of her head, 'and now I will!'

Spurring herself on to the accomplishment of this desperate design, with
a sharpness that was peculiar to herself, Susan Nipper haunted the hall
and staircase during the whole forenoon, without finding a favourable
opportunity for the assault. Not at all baffled by this discomfiture,
which indeed had a stimulating effect, and put her on her mettle, she
diminished nothing of her vigilance; and at last discovered, towards
evening, that her sworn foe Mrs Pipchin, under pretence of having sat up
all night, was dozing in her own room, and that Mr Dombey was lying on
his sofa, unattended.

With a twitch--not of her head merely, this time, but of her whole
self--the Nipper went on tiptoe to Mr Dombey's door, and knocked. 'Come
in!' said Mr Dombey. Susan encouraged herself with a final twitch, and
went in.

Mr Dombey, who was eyeing the fire, gave an amazed look at his visitor,
and raised himself a little on his arm. The Nipper dropped a curtsey.

'What do you want?' said Mr Dombey.

'If you please, Sir, I wish to speak to you,' said Susan.

Mr Dombey moved his lips as if he were repeating the words, but he
seemed so lost in astonishment at the presumption of the young woman as
to be incapable of giving them utterance.

'I have been in your service, Sir,' said Susan Nipper, with her usual
rapidity, 'now twelve 'year a waiting on Miss Floy my own young lady who
couldn't speak plain when I first come here and I was old in this house
when Mrs Richards was new, I may not be Meethosalem, but I am not a
child in arms.'

Mr Dombey, raised upon his arm and looking at her, offered no comment on
this preparatory statement of fact.

'There never was a dearer or a blesseder young lady than is my young
lady, Sir,' said Susan, 'and I ought to know a great deal better than
some for I have seen her in her grief and I have seen her in her joy
(there's not been much of it) and I have seen her with her brother and I
have seen her in her loneliness and some have never seen her, and I
say to some and all--I do!' and here the black-eyed shook her head, and
slightly stamped her foot; 'that she's the blessedest and dearest angel
is Miss Floy that ever drew the breath of life, the more that I was torn
to pieces Sir the more I'd say it though I may not be a Fox's Martyr..'

Mr Dombey turned yet paler than his fall had made him, with indignation
and astonishment; and kept his eyes upon the speaker as if he accu