em
if this noise of tongues and tread of feet had never come there,--if
the old dulness and decay had never been replaced by novelty and
splendour,--if the neglected child had found no friend in Edith, but had
lived her solitary life, unpitied and forgotten.

Mrs Chick had some such thoughts too, but they were not so quietly
developed in her mind. This good matron had been outraged in the first
instance by not receiving an invitation to dinner. That blow partially
recovered, she had gone to a vast expense to make such a figure before
Mrs Dombey at home, as should dazzle the senses of that lady, and heap
mortification, mountains high, on the head of Mrs Skewton.

'But I am made,' said Mrs Chick to Mr Chick, 'of no more account than
Florence! Who takes the smallest notice of me? No one!'

'No one, my dear,' assented Mr Chick, who was seated by the side of Mrs
Chick against the wall, and could console himself, even there, by softly
whistling.

'Does it at all appear as if I was wanted here?' exclaimed Mrs Chick,
with flashing eyes.

'No, my dear, I don't think it does,' said Mr Chic

'Paul's mad!' said Mrs Chic

Mr Chick whistled.

'Unless you are a monster, which I sometimes think you are,' said Mrs
Chick with candour, 'don't sit there humming tunes. How anyone with the
most distant feelings of a man, can see that mother-in-law of Paul's,
dressed as she is, going on like that, with Major Bagstock, for whom,
among other precious things, we are indebted to your Lucretia Tox.'

'My Lucretia Tox, my dear!' said Mr Chick, astounded.

'Yes,' retorted Mrs Chick, with great severity, 'your Lucretia Tox--I
say how anybody can see that mother-in-law of Paul's, and that haughty
wife of Paul's, and these indecent old frights with their backs and
shoulders, and in short this at home generally, and hum--' on which
word Mrs Chick laid a scornful emphasis that made Mr Chick start, 'is, I
thank Heaven, a mystery to me!

Mr Chick screwed his mouth into a form irreconcilable with humming or
whistling, and looked very contemplative.

'But I hope I know what is due to myself,' said Mrs Chick, swelling
with indignation, 'though Paul has forgotten what is due to me. I am not
going to sit here, a member of this family, to be taken no notice of. I
am not the dirt under Mrs Dombey's feet, yet--not quite yet,' said Mrs
Chick, as if she expected to become so, about the day after to-morrow.
'And I shall go. I will not say (whatever I m