Dombey and Son | Page 5

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