow to return and started +homeward. + +Mr Toots was accompanied by the Chicken, whom he had of late brought +with him every evening, and left in the shop, with an idea that +unforeseen circumstances might arise from without, in which the prowess +of that distinguished character would be of service to the Midshipman. +The Chicken did not appear to be in a particularly good humour on this +occasion. Either the gas-lamps were treacherous, or he cocked his eye +in a hideous manner, and likewise distorted his nose, when Mr Toots, +crossing the road, looked back over his shoulder at the room where +Florence slept. On the road home, he was more demonstrative of +aggressive intentions against the other foot-passengers, than comported +with a professor of the peaceful art of self-defence. Arrived at home, +instead of leaving Mr Toots in his apartments when he had escorted him +thither, he remained before him weighing his white hat in both hands by +the brim, and twitching his head and nose (both of which had been many +times broken, and but indifferently repaired), with an air of decided +disrespect. + +His patron being much engaged with his own thoughts, did not observe +this for some time, nor indeed until the Chicken, determined not to be +overlooked, had made divers clicking sounds with his tongue and teeth, +to attract attention. + +'Now, Master,' said the Chicken, doggedly, when he, at length, caught Mr +Toots's eye, 'I want to know whether this here gammon is to finish it, +or whether you're a going in to win?' + +'Chicken,' returned Mr Toots, 'explain yourself.' + +'Why then, here's all about it, Master,' said the Chicken. 'I ain't +a cove to chuck a word away. Here's wot it is. Are any on 'em to be +doubled up?' + +When the Chicken put this question he dropped his hat, made a dodge and +a feint with his left hand, hit a supposed enemy a violent blow with his +right, shook his head smartly, and recovered himself. + +'Come, Master,' said the Chicken. 'Is it to be gammon or pluck? Which?' + +'Chicken,' returned Mr Toots, 'your expressions are coarse, and your +meaning is obscure.' + +'Why, then, I tell you what, Master,' said the Chicken. 'This is where +it is. It's mean.' + +'What is mean, Chicken?' asked Mr Toots. + +'It is,' said the Chicken, with a frightful corrugation of his broken +nose. 'There! Now, Master! Wot! When you could go and blow on this here +match to the stiff'un;' by which depreciatory appellation it has been +since supposed that the Game One intended to signify Mr Dombey; 'and +when you could knock the winner and all the kit of 'em dead out o' wind +and time, are you going to give in? To give in?' said the Chicken, with +contemptuous emphasis. 'Wy, it's mean!' + +'Chicken,' said Mr Toots, severely, 'you're a perfect Vulture! Your +sentiments are atrocious.' + +'My sentiments is Game and Fancy, Master,' returned the Chicken. 'That's +wot my sentiments is. I can't abear a meanness. I'm afore the public, +I'm to be heerd on at the bar of the Little Helephant, and no Gov'ner +o' mine mustn't go and do what's mean. Wy, it's mean,' said the Chicken, +with increased expression. 'That's where it is. It's mean.' + +'Chicken,' said Mr Toots, 'you disgust me.' + +'Master,' returned the Chicken, putting on his hat, 'there's a pair on +us, then. Come! Here's a offer! You've spoke to me more than once't +or twice't about the public line. Never mind! Give me a fi'typunnote +to-morrow, and let me go.' + +'Chicken,' returned Mr Toots, 'after the odious sentiments you have +expressed, I shall be glad to part on such terms.' + +'Done then,' said the Chicken. 'It's a bargain. This here conduct of +yourn won't suit my book, Master. Wy, it's mean,' said the Chicken; who +seemed equally unable to get beyond that point, and to stop short of it. +'That's where it is; it's mean!' + +So Mr Toots and the Chicken agreed to part on this incompatibility of +moral perception; and Mr Toots lying down to sleep, dreamed happily of +Florence, who had thought of him as her friend upon the last night of +her maiden life, and who had sent him her dear love. + + + +CHAPTER 57. Another Wedding + + +Mr Sownds the beadle, and Mrs Miff the pew-opener, are early at their +posts in the fine church where Mr Dombey was married. A yellow-faced old +gentleman from India, is going to take unto himself a young wife this +morning, and six carriages full of company are expected, and Mrs Miff +has been informed that the yellow-faced old gentleman could pave +the road to church with diamonds and hardly miss them. + +The nuptial benediction is to be a superior one, proceeding from a very +reverend, a dean, and the lady is to be given away, as an extraordinary +present, by somebody who comes express from the Horse Guards. + +Mrs Miff is more intolerant of common people this morning, than she +generally is; and she his always strong opinions on that subject, for it +is associated with free sittings. Mrs Miff is not a student of political +economy (she thinks the science is connected with dissenters; 'Baptists +or Wesleyans, or some o' them,' she says), but she can never understand +what business your common folks have to be married. 'Drat 'em,' says Mrs +Miff 'you read the same things over 'em and instead of sovereigns get +sixpences!' + +Mr Sownds the beadle is more liberal than Mrs Miff--but then he is not +a pew-opener. 'It must be done, Ma'am,' he says. 'We must marry 'em. We +must have our national schools to walk at the head of, and we must have +our standing armies. We must marry 'em, Ma'am,' says Mr Sownds, 'and +keep the country going.' + +Mr Sownds is sitting on the steps and Mrs Miff is dusting in the church, +when a young couple, plainly dressed, come in. The mortified bonnet of +Mrs Miff is sharply turned towards them, for she espies in this +early visit indications of a runaway match. But they don't want to be +married--'Only,' says the gentleman, 'to walk round the church.' And as +he slips a genteel compliment into the palm of Mrs Miff, her vinegary +face relaxes, and her mortified bonnet and her spare dry figure dip and +crackle. + +Mrs Miff resumes her dusting and plumps up her cushions--for the +yellow-faced old gentleman is reported to have tender knees--but keeps +her glazed, pew-opening eye on the young couple who are walking round +the church. 'Ahem,' coughs Mrs Miff whose cough is drier than the hay in +any hassock in her charge, 'you'll come to us one of these mornings, my +dears, unless I'm much mistaken!' + +They are looking at a tablet on the wall, erected to the memory of +someone dead. They are a long way off from Mrs Miff, but Mrs Miff can +see with half an eye how she is leaning on his arm, and how his head is +bent down over her. 'Well, well,' says Mrs Miff, 'you might do worse. +For you're a tidy pair!' + +There is nothing personal in Mrs Miff's remark. She merely speaks of +stock-in-trade. She is hardly more curious in couples than in coffins. +She is such a spare, straight, dry old lady--such a pew of a woman--that +you should find as many individual sympathies in a chip. Mr Sownds, +now, who is fleshy, and has scarlet in his coat, is of a different +temperament. He says, as they stand upon the steps watching the young +couple away, that she has a pretty figure, hasn't she, and as well as +he could see (for she held her head down coming out), an uncommon pretty +face. 'Altogether, Mrs Miff,' says Mr Sownds with a relish, 'she is what +you may call a rose-bud.' + +Mrs Miff assents with a spare nod of her mortified bonnet; but approves +of this so little, that she inwardly resolves she wouldn't be the wife +of Mr Sownds for any money he could give her, Beadle as he is. + +And what are the young couple saying as they leave the church, and go +out at the gate? + +'Dear Walter, thank you! I can go away, now, happy.' + +'And when we come back, Florence, we will come and see his grave again.' + +Florence lifts her eyes, so bright with tears, to his kind face; and +clasps her disengaged hand on that other modest little hand which clasps +his arm. + +'It is very early, Walter, and the streets are almost empty yet. Let us +walk.' + +'But you will be so tired, my love.' + +'Oh no! I was very tired the first time that we ever walked together, +but I shall not be so to-day.' + +And thus--not much changed--she, as innocent and earnest-hearted--he, as +frank, as hopeful, and more proud of her--Florence and Walter, on their +bridal morning, walk through the streets together. + +Not even in that childish walk of long ago, were they so far removed +from all the world about them as to-day. The childish feet of long ago, +did not tread such enchanted ground as theirs do now. The confidence +and love of children may be given many times, and will spring up in many +places; but the woman's heart of Florence, with its undivided treasure, +can be yielded only once, and under slight or change, can only droop and +die. + +They take the streets that are the quietest, and do not go near that in +which her old home stands. It is a fair, warm summer morning, and +the sun shines on them, as they walk towards the darkening mist that +overspreads the City. Riches are uncovering in shops; jewels, gold, and +silver flash in the goldsmith's sunny windows; and great houses cast a +stately shade upon them as they pass. But through the light, and through +the shade, they go on lovingly together, lost to everything around; +thinking of no other riches, and no prouder home, than they have now in +one another. + +Gradually they come into the darker, narrower streets, where the sun, +now yellow, and now red, is seen through the mist, only at street +corners, and in small open spaces where there is a tree, or one of the +innumerable churches, or a paved way and a flight of steps, or a curious +little patch of garden, or a burying-ground, where the few tombs and +tombstones are almost black. Lovingly and trustfully, through all the +narrow yards and alleys and the shady streets, Florence goes, clinging +to his arm, to be his wife. + +Her heart beats quicker now, for Walter tells her that their church is +very near. They pass a few great stacks of warehouses, with waggons at +the doors, and busy carmen stopping up the way--but Florence does not +see or hear them--and then the air is quiet, and the day is darkened, +and she is trembling in a church which has a strange smell like a +cellar. + +The shabby little old man, ringer of the disappointed bell, is standing +in the porch, and has put his hat in the font--for he is quite at home +there, being sexton. He ushers them into an old brown, panelled, dusty +vestry, like a corner-cupboard with the shelves taken out; where the +wormy registers diffuse a smell like faded snuff, which has set the +tearful Nipper sneezing. + +Youthful, and how beautiful, the young bride looks, in this old dusty +place, with no kindred object near her but her husband. There is a +dusty old clerk, who keeps a sort of evaporated news shop underneath an +archway opposite, behind a perfect fortification of posts. There is a +dusty old pew-opener who only keeps herself, and finds that quite enough +to do. There is a dusty old beadle (these are Mr Toots's beadle and +pew-opener of last Sunday), who has something to do with a Worshipful +Company who have got a Hall in the next yard, with a stained-glass +window in it that no mortal ever saw. There are dusty wooden ledges and +cornices poked in and out over the altar, and over the screen and round +the gallery, and over the inscription about what the Master and +Wardens of the Worshipful Company did in one thousand six hundred and +ninety-four. There are dusty old sounding-boards over the pulpit and +reading-desk, looking like lids to be let down on the officiating +ministers in case of their giving offence. There is every possible +provision for the accommodation of dust, except in the churchyard, where +the facilities in that respect are very limited. + +The Captain, Uncle Sol, and Mr Toots are come; the clergyman is putting +on his surplice in the vestry, while the clerk walks round him, blowing +the dust off it; and the bride and bridegroom stand before the altar. +There is no bridesmaid, unless Susan Nipper is one; and no better father +than Captain Cuttle. A man with a wooden leg, chewing a faint apple and +carrying a blue bag in has hand, looks in to see what is going on; but +finding it nothing entertaining, stumps off again, and pegs his way among +the echoes out of doors. + +No gracious ray of light is seen to fall on Florence, kneeling at the +altar with her timid head bowed down. The morning luminary is built +out, and don't shine there. There is a meagre tree outside, where +the sparrows are chirping a little; and there is a blackbird in an +eyelet-hole of sun in a dyer's garret, over against the window, who +whistles loudly whilst the service is performing; and there is the man +with the wooden leg stumping away. The amens of the dusty clerk appear, +like Macbeth's, to stick in his throat a little; but Captain Cuttle +helps him out, and does it with so much goodwill that he interpolates +three entirely new responses of that word, never introduced into the +service before. + +They are married, and have signed their names in one of the old sneezy +registers, and the clergyman's surplice is restored to the dust, and the +clergyman is gone home. In a dark corner of the dark church, Florence +has turned to Susan Nipper, and is weeping in her arms. Mr Toots's eyes +are red. The Captain lubricates his nose. Uncle Sol has pulled down his +spectacles from his forehead, and walked out to the door. + +'God bless you, Susan; dearest Susan! If you ever can bear witness to +the love I have for Walter, and the reason that I have to love him, do +it for his sake. Good-bye! Good-bye!' + +They have thought it better not to go back to the Midshipman, but to +part so; a coach is waiting for them, near at hand. + +Miss Nipper cannot speak; she only sobs and chokes, and hugs her +mistress. Mr Toots advances, urges her to cheer up, and takes charge +of her. Florence gives him her hand--gives him, in the fulness of her +heart, her lips--kisses Uncle Sol, and Captain Cuttle, and is borne away +by her young husband. + +But Susan cannot bear that Florence should go away with a mournful +recollection of her. She had meant to be so different, that she +reproaches herself bitterly. Intent on making one last effort to redeem +her character, she breaks from Mr Toots and runs away to find the coach, +and show a parting smile. The Captain, divining her object, sets off +after her; for he feels it his duty also to dismiss them with a cheer, +if possible. Uncle Sol and Mr Toots are left behind together, outside +the church, to wait for them. + +The coach is gone, but the street is steep, and narrow, and blocked +up, and Susan can see it at a stand-still in the distance, she is sure. +Captain Cuttle follows her as she flies down the hill, and waves his +glazed hat as a general signal, which may attract the right coach and +which may not. + +Susan outstrips the Captain, and comes up with it. She looks in at the +window, sees Walter, with the gentle face beside him, and claps her +hands and screams: + +'Miss Floy, my darling! look at me! We are all so happy now, dear! One +more good-bye, my precious, one more!' + +How Susan does it, she don't know, but she reaches to the window, kisses +her, and has her arms about her neck, in a moment. + +'We are all so--so happy now, my dear Miss Floy!' says Susan, with a +suspicious catching in her breath. 'You, you won't be angry with me now. +Now will you?' + +'Angry, Susan!' + +'No, no; I am sure you won't. I say you won't, my pet, my dearest!' +exclaims Susan; 'and here's the Captain too--your friend the Captain, +you know--to say good-bye once more!' + +'Hooroar, my Heart's Delight!' vociferates the Captain, with a +countenance of strong emotion. 'Hooroar, Wal'r my lad. Hooroar! +Hooroar!' + +What with the young husband at one window, and the young wife at the +other; the Captain hanging on at this door, and Susan Nipper holding +fast by that; the coach obliged to go on whether it will or no, and all +the other carts and coaches turbulent because it hesitates; there +never was so much confusion on four wheels. But Susan Nipper gallantly +maintains her point. She keeps a smiling face upon her mistress, smiling +through her tears, until the last. Even when she is left behind, the +Captain continues to appear and disappear at the door, crying 'Hooroar, +my lad! Hooroar, my Heart's Delight!' with his shirt-collar in a violent +state of agitation, until it is hopeless to attempt to keep up with the +coach any longer. Finally, when the coach is gone, Susan Nipper, being +rejoined by the Captain, falls into a state of insensibility, and is +taken into a baker's shop to recover. + +Uncle Sol and Mr Toots wait patiently in the churchyard, sitting on the +coping-stone of the railings, until Captain Cuttle and Susan come back, +Neither being at all desirous to speak, or to be spoken to, they are +excellent company, and quite satisfied. When they all arrive again at +the little Midshipman, and sit down to breakfast, nobody can touch a +morsel. Captain Cuttle makes a feint of being voracious about toast, but +gives it up as a swindle. Mr Toots says, after breakfast, he will come +back in the evening; and goes wandering about the town all day, with a +vague sensation upon him as if he hadn't been to bed for a fortnight. + +There is a strange charm in the house, and in the room, in which they +have been used to be together, and out of which so much is gone. It +aggravates, and yet it soothes, the sorrow of the separation. Mr Toots +tells Susan Nipper when he comes at night, that he hasn't been so +wretched all day long, and yet he likes it. He confides in Susan Nipper, +being alone with her, and tells her what his feelings were when she +gave him that candid opinion as to the probability of Miss Dombey's +ever loving him. In the vein of confidence engendered by these common +recollections, and their tears, Mr Toots proposes that they shall go out +together, and buy something for supper. Miss Nipper assenting, they buy +a good many little things; and, with the aid of Mrs Richards, set the +supper out quite showily before the Captain and old Sol came home. + +The Captain and old Sol have been on board the ship, and have +established Di there, and have seen the chests put aboard. They have +much to tell about the popularity of Walter, and the comforts he will +have about him, and the quiet way in which it seems he has been working +early and late, to make his cabin what the Captain calls 'a picter,' +to surprise his little wife. 'A admiral's cabin, mind you,' says the +Captain, 'ain't more trim.' + +But one of the Captain's chief delights is, that he knows the big watch, +and the sugar-tongs, and tea-spoons, are on board: and again and again +he murmurs to himself, 'Ed'ard Cuttle, my lad, you never shaped a better +course in your life than when you made that there little property over +jintly. You see how the land bore, Ed'ard,' says the Captain, 'and it +does you credit, my lad.' + +The old Instrument-maker is more distraught and misty than he used to +be, and takes the marriage and the parting very much to heart. But he is +greatly comforted by having his old ally, Ned Cuttle, at his side; and +he sits down to supper with a grateful and contented face. + +'My boy has been preserved and thrives,' says old Sol Gills, rubbing his +hands. 'What right have I to be otherwise than thankful and happy!' + +The Captain, who has not yet taken his seat at the table, but who has +been fidgeting about for some time, and now stands hesitating in his +place, looks doubtfully at Mr Gills, and says: + +'Sol! There's the last bottle of the old Madeira down below. Would you +wish to have it up to-night, my boy, and drink to Wal'r and his wife?' + +The Instrument-maker, looking wistfully at the Captain, puts his hand +into the breast-pocket of his coffee-coloured coat, brings forth his +pocket-book, and takes a letter out. + +'To Mr Dombey,' says the old man. 'From Walter. To be sent in three +weeks' time. I'll read it.' + +'"Sir. I am married to your daughter. She is gone with me upon a distant +voyage. To be devoted to her is to have no claim on her or you, but God +knows that I am. + +'"Why, loving her beyond all earthly things, I have yet, without +remorse, united her to the uncertainties and dangers of my life, I will +not say to you. You know why, and you are her father. + +'"Do not reproach her. She has never reproached you. + +'"I do not think or hope that you will ever forgive me. There is nothing +I expect less. But if an hour should come when it will comfort you to +believe that Florence has someone ever near her, the great charge of +whose life is to cancel her remembrance of past sorrow, I solemnly +assure you, you may, in that hour, rest in that belief."' + +Solomon puts back the letter carefully in his pocket-book, and puts back +his pocket-book in his coat. + +'We won't drink the last bottle of the old Madeira yet, Ned,' says the +old man thoughtfully. 'Not yet. + +'Not yet,' assents the Captain. 