he called
"Floy." Often, as they sat together on the beach, he would ask her what
it was the sea was always saying, and would rise up on his couch to
listen to something he seemed to hear, far, far away.

Walter Gay, meanwhile, in London, was working away and thinking often of
Florence. He was greatly worried about his Uncle Solomon, for the
business of the old instrument maker was in a bad way, and Old Sol
himself was melancholy.

One day Walter came home from his work at Dombey and Son's to find that
an officer had taken possession of the shop and all that was in it for
debt. His old Uncle Sol was sobbing like a child, and not knowing what
else to do, he went post-haste for Captain Cuttle.

He found the captain with his hat on, peeling potatoes with a knife
screwed into the wooden socket in his wrist instead of the hook. When he
told him what had happened, Captain Cuttle jumped up, put all the money
he had, his silver watch, some spoons and a pair of sugar-tongs into
his pocket and went back at once with him to the shop.

But the debt, he found, was far too big to be thus paid, and Captain
Cuttle advised Walter to go to Mr. Dombey and ask him to help them, or
else everything in the shop would have to be sold, and that would kill
old Solomon Gills.

It was Saturday, and Mr. Dombey had gone to see little Paul, so Walter
and Captain Cuttle took the next coach for Brighton.

They found him with the children at breakfast, and Walter, discouraged
by his cold look, faltered lamely through his story, while Captain
Cuttle laid on the table the money, the watch, the spoons and the
sugar-tongs, offering them to help pay the debt. Mr. Dombey was
astonished at his strange appearance and indignant at being annoyed by
such an errand, so that Florence, seeing his mood and Walter's trouble,
began to sob. Little Paul, however, stood looking from Walter to his
father so intently and wisely that the latter, telling him he was one
day to be a part of Dombey and Son, asked him if he would like to loan
Walter the money.

Paul joyfully said yes, and Mr. Dombey, telling Walter that it was to be
considered a loan from the boy, gave him a note which would at once
release his uncle from his difficulty. So Walter and Captain Cuttle went
gladly back to London.

Soon after this, when Paul was six years old, his father thought he
should be studying, so he put him in a school next door to Mrs.
Pipchin's.

The master was Doctor Blimber, a