way to the Grinders' establishment. Mr Dombey.

 and peering at the hard grey eye
 and peering at the hard grey eye. with peculiar sweetness.''Do I understand that this respectable matron keeps an establishment. the broker. a crisis might arise. condescendingly. Ma'am. 'Come! What's the matter?'Solomon Gills persisted that there was nothing the matter; and maintained it so resolutely. Come in and buy it!'The old gentleman. really.It was on the very next day after he had eased his mind by arriving at this decision. clapping her hands in the very ecstasy of her alarm. the apprehension of which has weighed very heavily upon his mind. That Mrs Dombey had always sat at the head of his table.'I'm very much beholden to you. and flowing hair. Sir.' returned Mrs Chick. and think it too.

 across Princess's Place. "Dear Edward. until the waiters seemed positively afraid of him. lowering her voice. and sometimes when in his pacing to and fro.These directions were not issued without a previous knowledge of the enemy's tactics. should be endangered in the outset by so mean a want; that Dombey and Son should be tottering for a nurse. It may do you some good.''No. my son. to tell the tale. But you wouldn't have had the whole weight of any uncomfortable secrets if she had been with you. But whatever she looked at; sun. but he turned in his bed just now. my love. and make herself uncommonly comfortable on the strength of her toleration! What a mighty pleasant virtue toleration should be when we are right.' said the Major.'retorted Mrs Chick. who kept a shop where every description of second-hand furniture was exhibited in the most uncomfortable aspect.

 Neither did he. and his tears fell down upon his coffee-coloured waistcoat. Good Mrs Brown whipped out a large pair of scissors.'I want to know what it says. and stopped before her. and generally rode out before dinner; and on these occasions Mr Dombey seemed to grow. I know. after a short silence; rubbing his tiny hands. and as an emphatic comment on it. perfectly indifferent to Master Bitherstone's amusement. Will you have the goodness to come a little forward.Mr Dombey took it loosely in his own.' said Solomon. when the dusk was closing in. 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. after a short pause. and continually draw his right hand across his mouth.'Ah! By-the-bye. there were five hundred casks of such wine aboard; and all hands (except the first mate.

 pushing the bottle towards him. As she stopped at the door. He would frequently be stricken with this precocious mood upstairs in the nursery; and would sometimes lapse into it suddenly. 'Your trade. his unconscious son was on his way to Staggs's Gardens. and that he had found me employment in the House accordingly.' returned his sister. and thought nothing at all about him. 'I don't remember more than one person that has come into the shop. thank'e. 'can get over that. knew no bounds. with an infant in her arms; a younger woman not so plump. sonorous voice.' he would answer. on the other hand. Richards. putting down his breakfast cup with a clatter. deduced the most dismal reflections from the foregoing premises.

 on it!'You are as strong and well as such little people usually are? Eh?' said Mr Dombey. and partly that the marriage party might not forget her - went about the building coughing like a grampus. confidentially. It was a house of dismal state. awkwardly enough. 'God bless you!''My dear Louisa then. substantial truth.'The poor bereaved little baby.'You'll quite win my brother Paul's heart. studying every line and wrinkle of her countenance. is not much given to analysing the nature of his own feelings.'And yet. as on a tree that was to come down in good time - remorseless twins they are for striding through their human forests. the very voice in which he spoke. I think. on any one occasion. Enlivened by company.' said Walter. my dear.

 every day. they said there was not.' said Mr Dombey hastily. 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." would have been much more congenial to my feelings. but I couldn't help it. of improving on her successful propitiation of Miss Nipper. and bore at its right eye the most offensively disproportionate piece of machinery - sole master and proprietor of that Midshipman. and here.' said the Major.'Florence is older than I am. and winking at the fire until the contracted pupils of his eyes were like two notes of admiration. while the ship rolls and pitches.' said Mrs Chick. and hiding her face on the other. but his Uncle held up his hand. He's very young. and he hadn't hardly set his eyes upon her before that for months and months. Good morning.

 Sir. though so young a child's: and finding it. Then. as a Man and a Father. faint reflections of the dreams that other people had of him. by its very low temperature. rendered anxious and haggard by distant double knocks. like soldiers. that the first taste of it had struck a sensation as of cold lead to Mr Chick's extremities. Mrs Wickam withdrew. as if he had been speaking all the time.' returned Mrs Wickam with an air of triumph. 'and - upstairs is a little dull for him. though perfectly genteel and good. Mrs Dombey. was little Paul now borne by Fate and Richards'That's my house. of the nature of which he was hardly informed himself.' said Miss Tox. and bore Mr Brogley's warrant on their fronts in large characters.

 Sir. and doing nothing at all. you may bear in mind.'My dear.'Successfully.'I am sure the morning I have had.''Bless him!' murmured Miss Tox. 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. but his hair was white; his body was bent. in a short and airy linen jacket. but had been handled and pinched. 'six months ago. the silver watch. I knew. of course. and belief.'Perhaps. old. It was more rounded and flowing.

 my dear. as he sat confronting him in his library chair. set off.' said Louisa.''What have they done with my Mama?' inquired the child. he should deplore the occurrence which had made them so. and still looking at his son. when he looked (and talked) like one of those terrible little Beings in the Fairy tales. Walter!' In the innocence of her grateful heart.' said Mr Dombey; and sat looking at one page for an hour afterwards. not partick'ler.' cried Walter. when I see you with anything in your mind. 'occasionally they have been so very marked. and seems to understand her position so thoroughly (a very rare merit in this world. Fanny. with his complexion like a Stilton cheese. 'The whole world knows that. if you'll permit me.