'No. Not yet.' + +Susan and Mr Toots are of the same opinion. After a silence they all +sit down to supper, and drink to the young husband and wife in something +else; and the last bottle of the old Madeira still remains among its +dust and cobwebs, undisturbed. + + +A few days have elapsed, and a stately ship is out at sea, spreading its +white wings to the favouring wind. + +Upon the deck, image to the roughest man on board of something that +is graceful, beautiful, and harmless--something that it is good and +pleasant to have there, and that should make the voyage prosperous--is +Florence. It is night, and she and Walter sit alone, watching the solemn +path of light upon the sea between them and the moon. + +At length she cannot see it plainly, for the tears that fill her eyes; +and then she lays her head down on his breast, and puts her arms around +his neck, saying, 'Oh Walter, dearest love, I am so happy!' + +Her husband holds her to his heart, and they are very quiet, and the +stately ship goes on serenely. + +'As I hear the sea,' says Florence, 'and sit watching it, it brings so +many days into my mind. It makes me think so much--' + +'Of Paul, my love. I know it does.' + +Of Paul and Walter. And the voices in the waves are always whispering +to Florence, in their ceaseless murmuring, of love--of love, eternal and +illimitable, not bounded by the confines of this world, or by the end +of time, but ranging still, beyond the sea, beyond the sky, to the +invisible country far away! + + + +CHAPTER 58. After a Lapse + + +The sea had ebbed and flowed, through a whole year. Through a whole +year, the winds and clouds had come and gone; the ceaseless work of Time +had been performed, in storm and sunshine. Through a whole year, the +tides of human chance and change had set in their allotted courses. +Through a whole year, the famous House of Dombey and Son had fought a +fight for life, against cross accidents, doubtful rumours, unsuccessful +ventures, unpropitious times, and most of all, against the infatuation +of its head, who would not contract its enterprises by a hair's breadth, +and would not listen to a word of warning that the ship he strained so +hard against the storm, was weak, and could not bear it. + +The year was out, and the great House was down. + +One summer afternoon; a year, wanting some odd days, after the marriage +in the City church; there was a buzz and whisper upon 'Change of a great +failure. A certain cold proud man, well known there, was not there, nor +was he represented there. Next day it was noised abroad that Dombey and +Son had stopped, and next night there was a List of Bankrupts published, +headed by that name. + +The world was very busy now, in sooth, and had a deal to say. It was an +innocently credulous and a much ill-used world. It was a world in +which there was no other sort of bankruptcy whatever. There were +no conspicuous people in it, trading far and wide on rotten banks +of religion, patriotism, virtue, honour. There was no amount worth +mentioning of mere paper in circulation, on which anybody lived pretty +handsomely, promising to pay great sums of goodness with no effects. +There were no shortcomings anywhere, in anything but money. The world +was very angry indeed; and the people especially, who, in a worse world, +might have been supposed to be apt traders themselves in shows and +pretences, were observed to be mightily indignant. + +Here was a new inducement to dissipation, presented to that sport of +circumstances, Mr Perch the Messenger! It was apparently the fate of +Mr Perch to be always waking up, and finding himself famous. He had +but yesterday, as one might say, subsided into private life from the +celebrity of the elopement and the events that followed it; and now he +was made a more important man than ever, by the bankruptcy. Gliding from +his bracket in the outer office where he now sat, watching the strange +faces of accountants and others, who quickly superseded nearly all the +old clerks, Mr Perch had but to show himself in the court outside, or, +at farthest, in the bar of the King's Arms, to be asked a multitude of +questions, almost certain to include that interesting question, what +would he take to drink? Then would Mr Perch descant upon the hours of +acute uneasiness he and Mrs Perch had suffered out at Balls Pond, when +they first suspected 'things was going wrong.' Then would Mr Perch +relate to gaping listeners, in a low voice, as if the corpse of the +deceased House were lying unburied in the next room, how Mrs Perch had +first come to surmise that things was going wrong by hearing him (Perch) +moaning in his sleep, 'twelve and ninepence in the pound, twelve and +ninepence in the pound!' Which act of somnambulism he supposed to have +originated in the impression made upon him by the change in Mr Dombey's +face. Then would he inform them how he had once said, 'Might I make so +bold as ask, Sir, are you unhappy in your mind?' and how Mr Dombey had +replied, 'My faithful Perch--but no, it cannot be!' and with that had +struck his hand upon his forehead, and said, 'Leave me, Perch!' Then, +in short, would Mr Perch, a victim to his position, tell all manner of +lies; affecting himself to tears by those that were of a moving +nature, and really believing that the inventions of yesterday had, on +repetition, a sort of truth about them to-day. + +Mr Perch always closed these conferences by meekly remarking, That, of +course, whatever his suspicions might have been (as if he had ever had +any!) it wasn't for him to betray his trust, was it? Which sentiment +(there never being any creditors present) was received as doing great +honour to his feelings. Thus, he generally brought away a soothed +conscience and left an agreeable impression behind him, when he +returned to his bracket: again to sit watching the strange faces of the +accountants and others, making so free with the great mysteries, the +Books; or now and then to go on tiptoe into Mr Dombey's empty room, and +stir the fire; or to take an airing at the door, and have a little more +doleful chat with any straggler whom he knew; or to propitiate, with +various small attentions, the head accountant: from whom Mr Perch had +expectations of a messengership in a Fire Office, when the affairs of +the House should be wound up. + +To Major Bagstock, the bankruptcy was quite a calamity. The Major was +not a sympathetic character--his attention being wholly concentrated +on J. B.--nor was he a man subject to lively emotions, except in the +physical regards of gasping and choking. But he had so paraded his +friend Dombey at the club; had so flourished him at the heads of the +members in general, and so put them down by continual assertion of his +riches; that the club, being but human, was delighted to retort upon +the Major, by asking him, with a show of great concern, whether this +tremendous smash had been at all expected, and how his friend Dombey +bore it. To such questions, the Major, waxing very purple, would reply +that it was a bad world, Sir, altogether; that Joey knew a thing or two, +but had been done, Sir, done like an infant; that if you had foretold +this, Sir, to J. Bagstock, when he went abroad with Dombey and was +chasing that vagabond up and down France, J. Bagstock would have +pooh-pooh'd you--would have pooh-pooh'd you, Sir, by the Lord! That Joe +had been deceived, Sir, taken in, hoodwinked, blindfolded, but was broad +awake again and staring; insomuch, Sir, that if Joe's father were to +rise up from the grave to-morrow, he wouldn't trust the old blade with a +penny piece, but would tell him that his son Josh was too old a soldier +to be done again, Sir. That he was a suspicious, crabbed, cranky, +used-up, J. B. infidel, Sir; and that if it were consistent with the +dignity of a rough and tough old Major, of the old school, who had had +the honour of being personally known to, and commended by, their late +Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Kent and York, to retire to a tub and live +in it, by Gad! Sir, he'd have a tub in Pall Mall to-morrow, to show his +contempt for mankind! + +Of all this, and many variations of the same tune, the Major would +deliver himself with so many apoplectic symptoms, such rollings of his +head, and such violent growls of ill usage and resentment, that the +younger members of the club surmised he had invested money in his friend +Dombey's House, and lost it; though the older soldiers and deeper dogs, +who knew Joe better, wouldn't hear of such a thing. The unfortunate +Native, expressing no opinion, suffered dreadfully; not merely in his +moral feelings, which were regularly fusilladed by the Major every hour +in the day, and riddled through and through, but in his sensitiveness to +bodily knocks and bumps, which was kept continually on the stretch. For +six entire weeks after the bankruptcy, this miserable foreigner lived in +a rainy season of boot-jacks and brushes. + +Mrs Chick had three ideas upon the subject of the terrible reverse. The +first was that she could not understand it. The second, that her brother +had not made an effort. The third, that if she had been invited to +dinner on the day of that first party, it never would have happened; and +that she had said so, at the time. + +Nobody's opinion stayed the misfortune, lightened it, or made it +heavier. It was understood that the affairs of the House were to +be wound up as they best could be; that Mr Dombey freely resigned +everything he had, and asked for no favour from anyone. That any +resumption of the business was out of the question, as he would listen +to no friendly negotiation having that compromise in view; that he had +relinquished every post of trust or distinction he had held, as a man +respected among merchants; that he was dying, according to some; that he +was going melancholy mad, according to others; that he was a broken man, +according to all. + +The clerks dispersed after holding a little dinner of condolence +among themselves, which was enlivened by comic singing, and went off +admirably. Some took places abroad, and some engaged in other Houses at +home; some looked up relations in the country, for whom they suddenly +remembered they had a particular affection; and some advertised for +employment in the newspapers. Mr Perch alone remained of all the late +establishment, sitting on his bracket looking at the accountants, or +starting off it, to propitiate the head accountant, who was to get +him into the Fire Office. The Counting House soon got to be dirty and +neglected. The principal slipper and dogs' collar seller, at the corner +of the court, would have doubted the propriety of throwing up his +forefinger to the brim of his hat, any more, if Mr Dombey had appeared +there now; and the ticket porter, with his hands under his white apron, +moralised good sound morality about ambition, which (he observed) was +not, in his opinion, made to rhyme to perdition, for nothing. + +Mr Morfin, the hazel-eyed bachelor, with the hair and whiskers sprinkled +with grey, was perhaps the only person within the atmosphere of the +House--its head, of course, excepted--who was heartily and deeply +affected by the disaster that had befallen it. He had treated Mr Dombey +with due respect and deference through many years, but he had never +disguised his natural character, or meanly truckled to him, or pampered +his master passion for the advancement of his own purposes. He had, +therefore, no self-disrespect to avenge; no long-tightened springs +to release with a quick recoil. He worked early and late to unravel +whatever was complicated or difficult in the records of the transactions +of the House; was always in attendance to explain whatever required +explanation; sat in his old room sometimes very late at night, studying +points by his mastery of which he could spare Mr Dombey the pain of +being personally referred to; and then would go home to Islington, and +calm his mind by producing the most dismal and forlorn sounds out of his +violoncello before going to bed. + +He was solacing himself with this melodious grumbler one evening, and, +having been much dispirited by the proceedings of the day, was scraping +consolation out of its deepest notes, when his landlady (who was +fortunately deaf, and had no other consciousness of these performances +than a sensation of something rumbling in her bones) announced a lady. + +'In mourning,' she said. + +The violoncello stopped immediately; and the performer, laying it on the +sofa with great tenderness and care, made a sign that the lady was to +come in. He followed directly, and met Harriet Carker on the stair. + +'Alone!' he said, 'and John here this morning! Is there anything the +matter, my dear? But no,' he added, 'your face tells quite another +story.' + +'I am afraid it is a selfish revelation that you see there, then,' she +answered. + +'It is a very pleasant one,' said he; 'and, if selfish, a novelty too, +worth seeing in you. But I don't believe that.' + +He had placed a chair for her by this time, and sat down opposite; the +violoncello lying snugly on the sofa between them. + +'You will not be surprised at my coming alone, or at John's not having +told you I was coming,' said Harriet; 'and you will believe that, when I +tell you why I have come. May I do so now?' + +'You can do nothing better.' + +'You were not busy?' + +He pointed to the violoncello lying on the sofa, and said 'I have been, +all day. Here's my witness. I have been confiding all my cares to it. I +wish I had none but my own to tell.' + +'Is the House at an end?' said Harriet, earnestly. + +'Completely at an end.' + +'Will it never be resumed?' + +'Never.' + +The bright expression of her face was not overshadowed as her lips +silently repeated the word. He seemed to observe this with some little +involuntary surprise: and said again: + +'Never. You remember what I told you. It has been, all along, impossible +to convince him; impossible to reason with him; sometimes, impossible +even to approach him. The worst has happened; and the House has fallen, +never to be built up any more.' + +'And Mr Dombey, is he personally ruined?' + +'Ruined.' + +'Will he have no private fortune left? Nothing?' + +A certain eagerness in her voice, and something that was almost joyful +in her look, seemed to surprise him more and more; to disappoint him +too, and jar discordantly against his own emotions. He drummed with the +fingers of one hand on the table, looking wistfully at her, and shaking +his head, said, after a pause: + +'The extent of Mr Dombey's resources is not accurately within my +knowledge; but though they are doubtless very large, his obligations are +enormous. He is a gentleman of high honour and integrity. Any man in +his position could, and many a man in his position would, have saved +himself, by making terms which would have very slightly, almost +insensibly, increased the losses of those who had had dealings with him, +and left him a remnant to live upon. But he is resolved on payment to +the last farthing of his means. His own words are, that they will clear, +or nearly clear, the House, and that no one can lose much. Ah, Miss +Harriet, it would do us no harm to remember oftener than we do, that +vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess! His pride shows well +in this.' + +She heard him with little or no change in her expression, and with a +divided attention that showed her to be busy with something in her own +mind. When he was silent, she asked him hurriedly: + +'Have you seen him lately?' + +'No one sees him. When this crisis of his affairs renders it necessary +for him to come out of his house, he comes out for the occasion, and +again goes home, and shuts himself up, and will see no one. He has +written me a letter, acknowledging our past connexion in higher terms +than it deserved, and parting from me. I am delicate of obtruding myself +upon him now, never having had much intercourse with him in better +times; but I have tried to do so. I have written, gone there, entreated. +Quite in vain.' + +He watched her, as in the hope that she would testify some greater +concern than she had yet shown; and spoke gravely and feelingly, as if +to impress her the more; but there was no change in her. + +'Well, well, Miss Harriet,' he said, with a disappointed air, 'this is +not to the purpose. You have not come here to hear this. Some other and +pleasanter theme is in your mind. Let it be in mine, too, and we shall +talk upon more equal terms. Come!' + +'No, it is the same theme,' returned Harriet, with frank and quick +surprise. 'Is it not likely that it should be? Is it not natural that +John and I should have been thinking and speaking very much of late of +these great changes? Mr Dombey, whom he served so many years--you know +upon what terms--reduced, as you describe; and we quite rich!' + +Good, true face, as that face of hers was, and pleasant as it had been +to him, Mr Morfin, the hazel-eyed bachelor, since the first time he had +ever looked upon it, it pleased him less at that moment, lighted with a +ray of exultation, than it had ever pleased him before. + +'I need not remind you,' said Harriet, casting down her eyes upon her +black dress, 'through what means our circumstances changed. You have not +forgotten that our brother James, upon that dreadful day, left no will, +no relations but ourselves.' + +The face was pleasanter to him now, though it was pale and melancholy, +than it had been a moment since. He seemed to breathe more cheerily. + +'You know,' she said, 'our history, the history of both my brothers, +in connexion with the unfortunate, unhappy gentleman, of whom you have +spoken so truly. You know how few our wants are--John's and mine--and +what little use we have for money, after the life we have led together +for so many years; and now that he is earning an income that is ample +for us, through your kindness. You are not unprepared to hear what +favour I have come to ask of you?' + +'I hardly know. I was, a minute ago. Now, I think, I am not.' + +'Of my dead brother I say nothing. If the dead know what we do--but you +understand me. Of my living brother I could say much; but what need I +say more, than that this act of duty, in which I have come to ask your +indispensable assistance, is his own, and that he cannot rest until it +is performed!' + +She raised her eyes again; and the light of exultation in her face began +to appear beautiful, in the observant eyes that watched her. + +'Dear Sir,' she went on to say, 'it must be done very quietly and +secretly. Your experience and knowledge will point out a way of doing +it. Mr Dombey may, perhaps, be led to believe that it is something +saved, unexpectedly, from the wreck of his fortunes; or that it is a +voluntary tribute to his honourable and upright character, from some of +those with whom he has had great dealings; or that it is some old lost +debt repaid. There must be many ways of doing it. I know you will choose +the best. The favour I have come to ask is, that you will do it for +us in your own kind, generous, considerate manner. That you will never +speak of it to John, whose chief happiness in this act of restitution +is to do it secretly, unknown, and unapproved of: that only a very small +part of the inheritance may be reserved to us, until Mr Dombey shall +have possessed the interest of the rest for the remainder of his life; +that you will keep our secret, faithfully--but that I am sure you will; +and that, from this time, it may seldom be whispered, even between +you and me, but may live in my thoughts only as a new reason for +thankfulness to Heaven, and joy and pride in my brother.' + +Such a look of exultation there may be on Angels' faces when the one +repentant sinner enters Heaven, among ninety-nine just men. It was not +dimmed or tarnished by the joyful tears that filled her eyes, but was +the brighter for them. + +'My dear Harriet,' said Mr Morfin, after a silence, 'I was not prepared +for this. Do I understand you that you wish to make your own part in the +inheritance available for your good purpose, as well as John's?' + +'Oh, yes,' she returned 'When we have shared everything together for so +long a time, and have had no care, hope, or purpose apart, could I bear +to be excluded from my share in this? May I not urge a claim to be my +brother's partner and companion to the last?' + +'Heaven forbid that I should dispute it!' he replied. + +'We may rely on your friendly help?' she said. 'I knew we might!' + +'I should be a worse man than,--than I hope I am, or would willingly +believe myself, if I could not give you that assurance from my heart and +soul. You may, implicitly. Upon my honour, I will keep your secret. And +if it should be found that Mr Dombey is so reduced as I fear he will be, +acting on a determination that there seem to be no means of influencing, +I will assist you to accomplish the design, on which you and John are +jointly resolved.' + +She gave him her hand, and thanked him with a cordial, happy face. + +'Harriet,' he said, detaining it in his. 'To speak to you of the worth +of any sacrifice that you can make now--above all, of any sacrifice of +mere money--would be idle and presumptuous. To put before you any appeal +to reconsider your purpose or to set narrow limits to it, would be, +I feel, not less so. I have no right to mar the great end of a great +history, by any obtrusion of my own weak self. I have every right to +bend my head before what you confide to me, satisfied that it comes +from a higher and better source of inspiration than my poor worldly +knowledge. I will say only this: I am your faithful steward; and I would +rather be so, and your chosen friend, than I would be anybody in the +world, except yourself.' + +She thanked him again, cordially, and wished him good-night. + +'Are you going home?' he said. 'Let me go with you.' + +'Not to-night. I am not going home now; I have a visit to make alone. +Will you come to-morrow?' + +'Well, well,' said he, 'I'll come to-morrow. In the meantime, I'll think +of this, and how we can best proceed. And perhaps I'll think of it, dear +Harriet, and--and--think of me a little in connexion with it.' + +He handed her down to a coach she had in waiting at the door; and if +his landlady had not been deaf, she would have heard him muttering as +he went back upstairs, when the coach had driven off, that we were +creatures of habit, and it was a sorrowful habit to be an old bachelor. + +The violoncello lying on the sofa between the two chairs, he took it up, +without putting away the vacant chair, and sat droning on it, and +slowly shaking his head at the vacant chair, for a long, long time. +The expression he communicated to the instrument at first, though +monstrously pathetic and bland, was nothing to the expression he +communicated to his own face, and bestowed upon the empty chair: which +was so sincere, that he was obliged to have recourse to Captain Cuttle's +remedy more than once, and to rub his face with his sleeve. By degrees, +however, the violoncello, in unison with his own frame of mind, glided +melodiously into the Harmonious Blacksmith, which he played over and +over again, until his ruddy and serene face gleamed like true metal on +the anvil of a veritable blacksmith. In fine, the violoncello and +the empty chair were the companions of his bachelorhood until nearly +midnight; and when he took his supper, the violoncello set up on end in +the sofa corner, big with the latent harmony of a whole foundry full +of harmonious blacksmiths, seemed to ogle the empty chair out of its +crooked eyes, with unutterable intelligence. + +When Harriet left the house, the driver of her hired coach, taking +a course that was evidently no new one to him, went in and out by +bye-ways, through that part of the suburbs, until he arrived at some +open ground, where there were a few quiet little old houses standing +among gardens. At the garden-gate of one of these he stopped, and +Harriet alighted. + +Her gentle ringing at the bell was responded to by a dolorous-looking +woman, of light complexion, with raised eyebrows, and head drooping on +one side, who curtseyed at sight of her, and conducted her across the +garden to the house. + +'How is your patient, nurse, to-night?' said Harriet. + +'In a poor way, Miss, I am afraid. Oh how she do remind me, sometimes, +of my Uncle's Betsey Jane!' returned the woman of the light complexion, +in a sort of doleful rapture. + +'In what respect?' asked Harriet. + +'Miss, in all respects,' replied the other, 'except that she's grown up, +and Betsey Jane, when at death's door, was but a child.' + +'But you have told me she recovered,' observed Harriet mildly; 'so there +is the more reason for hope, Mrs Wickam.' + +'Ah, Miss, hope is an excellent thing for such as has the spirits to +bear it!' said Mrs Wickam, shaking her head. 