ave been a stimulant to Paul in the perpetual resumption of his
studies; but coupled with the actual lightening of his load, consequent
on this assistance, it saved him, possibly, from sinking underneath the
burden which the fair Cornelia Blimber piled upon his back.

It was not that Miss Blimber meant to be too hard upon him, or that
Doctor Blimber meant to bear too heavily on the young gentlemen in
general. Cornelia merely held the faith in which she had been bred; and
the Doctor, in some partial confusion of his ideas, regarded the young
gentlemen as if they were all Doctors, and were born grown up. Comforted
by the applause of the young gentlemen's nearest relations, and urged
on by their blind vanity and ill-considered haste, it would have been
strange if Doctor Blimber had discovered his mistake, or trimmed his
swelling sails to any other tack.

Thus in the case of Paul. When Doctor Blimber said he made great
progress and was naturally clever, Mr Dombey was more bent than ever on
his being forced and crammed. In the case of Briggs, when Doctor Blimber
reported that he did not make great progress yet, and was not naturally
clever, Briggs senior was inexorable in the same purpose. In short,
however high and false the temperature at which the Doctor kept his
hothouse, the owners of the plants were always ready to lend a helping
hand at the bellows, and to stir the fire.

Such spirits as he had in the outset, Paul soon lost of course. But he
retained all that was strange, and old, and thoughtful in his character:
and under circumstances so favourable to the development of those
tendencies, became even more strange, and old, and thoughtful, than
before.

The only difference was, that he kept his character to himself. He grew
more thoughtful and reserved, every day; and had no such curiosity
in any living member of the Doctor's household, as he had had in Mrs
Pipchin. He loved to be alone; and in those short intervals when he was
not occupied with his books, liked nothing so well as wandering about
the house by himself, or sitting on the stairs, listening to the great
clock in the hall. He was intimate with all the paperhanging in the
house; saw things that no one else saw in the patterns; found out
miniature tigers and lions running up the bedroom walls, and squinting
faces leering in the squares and diamonds of the floor-cloth.

The solitary child lived on, surrounded by this arabesque work of his
musing fancy, a