s handwriting, the word--"Pause." It occurs just in between Little
Dombey's confiding to his sister, that if she were in India he should
die of being so sorry and so lonely! and the incident of his suddenly
waking up at another time from a long sleep in his little carriage on
the shingles, to ask her, not only "What the rolling waves are saying so
constantly, but What place is over there?--far away!--looking eagerly,
as he inquires, towards some invisible region beyond the horizon!" That
momentary pause will be very well remembered by everyone who attended
this Reading.

One single omission we are still disposed to regret in the putting
together of the materials for this particular Reading from the original
narrative. In approaching Dr. Blimber's establishment for the first
time, we would gladly have witnessed the sparring-match, as one may say,
on the very threshold, between Mrs. Pipchin the Ogress in bombazeen and
the weak-eyed young man-servant who opens the door! The latter of
whom, having "the first faint streaks or early dawn of a grin on his
countenance--(it was mere imbecility)" as the Author himself explains
parenthetically--Mrs. Pipchin at once takes it into her head, is
inspired by impudence, and snaps at accordingly. Of this we saw nothing,
however, in the Reading. We heard nothing of Mrs. Pipchin's explosive,
"How dare you laugh behind the gentleman's back?" or of the weak-eyed
young man's answering in consternation, "I ain't a laughing at nobody,
ma'am." Any more than of the Ogress saying a while later, "You're
laughing again, sir!" or of the young man, grievously oppressed,
repudiating the charge with, "I _ain't_. I never see such a thing
as this!" The old lady as she passed on with, "Oh! he was a precious
fellow," leaving him, who was in fact all meekness and incapacity,
"affected even to tears by the incident." If we saw nothing, however, of
that retainer of Dr. Blimber, we were introduced to another, meaning the
blue-coated, bright-buttoned butler, "who gave quite a winey flavour
to the table-beer--he poured it out so superbly!" We had Dr. Blimber
himself, besides, with his learned legs, like a clerical pianoforte--a
bald head, highly polished, and a chin so double, it was a wonder how
he ever managed to shave into the creases. We had Miss Blimber, in
spectacles, like a ghoul, "dry and sandy with working in the graves
of deceased languages." We had Mrs. Blimber, not learned herself, but
pretending to b