'My own spirits is not +equal to it, but I don't owe it any grudge. I envys them that is so +blest!' + +'You should try to be more cheerful,' remarked Harriet. + +'Thank you, Miss, I'm sure,' said Mrs Wickam grimly. 'If I was so +inclined, the loneliness of this situation--you'll excuse my speaking +so free--would put it out of my power, in four and twenty hours; but I +ain't at all. I'd rather not. The little spirits that I ever had, I was +bereaved of at Brighton some few years ago, and I think I feel myself +the better for it.' + +In truth, this was the very Mrs Wickam who had superseded Mrs Richards +as the nurse of little Paul, and who considered herself to have gained +the loss in question, under the roof of the amiable Pipchin. The +excellent and thoughtful old system, hallowed by long prescription, +which has usually picked out from the rest of mankind the most dreary +and uncomfortable people that could possibly be laid hold of, to act as +instructors of youth, finger-posts to the virtues, matrons, monitors, +attendants on sick beds, and the like, had established Mrs Wickam in +very good business as a nurse, and had led to her serious qualities +being particularly commended by an admiring and numerous connexion. + +Mrs Wickam, with her eyebrows elevated, and her head on one side, +lighted the way upstairs to a clean, neat chamber, opening on another +chamber dimly lighted, where there was a bed. In the first room, an old +woman sat mechanically staring out at the open window, on the darkness. +In the second, stretched upon the bed, lay the shadow of a figure that +had spurned the wind and rain, one wintry night; hardly to be recognised +now, but by the long black hair that showed so very black against the +colourless face, and all the white things about it. + +Oh, the strong eyes, and the weak frame! The eyes that turned so eagerly +and brightly to the door when Harriet came in; the feeble head that +could not raise itself, and moved so slowly round upon its pillow! + +'Alice!' said the visitor's mild voice, 'am I late to-night?' + +'You always seem late, but are always early.' + +Harriet had sat down by the bedside now, and put her hand upon the thin +hand lying there. + +'You are better?' + +Mrs Wickam, standing at the foot of the bed, like a disconsolate +spectre, most decidedly and forcibly shook her head to negative this +position. + +'It matters very little!' said Alice, with a faint smile. 'Better or +worse to-day, is but a day's difference--perhaps not so much.' + +Mrs Wickam, as a serious character, expressed her approval with a groan; +and having made some cold dabs at the bottom of the bedclothes, as +feeling for the patient's feet and expecting to find them stony; went +clinking among the medicine bottles on the table, as who should say, +'while we are here, let us repeat the mixture as before.' + +'No,' said Alice, whispering to her visitor, 'evil courses, and remorse, +travel, want, and weather, storm within, and storm without, have worn my +life away. It will not last much longer. + +She drew the hand up as she spoke, and laid her face against it. + +'I lie here, sometimes, thinking I should like to live until I had had +a little time to show you how grateful I could be! It is a weakness, and +soon passes. Better for you as it is. Better for me!' + +How different her hold upon the hand, from what it had been when she +took it by the fireside on the bleak winter evening! Scorn, rage, +defiance, recklessness, look here! This is the end. + +Mrs Wickam having clinked sufficiently among the bottles, now produced +the mixture. Mrs Wickam looked hard at her patient in the act of +drinking, screwed her mouth up tight, her eyebrows also, and shook her +head, expressing that tortures shouldn't make her say it was a hopeless +case. Mrs Wickam then sprinkled a little cooling-stuff about the room, +with the air of a female grave-digger, who was strewing ashes on ashes, +dust on dust--for she was a serious character--and withdrew to partake +of certain funeral baked meats downstairs. + +'How long is it,' asked Alice, 'since I went to you and told you what +I had done, and when you were advised it was too late for anyone to +follow?' + +'It is a year and more,' said Harriet. + +'A year and more,' said Alice, thoughtfully intent upon her face. +'Months upon months since you brought me here!' + +Harriet answered 'Yes.' + +'Brought me here, by force of gentleness and kindness. Me!' said Alice, +shrinking with her face behind her hand, 'and made me human by woman's +looks and words, and angel's deeds!' + +Harriet bending over her, composed and soothed her. By and bye, Alice +lying as before, with the hand against her face, asked to have her +mother called. + +Harriet called to her more than once, but the old woman was so absorbed +looking out at the open window on the darkness, that she did not hear. +It was not until Harriet went to her and touched her, that she rose up, +and came. + +'Mother,' said Alice, taking the hand again, and fixing her lustrous +eyes lovingly upon her visitor, while she merely addressed a motion of +her finger to the old woman, 'tell her what you know.' + +'To-night, my deary?' + +'Ay, mother,' answered Alice, faintly and solemnly, 'to-night!' + +The old woman, whose wits appeared disorderly by alarm, remorse, or +grief, came creeping along the side of the bed, opposite to that on +which Harriet sat; and kneeling down, so as to bring her withered face +upon a level with the coverlet, and stretching out her hand, so as to +touch her daughter's arm, began: + +'My handsome gal--' + +Heaven, what a cry was that, with which she stopped there, gazing at the +poor form lying on the bed! + +'Changed, long ago, mother! Withered, long ago,' said Alice, without +looking at her. 'Don't grieve for that now.' + +'--My daughter,' faltered the old woman, 'my gal who'll soon get better, +and shame 'em all with her good looks.' + +Alice smiled mournfully at Harriet, and fondled her hand a little +closer, but said nothing. + +'Who'll soon get better, I say,' repeated the old woman, menacing the +vacant air with her shrivelled fist, 'and who'll shame 'em all with her +good looks--she will. I say she will! she shall!'--as if she were in +passionate contention with some unseen opponent at the bedside, who +contradicted her--'my daughter has been turned away from, and cast out, +but she could boast relationship to proud folks too, if she chose. +Ah! To proud folks! There's relationship without your clergy and +your wedding rings--they may make it, but they can't break it--and +my daughter's well related. Show me Mrs Dombey, and I'll show you my +Alice's first cousin.' + +Harriet glanced from the old woman to the lustrous eyes intent upon her +face, and derived corroboration from them. + +'What!' cried the old woman, her nodding head bridling with a ghastly +vanity. 'Though I am old and ugly now,--much older by life and habit +than years though,--I was once as young as any. Ah! as pretty too, as +many! I was a fresh country wench in my time, darling,' stretching out +her arm to Harriet, across the bed, 'and looked it, too. Down in my +country, Mrs Dombey's father and his brother were the gayest gentlemen +and the best-liked that came a visiting from London--they have long +been dead, though! Lord, Lord, this long while! The brother, who was my +Ally's father, longest of the two.' + +She raised her head a little, and peered at her daughter's face; as if +from the remembrance of her own youth, she had flown to the remembrance +of her child's. Then, suddenly, she laid her face down on the bed, and +shut her head up in her hands and arms. + +'They were as like,' said the old woman, without looking up, as you +could see two brothers, so near an age--there wasn't much more than a +year between them, as I recollect--and if you could have seen my gal, as +I have seen her once, side by side with the other's daughter, you'd have +seen, for all the difference of dress and life, that they were like each +other. Oh! is the likeness gone, and is it my gal--only my gal--that's +to change so!' + +'We shall all change, mother, in our turn,' said Alice. + +'Turn!' cried the old woman, 'but why not hers as soon as my gal's! The +mother must have changed--she looked as old as me, and full as wrinkled +through her paint--but she was handsome. What have I done, I, what have +I done worse than her, that only my gal is to lie there fading!' + +With another of those wild cries, she went running out into the room from +which she had come; but immediately, in her uncertain mood, returned, +and creeping up to Harriet, said: + +'That's what Alice bade me tell you, deary. That's all. I found it out +when I began to ask who she was, and all about her, away in Warwickshire +there, one summer-time. Such relations was no good to me, then. They +wouldn't have owned me, and had nothing to give me. I should have asked +'em, maybe, for a little money, afterwards, if it hadn't been for my +Alice; she'd a'most have killed me, if I had, I think She was as proud +as t'other in her way,' said the old woman, touching the face of her +daughter fearfully, and withdrawing her hand, 'for all she's so quiet +now; but she'll shame 'em with her good looks yet. Ha, ha! She'll shame +'em, will my handsome daughter!' + +Her laugh, as she retreated, was worse than her cry; worse than the +burst of imbecile lamentation in which it ended; worse than the doting +air with which she sat down in her old seat, and stared out at the +darkness. + +The eyes of Alice had all this time been fixed on Harriet, whose hand +she had never released. She said now: + +'I have felt, lying here, that I should like you to know this. It might +explain, I have thought, something that used to help to harden me. I had +heard so much, in my wrongdoing, of my neglected duty, that I took up +with the belief that duty had not been done to me, and that as the seed +was sown, the harvest grew. I somehow made it out that when ladies had +bad homes and mothers, they went wrong in their way, too; but that their +way was not so foul a one as mine, and they had need to bless God for +it. That is all past. It is like a dream, now, which I cannot quite +remember or understand. It has been more and more like a dream, every +day, since you began to sit here, and to read to me. I only tell it you, +as I can recollect it. Will you read to me a little more?' + +Harriet was withdrawing her hand to open the book, when Alice detained +it for a moment. + +'You will not forget my mother? I forgive her, if I have any cause. +I know that she forgives me, and is sorry in her heart. You will not +forget her?' + +'Never, Alice!' + +'A moment yet. Lay your head so, dear, that as you read I may see the +words in your kind face.' + +Harriet complied and read--read the eternal book for all the weary, and +the heavy-laden; for all the wretched, fallen, and neglected of this +earth--read the blessed history, in which the blind lame palsied beggar, +the criminal, the woman stained with shame, the shunned of all our +dainty clay, has each a portion, that no human pride, indifference, or +sophistry, through all the ages that this world shall last, can take +away, or by the thousandth atom of a grain reduce--read the ministry of +Him who, through the round of human life, and all its hopes and griefs, +from birth to death, from infancy to age, had sweet compassion for, and +interest in, its every scene and stage, its every suffering and sorrow. + +'I shall come,' said Harriet, when she shut the book, 'very early in the +morning.' + +The lustrous eyes, yet fixed upon her face, closed for a moment, then +opened; and Alice kissed and blest her. + +The same eyes followed her to the door; and in their light, and on the +tranquil face, there was a smile when it was closed. + +They never turned away. She laid her hand upon her breast, murmuring the +sacred name that had been read to her; and life passed from her face, +like light removed. + +Nothing lay there, any longer, but the ruin of the mortal house on which +the rain had beaten, and the black hair that had fluttered in the wintry +wind. + + + +CHAPTER 59. Retribution + + +Changes have come again upon the great house in the long dull street, +once the scene of Florence's childhood and loneliness. It is a great +house still, proof against wind and weather, without breaches in the +roof, or shattered windows, or dilapidated walls; but it is a ruin none +the less, and the rats fly from it. + +Mr Towlinson and company are, at first, incredulous in respect of the +shapeless rumours that they hear. Cook says our people's credit ain't so +easy shook as that comes to, thank God; and Mr Towlinson expects to hear +it reported next, that the Bank of England's a-going to break, or the +jewels in the Tower to be sold up. But, next come the Gazette, and Mr +Perch; and Mr Perch brings Mrs Perch to talk it over in the kitchen, and +to spend a pleasant evening. + +As soon as there is no doubt about it, Mr Towlinson's main anxiety is +that the failure should be a good round one--not less than a hundred +thousand pound. Mr Perch don't think himself that a hundred thousand +pound will nearly cover it. The women, led by Mrs Perch and Cook, often +repeat 'a hun-dred thou-sand pound!' with awful satisfaction--as if +handling the words were like handling the money; and the housemaid, who +has her eye on Mr Towlinson, wishes she had only a hundredth part of the +sum to bestow on the man of her choice. Mr Towlinson, still mindful of +his old wrong, opines that a foreigner would hardly know what to do with +so much money, unless he spent it on his whiskers; which bitter sarcasm +causes the housemaid to withdraw in tears. + +But not to remain long absent; for Cook, who has the reputation of being +extremely good-hearted, says, whatever they do, let 'em stand by one +another now, Towlinson, for there's no telling how soon they may be +divided. They have been in that house (says Cook) through a funeral, a +wedding, and a running-away; and let it not be said that they couldn't +agree among themselves at such a time as the present. Mrs Perch is +immensely affected by this moving address, and openly remarks that Cook +is an angel. Mr Towlinson replies to Cook, far be it from him to +stand in the way of that good feeling which he could wish to see; and +adjourning in quest of the housemaid, and presently returning with that +young lady on his arm, informs the kitchen that foreigners is only his +fun, and that him and Anne have now resolved to take one another +for better for worse, and to settle in Oxford Market in the general +greengrocery and herb and leech line, where your kind favours is +particular requested. This announcement is received with acclamation; +and Mrs Perch, projecting her soul into futurity, says, 'girls,' in +Cook's ear, in a solemn whisper. + +Misfortune in the family without feasting, in these lower regions, +couldn't be. Therefore Cook tosses up a hot dish or two for supper, +and Mr Towlinson compounds a lobster salad to be devoted to the same +hospitable purpose. Even Mrs Pipchin, agitated by the occasion, rings +her bell, and sends down word that she requests to have that little bit +of sweetbread that was left, warmed up for her supper, and sent to her +on a tray with about a quarter of a tumbler-full of mulled sherry; for +she feels poorly. + +There is a little talk about Mr Dombey, but very little. It is chiefly +speculation as to how long he has known that this was going to happen. +Cook says shrewdly, 'Oh a long time, bless you! Take your oath of that.' +And reference being made to Mr Perch, he confirms her view of the +case. Somebody wonders what he'll do, and whether he'll go out in any +situation. Mr Towlinson thinks not, and hints at a refuge in one of them +genteel almshouses of the better kind. 'Ah, where he'll have his little +garden, you know,' says Cook plaintively, 'and bring up sweet peas +in the spring.' 'Exactly so,' says Mr Towlinson, 'and be one of the +Brethren of something or another.' 'We are all brethren,' says Mrs +Perch, in a pause of her drink. 'Except the sisters,' says Mr Perch. +'How are the mighty fallen!' remarks Cook. 'Pride shall have a fall, and +it always was and will be so!' observes the housemaid. + +It is wonderful how good they feel, in making these reflections; and +what a Christian unanimity they are sensible of, in bearing the common +shock with resignation. There is only one interruption to this excellent +state of mind, which is occasioned by a young kitchen-maid of inferior +rank--in black stockings--who, having sat with her mouth open for a long +time, unexpectedly discharges from it words to this effect, 'Suppose the +wages shouldn't be paid!' The company sit for a moment speechless; but +Cook recovering first, turns upon the young woman, and requests to +know how she dares insult the family, whose bread she eats, by such a +dishonest supposition, and whether she thinks that anybody, with a scrap +of honour left, could deprive poor servants of their pittance? 'Because +if that is your religious feelings, Mary Daws,' says Cook warmly, 'I +don't know where you mean to go to.' + +Mr Towlinson don't know either; nor anybody; and the young kitchen-maid, +appearing not to know exactly, herself, and scouted by the general +voice, is covered with confusion, as with a garment. + +After a few days, strange people begin to call at the house, and to +make appointments with one another in the dining-room, as if they lived +there. Especially, there is a gentleman, of a Mosaic Arabian cast +of countenance, with a very massive watch-guard, who whistles in the +drawing-room, and, while he is waiting for the other gentleman, who +always has pen and ink in his pocket, asks Mr Towlinson (by the easy +name of 'Old Cock,') if he happens to know what the figure of them +crimson and gold hangings might have been, when new bought. The callers +and appointments in the dining-room become more numerous every day, and +every gentleman seems to have pen and ink in his pocket, and to have +some occasion to use it. At last it is said that there is going to be +a Sale; and then more people arrive, with pen and ink in their pockets, +commanding a detachment of men with carpet caps, who immediately begin +to pull up the carpets, and knock the furniture about, and to print off +thousands of impressions of their shoes upon the hall and staircase. + +The council downstairs are in full conclave all this time, and, having +nothing to do, perform perfect feats of eating. At length, they are one +day summoned in a body to Mrs Pipchin's room, and thus addressed by the +fair Peruvian: + +'Your master's in difficulties,' says Mrs Pipchin, tartly. 'You know +that, I suppose?' + +Mr Towlinson, as spokesman, admits a general knowledge of the fact. + +'And you're all on the look-out for yourselves, I warrant you,' says Mrs +Pipchin, shaking her head at them. + +A shrill voice from the rear exclaims, 'No more than yourself!' + +'That's your opinion, Mrs Impudence, is it?' says the ireful Pipchin, +looking with a fiery eye over the intermediate heads. + +'Yes, Mrs Pipchin, it is,' replies Cook, advancing. 'And what then, +pray?' + +'Why, then you may go as soon as you like,' says Mrs Pipchin. 'The +sooner the better; and I hope I shall never see your face again.' + +With this the doughty Pipchin produces a canvas bag; and tells her wages +out to that day, and a month beyond it; and clutches the money tight, +until a receipt for the same is duly signed, to the last upstroke; when +she grudgingly lets it go. This form of proceeding Mrs Pipchin repeats +with every member of the household, until all are paid. + +'Now those that choose, can go about their business,' says Mrs Pipchin, +'and those that choose can stay here on board wages for a week or so, +and make themselves useful. Except,' says the inflammable Pipchin, 'that +slut of a cook, who'll go immediately.' + +'That,' says Cook, 'she certainly will! I wish you good day, Mrs +Pipchin, and sincerely wish I could compliment you on the sweetness of +your appearance!' + +'Get along with you,' says Mrs Pipchin, stamping her foot. + +Cook sails off with an air of beneficent dignity, highly exasperating +to Mrs Pipchin, and is shortly joined below stairs by the rest of the +confederation. + +Mr Towlinson then says that, in the first place, he would beg to propose +a little snack of something to eat; and over that snack would desire to +offer a suggestion which he thinks will meet the position in which +they find themselves. The refreshment being produced, and very heartily +partaken of, Mr Towlinson's suggestion is, in effect, that Cook is +going, and that if we are not true to ourselves, nobody will be true +to us. That they have lived in that house a long time, and exerted +themselves very much to be sociable together. (At this, Cook says, with +emotion, 'Hear, hear!' and Mrs Perch, who is there again, and full to +the throat, sheds tears.) And that he thinks, at the present time, the +feeling ought to be 'Go one, go all!' The housemaid is much affected by +this generous sentiment, and warmly seconds it. Cook says she feels it's +right, and only hopes it's not done as a compliment to her, but from a +sense of duty. Mr Towlinson replies, from a sense of duty; and that now +he is driven to express his opinions, he will openly say, that he does +not think it over-respectable to remain in a house where Sales and +such-like are carrying forwards. The housemaid is sure of it; and +relates, in confirmation, that a strange man, in a carpet cap, offered, +this very morning, to kiss her on the stairs. Hereupon, Mr Towlinson is +starting from his chair, to seek and 'smash' the offender; when he is +laid hold on by the ladies, who beseech him to calm himself, and +to reflect that it is easier and wiser to leave the scene of such +indecencies at once. Mrs Perch, presenting the case in a new light, +even shows that delicacy towards Mr Dombey, shut up in his own rooms, +imperatively demands precipitate retreat. 