; if so be to seek his
nevy, or if so be along of being not quite settled in his mind; than you
do. One morning at daybreak, he went over the side,' said the Captain,
'without a splash, without a ripple I have looked for that man high and
low, and never set eyes, nor ears, nor nothing else, upon him from that
hour.'

'But, good Gracious, Miss Dombey don't know--' Mr Toots began.

'Why, I ask you, as a feeling heart,' said the Captain, dropping his
voice, 'why should she know? why should she be made to know, until such
time as there wam't any help for it? She took to old Sol Gills, did that
sweet creetur, with a kindness, with a affability, with a--what's the
good of saying so? you know her.'

'I should hope so,' chuckled Mr Toots, with a conscious blush that
suffused his whole countenance.

'And you come here from her?' said the Captain.

'I should think so,' chuckled Mr Toots.

'Then all I need observe, is,' said the Captain, 'that you know a angel,
and are chartered a angel.'

Mr Toots instantly seized the Captain's hand, and requested the favour
of his friendship.

'Upon my word and honour,' said Mr Toots, earnestly, 'I should be very
much obliged to you if you'd improve my acquaintance I should like to
know you, Captain, very much. I really am In want of a friend, I am.
Little Dombey was my friend at old Blimber's, and would have been now,
if he'd have lived. The Chicken,' said Mr Toots, in a forlorn whisper,
'is very well--admirable in his way--the sharpest man perhaps in the
world; there's not a move he isn't up to, everybody says so--but I don't
know--he's not everything. So she is an angel, Captain. If there is an
angel anywhere, it's Miss Dombey. That's what I've always said. Really
though, you know,' said Mr Toots, 'I should be very much obliged to you
if you'd cultivate my acquaintance.'

Captain Cuttle received this proposal in a polite manner, but still
without committing himself to its acceptance; merely observing, 'Ay,
ay, my lad. We shall see, we shall see;' and reminding Mr Toots of his
immediate mission, by inquiring to what he was indebted for the honour
of that visit.

'Why the fact is,' replied Mr Toots, 'that it's the young woman I come
from. Not Miss Dombey--Susan, you know.

The Captain nodded his head once, with a grave expression of face
indicative of his regarding that young woman with serious respect.

'And I'll tell you how it happens,' said Mr Toots. 'You know, I go and
call