?
You who are at the head of this household, and bound to keep it in
order, have reason to inquire. Do you know this woman?'

'I know very little good of her, Sir,' croaked Mrs Pipchin. 'How dare
you come here, you hussy? Go along with you!'

But the inflexible Nipper, merely honouring Mrs Pipchin with another
look, remained.

'Do you call it managing this establishment, Madam,' said Mr Dombey,
'to leave a person like this at liberty to come and talk to me!
A gentleman--in his own house--in his own room--assailed with the
impertinences of women-servants!'

'Well, Sir,' returned Mrs Pipchin, with vengeance in her hard grey eye,
'I exceedingly deplore it; nothing can be more irregular; nothing can be
more out of all bounds and reason; but I regret to say, Sir, that
this young woman is quite beyond control. She has been spoiled by
Miss Dombey, and is amenable to nobody. You know you're not,' said Mrs
Pipchin, sharply, and shaking her head at Susan Nipper. 'For shame, you
hussy! Go along with you!'

'If you find people in my service who are not to be controlled, Mrs
Pipchin,' said Mr Dombey, turning back towards the fire, 'you know what
to do with them, I presume. You know what you are here for? Take her
away!'

'Sir, I know what to do,' retorted Mrs Pipchin, 'and of course shall
do it' Susan Nipper,' snapping her up particularly short, 'a month's
warning from this hour.'

'Oh indeed!' cried Susan, loftily.

'Yes,' returned Mrs Pipchin, 'and don't smile at me, you minx, or I'll
know the reason why! Go along with you this minute!'

'I intend to go this minute, you may rely upon it,' said the voluble
Nipper. 'I have been in this house waiting on my young lady a dozen year
and I won't stop in it one hour under notice from a person owning to the
name of Pipchin trust me, Mrs P.'

'A good riddance of bad rubbish!' said that wrathful old lady. 'Get
along with you, or I'll have you carried out!'

'My comfort is,' said Susan, looking back at Mr Dombey, 'that I have
told a piece of truth this day which ought to have been told long
before and can't be told too often or too plain and that no amount of
Pipchinses--I hope the number of 'em mayn't be great' (here Mrs Pipchin
uttered a very sharp 'Go along with you!' and Miss Nipper repeated the
look) 'can unsay what I have said, though they gave a whole year full of
warnings beginning at ten o'clock in the forenoon and never leaving
off till twelve at night and died of the