'For what,' says the good +woman, 'must his feelings be, if he was to come upon any of the poor +servants that he once deceived into thinking him immensely rich!' Cook +is so struck by this moral consideration, that Mrs Perch improves it +with several pious axioms, original and selected. It becomes a clear +case that they must all go. Boxes are packed, cabs fetched, and at dusk +that evening there is not one member of the party left. + +The house stands, large and weather-proof, in the long dull street; but +it is a ruin, and the rats fly from it. + +The men in the carpet caps go on tumbling the furniture about; and the +gentlemen with the pens and ink make out inventories of it, and sit upon +pieces of furniture never made to be sat upon, and eat bread and cheese +from the public-house on other pieces of furniture never made to be +eaten on, and seem to have a delight in appropriating precious articles +to strange uses. Chaotic combinations of furniture also take place. +Mattresses and bedding appear in the dining-room; the glass and china +get into the conservatory; the great dinner service is set out in heaps +on the long divan in the large drawing-room; and the stair-wires, made +into fasces, decorate the marble chimneypieces. Finally, a rug, with +a printed bill upon it, is hung out from the balcony; and a similar +appendage graces either side of the hall door. + +Then, all day long, there is a retinue of mouldy gigs and chaise-carts +in the street; and herds of shabby vampires, Jew and Christian, over-run +the house, sounding the plate-glass mirrors with their knuckles, striking +discordant octaves on the Grand Piano, drawing wet forefingers over the +pictures, breathing on the blades of the best dinner-knives, punching +the squabs of chairs and sofas with their dirty fists, touzling the +feather beds, opening and shutting all the drawers, balancing the silver +spoons and forks, looking into the very threads of the drapery and +linen, and disparaging everything. There is not a secret place in the +whole house. Fluffy and snuffy strangers stare into the kitchen-range as +curiously as into the attic clothes-press. Stout men with napless hats +on, look out of the bedroom windows, and cut jokes with friends in the +street. Quiet, calculating spirits withdraw into the dressing-rooms with +catalogues, and make marginal notes thereon, with stumps of pencils. Two +brokers invade the very fire-escape, and take a panoramic survey of the +neighbourhood from the top of the house. The swarm and buzz, and going +up and down, endure for days. The Capital Modern Household Furniture, +&c., is on view. + +Then there is a palisade of tables made in the best drawing-room; and +on the capital, french-polished, extending, telescopic range of Spanish +mahogany dining-tables with turned legs, the pulpit of the Auctioneer +is erected; and the herds of shabby vampires, Jew and Christian, the +strangers fluffy and snuffy, and the stout men with the napless hats, +congregate about it and sit upon everything within reach, mantel-pieces +included, and begin to bid. Hot, humming, and dusty are the rooms all +day; and--high above the heat, hum, and dust--the head and shoulders, +voice and hammer, of the Auctioneer, are ever at work. The men in the +carpet caps get flustered and vicious with tumbling the Lots about, and +still the Lots are going, going, gone; still coming on. Sometimes +there is joking and a general roar. This lasts all day and three days +following. The Capital Modern Household Furniture, &c., is on sale. + +Then the mouldy gigs and chaise-carts reappear; and with them come +spring-vans and waggons, and an army of porters with knots. All day +long, the men with carpet caps are screwing at screw-drivers and +bed-winches, or staggering by the dozen together on the staircase under +heavy burdens, or upheaving perfect rocks of Spanish mahogany, best +rose-wood, or plate-glass, into the gigs and chaise-carts, vans and +waggons. All sorts of vehicles of burden are in attendance, from a +tilted waggon to a wheelbarrow. Poor Paul's little bedstead is carried +off in a donkey-tandem. For nearly a whole week, the Capital Modern +Household Furniture, & c., is in course of removal. + +At last it is all gone. Nothing is left about the house but scattered +leaves of catalogues, littered scraps of straw and hay, and a battery of +pewter pots behind the hall-door. The men with the carpet-caps gather up +their screw-drivers and bed-winches into bags, shoulder them, and walk +off. One of the pen-and-ink gentlemen goes over the house as a last +attention; sticking up bills in the windows respecting the lease of +this desirable family mansion, and shutting the shutters. At length he +follows the men with the carpet caps. None of the invaders remain. The +house is a ruin, and the rats fly from it. + +Mrs Pipchin's apartments, together with those locked rooms on the +ground-floor where the window-blinds are drawn down close, have been +spared the general devastation. Mrs Pipchin has remained austere and +stony during the proceedings, in her own room; or has occasionally +looked in at the sale to see what the goods are fetching, and to bid for +one particular easy chair. Mrs Pipchin has been the highest bidder for +the easy chair, and sits upon her property when Mrs Chick comes to see +her. + +'How is my brother, Mrs Pipchin?' says Mrs Chick. + +'I don't know any more than the deuce,' says Mrs Pipchin. 'He never does +me the honour to speak to me. He has his meat and drink put in the next +room to his own; and what he takes, he comes out and takes when there's +nobody there. It's no use asking me. I know no more about him than the +man in the south who burnt his mouth by eating cold plum porridge.' + +This the acrimonious Pipchin says with a flounce. + +'But good gracious me!' cries Mrs Chick blandly. 'How long is this to +last! If my brother will not make an effort, Mrs Pipchin, what is to +become of him? I am sure I should have thought he had seen enough of the +consequences of not making an effort, by this time, to be warned against +that fatal error.' + +'Hoity toity!' says Mrs Pipchin, rubbing her nose. 'There's a great +fuss, I think, about it. It ain't so wonderful a case. People have had +misfortunes before now, and been obliged to part with their furniture. +I'm sure I have!' + +'My brother,' pursues Mrs Chick profoundly, 'is so peculiar--so strange +a man. He is the most peculiar man I ever saw. Would anyone believe that +when he received news of the marriage and emigration of that unnatural +child--it's a comfort to me, now, to remember that I always said there +was something extraordinary about that child: but nobody minds me--would +anybody believe, I say, that he should then turn round upon me and say +he had supposed, from my manner, that she had come to my house? Why, +my gracious! And would anybody believe that when I merely say to him, +"Paul, I may be very foolish, and I have no doubt I am, but I cannot +understand how your affairs can have got into this state," he should +actually fly at me, and request that I will come to see him no more +until he asks me! Why, my goodness!' + +'Ah!' says Mrs Pipchin. 'It's a pity he hadn't a little more to do with +mines. They'd have tried his temper for him.' + +'And what,' resumes Mrs Chick, quite regardless of Mrs Pipchin's +observations, 'is it to end in? That's what I want to know. What does my +brother mean to do? He must do something. It's of no use remaining shut +up in his own rooms. Business won't come to him. No. He must go to it. +Then why don't he go? He knows where to go, I suppose, having been a man +of business all his life. Very good. Then why not go there?' + +Mrs Chick, after forging this powerful chain of reasoning, remains +silent for a minute to admire it. + +'Besides,' says the discreet lady, with an argumentative air, 'who ever +heard of such obstinacy as his staying shut up here through all these +dreadful disagreeables? It's not as if there was no place for him to go +to. Of course he could have come to our house. He knows he is at home +there, I suppose? Mr Chick has perfectly bored about it, and I said +with my own lips, "Why surely, Paul, you don't imagine that because your +affairs have got into this state, you are the less at home to such near +relatives as ourselves? You don't imagine that we are like the rest of +the world?" But no; here he stays all through, and here he is. Why, good +gracious me, suppose the house was to be let! What would he do then? He +couldn't remain here then. If he attempted to do so, there would be an +ejectment, an action for Doe, and all sorts of things; and then he must +go. Then why not go at first instead of at last? And that brings me back +to what I said just now, and I naturally ask what is to be the end of +it?' + +'I know what's to be the end of it, as far as I am concerned,' replies +Mrs Pipchin, 'and that's enough for me. I'm going to take myself off in +a jiffy.' + +'In a which, Mrs Pipchin,' says Mrs Chick. + +'In a jiffy,' retorts Mrs Pipchin sharply. + +'Ah, well! really I can't blame you, Mrs Pipchin,' says Mrs Chick, with +frankness. + +'It would be pretty much the same to me, if you could,' replies the +sardonic Pipchin. 'At any rate I'm going. I can't stop here. I should +be dead in a week. I had to cook my own pork chop yesterday, and I'm not +used to it. My constitution will be giving way next. Besides, I had a +very fair connexion at Brighton when I came here--little Pankey's folks +alone were worth a good eighty pounds a-year to me--and I can't afford +to throw it away. I've written to my niece, and she expects me by this +time.' + +'Have you spoken to my brother?' inquires Mrs Chick + +'Oh, yes, it's very easy to say speak to him,' retorts Mrs Pipchin. 'How +is it done? I called out to him yesterday, that I was no use here, and +that he had better let me send for Mrs Richards. He grunted something +or other that meant yes, and I sent. Grunt indeed! If he had been Mr +Pipchin, he'd have had some reason to grunt. Yah! I've no patience with +it!' + +Here this exemplary female, who has pumped up so much fortitude and +virtue from the depths of the Peruvian mines, rises from her cushioned +property to see Mrs Chick to the door. Mrs Chick, deploring to the +last the peculiar character of her brother, noiselessly retires, much +occupied with her own sagacity and clearness of head. + +In the dusk of the evening Mr Toodle, being off duty, arrives with Polly +and a box, and leaves them, with a sounding kiss, in the hall of the +empty house, the retired character of which affects Mr Toodle's spirits +strongly. + +'I tell you what, Polly, me dear,' says Mr Toodle, 'being now an +ingine-driver, and well to do in the world, I shouldn't allow of your +coming here, to be made dull-like, if it warn't for favours past. +But favours past, Polly, is never to be forgot. To them which is in +adversity, besides, your face is a cord'l. So let's have another kiss on +it, my dear. You wish no better than to do a right act, I know; and my +views is, that it's right and dutiful to do this. Good-night, Polly!' + +Mrs Pipchin by this time looms dark in her black bombazeen skirts, black +bonnet, and shawl; and has her personal property packed up; and has her +chair (late a favourite chair of Mr Dombey's and the dead bargain of +the sale) ready near the street door; and is only waiting for a fly-van, +going to-night to Brighton on private service, which is to call for her, +by private contract, and convey her home. + +Presently it comes. Mrs Pipchin's wardrobe being handed in and stowed +away, Mrs Pipchin's chair is next handed in, and placed in a convenient +corner among certain trusses of hay; it being the intention of the +amiable woman to occupy the chair during her journey. Mrs Pipchin +herself is next handed in, and grimly takes her seat. There is a snaky +gleam in her hard grey eye, as of anticipated rounds of buttered toast, +relays of hot chops, worryings and quellings of young children, sharp +snappings at poor Berry, and all the other delights of her Ogress's +castle. Mrs Pipchin almost laughs as the fly-van drives off, and she +composes her black bombazeen skirts, and settles herself among the +cushions of her easy chair. + +The house is such a ruin that the rats have fled, and there is not one +left. + +But Polly, though alone in the deserted mansion--for there is no +companionship in the shut-up rooms in which its late master hides his +head--is not alone long. It is night; and she is sitting at work in the +housekeeper's room, trying to forget what a lonely house it is, and what +a history belongs to it; when there is a knock at the hall door, as loud +sounding as any knock can be, striking into such an empty place. Opening +it, she returns across the echoing hall, accompanied by a female figure +in a close black bonnet. It is Miss Tox, and Miss Tox's eyes are red. + +'Oh, Polly,' says Miss Tox, 'when I looked in to have a little lesson +with the children just now, I got the message that you left for me; and +as soon as I could recover my spirits at all, I came on after you. Is +there no one here but you?' + +'Ah! not a soul,' says Polly. + +'Have you seen him?' whispers Miss Tox. + +'Bless you,' returns Polly, 'no; he has not been seen this many a day. +They tell me he never leaves his room.' + +'Is he said to be ill?' inquires Miss Tox. + +'No, Ma'am, not that I know of,' returns Polly, 'except in his mind. He +must be very bad there, poor gentleman!' + +Miss Tox's sympathy is such that she can scarcely speak. She is no +chicken, but she has not grown tough with age and celibacy. Her heart is +very tender, her compassion very genuine, her homage very real. Beneath +the locket with the fishy eye in it, Miss Tox bears better qualities +than many a less whimsical outside; such qualities as will outlive, by +many courses of the sun, the best outsides and brightest husks that fall +in the harvest of the great reaper. + +It is long before Miss Tox goes away, and before Polly, with a candle +flaring on the blank stairs, looks after her, for company, down the +street, and feels unwilling to go back into the dreary house, and jar +its emptiness with the heavy fastenings of the door, and glide away to +bed. But all this Polly does; and in the morning sets in one of those +darkened rooms such matters as she has been advised to prepare, and then +retires and enters them no more until next morning at the same hour. +There are bells there, but they never ring; and though she can sometimes +hear a footfall going to and fro, it never comes out. + +Miss Tox returns early in the day. It then begins to be Miss Tox's +occupation to prepare little dainties--or what are such to her--to be +carried into these rooms next morning. She derives so much satisfaction +from the pursuit, that she enters on it regularly from that time; and +brings daily in her little basket, various choice condiments selected +from the scanty stores of the deceased owner of the powdered head and +pigtail. She likewise brings, in sheets of curl-paper, morsels of +cold meats, tongues of sheep, halves of fowls, for her own dinner; and +sharing these collations with Polly, passes the greater part of her time +in the ruined house that the rats have fled from: hiding, in a fright +at every sound, stealing in and out like a criminal; only desiring to be +true to the fallen object of her admiration, unknown to him, unknown to +all the world but one poor simple woman. + +The Major knows it; but no one is the wiser for that, though the Major +is much the merrier. The Major, in a fit of curiosity, has charged +the Native to watch the house sometimes, and find out what becomes of +Dombey. The Native has reported Miss Tox's fidelity, and the Major has +nearly choked himself dead with laughter. He is permanently bluer from +that hour, and constantly wheezes to himself, his lobster eyes starting +out of his head, 'Damme, Sir, the woman's a born idiot!' + +And the ruined man. How does he pass the hours, alone? + +'Let him remember it in that room, years to come!' He did remember it. +It was heavy on his mind now; heavier than all the rest. + +'Let him remember it in that room, years to come! The rain that +falls upon the roof, the wind that mourns outside the door, may have +foreknowledge in their melancholy sound. Let him remember it in that +room, years to come!' + +He did remember it. In the miserable night he thought of it; in the +dreary day, the wretched dawn, the ghostly, memory-haunted twilight. +He did remember it. In agony, in sorrow, in remorse, in despair! 'Papa! +Papa! Speak to me, dear Papa!' He heard the words again, and saw +the face. He saw it fall upon the trembling hands, and heard the one +prolonged low cry go upward. + +He was fallen, never to be raised up any more. For the night of his +worldly ruin there was no to-morrow's sun; for the stain of his domestic +shame there was no purification; nothing, thank Heaven, could bring his +dead child back to life. But that which he might have made so different +in all the Past--which might have made the Past itself so different, +though this he hardly thought of now--that which was his own work, +that which he could so easily have wrought into a blessing, and had set +himself so steadily for years to form into a curse: that was the sharp +grief of his soul. + +Oh! He did remember it! The rain that fell upon the roof, the wind that +mourned outside the door that night, had had foreknowledge in their +melancholy sound. He knew, now, what he had done. He knew, now, that +he had called down that upon his head, which bowed it lower than the +heaviest stroke of fortune. He knew, now, what it was to be rejected and +deserted; now, when every loving blossom he had withered in his innocent +daughter's heart was snowing down in ashes on him. + +He thought of her, as she had been that night when he and his bride came +home. He thought of her as she had been, in all the home-events of the +abandoned house. He thought, now, that of all around him, she alone had +never changed. His boy had faded into dust, his proud wife had sunk into +a polluted creature, his flatterer and friend had been transformed into +the worst of villains, his riches had melted away, the very walls that +sheltered him looked on him as a stranger; she alone had turned the same +mild gentle look upon him always. Yes, to the latest and the last. She +had never changed to him--nor had he ever changed to her--and she was +lost. + +As, one by one, they fell away before his mind--his baby--hope, his +wife, his friend, his fortune--oh how the mist, through which he had +seen her, cleared, and showed him her true self! Oh, how much better +than this that he had loved her as he had his boy, and lost her as he +had his boy, and laid them in their early grave together! + +In his pride--for he was proud yet--he let the world go from him freely. +As it fell away, he shook it off. Whether he imagined its face as +expressing pity for him, or indifference to him, he shunned it alike. It +was in the same degree to be avoided, in either aspect. He had no idea +of any one companion in his misery, but the one he had driven away. What +he would have said to her, or what consolation submitted to receive from +her, he never pictured to himself. But he always knew she would have +been true to him, if he had suffered her. He always knew she would have +loved him better now, than at any other time; he was as certain that it +was in her nature, as he was that there was a sky above him; and he sat +thinking so, in his loneliness, from hour to hour. Day after day uttered +this speech; night after night showed him this knowledge. + +It began, beyond all doubt (however slow it advanced for some time), in +the receipt of her young husband's letter, and the certainty that she +was gone. And yet--so proud he was in his ruin, or so reminiscent of +her only as something that might have been his, but was lost beyond +redemption--that if he could have heard her voice in an adjoining room, +he would not have gone to her. If he could have seen her in the street, +and she had done no more than look at him as she had been used to look, +he would have passed on with his old cold unforgiving face, and not +addressed her, or relaxed it, though his heart should have broken soon +afterwards. However turbulent his thoughts, or harsh his anger had been, +at first, concerning her marriage, or her husband, that was all past +now. He chiefly thought of what might have been, and what was not. What +was, was all summed up in this: that she was lost, and he bowed down +with sorrow and remorse. + +And now he felt that he had had two children born to him in that house, +and that between him and the bare wide empty walls there was a tie, +mournful, but hard to rend asunder, connected with a double childhood, +and a double loss. He had thought to leave the house--knowing he must +go, not knowing whither--upon the evening of the day on which this +feeling first struck root in his breast; but he resolved to stay another +night, and in the night to ramble through the rooms once more. + +He came out of his solitude when it was the dead of night, and with +a candle in his hand went softly up the stairs. Of all the footmarks +there, making them as common as the common street, there was not one, he +thought, but had seemed at the time to set itself upon his brain while +he had kept close, listening. He looked at their number, and their +hurry, and contention--foot treading foot out, and upward track and +downward jostling one another--and thought, with absolute dread and +wonder, how much he must have suffered during that trial, and what +a changed man he had cause to be. He thought, besides, oh was there, +somewhere in the world, a light footstep that might have worn out in a +moment half those marks!