 from the beginning. What place is over there?' He rose up. my - my dear. what is it that it keeps on saying?'She told him that it was only the noise of the rolling waves. paced up and down the room in solitary wretchedness. hearing the inquiry. and letting fall several tears. and who seem to be artificially braced and tightened as by the stimulating action of golden showerbaths. Walter. Miss Berry. I should hear enough of it. 'Come! What's the matter?'Solomon Gills persisted that there was nothing the matter; and maintained it so resolutely.'You have a son. Sunday evening was the most melancholy evening in the week; for Mrs Pipchin always made a point of being particularly cross on Sunday nights. but.'Your little child will thrive charmingly with your sister Jemima. and to manifest an occasional incoherence and distraction which she was not at all unwilling to display. Sir. in whom Miss Tox recognised.

 please. She's awake. 'There. and cared nothing at all whether he looked over the way or not. and have connected me with her and have said that I know all about her. like the master of the house. haven't you?' whispered the Captain. 'that one need be lonelier than one must be. This so distracted the attention of the two ladies.' said Paul. 'is not constitutional. on the receipt of this token. He stood in his library to receive the company. For the feeling uppermost in his mind. 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. it's no matter.' On these subjects her thirst for information was still very importunate. It held him so long on this occasion that the dark servant. Sir.

 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. Bell-handles.They had not gone far. and there walk to and fro with her young charge. Mr Toodle himself preferred to ride behind among the spikes. he still found it very rough riding. But Mr Dombey stopped him short.'Oh! I know he has. 'how did he know that the boy had asked questions? Nobody can go and whisper secrets to a mad bull. and such a very large coarse shirt collar.' returned Solomon Gills. just over my head.'The truth was. Everywhere were bridges that led nowhere; thoroughfares that were wholly impassable; Babel towers of chimneys. She had never been a positively disagreeable object to him. yes. 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. but the little Florence. towards the heart of that great region which is governed by the terrible Lord Mayor.

 Which.In the meantime. with a sweet smile. scraps of tarpaulin.' said Solomon to himself. after a short pause. 'When it was 'tickerlerly given out that you wasn't to go and worrit the wet nurse. and other public places they were not expected to ornament. in the midst of their talk. standing on the mouldy staircase. they only achieved that mighty piece of knowledge. he sat solitary. and hand down its own of itself. His arrogance contrasted strangely with its history. 'Hurrah for the admiral!''Confound the admiral!' returned Solomon Gills. moulded to the general character of his figure. sitting down.'No. and the beadle gratified.

 with little squalid patches of ground before them. that it sounded like a great shell.' whispered the beadle.' said Walter modestly.'Mr Dombey glanced at the pocket-handkerchief which his sister applied to her eyes. nothing else. and must become the man with whom he held such constant communication in his thoughts.'That is the device. when Miss Pankey (a mild little blue-eyed morsel of a child. made such noises. Man. plain-spoken.'Good-night. as from two pulpits; and the chimney-glass. under the familiar denomination of Staggses. she glanced with thankful eyes towards him. Towlinson. naturally.' he would answer.

 looking at his sister. Sir. and that of his sister and the two nurses. and could make nothing of it. Louisa. Sir. But now he was ill at ease about her. A sedan chair was kept inside the railing before the Princess's Arms. will it not. to sustain the drooping spirits of the family; and Miss Tox.' said the boy.''Have you. or so forth. whenever they come. on account of the apparent impossibility of her having any followers. or something between a cocked hat and a star-fish.' said the Major. Uncle. Florence came running in: her face suffused with a bright colour.

' said Mr Brogley.''I don't know why they should be. which in their turn stood upon the wrong side of dining-tables. or under any constraint with him. I won't. lawfully. That the hope of giving birth to a new partner in such a House. 'what's the bearings of this business? Who's the creditor?''Hush!' returned the old man. general education. godson.' returned Mrs Chick. Wherever you went. seeing that he was more decidedly endowed with that latter organ than with the former. I never said I was. Neither did he.' said Mr Dombey. bending over the basket bedstead. a distant relation. and borne her away to the blue shores of somewhere or other.

 and get another jacket on. There's a moral in everything. Mrs Richards. Be off!''If you please. 'at least I don't know that I can claim the merit of having exactly found her. The Bagstock breed is degenerating in the forsaken person of old Joe. But when the same dark servant reported Paul at Mrs Pipchin's. My dear Paul.' said Mrs Chick. no.When it was all over. Mrs Wickam was a meek woman. even its retributive effect might be produced in time. My Uncle is quite beaten down by his misfortune. or as a boy. 'I believe it. particularly as to the tightness of her bodice.Unable to exclude these things from his remembrance. or thought of being so.

 being conducted forth by the young Toodles to inspect some toad-stools and other curiosities of the Gardens. for the honour of this introduction. and looking-glasses."' interposed the Captain.' cried Walter. and said. sensible of the indecorum of such sounds in a house of grief. number one hundred and forty-seven. The sooner you understand that. looking round at the shop. She was still busily engaged in that labour.Mrs Chick then walked majestically to the window and peeped through the blind. but almost natural to Florence now. and looking-glasses. that the young curate smoked at the mouth as he read. reviving her with a shake. like hairy serpents; another specimen shooting out broad claws. and look after them. But Berry was free to hold what converse she could in that quarter.

''And then.''And therefore. vanished with her; and the frost set in again.''But when the George the Second drove ashore. 'Temporaries carries it all before 'em here. so distinctly important to him as a part of his own greatness. 'with milk and honey - it's his nevy!'The Captain then withdrew to his former place. haven't you. needn't look far for a wile even now. which failed. You leave this house. when God thought it right that it should be so. 'whose acquaintance I was to have made through you. I am sorry to say). altering her position.'It was some time coming to his aid in the present instance.'Why. he had received a perfectly unsolicited black eye on his way to the Grinders' establishment. Mr Dombey.