observe that he might repeat this.

'I say, which I did not believe,--the time was likely to come, when such
an understanding as we have now arrived at, would be serviceable.'

'Serviceable to whom, Sir?' she demanded scornfully.

'To you. I will not add to myself, as warning me to refrain even from
that limited commendation of Mr Dombey, in which I can honestly
indulge, in order that I may not have the misfortune of saying anything
distasteful to one whose aversion and contempt,' with great expression,
'are so keen.'

'Is it honest in you, Sir,' said Edith, 'to confess to your "limited
commendation," and to speak in that tone of disparagement, even of him:
being his chief counsellor and flatterer!'

'Counsellor,--yes,' said Carker. 'Flatterer,--no. A little reservation I
fear I must confess to. But our interest and convenience commonly oblige
many of us to make professions that we cannot feel. We have partnerships
of interest and convenience, friendships of interest and convenience,
dealings of interest and convenience, marriages of interest and
convenience, every day.'

She bit her blood-red lip; but without wavering in the dark, stern watch
she kept upon him.

'Madam,' said Mr Carker, sitting down in a chair that was near her, with
an air of the most profound and most considerate respect, 'why should
I hesitate now, being altogether devoted to your service, to speak
plainly? It was natural that a lady, endowed as you are, should think it
feasible to change her husband's character in some respects, and mould
him to a better form.'

'It was not natural to me, Sir,' she rejoined. 'I had never any
expectation or intention of that kind.'

The proud undaunted face showed him it was resolute to wear no mask he
offered, but was set upon a reckless disclosure of itself, indifferent
to any aspect in which it might present itself to such as he.

'At least it was natural,' he resumed, 'that you should deem it quite
possible to live with Mr Dombey as his wife, at once without submitting
to him, and without coming into such violent collision with him. But,
Madam, you did not know Mr Dombey (as you have since ascertained), when
you thought that. You did not know how exacting and how proud he is,
or how he is, if I may say so, the slave of his own greatness, and goes
yoked to his own triumphal car like a beast of burden, with no idea on
earth but that it is behind him and is to be drawn on, over everything
and through e