--and bent his head, and wept as he went up. + +He almost saw it, going on before. He stopped, looking up towards the +skylight; and a figure, childish itself, but carrying a child, and +singing as it went, seemed to be there again. Anon, it was the same +figure, alone, stopping for an instant, with suspended breath; the +bright hair clustering loosely round its tearful face; and looking back +at him. + +He wandered through the rooms: lately so luxurious; now so bare and +dismal and so changed, apparently, even in their shape and size. The +press of footsteps was as thick here; and the same consideration of the +suffering he had had, perplexed and terrified him. He began to fear +that all this intricacy in his brain would drive him mad; and that his +thoughts already lost coherence as the footprints did, and were pieced +on to one another, with the same trackless involutions, and varieties of +indistinct shapes. + +He did not so much as know in which of these rooms she had lived, when +she was alone. He was glad to leave them, and go wandering higher up. +Abundance of associations were here, connected with his false wife, his +false friend and servant, his false grounds of pride; but he put +them all by now, and only recalled miserably, weakly, fondly, his two +children. + +Everywhere, the footsteps! They had had no respect for the old room high +up, where the little bed had been; he could hardly find a clear space +there, to throw himself down, on the floor, against the wall, poor +broken man, and let his tears flow as they would. He had shed so many +tears here, long ago, that he was less ashamed of his weakness in this +place than in any other--perhaps, with that consciousness, had made +excuses to himself for coming here. Here, with stooping shoulders, and +his chin dropped on his breast, he had come. Here, thrown upon the bare +boards, in the dead of night, he wept, alone--a proud man, even then; +who, if a kind hand could have been stretched out, or a kind face could +have looked in, would have risen up, and turned away, and gone down to +his cell. + +When the day broke he was shut up in his rooms again. He had meant to +go away to-day, but clung to this tie in the house as the last and only +thing left to him. He would go to-morrow. To-morrow came. He would go +to-morrow. Every night, within the knowledge of no human creature, he +came forth, and wandered through the despoiled house like a ghost. Many +a morning when the day broke, his altered face, drooping behind the +closed blind in his window, imperfectly transparent to the light as yet, +pondered on the loss of his two children. It was one child no more. He +reunited them in his thoughts, and they were never asunder. Oh, that he +could have united them in his past love, and in death, and that one had +not been so much worse than dead! + +Strong mental agitation and disturbance was no novelty to him, even +before his late sufferings. It never is, to obstinate and sullen +natures; for they struggle hard to be such. Ground, long undermined, +will often fall down in a moment; what was undermined here in so many +ways, weakened, and crumbled, little by little, more and more, as the +hand moved on the dial. + +At last he began to think he need not go at all. He might yet give up +what his creditors had spared him (that they had not spared him more, +was his own act), and only sever the tie between him and the ruined +house, by severing that other link-- + +It was then that his footfall was audible in the late housekeeper's +room, as he walked to and fro; but not audible in its true meaning, or +it would have had an appalling sound. + +The world was very busy and restless about him. He became aware of that +again. It was whispering and babbling. It was never quiet. This, and +the intricacy and complication of the footsteps, harassed him to death. +Objects began to take a bleared and russet colour in his eyes. Dombey +and Son was no more--his children no more. This must be thought of, +well, to-morrow. + +He thought of it to-morrow; and sitting thinking in his chair, saw in +the glass, from time to time, this picture: + +A spectral, haggard, wasted likeness of himself, brooded and brooded +over the empty fireplace. Now it lifted up its head, examining the lines +and hollows in its face; now hung it down again, and brooded afresh. Now +it rose and walked about; now passed into the next room, and came +back with something from the dressing-table in its breast. Now, it was +looking at the bottom of the door, and thinking. + +--Hush! what? + +It was thinking that if blood were to trickle that way, and to leak out +into the hall, it must be a long time going so far. It would move so +stealthily and slowly, creeping on, with here a lazy little pool, and +there a start, and then another little pool, that a desperately wounded +man could only be discovered through its means, either dead or dying. +When it had thought of this a long while, it got up again, and walked to +and fro with its hand in its breast. He glanced at it occasionally, very +curious to watch its motions, and he marked how wicked and murderous that +hand looked. + +Now it was thinking again! What was it thinking? + +Whether they would tread in the blood when it crept so far, and carry +it about the house among those many prints of feet, or even out into the +street. + +It sat down, with its eyes upon the empty fireplace, and as it lost +itself in thought there shone into the room a gleam of light; a ray of +sun. It was quite unmindful, and sat thinking. Suddenly it rose, with +a terrible face, and that guilty hand grasping what was in its breast. +Then it was arrested by a cry--a wild, loud, piercing, loving, rapturous +cry--and he only saw his own reflection in the glass, and at his knees, +his daughter! + +Yes. His daughter! Look at her! Look here! Down upon the ground, +clinging to him, calling to him, folding her hands, praying to him. + +'Papa! Dearest Papa! Pardon me, forgive me! I have come back to ask +forgiveness on my knees. I never can be happy more, without it!' + +Unchanged still. Of all the world, unchanged. Raising the same face to +his, as on that miserable night. Asking his forgiveness! + +'Dear Papa, oh don't look strangely on me! I never meant to leave you. I +never thought of it, before or afterwards. I was frightened when I went +away, and could not think. Papa, dear, I am changed. I am penitent. I +know my fault. I know my duty better now. Papa, don't cast me off, or I +shall die!' + +He tottered to his chair. He felt her draw his arms about her neck; he +felt her put her own round his; he felt her kisses on his face; he felt +her wet cheek laid against his own; he felt--oh, how deeply!--all that +he had done. + +Upon the breast that he had bruised, against the heart that he had +almost broken, she laid his face, now covered with his hands, and said, +sobbing: + +'Papa, love, I am a mother. I have a child who will soon call Walter by +the name by which I call you. When it was born, and when I knew how +much I loved it, I knew what I had done in leaving you. Forgive me, dear +Papa! oh say God bless me, and my little child!' + +He would have said it, if he could. He would have raised his hands and +besought her for pardon, but she caught them in her own, and put them +down, hurriedly. + +'My little child was born at sea, Papa I prayed to God (and so did +Walter for me) to spare me, that I might come home. The moment I could +land, I came back to you. Never let us be parted any more, Papa. Never +let us be parted any more!' + +His head, now grey, was encircled by her arm; and he groaned to think +that never, never, had it rested so before. + +'You will come home with me, Papa, and see my baby. A boy, Papa. His +name is Paul. I think--I hope--he's like--' + +Her tears stopped her. + +'Dear Papa, for the sake of my child, for the sake of the name we have +given him, for my sake, pardon Walter. He is so kind and tender to me. I +am so happy with him. It was not his fault that we were married. It was +mine. I loved him so much.' + +She clung closer to him, more endearing and more earnest. + +'He is the darling of my heart, Papa I would die for him. He will love +and honour you as I will. We will teach our little child to love and +honour you; and we will tell him, when he can understand, that you had +a son of that name once, and that he died, and you were very sorry; but +that he is gone to Heaven, where we all hope to see him when our +time for resting comes. Kiss me, Papa, as a promise that you will be +reconciled to Walter--to my dearest husband--to the father of the little +child who taught me to come back, Papa Who taught me to come back!' + +As she clung closer to him, in another burst of tears, he kissed her on +her lips, and, lifting up his eyes, said, 'Oh my God, forgive me, for I +need it very much!' + +With that he dropped his head again, lamenting over and caressing her, +and there was not a sound in all the house for a long, long time; they +remaining clasped in one another's arms, in the glorious sunshine that +had crept in with Florence. + +He dressed himself for going out, with a docile submission to her +entreaty; and walking with a feeble gait, and looking back, with a +tremble, at the room in which he had been so long shut up, and where he +had seen the picture in the glass, passed out with her into the hall. +Florence, hardly glancing round her, lest she should remind him freshly +of their last parting--for their feet were on the very stones where he +had struck her in his madness--and keeping close to him, with her eyes +upon his face, and his arm about her, led him out to a coach that was +waiting at the door, and carried him away. + +Then, Miss Tox and Polly came out of their concealment, and exulted +tearfully. And then they packed his clothes, and books, and so forth, +with great care; and consigned them in due course to certain persons +sent by Florence, in the evening, to fetch them. And then they took a +last cup of tea in the lonely house. + +'And so Dombey and Son, as I observed upon a certain sad occasion,' said +Miss Tox, winding up a host of recollections, 'is indeed a daughter, +Polly, after all.' + +'And a good one!' exclaimed Polly. + +'You are right,' said Miss Tox; 'and it's a credit to you, Polly, that +you were always her friend when she was a little child. You were her +friend long before I was, Polly,' said Miss Tox; 'and you're a good +creature. Robin!' + +Miss Tox addressed herself to a bullet-headed young man, who appeared to +be in but indifferent circumstances, and in depressed spirits, and who +was sitting in a remote corner. Rising, he disclosed to view the form +and features of the Grinder. + +'Robin,' said Miss Tox, 'I have just observed to your mother, as you may +have heard, that she is a good creature.' + +'And so she is, Miss,' quoth the Grinder, with some feeling. + +'Very well, Robin,' said Miss Tox, 'I am glad to hear you say so. Now, +Robin, as I am going to give you a trial, at your urgent request, as my +domestic, with a view to your restoration to respectability, I will take +this impressive occasion of remarking that I hope you will never forget +that you have, and have always had, a good mother, and that you will +endeavour so to conduct yourself as to be a comfort to her.' + +'Upon my soul I will, Miss,' returned the Grinder. 'I have come through +a good deal, and my intentions is now as straightfor'ard, Miss, as a +cove's--' + +'I must get you to break yourself of that word, Robin, if you please,' +interposed Miss Tox, politely. + +'If you please, Miss, as a chap's--' + +'Thankee, Robin, no,' returned Miss Tox, 'I should prefer individual.' + +'As a indiwiddle's--,' said the Grinder. + +'Much better,' remarked Miss Tox, complacently; 'infinitely more +expressive!' + +'--can be,' pursued Rob. 'If I hadn't been and got made a Grinder on, +Miss and Mother, which was a most unfortunate circumstance for a young +co--indiwiddle--' + +'Very good indeed,' observed Miss Tox, approvingly. + +'--and if I hadn't been led away by birds, and then fallen into a bad +service,' said the Grinder, 'I hope I might have done better. But it's +never too late for a--' + +'Indi--' suggested Miss Tox. + +'--widdle,' said the Grinder, 'to mend; and I hope to mend, Miss, with +your kind trial; and wishing, Mother, my love to father, and brothers +and sisters, and saying of it.' + +'I am very glad indeed to hear it,' observed Miss Tox. 'Will you take a +little bread and butter, and a cup of tea, before we go, Robin?' + +'Thankee, Miss,' returned the Grinder; who immediately began to use his +own personal grinders in a most remarkable manner, as if he had been on +very short allowance for a considerable period. + +Miss Tox, being, in good time, bonneted and shawled, and Polly too, Rob +hugged his mother, and followed his new mistress away; so much to the +hopeful admiration of Polly, that something in her eyes made luminous +rings round the gas-lamps as she looked after him. Polly then put out +her light, locked the house-door, delivered the key at an agent's hard +by, and went home as fast as she could go; rejoicing in the shrill +delight that her unexpected arrival would occasion there. The great +house, dumb as to all that had been suffered in it, and the changes it +had witnessed, stood frowning like a dark mute on the street; baulking +any nearer inquiries with the staring announcement that the lease of +this desirable Family Mansion was to be disposed of. + + + +CHAPTER 60. Chiefly Matrimonial + + +The grand half-yearly festival holden by Doctor and Mrs Blimber, on +which occasion they requested the pleasure of the company of every young +gentleman pursuing his studies in that genteel establishment, at an +early party, when the hour was half-past seven o'clock, and when the +object was quadrilles, had duly taken place, about this time; and +the young gentlemen, with no unbecoming demonstrations of levity, had +betaken themselves, in a state of scholastic repletion, to their +own homes. Mr Skettles had repaired abroad, permanently to grace the +establishment of his father Sir Barnet Skettles, whose popular manners +had obtained him a diplomatic appointment, the honours of which were +discharged by himself and Lady Skettles, to the satisfaction even of +their own countrymen and countrywomen: which was considered almost +miraculous. Mr Tozer, now a young man of lofty stature, in Wellington +boots, was so extremely full of antiquity as to be nearly on a par with +a genuine ancient Roman in his knowledge of English: a triumph that +affected his good parents with the tenderest emotions, and caused +the father and mother of Mr Briggs (whose learning, like ill-arranged +luggage, was so tightly packed that he couldn't get at anything he +wanted) to hide their diminished heads. The fruit laboriously gathered +from the tree of knowledge by this latter young gentleman, in fact, +had been subjected to so much pressure, that it had become a kind of +intellectual Norfolk Biffin, and had nothing of its original form or +flavour remaining. Master Bitherstone now, on whom the forcing system +had the happier and not uncommon effect of leaving no impression +whatever, when the forcing apparatus ceased to work, was in a much more +comfortable plight; and being then on shipboard, bound for Bengal, found +himself forgetting, with such admirable rapidity, that it was doubtful +whether his declensions of noun-substantives would hold out to the end +of the voyage. + +When Doctor Blimber, in pursuance of the usual course, would have said +to the young gentlemen, on the morning of the party, 'Gentlemen, we will +resume our studies on the twenty-fifth of next month,' he departed from +the usual course, and said, 'Gentlemen, when our friend Cincinnatus +retired to his farm, he did not present to the senate any Roman who he +sought to nominate as his successor. But there is a Roman here,' said +Doctor Blimber, laying his hand on the shoulder of Mr Feeder, B.A., +'adolescens imprimis gravis et doctus, gentlemen, whom I, a retiring +Cincinnatus, wish to present to my little senate, as their future +Dictator. Gentlemen, we will resume our studies on the twenty-fifth of +next month, under the auspices of Mr Feeder, B.A.' At this (which +Doctor Blimber had previously called upon all the parents, and urbanely +explained), the young gentlemen cheered; and Mr Tozer, on behalf of the +rest, instantly presented the Doctor with a silver inkstand, in a speech +containing very little of the mother-tongue, but fifteen quotations +from the Latin, and seven from the Greek, which moved the younger of the +young gentlemen to discontent and envy: they remarking, 'Oh, ah. It was +all very well for old Tozer, but they didn't subscribe money for old +Tozer to show off with, they supposed; did they? What business was it +of old Tozer's more than anybody else's? It wasn't his inkstand. +Why couldn't he leave the boys' property alone?' and murmuring other +expressions of their dissatisfaction, which seemed to find a greater +relief in calling him old Tozer, than in any other available vent. + +Not a word had been said to the young gentlemen, nor a hint dropped, of +anything like a contemplated marriage between Mr Feeder, B.A., and the +fair Cornelia Blimber. Doctor Blimber, especially, seemed to take pains +to look as if nothing would surprise him more; but it was perfectly well +known to all the young gentlemen nevertheless, and when they departed +for the society of their relations and friends, they took leave of Mr +Feeder with awe. + +Mr Feeder's most romantic visions were fulfilled. The Doctor had +determined to paint the house outside, and put it in thorough repair; +and to give up the business, and to give up Cornelia. The painting and +repairing began upon the very day of the young gentlemen's departure, +and now behold! the wedding morning was come, and Cornelia, in a new +pair of spectacles, was waiting to be led to the hymeneal altar. + +The Doctor with his learned legs, and Mrs Blimber in a lilac bonnet, and +Mr Feeder, B.A., with his long knuckles and his bristly head of hair, +and Mr Feeder's brother, the Reverend Alfred Feeder, M.A., who was +to perform the ceremony, were all assembled in the drawing-room, and +Cornelia with her orange-flowers and bridesmaids had just come down, and +looked, as of old, a little squeezed in appearance, but very charming, +when the door opened, and the weak-eyed young man, in a loud voice, made +the following proclamation: + +'MR AND MRS TOOTS!' + +Upon which there entered Mr Toots, grown extremely stout, and on his arm +a lady very handsomely and becomingly dressed, with very bright black +eyes. + +'Mrs Blimber,' said Mr Toots, 'allow me to present my wife.' + +Mrs Blimber was delighted to receive her. Mrs Blimber was a little +condescending, but extremely kind. + +'And as you've known me for a long time, you know,' said Mr Toots, 'let +me assure you that she is one of the most remarkable women that ever +lived.' + +'My dear!' remonstrated Mrs Toots. + +'Upon my word and honour she is,' said Mr Toots. 'I--I assure you, Mrs +Blimber, she's a most extraordinary woman.' + +Mrs Toots laughed merrily, and Mrs Blimber led her to Cornelia. Mr Toots +having paid his respects in that direction and having saluted his old +preceptor, who said, in allusion to his conjugal state, 'Well, Toots, +well, Toots! So you are one of us, are you, Toots?'--retired with Mr +Feeder, B.A., into a window. + +Mr Feeder, B.A., being in great spirits, made a spar at Mr Toots, and +tapped him skilfully with the back of his hand on the breastbone. + +'Well, old Buck!' said Mr Feeder with a laugh. 'Well! Here we are! Taken +in and done for. Eh?' + +'Feeder,' returned Mr Toots. 'I give you joy. If you're as--as--as +perfectly blissful in a matrimonial life, as I am myself, you'll have +nothing to desire.' + +'I don't forget my old friends, you see,' said Mr Feeder. 