again, and
what was coming.

Carker,' said Mr Dombey, looking here and there upon the table, and
saying in a somewhat altered and more hurried voice, and with a paler
lip, 'there is no occasion for apology. You mistake. The association is
with the matter in hand, and not with any recollection, as you suppose.
I do not approve of Mrs Dombey's behaviour towards my daughter.'

'Pardon me,' said Mr Carker, 'I don't quite understand.'

'Understand then,' returned Mr Dombey, 'that you may make that--that you
will make that, if you please--matter of direct objection from me to
Mrs Dombey. You will please to tell her that her show of devotion for my
daughter is disagreeable to me. It is likely to be noticed. It is likely
to induce people to contrast Mrs Dombey in her relation towards my
daughter, with Mrs Dombey in her relation towards myself. You will have
the goodness to let Mrs Dombey know, plainly, that I object to it; and
that I expect her to defer, immediately, to my objection. Mrs Dombey may
be in earnest, or she may be pursuing a whim, or she may be opposing me;
but I object to it in any case, and in every case. If Mrs Dombey is in
earnest, so much the less reluctant should she be to desist; for she
will not serve my daughter by any such display. If my wife has any
superfluous gentleness, and duty over and above her proper submission
to me, she may bestow them where she pleases, perhaps; but I will have
submission first!--Carker,' said Mr Dombey, checking the unusual emotion
with which he had spoken, and falling into a tone more like that in
which he was accustomed to assert his greatness, 'you will have the
goodness not to omit or slur this point, but to consider it a very
important part of your instructions.'

Mr Carker bowed his head, and rising from the table, and standing
thoughtfully before the fire, with his hand to his smooth chin, looked
down at Mr Dombey with the evil slyness of some monkish carving, half
human and half brute; or like a leering face on an old water-spout. Mr
Dombey, recovering his composure by degrees, or cooling his emotion
in his sense of having taken a high position, sat gradually stiffening
again, and looking at the parrot as she swung to and fro, in her great
wedding ring.

'I beg your pardon,' said Carker, after a silence, suddenly resuming his
chair, and drawing it opposite to Mr Dombey's, 'but let me understand.
Mrs Dombey is aware of the probability of your making me the organ o