patra 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, re