'I ask em to +my wedding, Toots.' + +'Feeder,' replied Mr Toots gravely, 'the fact is, that there were +several circumstances which prevented me from communicating with you +until after my marriage had been solemnised. In the first place, I had +made a perfect brute of myself to you, on the subject of Miss Dombey; +and I felt that if you were asked to any wedding of mine, you +would naturally expect that it was with Miss Dombey, which involved +explanations, that upon my word and honour, at that crisis, would +have knocked me completely over. In the second place, our wedding was +strictly private; there being nobody present but one friend of myself +and Mrs Toots's, who is a Captain in--I don't exactly know in what,' +said Mr Toots, 'but it's of no consequence. I hope, Feeder, that in +writing a statement of what had occurred before Mrs Toots and myself +went abroad upon our foreign tour, I fully discharged the offices of +friendship.' + +'Toots, my boy,' said Mr Feeder, shaking his hands, 'I was joking.' + +'And now, Feeder,' said Mr Toots, 'I should be glad to know what you +think of my union.' + +'Capital!' returned Mr Feeder. + +'You think it's capital, do you, Feeder?' said Mr Toots solemnly. +'Then how capital must it be to Me! For you can never know what an +extraordinary woman that is.' + +Mr Feeder was willing to take it for granted. But Mr Toots shook his +head, and wouldn't hear of that being possible. + +'You see,' said Mr Toots, 'what I wanted in a wife was--in short, was +sense. Money, Feeder, I had. Sense I--I had not, particularly.' + +Mr Feeder murmured, 'Oh, yes, you had, Toots!' But Mr Toots said: + +'No, Feeder, I had not. Why should I disguise it? I had not. I knew that +sense was There,' said Mr Toots, stretching out his hand towards his +wife, 'in perfect heaps. I had no relation to object or be offended, on +the score of station; for I had no relation. I have never had anybody +belonging to me but my guardian, and him, Feeder, I have always +considered as a Pirate and a Corsair. Therefore, you know it was not +likely,' said Mr Toots, 'that I should take his opinion.' + +'No,' said Mr Feeder. + +'Accordingly,' resumed Mr Toots, 'I acted on my own. Bright was the day +on which I did so! Feeder! Nobody but myself can tell what the capacity +of that woman's mind is. If ever the Rights of Women, and all that kind +of thing, are properly attended to, it will be through her powerful +intellect--Susan, my dear!' said Mr Toots, looking abruptly out of the +windows 'pray do not exert yourself!' + +'My dear,' said Mrs Toots, 'I was only talking.' + +'But, my love,' said Mr Toots, 'pray do not exert yourself. You really +must be careful. Do not, my dear Susan, exert yourself. She's so easily +excited,' said Mr Toots, apart to Mrs Blimber, 'and then she forgets the +medical man altogether.' + +Mrs Blimber was impressing on Mrs Toots the necessity of caution, when +Mr Feeder, B.A., offered her his arm, and led her down to the carriages +that were waiting to go to church. Doctor Blimber escorted Mrs Toots. Mr +Toots escorted the fair bride, around whose lambent spectacles two gauzy +little bridesmaids fluttered like moths. Mr Feeder's brother, Mr Alfred +Feeder, M.A., had already gone on, in advance, to assume his official +functions. + +The ceremony was performed in an admirable manner. Cornelia, with her +crisp little curls, 'went in,' as the Chicken might have said, with +great composure; and Doctor Blimber gave her away, like a man who had +quite made up his mind to it. The gauzy little bridesmaids appeared +to suffer most. Mrs Blimber was affected, but gently so; and told the +Reverend Mr Alfred Feeder, M.A., on the way home, that if she could only +have seen Cicero in his retirement at Tusculum, she would not have had a +wish, now, ungratified. + +There was a breakfast afterwards, limited to the same small party; +at which the spirits of Mr Feeder, B.A., were tremendous, and so +communicated themselves to Mrs Toots that Mr Toots was several times +heard to observe, across the table, 'My dear Susan, don't exert +yourself!' The best of it was, that Mr Toots felt it incumbent on him to +make a speech; and in spite of a whole code of telegraphic dissuasions +from Mrs Toots, appeared on his legs for the first time in his life. + +'I really,' said Mr Toots, 'in this house, where whatever was done to +me in the way of--of any mental confusion sometimes--which is of no +consequence and I impute to nobody--I was always treated like one of +Doctor Blimber's family, and had a desk to myself for a considerable +period--can--not--allow--my friend Feeder to be--' + +Mrs Toots suggested 'married.' + +'It may not be inappropriate to the occasion, or altogether +uninteresting,' said Mr Toots with a delighted face, 'to observe that my +wife is a most extraordinary woman, and would do this much better than +myself--allow my friend Feeder to be married--especially to--' + +Mrs Toots suggested 'to Miss Blimber.' + +'To Mrs Feeder, my love!' said Mr Toots, in a subdued tone of private +discussion: "'whom God hath joined," you know, "let no man"--don't you +know? I cannot allow my friend Feeder to be married--especially to Mrs +Feeder--without proposing their--their--Toasts; and may,' said Mr Toots, +fixing his eyes on his wife, as if for inspiration in a high flight, +'may the torch of Hymen be the beacon of joy, and may the flowers +we have this day strewed in their path, be the--the banishers of--of +gloom!' + +Doctor Blimber, who had a taste for metaphor, was pleased with this, and +said, 'Very good, Toots! Very well said, indeed, Toots!' and nodded +his head and patted his hands. Mr Feeder made in reply, a comic speech +chequered with sentiment. Mr Alfred Feeder, M.A., was afterwards very +happy on Doctor and Mrs Blimber; Mr Feeder, B.A., scarcely less so, on +the gauzy little bridesmaids. Doctor Blimber then, in a sonorous voice, +delivered a few thoughts in the pastoral style, relative to the rushes +among which it was the intention of himself and Mrs Blimber to dwell, +and the bee that would hum around their cot. Shortly after which, as the +Doctor's eyes were twinkling in a remarkable manner, and his son-in-law +had already observed that time was made for slaves, and had inquired +whether Mrs Toots sang, the discreet Mrs Blimber dissolved the sitting, +and sent Cornelia away, very cool and comfortable, in a post-chaise, +with the man of her heart. + +Mr and Mrs Toots withdrew to the Bedford (Mrs Toots had been there +before in old times, under her maiden name of Nipper), and there found +a letter, which it took Mr Toots such an enormous time to read, that Mrs +Toots was frightened. + +'My dear Susan,' said Mr Toots, 'fright is worse than exertion. Pray be +calm!' + +'Who is it from?' asked Mrs Toots. + +'Why, my love,' said Mr Toots, 'it's from Captain Gills. Do not excite +yourself. Walters and Miss Dombey are expected home!' + +'My dear,' said Mrs Toots, raising herself quickly from the sofa, very +pale, 'don't try to deceive me, for it's no use, they're come home--I +see it plainly in your face!' + +'She's a most extraordinary woman!' exclaimed Mr Toots, in rapturous +admiration. 'You're perfectly right, my love, they have come home. Miss +Dombey has seen her father, and they are reconciled!' + +'Reconciled!' cried Mrs Toots, clapping her hands. + +'My dear,' said Mr Toots; 'pray do not exert yourself. Do remember the +medical man! Captain Gills says--at least he don't say, but I imagine, +from what I can make out, he means--that Miss Dombey has brought her +unfortunate father away from his old house, to one where she and Walters +are living; that he is lying very ill there--supposed to be dying; and +that she attends upon him night and day.' + +Mrs Toots began to cry quite bitterly. + +'My dearest Susan,' replied Mr Toots, 'do, do, if you possibly can, +remember the medical man! If you can't, it's of no consequence--but do +endeavour to!' + +His wife, with her old manner suddenly restored, so pathetically +entreated him to take her to her precious pet, her little mistress, her +own darling, and the like, that Mr Toots, whose sympathy and admiration +were of the strongest kind, consented from his very heart of hearts; and +they agreed to depart immediately, and present themselves in answer to +the Captain's letter. + +Now some hidden sympathies of things, or some coincidences, had that +day brought the Captain himself (toward whom Mr and Mrs Toots were soon +journeying) into the flowery train of wedlock; not as a principal, but +as an accessory. It happened accidentally, and thus: + +The Captain, having seen Florence and her baby for a moment, to his +unbounded content, and having had a long talk with Walter, turned out +for a walk; feeling it necessary to have some solitary meditation on the +changes of human affairs, and to shake his glazed hat profoundly over +the fall of Mr Dombey, for whom the generosity and simplicity of his +nature were awakened in a lively manner. The Captain would have been +very low, indeed, on the unhappy gentleman's account, but for the +recollection of the baby; which afforded him such intense satisfaction +whenever it arose, that he laughed aloud as he went along the street, +and, indeed, more than once, in a sudden impulse of joy, threw up his +glazed hat and caught it again; much to the amazement of the spectators. +The rapid alternations of light and shade to which these two conflicting +subjects of reflection exposed the Captain, were so very trying to his +spirits, that he felt a long walk necessary to his composure; and as +there is a great deal in the influence of harmonious associations, he +chose, for the scene of this walk, his old neighbourhood, down among +the mast, oar, and block makers, ship-biscuit bakers, coal-whippers, +pitch-kettles, sailors, canals, docks, swing-bridges, and other soothing +objects. + +These peaceful scenes, and particularly the region of Limehouse Hole and +thereabouts, were so influential in calming the Captain, that he walked +on with restored tranquillity, and was, in fact, regaling himself, under +his breath, with the ballad of Lovely Peg, when, on turning a corner, +he was suddenly transfixed and rendered speechless by a triumphant +procession that he beheld advancing towards him. + +This awful demonstration was headed by that determined woman Mrs +MacStinger, who, preserving a countenance of inexorable resolution, and +wearing conspicuously attached to her obdurate bosom a stupendous watch +and appendages, which the Captain recognised at a glance as the property +of Bunsby, conducted under her arm no other than that sagacious mariner; +he, with the distraught and melancholy visage of a captive borne into a +foreign land, meekly resigning himself to her will. Behind them appeared +the young MacStingers, in a body, exulting. Behind them, two ladies +of a terrible and steadfast aspect, leading between them a short +gentleman in a tall hat, who likewise exulted. In the wake, appeared +Bunsby's boy, bearing umbrellas. The whole were in good marching order; +and a dreadful smartness that pervaded the party would have sufficiently +announced, if the intrepid countenances of the ladies had been wanting, +that it was a procession of sacrifice, and that the victim was Bunsby. + +The first impulse of the Captain was to run away. This also appeared +to be the first impulse of Bunsby, hopeless as its execution must +have proved. But a cry of recognition proceeding from the party, and +Alexander MacStinger running up to the Captain with open arms, the +Captain struck. + +'Well, Cap'en Cuttle!' said Mrs MacStinger. 'This is indeed a meeting! I +bear no malice now, Cap'en Cuttle--you needn't fear that I'm a going to +cast any reflections. I hope to go to the altar in another spirit.' Here +Mrs MacStinger paused, and drawing herself up, and inflating her bosom +with a long breath, said, in allusion to the victim, 'My 'usband, Cap'en +Cuttle!' + +The abject Bunsby looked neither to the right nor to the left, nor at +his bride, nor at his friend, but straight before him at nothing. The +Captain putting out his hand, Bunsby put out his; but, in answer to the +Captain's greeting, spake no word. + +'Cap'en Cuttle,' said Mrs MacStinger, 'if you would wish to heal up past +animosities, and to see the last of your friend, my 'usband, as a single +person, we should be 'appy of your company to chapel. Here is a lady +here,' said Mrs MacStinger, turning round to the more intrepid of +the two, 'my bridesmaid, that will be glad of your protection, Cap'en +Cuttle.' + +The short gentleman in the tall hat, who it appeared was the husband of +the other lady, and who evidently exulted at the reduction of a fellow +creature to his own condition, gave place at this, and resigned the lady +to Captain Cuttle. The lady immediately seized him, and, observing that +there was no time to lose, gave the word, in a strong voice, to advance. + +The Captain's concern for his friend, not unmingled, at first, with some +concern for himself--for a shadowy terror that he might be married by +violence, possessed him, until his knowledge of the service came to his +relief, and remembering the legal obligation of saying, 'I will,' +he felt himself personally safe so long as he resolved, if asked +any question, distinctly to reply 'I won't'--threw him into a profuse +perspiration; and rendered him, for a time, insensible to the movements +of the procession, of which he now formed a feature, and to the +conversation of his fair companion. But as he became less agitated, he +learnt from this lady that she was the widow of a Mr Bokum, who had held +an employment in the Custom House; that she was the dearest friend of +Mrs MacStinger, whom she considered a pattern for her sex; that she had +often heard of the Captain, and now hoped he had repented of his past +life; that she trusted Mr Bunsby knew what a blessing he had gained, but +that she feared men seldom did know what such blessings were, until they +had lost them; with more to the same purpose. + +All this time, the Captain could not but observe that Mrs Bokum kept +her eyes steadily on the bridegroom, and that whenever they came near a +court or other narrow turning which appeared favourable for flight, she +was on the alert to cut him off if he attempted escape. The other lady, +too, as well as her husband, the short gentleman with the tall hat, were +plainly on guard, according to a preconcerted plan; and the wretched man +was so secured by Mrs MacStinger, that any effort at self-preservation +by flight was rendered futile. This, indeed, was apparent to the mere +populace, who expressed their perception of the fact by jeers and cries; +to all of which, the dread MacStinger was inflexibly indifferent, while +Bunsby himself appeared in a state of unconsciousness. + +The Captain made many attempts to accost the philosopher, if only in +a monosyllable or a signal; but always failed, in consequence of the +vigilance of the guard, and the difficulty, at all times peculiar to +Bunsby's constitution, of having his attention aroused by any outward +and visible sign whatever. Thus they approached the chapel, a neat +whitewashed edifice, recently engaged by the Reverend Melchisedech +Howler, who had consented, on very urgent solicitation, to give the +world another two years of existence, but had informed his followers +that, then, it must positively go. + +While the Reverend Melchisedech was offering up some extemporary +orisons, the Captain found an opportunity of growling in the +bridegroom's ear: + +'What cheer, my lad, what cheer?' + +To which Bunsby replied, with a forgetfulness of the Reverend +Melchisedech, which nothing but his desperate circumstances could have +excused: + +'D----d bad,' + +'Jack Bunsby,' whispered the Captain, 'do you do this here, of your own +free will?' + +Mr Bunsby answered 'No.' + +'Why do you do it, then, my lad?' inquired the Captain, not unnaturally. + +Bunsby, still looking, and always looking with an immovable countenance, +at the opposite side of the world, made no reply. + +'Why not sheer off?' said the Captain. 'Eh?' whispered Bunsby, with a +momentary gleam of hope. + +'Sheer off,' said the Captain. + +'Where's the good?' retorted the forlorn sage. 'She'd capter me agen.' + +'Try!' replied the Captain. 'Cheer up! Come! Now's your time. Sheer off, +Jack Bunsby!' + +Jack Bunsby, however, instead of profiting by the advice, said in a +doleful whisper: + +'It all began in that there chest o' yourn. Why did I ever conwoy her +into port that night?' + +'My lad,' faltered the Captain, 'I thought as you had come over her; not +as she had come over you. A man as has got such opinions as you have!' + +Mr Bunsby merely uttered a suppressed groan. + +'Come!' said the Captain, nudging him with his elbow, 'now's your time! +Sheer off! I'll cover your retreat. The time's a flying. Bunsby! It's +for liberty. Will you once?' + +Bunsby was immovable. + +'Bunsby!' whispered the Captain, 'will you twice?' + +Bunsby wouldn't twice. + +'Bunsby!' urged the Captain, 'it's for liberty; will you three times? +Now or never!' + +Bunsby didn't then, and didn't ever; for Mrs MacStinger immediately +afterwards married him. + +One of the most frightful circumstances of the ceremony to the Captain, +was the deadly interest exhibited therein by Juliana MacStinger; and the +fatal concentration of her faculties, with which that promising child, +already the image of her parent, observed the whole proceedings. The +Captain saw in this a succession of man-traps stretching out infinitely; +a series of ages of oppression and coercion, through which the seafaring +line was doomed. It was a more memorable sight than the unflinching +steadiness of Mrs Bokum and the other lady, the exultation of the +short gentleman in the tall hat, or even the fell inflexibility of Mrs +MacStinger. The Master MacStingers understood little of what was going +on, and cared less; being chiefly engaged, during the ceremony, in +treading on one another's half-boots; but the contrast afforded by +those wretched infants only set off and adorned the precocious woman in +Juliana. Another year or two, the Captain thought, and to lodge where +that child was, would be destruction. + +The ceremony was concluded by a general spring of the young family on Mr +Bunsby, whom they hailed by the endearing name of father, and from +whom they solicited half-pence. These gushes of affection over, the +procession was about to issue forth again, when it was delayed for +some little time by an unexpected transport on the part of Alexander +MacStinger. That dear child, it seemed, connecting a chapel with +tombstones, when it was entered for any purpose apart from the ordinary +religious exercises, could not be persuaded but that his mother was now +to be decently interred, and lost to him for ever. In the anguish of +this conviction, he screamed with astonishing force, and turned black in +the face. However touching these marks of a tender disposition were +to his mother, it was not in the character of that remarkable woman to +permit her recognition of them to degenerate into weakness. Therefore, +after vainly endeavouring to convince his reason by shakes, pokes, +bawlings-out, and similar applications to his head, she led him into +the air, and tried another method; which was manifested to the marriage +party by a quick succession of sharp sounds, resembling applause, and +subsequently, by their seeing Alexander in contact with the coolest +paving-stone in the court, greatly flushed, and loudly lamenting. + +The procession being then in a condition to form itself once more, and +repair to Brig Place, where a marriage feast was in readiness, returned +as it had come; not without the receipt, by Bunsby, of many humorous +congratulations from the populace on his recently-acquired happiness. +The Captain accompanied it as far as the house-door, but, being made +uneasy by the gentler manner of Mrs Bokum, who, now that she was +relieved from her engrossing duty--for the watchfulness and alacrity +of the ladies sensibly diminished when the bridegroom was safely +married--had greater leisure to show an interest in his behalf, there +left it and the captive; faintly pleading an appointment, and promising +to return presently. The Captain had another cause for uneasiness, in +remorsefully reflecting that he had been the first means of Bunsby's +entrapment, though certainly without intending it, and through his +unbounded faith in the resources of that philosopher. + +To go back to old Sol Gills at the wooden Midshipman's, and not first go +round to ask how Mr Dombey was--albeit the house where he lay was out of +London, and away on the borders of a fresh heath--was quite out of the +Captain's course. So he got a lift when he was tired, and made out the +journey gaily. + +The blinds were pulled down, and the house so quiet, that the Captain +was almost afraid to knock; but listening at the door, he heard low +voices within, very near it, and, knocking softly, was admitted by Mr +Toots. Mr Toots and his wife had, in fact, just arrived there; having +been at the Midshipman's to seek him, and having there obtained the +address. + +They were not so recently arrived, but that Mrs Toots had caught the +baby from somebody, taken it in her arms, and sat down on the stairs, +hugging and fondling it. Florence was stooping down beside her; and no +one could have said which Mrs Toots was hugging and fondling most, the +mother or the child, or which was the tenderer, Florence of Mrs Toots, +or Mrs Toots of her, or both of the baby; it was such a little group of +love and agitation. + +'And is your Pa very ill, my darling dear Miss Floy?' asked Susan. + +'He is very, very ill,' said Florence. 'But, Susan, dear, you must +not speak to me as you used to speak. And what's this?' said Florence, +touching her clothes, in amazement. 'Your old dress, dear? Your old cap, +curls, and all?' + +Susan burst into tears, and showered kisses on the little hand that had +touched her so wonderingly. + +'My dear Miss Dombey,' said Mr Toots, stepping forward, 'I'll explain. +She's the most extraordinary woman. There are not many to equal her! She +has always said--she said before we were married, and has said to this +day--that whenever you came home, she'd come to you in no dress but the +dress she used to serve you in, for fear she might seem strange to you, +and you might like her less. I admire the dress myself,' said Mr Toots, +'of all things. I adore her in it! My dear Miss Dombey, she'll be your +maid again, your nurse, all that she ever was, and more. There's no +change in her. But, Susan, my dear,' said Mr Toots, who had spoken with +great feeling and high admiration, 'all I ask is, that you'll remember +the medical man, and not exert yourself too much!' + + + +CHAPTER 61. Relenting + + +Florence had need of help. Her father's need of it was sore, and made +the aid of her old friend invaluable. Death stood at his pillow. A +shade, already, of what he had been, shattered in mind, and perilously +sick in body, he laid his weary head down on the bed his daughter's +hands prepared for him, and had never raised it since. + +She was always with him. He knew her, generally; though, in the +wandering of his brain, he often confused the circumstances under which +he spoke to her. Thus he would address her, sometimes, as if his boy +were newly dead; and would tell her, that although he had said nothing +of her ministering at the little bedside, yet he had seen it--he had +seen it; and then would hide his face and sob, and put out his worn +hand. Sometimes he would ask her for herself. 'Where is Florence?' 'I am +here, Papa, I am here.' 'I don't know her!' he would cry. 