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diff --git a/old/domby10.txt b/old/domby10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ea2635 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/domby10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,40716 @@ +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Dombey and Son, by Dickens*** +#19 in our series by Charles Dickens + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Dombey and Son was contributed by: +Neil McLachlan, nmclachlan@delphi.com +and Ted Davis, 101515.3105@compuserve.com +on behalf of the Talking Newspaper of the UK (TNAUK). + +Production: +A Kurzweil flatbed scanner and Xerox Discover software was used to +produce the raw text files, which were edited using the TSEJR ASCII +text editor, with a user lexicon specially developed for this purpose. +Words split at the end of lines have been re-united, maintaining +hyphenation where appropriate; except for the Prefaces, the text has +been reformatted to 70 columns. + + + + +Structure: +Contents +Chapters 1 to 62 +Preface of 1848 +Preface of 1867 + + + + + + + +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 +illadvised 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 +Toxin 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 able, 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, familiar!y, 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, '"ncrease 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 chockful 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 s at 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 tool: 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 Mid 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 timeretained 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 turned 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 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 wile 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 be 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 be, 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. in 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, with- out 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 book, 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 band 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, pied +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 have'n'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, 'Good, 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 Faux, 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 complex 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 he 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 boy 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 he 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.' + +Despite 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 be 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 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 +selfpossession 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 ofany 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 the 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 dated with him; and it made the ale 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 immediate!y 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 n 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 he 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 mommentary 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 alter 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 the 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 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 apetite. 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, 'Joee' 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 ofa 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 ofa 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 possiblity. 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. + +So] 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 carne 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 +disappointrnent 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, +burrowmg 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 remonstrrnces, 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; acoordingly 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 evrything 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 fom 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 +Bed 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 aiter 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 ofhim, 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 +trernble 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 stowed 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 CarHer, 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 ofhis 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 wordly 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 Dotnbey'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 ofno +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 pantaioons, 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 frends 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 ifhe +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 steady. +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! + +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, an'd 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! +Whip! 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! Who~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 kould go +to Captain Cuttle's house; hear from his own lips, what he thought of +the absence of any tidings ofthe 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 Cutlle 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 +evidentllty 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 +shipsahape'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 kep it. That's the long and +short ofthe 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 inwention, 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 any anng' 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 satisfitction in this encomium; but if his +face had been as distant as his gaze was, it could hardIy have +enlightened the beholders less in reference to anything that was +passing in his thoughts. + +'Shipmate,' 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 testifiing 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), uniformily 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 foroed 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 m 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!' 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, Beldamite?' 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 +content' 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 appearnce 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 proses! - 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-bye 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 web 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, 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 lo 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'sl 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 met' + +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 oil, 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 itnever +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 +ofher 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 did advantage, 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 Chic + +'Paul's mad!' said Mrs Chic + +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 he 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 herth!' + +The Captain, who looked anything but daring, feebly muttered +'Standby!' + +'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 felion. 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 Vistors - 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 best 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 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 +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 nay 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's +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 reponse 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 had 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 hay, 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' +Pipchinses, 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' Good-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 hen, 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 bye 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 m 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 mole +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 m 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 be 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 indueed 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 l +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, +asssociated 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 +assissinate 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, with out 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 threes 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 pockethandkerchief; 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 observabl 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 wascertainly 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 clergymam 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 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 sea 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 minors 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 incunbent 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, M~ 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 he 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! + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Domby and Son, by Dickens + + + + + +End of the + +PREFACE OF 1848 + +I cannot forego my usual opportunity of saying +farewell to my readers in this greetingplace, +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 Etext of Domby and Son, by Dickens + |