Dombey and Son. Чарльз Диккенс

of business, between whom and Mrs Pipchin there was a small memorandum book, with a greasy red cover, perpetually in question, and concerning which divers secret councils and conferences were continually being held between the parties to that register, on the mat in the passage, and with closed doors in the parlour. Nor were there wanting dark hints from Master Bitherstone (whose temper had been made revengeful by the solar heats of India acting on his blood), of balances unsettled, and of a failure, on one occasion within his memory, in the supply of moist sugar at tea-time. This grocer being a bachelor and not a man who looked upon the surface for beauty, had once made honourable offers for the hand of Berry, which Mrs Pipchin had, with contumely and scorn, rejected. Everybody said how laudable this was in Mrs Pipchin, relict of a man who had died of the Peruvian mines; and what a staunch, high, independent spirit the old lady had. But nobody said anything about poor Berry, who cried for six weeks (being soundly rated by her good aunt all the time), and lapsed into a state of hopeless spinsterhood.

      ‘Berry’s very fond of you, ain’t she?’ Paul once asked Mrs Pipchin when they were sitting by the fire with the cat.

      ‘Yes,’ said Mrs Pipchin.

      ‘Why?’ asked Paul.

      ‘Why!’ returned the disconcerted old lady. ‘How can you ask such things, Sir! why are you fond of your sister Florence?’

      ‘Because she’s very good,’ said Paul. ‘There’s nobody like Florence.’

      ‘Well!’ retorted Mrs Pipchin, shortly, ‘and there’s nobody like me, I suppose.’

      ‘Ain’t there really though?’ asked Paul, leaning forward in his chair, and looking at her very hard.

      ‘No,’ said the old lady.

      ‘I am glad of that,’ observed Paul, rubbing his hands thoughtfully. ‘That’s a very good thing.’

      Mrs Pipchin didn’t dare to ask him why, lest she should receive some perfectly annihilating answer. But as a compensation to her wounded feelings, she harassed Master Bitherstone to that extent until bed-time, that he began that very night to make arrangements for an overland return to India, by secreting from his supper a quarter of a round of bread and a fragment of moist Dutch cheese, as the beginning of a stock of provision to support him on the voyage.

      Mrs Pipchin had kept watch and ward over little Paul and his sister for nearly twelve months. They had been home twice, but only for a few days; and had been constant in their weekly visits to Mr Dombey at the hotel. By little and little Paul had grown stronger, and had become able to dispense with his carriage; though he still looked thin and delicate; and still remained the same old, quiet, dreamy child that he had been when first consigned to Mrs Pipchin’s care. One Saturday afternoon, at dusk, great consternation was occasioned in the Castle by the unlooked-for announcement of Mr Dombey as a visitor to Mrs Pipchin. The population of the parlour was immediately swept upstairs as on the wings of a whirlwind, and after much slamming of bedroom doors, and trampling overhead, and some knocking about of Master Bitherstone by Mrs Pipchin, as a relief to the perturbation of her spirits, the black bombazeen garments of the worthy old lady darkened the audience-chamber where Mr Dombey was contemplating the vacant arm-chair of his son and heir.

      ‘Mrs Pipchin,’ said Mr Dombey, ‘How do you do?’

      ‘Thank you, Sir,’ said Mrs Pipchin, ‘I am pretty well, considering.’

      Mrs Pipchin always used that form of words. It meant, considering her virtues, sacrifices, and so forth.

      ‘I can’t expect, Sir, to be very well,’ said Mrs Pipchin, taking a chair and fetching her breath; ‘but such health as I have, I am grateful for.’

      Mr Dombey inclined his head with the satisfied air of a patron, who felt that this was the sort of thing for which he paid so much a quarter. After a moment’s silence he went on to say:

      ‘Mrs Pipchin, I have taken the liberty of calling, to consult you in reference to my son. I have had it in my mind to do so for some time past; but have deferred it from time to time, in order that his health might be thoroughly re-established. You have no misgivings on that subject, Mrs Pipchin?’