'We have been +parted so long, that I don't know her!' and then a staring dread would +be upon him, until she could soothe his perturbation; and recall the +tears she tried so hard, at other times, to dry. + +He rambled through the scenes of his old pursuits--through many where +Florence lost him as she listened--sometimes for hours. He would repeat +that childish question, 'What is money?' and ponder on it, and think +about it, and reason with himself, more or less connectedly, for a good +answer; as if it had never been proposed to him until that moment. He +would go on with a musing repetition of the title of his old firm twenty +thousand times, and at every one of them, would turn his head upon his +pillow. He would count his children--one--two--stop, and go back, and +begin again in the same way. + +But this was when his mind was in its most distracted state. In all the +other phases of its illness, and in those to which it was most constant, +it always turned on Florence. What he would oftenest do was this: he +would recall that night he had so recently remembered, the night on +which she came down to his room, and would imagine that his heart smote +him, and that he went out after her, and up the stairs to seek her. +Then, confounding that time with the later days of the many footsteps, +he would be amazed at their number, and begin to count them as he +followed her. Here, of a sudden, was a bloody footstep going on among +the others; and after it there began to be, at intervals, doors standing +open, through which certain terrible pictures were seen, in mirrors, +of haggard men, concealing something in their breasts. Still, among the +many footsteps and the bloody footsteps here and there, was the step of +Florence. Still she was going on before. Still the restless mind went, +following and counting, ever farther, ever higher, as to the summit of a +mighty tower that it took years to climb. + +One day he inquired if that were not Susan who had spoken a long while +ago. + +Florence said 'Yes, dear Papa;' and asked him would he like to see her? + +He said 'very much.' And Susan, with no little trepidation, showed +herself at his bedside. + +It seemed a great relief to him. He begged her not to go; to understand +that he forgave her what she had said; and that she was to stay. +Florence and he were very different now, he said, and very happy. Let +her look at this! He meant his drawing the gentle head down to his +pillow, and laying it beside him. + +He remained like this for days and weeks. At length, lying, the faint +feeble semblance of a man, upon his bed, and speaking in a voice so low +that they could only hear him by listening very near to his lips, he +became quiet. It was dimly pleasant to him now, to lie there, with the +window open, looking out at the summer sky and the trees: and, in the +evening, at the sunset. To watch the shadows of the clouds and leaves, +and seem to feel a sympathy with shadows. It was natural that he should. +To him, life and the world were nothing else. + +He began to show now that he thought of Florence's fatigue: and often +taxed his weakness to whisper to her, 'Go and walk, my dearest, in the +sweet air. Go to your good husband!' One time when Walter was in his +room, he beckoned him to come near, and to stoop down; and pressing his +hand, whispered an assurance to him that he knew he could trust him with +his child when he was dead. + +It chanced one evening, towards sunset, when Florence and Walter were +sitting in his room together, as he liked to see them, that Florence, +having her baby in her arms, began in a low voice to sing to the little +fellow, and sang the old tune she had so often sung to the dead child: +He could not bear it at the time; he held up his trembling hand, +imploring her to stop; but next day he asked her to repeat it, and to +do so often of an evening: which she did. He listening, with his face +turned away. + +Florence was sitting on a certain time by his window, with her +work-basket between her and her old attendant, who was still her +faithful companion. He had fallen into a doze. It was a beautiful +evening, with two hours of light to come yet; and the tranquillity and +quiet made Florence very thoughtful. She was lost to everything for the +moment, but the occasion when the so altered figure on the bed had first +presented her to her beautiful Mama; when a touch from Walter leaning on +the back of her chair, made her start. + +'My dear,' said Walter, 'there is someone downstairs who wishes to speak +to you.' + +She fancied Walter looked grave, and asked him if anything had happened. + +'No, no, my love!' said Walter. 'I have seen the gentleman myself, and +spoken with him. Nothing has happened. Will you come?' + +Florence put her arm through his; and confiding her father to the +black-eyed Mrs Toots, who sat as brisk and smart at her work as +black-eyed woman could, accompanied her husband downstairs. In the +pleasant little parlour opening on the garden, sat a gentleman, who rose +to advance towards her when she came in, but turned off, by reason of +some peculiarity in his legs, and was only stopped by the table. + +Florence then remembered Cousin Feenix, whom she had not at first +recognised in the shade of the leaves. Cousin Feenix took her hand, and +congratulated her upon her marriage. + +'I could have wished, I am sure,' said Cousin Feenix, sitting down +as Florence sat, 'to have had an earlier opportunity of offering my +congratulations; but, in point of fact, so many painful occurrences have +happened, treading, as a man may say, on one another's heels, that I +have been in a devil of a state myself, and perfectly unfit for every +description of society. The only description of society I have kept, has +been my own; and it certainly is anything but flattering to a man's good +opinion of his own sources, to know that, in point of fact, he has the +capacity of boring himself to a perfectly unlimited extent.' + +Florence divined, from some indefinable constraint and anxiety in this +gentleman's manner--which was always a gentleman's, in spite of the +harmless little eccentricities that attached to it--and from Walter's +manner no less, that something more immediately tending to some object +was to follow this. + +'I have been mentioning to my friend Mr Gay, if I may be allowed to have +the honour of calling him so,' said Cousin Feenix, 'that I am rejoiced +to hear that my friend Dombey is very decidedly mending. I trust my +friend Dombey will not allow his mind to be too much preyed upon, by any +mere loss of fortune. I cannot say that I have ever experienced any very +great loss of fortune myself: never having had, in point of fact, any +great amount of fortune to lose. But as much as I could lose, I have +lost; and I don't find that I particularly care about it. I know my +friend Dombey to be a devilish honourable man; and it's calculated to +console my friend Dombey very much, to know, that this is the universal +sentiment. Even Tommy Screwzer,--a man of an extremely bilious habit, +with whom my friend Gay is probably acquainted--cannot say a syllable in +disputation of the fact.' + +Florence felt, more than ever, that there was something to come; and +looked earnestly for it. So earnestly, that Cousin Feenix answered, as +if she had spoken. + +'The fact is,' said Cousin Feenix, 'that my friend Gay and myself have +been discussing the propriety of entreating a favour at your hands; +and that I have the consent of my friend Gay--who has met me in an +exceedingly kind and open manner, for which I am very much indebted to +him--to solicit it. I am sensible that so amiable a lady as the lovely +and accomplished daughter of my friend Dombey will not require much +urging; but I am happy to know, that I am supported by my friend Gay's +influence and approval. As in my parliamentary time, when a man had a +motion to make of any sort--which happened seldom in those days, for we +were kept very tight in hand, the leaders on both sides being regular +Martinets, which was a devilish good thing for the rank and file, like +myself, and prevented our exposing ourselves continually, as a great +many of us had a feverish anxiety to do--as, in my parliamentary time, +I was about to say, when a man had leave to let off any little private +popgun, it was always considered a great point for him to say that he +had the happiness of believing that his sentiments were not without +an echo in the breast of Mr Pitt; the pilot, in point of fact, who had +weathered the storm. Upon which, a devilish large number of fellows +immediately cheered, and put him in spirits. Though the fact is, that +these fellows, being under orders to cheer most excessively whenever Mr +Pitt's name was mentioned, became so proficient that it always woke 'em. +And they were so entirely innocent of what was going on, otherwise, that +it used to be commonly said by Conversation Brown--four-bottle man at +the Treasury Board, with whom the father of my friend Gay was probably +acquainted, for it was before my friend Gay's time--that if a man had +risen in his place, and said that he regretted to inform the house that +there was an Honourable Member in the last stage of convulsions in the +Lobby, and that the Honourable Member's name was Pitt, the approbation +would have been vociferous.' + +This postponement of the point, put Florence in a flutter; and she +looked from Cousin Feenix to Walter, in increasing agitation. + +'My love,' said Walter, 'there is nothing the matter.' + +'There is nothing the matter, upon my honour,' said Cousin Feenix; 'and +I am deeply distressed at being the means of causing you a moment's +uneasiness. I beg to assure you that there is nothing the matter. +The favour that I have to ask is, simply--but it really does seem so +exceedingly singular, that I should be in the last degree obliged to my +friend Gay if he would have the goodness to break the--in point of fact, +the ice,' said Cousin Feenix. + +Walter thus appealed to, and appealed to no less in the look that +Florence turned towards him, said: + +'My dearest, it is no more than this. That you will ride to London with +this gentleman, whom you know.' + +'And my friend Gay, also--I beg your pardon!' interrupted Cousin Feenix. + +'--And with me--and make a visit somewhere.' + +'To whom?' asked Florence, looking from one to the other. + +'If I might entreat,' said Cousin Feenix, 'that you would not press +for an answer to that question, I would venture to take the liberty of +making the request.' + +'Do you know, Walter?' + +'Yes.' + +'And think it right?' + +'Yes. Only because I am sure that you would too. Though there may be +reasons I very well understand, which make it better that nothing more +should be said beforehand.' + +'If Papa is still asleep, or can spare me if he is awake, I will go +immediately,' said Florence. And rising quietly, and glancing at them +with a look that was a little alarmed but perfectly confiding, left the +room. + +When she came back, ready to bear them company, they were talking +together, gravely, at the window; and Florence could not but wonder what +the topic was, that had made them so well acquainted in so short a time. +She did not wonder at the look of pride and love with which her husband +broke off as she entered; for she never saw him, but that rested on her. + +'I will leave,' said Cousin Feenix, 'a card for my friend Dombey, +sincerely trusting that he will pick up health and strength with every +returning hour. And I hope my friend Dombey will do me the favour to +consider me a man who has a devilish warm admiration of his character, +as, in point of fact, a British merchant and a devilish upright +gentleman. My place in the country is in a most confounded state of +dilapidation, but if my friend Dombey should require a change of air, +and would take up his quarters there, he would find it a remarkably +healthy spot--as it need be, for it's amazingly dull. If my friend +Dombey suffers from bodily weakness, and would allow me to recommend +what has frequently done myself good, as a man who has been extremely +queer at times, and who lived pretty freely in the days when men lived +very freely, I should say, let it be in point of fact the yolk of an +egg, beat up with sugar and nutmeg, in a glass of sherry, and taken +in the morning with a slice of dry toast. Jackson, who kept the +boxing-rooms in Bond Street--man of very superior qualifications, with +whose reputation my friend Gay is no doubt acquainted--used to mention +that in training for the ring they substituted rum for sherry. I should +recommend sherry in this case, on account of my friend Dombey being in +an invalided condition; which might occasion rum to fly--in point of +fact to his head--and throw him into a devil of a state.' + +Of all this, Cousin Feenix delivered himself with an obviously nervous +and discomposed air. Then, giving his arm to Florence, and putting +the strongest possible constraint upon his wilful legs, which seemed +determined to go out into the garden, he led her to the door, and handed +her into a carriage that was ready for her reception. + +Walter entered after him, and they drove away. + +Their ride was six or eight miles long. When they drove through certain +dull and stately streets, lying westward in London, it was growing dusk. +Florence had, by this time, put her hand in Walter's; and was looking +very earnestly, and with increasing agitation, into every new street +into which they turned. + +When the carriage stopped, at last, before that house in Brook Street, +where her father's unhappy marriage had been celebrated, Florence +said, 'Walter, what is this? Who is here?' Walter cheering her, and +not replying, she glanced up at the house-front, and saw that all the +windows were shut, as if it were uninhabited. Cousin Feenix had by this +time alighted, and was offering his hand. + +'Are you not coming, Walter?' + +'No, I will remain here. Don't tremble there is nothing to fear, dearest +Florence.' + +'I know that, Walter, with you so near. I am sure of that, but--' + +The door was softly opened, without any knock, and Cousin Feenix led her +out of the summer evening air into the close dull house. More sombre and +brown than ever, it seemed to have been shut up from the wedding-day, +and to have hoarded darkness and sadness ever since. + +Florence ascended the dusky staircase, trembling; and stopped, with her +conductor, at the drawing-room door. He opened it, without speaking, +and signed an entreaty to her to advance into the inner room, while he +remained there. Florence, after hesitating an instant, complied. + +Sitting by the window at a table, where she seemed to have been writing +or drawing, was a lady, whose head, turned away towards the dying light, +was resting on her hand. Florence advancing, doubtfully, all at once +stood still, as if she had lost the power of motion. The lady turned her +head. + +'Great Heaven!' she said, 'what is this?' + +'No, no!' cried Florence, shrinking back as she rose up and putting out +her hands to keep her off. 'Mama!' + +They stood looking at each other. Passion and pride had worn it, but it +was the face of Edith, and beautiful and stately yet. It was the face +of Florence, and through all the terrified avoidance it expressed, there +was pity in it, sorrow, a grateful tender memory. On each face, wonder +and fear were painted vividly; each so still and silent, looking at the +other over the black gulf of the irrevocable past. + +Florence was the first to change. Bursting into tears, she said from her +full heart, 'Oh, Mama, Mama! why do we meet like this? Why were you ever +kind to me when there was no one else, that we should meet like this?' + +Edith stood before her, dumb and motionless. Her eyes were fixed upon +her face. + +'I dare not think of that,' said Florence, 'I am come from Papa's sick +bed. We are never asunder now; we never shall be' any more. If you would +have me ask his pardon, I will do it, Mama. I am almost sure he will +grant it now, if I ask him. May Heaven grant it to you, too, and comfort +you!' + +She answered not a word. + +'Walter--I am married to him, and we have a son,' said Florence, +timidly--'is at the door, and has brought me here. I will tell him +that you are repentant; that you are changed,' said Florence, looking +mournfully upon her; 'and he will speak to Papa with me, I know. Is +there anything but this that I can do?' + +Edith, breaking her silence, without moving eye or limb, answered +slowly: + +'The stain upon your name, upon your husband's, on your child's. Will +that ever be forgiven, Florence?' + +'Will it ever be, Mama? It is! Freely, freely, both by Walter and by me. +If that is any consolation to you, there is nothing that you may believe +more certainly. You do not--you do not,' faltered Florence, 'speak of +Papa; but I am sure you wish that I should ask him for his forgiveness. +I am sure you do.' + +She answered not a word. + +'I will!' said Florence. 'I will bring it you, if you will let me; and +then, perhaps, we may take leave of each other, more like what we +used to be to one another. I have not,' said Florence very gently, and +drawing nearer to her, 'I have not shrunk back from you, Mama, because +I fear you, or because I dread to be disgraced by you. I only wish to do +my duty to Papa. I am very dear to him, and he is very dear to me. But +I never can forget that you were very good to me. Oh, pray to Heaven,' +cried Florence, falling on her bosom, 'pray to Heaven, Mama, to forgive +you all this sin and shame, and to forgive me if I cannot help doing +this (if it is wrong), when I remember what you used to be!' + +Edith, as if she fell beneath her touch, sunk down on her knees, and +caught her round the neck. + +'Florence!' she cried. 'My better angel! Before I am mad again, before +my stubbornness comes back and strikes me dumb, believe me, upon my soul +I am innocent!' + +'Mama!' + +'Guilty of much! Guilty of that which sets a waste between us evermore. +Guilty of what must separate me, through the whole remainder of my life, +from purity and innocence--from you, of all the earth. Guilty of a blind +and passionate resentment, of which I do not, cannot, will not, even +now, repent; but not guilty with that dead man. Before God!' + +Upon her knees upon the ground, she held up both her hands, and swore +it. + +'Florence!' she said, 'purest and best of natures,--whom I love--who +might have changed me long ago, and did for a time work some change even +in the woman that I am,--believe me, I am innocent of that; and once +more, on my desolate heart, let me lay this dear head, for the last +time!' + +She was moved and weeping. Had she been oftener thus in older days, she +had been happier now. + +'There is nothing else in all the world,' she said, 'that would have +wrung denial from me. No love, no hatred, no hope, no threat. I said +that I would die, and make no sign. I could have done so, and I would, +if we had never met, Florence.' + +'I trust,' said Cousin Feenix, ambling in at the door, and speaking, +half in the room, and half out of it, 'that my lovely and accomplished +relative will excuse my having, by a little stratagem, effected this +meeting. I cannot say that I was, at first, wholly incredulous as to +the possibility of my lovely and accomplished relative having, very +unfortunately, committed herself with the deceased person with white +teeth; because in point of fact, one does see, in this world--which is +remarkable for devilish strange arrangements, and for being decidedly +the most unintelligible thing within a man's experience--very odd +conjunctions of that sort. But as I mentioned to my friend Dombey, I +could not admit the criminality of my lovely and accomplished relative +until it was perfectly established. And feeling, when the deceased +person was, in point of fact, destroyed in a devilish horrible manner, +that her position was a very painful one--and feeling besides that our +family had been a little to blame in not paying more attention to her, +and that we are a careless family--and also that my aunt, though a +devilish lively woman, had perhaps not been the very best of mothers--I +took the liberty of seeking her in France, and offering her such +protection as a man very much out at elbows could offer. Upon which +occasion, my lovely and accomplished relative did me the honour to +express that she believed I was, in my way, a devilish good sort of +fellow; and that therefore she put herself under my protection. Which in +point of fact I understood to be a kind thing on the part of my lovely +and accomplished relative, as I am getting extremely shaky, and have +derived great comfort from her solicitude.' + +Edith, who had taken Florence to a sofa, made a gesture with her hand as +if she would have begged him to say no more. + +'My lovely and accomplished relative,' resumed Cousin Feenix, still +ambling about at the door, 'will excuse me, if, for her satisfaction, +and my own, and that of my friend Dombey, whose lovely and accomplished +daughter we so much admire, I complete the thread of my observations. +She will remember that, from the first, she and I never alluded to the +subject of her elopement. My impression, certainly, has always been, +that there was a mystery in the affair which she could explain if so +inclined. But my lovely and accomplished relative being a devilish +resolute woman, I knew that she was not, in point of fact, to be trifled +with, and therefore did not involve myself in any discussions. But, +observing lately, that her accessible point did appear to be a very +strong description of tenderness for the daughter of my friend Dombey, +it occurred to me that if I could bring about a meeting, unexpected on +both sides, it might lead to beneficial results. Therefore, we being in +London, in the present private way, before going to the South of Italy, +there to establish ourselves, in point of fact, until we go to our long +homes, which is a devilish disagreeable reflection for a man, I applied +myself to the discovery of the residence of my friend Gay--handsome man +of an uncommonly frank disposition, who is probably known to my lovely +and accomplished relative--and had the happiness of bringing his amiable +wife to the present place. And now,' said Cousin Feenix, with a real +and genuine earnestness shining through the levity of his manner and his +slipshod speech, 'I do conjure my relative, not to stop half way, but to +set right, as far as she can, whatever she has done wrong--not for +the honour of her family, not for her own fame, not for any of those +considerations which unfortunate circumstances have induced her to +regard as hollow, and in point of fact, as approaching to humbug--but +because it is wrong, and not right.' + +Cousin Feenix's legs consented to take him away after this; and leaving +them alone together, he shut the door. + +Edith remained silent for some minutes, with Florence sitting close +beside her. Then she took from her bosom a sealed paper. + +'I debated with myself a long time,' she said in a low voice, 'whether +to write this at all, in case of dying suddenly or by accident, and +feeling the want of it upon me. I have deliberated, ever since, when and +how to destroy it. Take it, Florence. The truth is written in it.' + +'Is it for Papa?' asked Florence. + +'It is for whom you will,' she answered. 