Dombey and Son | Page 4

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