      ‘Brighton has proved very beneficial, Sir,’ returned Mrs Pipchin. ‘Very beneficial, indeed.’

      ‘I purpose,’ said Mr Dombey, ‘his remaining at Brighton.’

      Mrs Pipchin rubbed her hands, and bent her grey eyes on the fire.

      ‘But,’ pursued Mr Dombey, stretching out his forefinger, ‘but possibly that he should now make a change, and lead a different kind of life here. In short, Mrs Pipchin, that is the object of my visit. My son is getting on, Mrs Pipchin. Really, he is getting on.’

      There was something melancholy in the triumphant air with which Mr Dombey said this. It showed how long Paul’s childish life had been to him, and how his hopes were set upon a later stage of his existence. Pity may appear a strange word to connect with anyone so haughty and so cold, and yet he seemed a worthy subject for it at that moment.

      ‘Six years old!’ said Mr Dombey, settling his neckcloth – perhaps to hide an irrepressible smile that rather seemed to strike upon the surface of his face and glance away, as finding no resting-place, than to play there for an instant. ‘Dear me, six will be changed to sixteen, before we have time to look about us.’

      ‘Ten years,’ croaked the unsympathetic Pipchin, with a frosty glistening of her hard grey eye, and a dreary shaking of her bent head, ‘is a long time.’

      ‘It depends on circumstances, returned Mr Dombey; ‘at all events, Mrs Pipchin, my son is six years old, and there is no doubt, I fear, that in his studies he is behind many children of his age – or his youth,’ said Mr Dombey, quickly answering what he mistrusted was a shrewd twinkle of the frosty eye, ‘his youth is a more appropriate expression. Now, Mrs Pipchin, instead of being behind his peers, my son ought to be before them; far before them. There is an eminence ready for him to mount upon. There is nothing of chance or doubt in the course before my son. His way in life was clear and prepared, and marked out before he existed. The education of such a young gentleman must not be delayed. It must not be left imperfect. It must be very steadily and seriously undertaken, Mrs Pipchin.’

      ‘Well, Sir,’ said Mrs Pipchin, ‘I can say nothing to the contrary.’

      ‘I was quite sure, Mrs Pipchin,’ returned Mr Dombey, approvingly, ‘that a person of your good sense could not, and would not.’

      ‘There is a great deal of nonsense – and worse – talked about young people not being pressed too hard at first, and being tempted on, and all the rest of it, Sir,’ said Mrs Pipchin, impatiently rubbing her hooked nose. ‘It never was thought of in my time, and it has no business to be thought of now. My opinion is “keep ‘em at it”.’

      ‘My good madam,’ returned Mr Dombey, ‘you have not acquired your reputation undeservedly; and I beg you to believe, Mrs Pipchin, that I am more than satisfied with your excellent system of management, and shall have the greatest pleasure in commending it whenever my poor commendation – ’ Mr Dombey’s loftiness when he affected to disparage his own importance, passed all bounds – ‘can be of any service. I have been thinking of Doctor Blimber’s, Mrs Pipchin.’

      ‘My neighbour, Sir?’ said Mrs Pipchin. ‘I believe the Doctor’s is an excellent establishment. I’ve heard that it’s very strictly conducted, and there is nothing but learning going on from morning to night.’

      ‘And it’s very expensive,’ added Mr Dombey.

      ‘And it’s very expensive, Sir,’ returned Mrs Pipchin, catching at the fact, as if in omitting that, she had omitted one of its leading merits.

      ‘I have had some communication with the Doctor, Mrs Pipchin,’ said Mr Dombey, hitching his chair anxiously a little nearer to the fire, ‘and he does not consider Paul at all too young for his purpose. He mentioned several instances of boys in Greek at about the same age. If I have any little uneasiness in my own mind, Mrs Pipchin, on the subject of this change, it is not on that head. My son not having known a mother has gradually concentrated much – too much – of his