'It is given to you, and is +obtained by you. He never could have had it otherwise.' + +Again they sat silent, in the deepening darkness. + +'Mama,' said Florence, 'he has lost his fortune; he has been at the +point of death; he may not recover, even now. Is there any word that I +shall say to him from you?' + +'Did you tell me,' asked Edith, 'that you were very dear to him?' + +'Yes!' said Florence, in a thrilling voice. + +'Tell him I am sorry that we ever met.' + +'No more?' said Florence after a pause. + +'Tell him, if he asks, that I do not repent of what I have done--not +yet--for if it were to do again to-morrow, I should do it. But if he is +a changed man---' + +She stopped. There was something in the silent touch of Florence's hand +that stopped her. + +'--But that being a changed man, he knows, now, it would never be. Tell +him I wish it never had been.' + +'May I say,' said Florence, 'that you grieved to hear of the afflictions +he has suffered?' + +'Not,' she replied, 'if they have taught him that his daughter is very +dear to him. He will not grieve for them himself, one day, if they have +brought that lesson, Florence.' + +'You wish well to him, and would have him happy. I am sure you would!' +said Florence. 'Oh! let me be able, if I have the occasion at some +future time, to say so?' + +Edith sat with her dark eyes gazing steadfastly before her, and did not +reply until Florence had repeated her entreaty; when she drew her hand +within her arm, and said, with the same thoughtful gaze upon the night +outside: + +'Tell him that if, in his own present, he can find any reason to +compassionate my past, I sent word that I asked him to do so. Tell him +that if, in his own present, he can find a reason to think less bitterly +of me, I asked him to do so. Tell him, that, dead as we are to one +another, never more to meet on this side of eternity, he knows there is +one feeling in common between us now, that there never was before.' + +Her sternness seemed to yield, and there were tears in her dark eyes. + +'I trust myself to that,' she said, 'for his better thoughts of me, and +mine of him. When he loves his Florence most, he will hate me least. +When he is most proud and happy in her and her children, he will be most +repentant of his own part in the dark vision of our married life. At +that time, I will be repentant too--let him know it then--and think that +when I thought so much of all the causes that had made me what I was, +I needed to have allowed more for the causes that had made him what he +was. I will try, then, to forgive him his share of blame. Let him try to +forgive me mine!' + +'Oh Mama!' said Florence. 'How it lightens my heart, even in such a +strange meeting and parting, to hear this!' + +'Strange words in my own ears,' said Edith, 'and foreign to the sound of +my own voice! But even if I had been the wretched creature I have +given him occasion to believe me, I think I could have said them still, +hearing that you and he were very dear to one another. Let him, when +you are dearest, ever feel that he is most forbearing in his thoughts of +me--that I am most forbearing in my thoughts of him! Those are the last +words I send him! Now, goodbye, my life!' + +She clasped her in her arms, and seemed to pour out all her woman's soul +of love and tenderness at once. + +'This kiss for your child! These kisses for a blessing on your head! My +own dear Florence, my sweet girl, farewell!' + +'To meet again!' cried Florence. + +'Never again! Never again! When you leave me in this dark room, think +that you have left me in the grave. Remember only that I was once, and +that I loved you!' + +And Florence left her, seeing her face no more, but accompanied by her +embraces and caresses to the last. + +Cousin Feenix met her at the door, and took her down to Walter in the +dingy dining room, upon whose shoulder she laid her head weeping. + +'I am devilish sorry,' said Cousin Feenix, lifting his wristbands to his +eyes in the simplest manner possible, and without the least concealment, +'that the lovely and accomplished daughter of my friend Dombey and +amiable wife of my friend Gay, should have had her sensitive nature +so very much distressed and cut up by the interview which is just +concluded. But I hope and trust I have acted for the best, and that my +honourable friend Dombey will find his mind relieved by the disclosures +which have taken place. I exceedingly lament that my friend Dombey +should have got himself, in point of fact, into the devil's own state +of conglomeration by an alliance with our family; but am strongly of +opinion that if it hadn't been for the infernal scoundrel Barker--man +with white teeth--everything would have gone on pretty smoothly. +In regard to my relative who does me the honour to have formed an +uncommonly good opinion of myself, I can assure the amiable wife of my +friend Gay, that she may rely on my being, in point of fact, a father to +her. And in regard to the changes of human life, and the extraordinary +manner in which we are perpetually conducting ourselves, all I can say +is, with my friend Shakespeare--man who wasn't for an age but for all +time, and with whom my friend Gay is no doubt acquainted--that its like +the shadow of a dream.' + + + +CHAPTER 62. Final + + +A bottle that has been long excluded from the light of day, and is +hoary with dust and cobwebs, has been brought into the sunshine; and the +golden wine within it sheds a lustre on the table. + +It is the last bottle of the old Madiera. + +'You are quite right, Mr Gills,' says Mr Dombey. 'This is a very rare +and most delicious wine.' + +The Captain, who is of the party, beams with joy. There is a very halo +of delight round his glowing forehead. + +'We always promised ourselves, Sir,' observes Mr Gills,' Ned and myself, +I mean--' + +Mr Dombey nods at the Captain, who shines more and more with speechless +gratification. + +'--that we would drink this, one day or other, to Walter safe at home: +though such a home we never thought of. If you don't object to our old +whim, Sir, let us devote this first glass to Walter and his wife.' + +'To Walter and his wife!' says Mr Dombey. 'Florence, my child'--and +turns to kiss her. + +'To Walter and his wife!' says Mr Toots. + +'To Wal'r and his wife!' exclaims the Captain. 'Hooroar!' and the +Captain exhibiting a strong desire to clink his glass against some other +glass, Mr Dombey, with a ready hand, holds out his. The others follow; +and there is a blithe and merry ringing, as of a little peal of marriage +bells. + + +Other buried wine grows older, as the old Madeira did in its time; and +dust and cobwebs thicken on the bottles. + +Mr Dombey is a white-haired gentleman, whose face bears heavy marks of +care and suffering; but they are traces of a storm that has passed on +for ever, and left a clear evening in its track. + +Ambitious projects trouble him no more. His only pride is in his +daughter and her husband. He has a silent, thoughtful, quiet manner, and +is always with his daughter. Miss Tox is not infrequently of the family +party, and is quite devoted to it, and a great favourite. Her admiration +of her once stately patron is, and has been ever since the morning of +her shock in Princess's Place, platonic, but not weakened in the least. + +Nothing has drifted to him from the wreck of his fortunes, but a certain +annual sum that comes he knows not how, with an earnest entreaty that he +will not seek to discover, and with the assurance that it is a debt, and +an act of reparation. He has consulted with his old clerk about this, +who is clear it may be honourably accepted, and has no doubt it arises +out of some forgotten transaction in the times of the old House. + +That hazel-eyed bachelor, a bachelor no more, is married now, and to the +sister of the grey-haired Junior. He visits his old chief sometimes, but +seldom. There is a reason in the greyhaired Junior's history, and yet +a stronger reason in his name, why he should keep retired from his +old employer; and as he lives with his sister and her husband, they +participate in that retirement. Walter sees them sometimes--Florence +too--and the pleasant house resounds with profound duets arranged for +the Piano-Forte and Violoncello, and with the labours of Harmonious +Blacksmiths. + +And how goes the wooden Midshipman in these changed days? Why, here he +still is, right leg foremost, hard at work upon the hackney coaches, and +more on the alert than ever, being newly painted from his cocked hat to +his buckled shoes; and up above him, in golden characters, these names +shine refulgent, GILLS AND CUTTLE. + +Not another stroke of business does the Midshipman achieve beyond his +usual easy trade. But they do say, in a circuit of some half-mile round +the blue umbrella in Leadenhall Market, that some of Mr Gills's old +investments are coming out wonderfully well; and that instead of being +behind the time in those respects, as he supposed, he was, in truth, +a little before it, and had to wait the fulness of the time and the +design. The whisper is that Mr Gills's money has begun to turn itself, +and that it is turning itself over and over pretty briskly. Certain it +is that, standing at his shop-door, in his coffee-coloured suit, with +his chronometer in his pocket, and his spectacles on his forehead, he +don't appear to break his heart at customers not coming, but looks very +jovial and contented, though full as misty as of yore. + +As to his partner, Captain Cuttle, there is a fiction of a business in +the Captain's mind which is better than any reality. The Captain is as +satisfied of the Midshipman's importance to the commerce and navigation +of the country, as he could possibly be, if no ship left the Port of +London without the Midshipman's assistance. His delight in his own name +over the door, is inexhaustible. He crosses the street, twenty times a +day, to look at it from the other side of the way; and invariably says, +on these occasions, 'Ed'ard Cuttle, my lad, if your mother could ha' +know'd as you would ever be a man o' science, the good old creetur would +ha' been took aback in-deed!' + +But here is Mr Toots descending on the Midshipman with violent rapidity, +and Mr Toots's face is very red as he bursts into the little parlour. + +'Captain Gills,' says Mr Toots, 'and Mr Sols, I am happy to inform you +that Mrs Toots has had an increase to her family.' + +'And it does her credit!' cries the Captain. + +'I give you joy, Mr Toots!' says old Sol. + +'Thank'ee,' chuckles Mr Toots, 'I'm very much obliged to you. I knew +that you'd be glad to hear, and so I came down myself. We're positively +getting on, you know. There's Florence, and Susan, and now here's +another little stranger.' + +'A female stranger?' inquires the Captain. + +'Yes, Captain Gills,' says Mr Toots, 'and I'm glad of it. The oftener we +can repeat that most extraordinary woman, my opinion is, the better!' + +'Stand by!' says the Captain, turning to the old case-bottle with no +throat--for it is evening, and the Midshipman's usual moderate provision +of pipes and glasses is on the board. 'Here's to her, and may she have +ever so many more!' + +'Thank'ee, Captain Gills,' says the delighted Mr Toots. 'I echo the +sentiment. If you'll allow me, as my so doing cannot be unpleasant to +anybody, under the circumstances, I think I'll take a pipe.' + +Mr Toots begins to smoke, accordingly, and in the openness of his heart +is very loquacious. + +'Of all the remarkable instances that that delightful woman has given of +her excellent sense, Captain Gills and Mr Sols,' said Mr Toots, 'I +think none is more remarkable than the perfection with which she has +understood my devotion to Miss Dombey.' + +Both his auditors assent. + +'Because you know,' says Mr Toots, 'I have never changed my sentiments +towards Miss Dombey. They are the same as ever. She is the same +bright vision to me, at present, that she was before I made Walters's +acquaintance. When Mrs Toots and myself first began to talk of--in +short, of the tender passion, you know, Captain Gills.' + +'Ay, ay, my lad,' says the Captain, 'as makes us all slue round--for +which you'll overhaul the book--' + +'I shall certainly do so, Captain Gills,' says Mr Toots, with great +earnestness; 'when we first began to mention such subjects, I explained +that I was what you may call a Blighted Flower, you know.' + +The Captain approves of this figure greatly; and murmurs that no flower +as blows, is like the rose. + +'But Lord bless me,' pursues Mr Toots, 'she was as entirely conscious of +the state of my feelings as I was myself. There was nothing I could tell +her. She was the only person who could have stood between me and the +silent Tomb, and she did it, in a manner to command my everlasting +admiration. She knows that there's nobody in the world I look up to, as +I do to Miss Dombey. Knows that there's nothing on earth I wouldn't +do for Miss Dombey. She knows that I consider Miss Dombey the most +beautiful, the most amiable, the most angelic of her sex. What is her +observation upon that? The perfection of sense. "My dear, you're right. +I think so too."' + +'And so do I!' says the Captain. + +'So do I,' says Sol Gills. + +'Then,' resumes Mr Toots, after some contemplative pulling at his pipe, +during which his visage has expressed the most contented reflection, +'what an observant woman my wife is! What sagacity she possesses! What +remarks she makes! It was only last night, when we were sitting in +the enjoyment of connubial bliss--which, upon my word and honour, is a +feeble term to express my feelings in the society of my wife--that +she said how remarkable it was to consider the present position of +our friend Walters. "Here," observes my wife, "he is, released from +sea-going, after that first long voyage with his young bride"--as you +know he was, Mr Sols.' + +'Quite true,' says the old Instrument-maker, rubbing his hands. + +'"Here he is," says my wife, "released from that, immediately; appointed +by the same establishment to a post of great trust and confidence at +home; showing himself again worthy; mounting up the ladder with the +greatest expedition; beloved by everybody; assisted by his uncle at the +very best possible time of his fortunes"--which I think is the case, Mr +Sols? My wife is always correct.' + +'Why yes, yes--some of our lost ships, freighted with gold, have come +home, truly,' returns old Sol, laughing. 'Small craft, Mr Toots, but +serviceable to my boy!' + +'Exactly so,' says Mr Toots. 'You'll never find my wife wrong. "Here he +is," says that most remarkable woman, "so situated,--and what follows? +What follows?" observed Mrs Toots. Now pray remark, Captain Gills, and +Mr Sols, the depth of my wife's penetration. "Why that, under the very +eye of Mr Dombey, there is a foundation going on, upon which a--an +Edifice;" that was Mrs Toots's word,' says Mr Toots exultingly, "'is +gradually rising, perhaps to equal, perhaps excel, that of which he was +once the head, and the small beginnings of which (a common fault, but a +bad one, Mrs Toots said) escaped his memory. Thus," said my wife, "from +his daughter, after all, another Dombey and Son will ascend"--no "rise;" +that was Mrs Toots's word--"triumphant!"' + +Mr Toots, with the assistance of his pipe--which he is extremely glad to +devote to oratorical purposes, as its proper use affects him with a +very uncomfortable sensation--does such grand justice to this prophetic +sentence of his wife's, that the Captain, throwing away his glazed hat +in a state of the greatest excitement, cries: + +'Sol Gills, you man of science and my ould pardner, what did I tell +Wal'r to overhaul on that there night when he first took to business? +Was it this here quotation, "Turn again Whittington, Lord Mayor of +London, and when you are old you will never depart from it." Was it them +words, Sol Gills?' + +'It certainly was, Ned,' replied the old Instrument-maker. 'I remember +well.' + +'Then I tell you what,' says the Captain, leaning back in his chair, +and composing his chest for a prodigious roar. 'I'll give you Lovely Peg +right through; and stand by, both on you, for the chorus!' + + +Buried wine grows older, as the old Madeira did, in its time; and dust +and cobwebs thicken on the bottles. + +Autumn days are shining, and on the sea-beach there are often a young +lady, and a white-haired gentleman. With them, or near them, are two +children: boy and girl. And an old dog is generally in their company. + +The white-haired gentleman walks with the little boy, talks with him, +helps him in his play, attends upon him, watches him as if he were the +object of his life. If he be thoughtful, the white-haired gentleman is +thoughtful too; and sometimes when the child is sitting by his side, and +looks up in his face, asking him questions, he takes the tiny hand in +his, and holding it, forgets to answer. Then the child says: + +'What, grandpa! Am I so like my poor little Uncle again?' + +'Yes, Paul. But he was weak, and you are very strong.' + +'Oh yes, I am very strong.' + +'And he lay on a little bed beside the sea, and you can run about.' + +And so they range away again, busily, for the white-haired gentleman +likes best to see the child free and stirring; and as they go about +together, the story of the bond between them goes about, and follows +them. + +But no one, except Florence, knows the measure of the white-haired +gentleman's affection for the girl. That story never goes about. The +child herself almost wonders at a certain secrecy he keeps in it. He +hoards her in his heart. He cannot bear to see a cloud upon her face. +He cannot bear to see her sit apart. He fancies that she feels a slight, +when there is none. He steals away to look at her, in her sleep. It +pleases him to have her come, and wake him in the morning. He is fondest +of her and most loving to her, when there is no creature by. The child +says then, sometimes: + +'Dear grandpapa, why do you cry when you kiss me?' + +He only answers, 'Little Florence! little Florence!' and smooths away +the curls that shade her earnest eyes. + +The voices in the waves speak low to him of Florence, day and +night--plainest when he, his blooming daughter, and her husband, beside +them in the evening, or sit at an open window, listening to their roar. +They speak to him of Florence and his altered heart; of Florence and +their ceaseless murmuring to her of the love, eternal and illimitable, +extending still, beyond the sea, beyond the sky, to the invisible +country far away. + +Never from the mighty sea may voices rise too late, to come between us +and the unseen region on the other shore! Better, far better, that +they whispered of that region in our childish ears, and the swift river +hurried us away! + + + + +PREFACE OF 1848 + +I cannot forego my usual opportunity of saying farewell to my readers +in this greeting-place, though I have only to acknowledge the unbounded +warmth and earnestness of their sympathy in every stage of the journey +we have just concluded. + +If any of them have felt a sorrow in one of the principal incidents on +which this fiction turns, I hope it may be a sorrow of that sort which +endears the sharers in it, one to another. This is not unselfish in me. +I may claim to have felt it, at least as much as anybody else; and I +would fain be remembered kindly for my part in the experience. + + +DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, Twenty-Fourth March, 1848. + + +PREFACE OF 1867 + +I make so bold as to believe that the faculty (or the habit) of +correctly observing the characters of men, is a rare one. I have not +even found, within my experience, that the faculty (or the habit) of +correctly observing so much as the faces of men, is a general one by any +means. The two commonest mistakes in judgement that I suppose to +arise from the former default, are, the confounding of shyness with +arrogance--a very common mistake indeed--and the not understanding that +an obstinate nature exists in a perpetual struggle with itself. + +Mr Dombey undergoes no violent change, either in this book, or in real +life. A sense of his injustice is within him, all along. The more he +represses it, the more unjust he necessarily is. Internal shame and +external circumstances may bring the contest to a close in a week, or a +day; but, it has been a contest for years, and is only fought out after +a long balance of victory. + +I began this book by the Lake of Geneva, and went on with it for some +months in France, before pursuing it in England. The association between +the writing and the place of writing is so curiously strong in my mind, +that at this day, although I know, in my fancy, every stair in the +little midshipman's house, and could swear to every pew in the church +in which Florence was married, or to every young gentleman's bedstead in +Doctor Blimber's establishment, I yet confusedly imagine Captain +Cuttle as secluding himself from Mrs MacStinger among the mountains of +Switzerland. Similarly, when I am reminded by any chance of what it was +that the waves were always saying, my remembrance wanders for a whole +winter night about the streets of Paris--as I restlessly did with a +heavy heart, on the night when I had written the chapter in which my +little friend and I parted company. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dombey and Son, by Charles Dickens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOMBEY AND SON *** + +***** This file should be named 821.txt or 821.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/2/821/ + +Produced by Neil McLachlan, and Ted Davis + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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