'I should be truly sorry, James,' returned the other.

'He would be sorry!' said the Manager, pointing at him, as if there were
some other person present to whom he was appealing. 'He would be truly
sorry! This brother of mine! This junior of the place, this slighted
piece of lumber, pushed aside with his face to the wall, like a rotten
picture, and left so, for Heaven knows how many years he's all gratitude
and respect, and devotion too, he would have me believe!'

'I would have you believe nothing, James,' returned the other. 'Be as
just to me as you would to any other man below you. You ask a question,
and I answer it.'

'And have you nothing, Spaniel,' said the Manager, with unusual
irascibility, 'to complain of in him? No proud treatment to resent, no
insolence, no foolery of state, no exaction of any sort! What the devil!
are you man or mouse?'

'It would be strange if any two persons could be together for so
many years, especially as superior and inferior, without each having
something to complain of in the other--as he thought, at all events,
replied John Carker. 'But apart from my history here--'

'His history here!' exclaimed the Manager. 'Why, there it is. The very
fact that makes him an extreme case, puts him out of the whole chapter!
Well?'

'Apart from that, which, as you hint, gives me a reason to be thankful
that I alone (happily for all the rest) possess, surely there is no one
in the House who would not say and feel at least as much. You do
not think that anybody here would be indifferent to a mischance or
misfortune happening to the head of the House, or anything than truly
sorry for it?'

'You have good reason to be bound to him too!' said the Manager,
contemptuously. 'Why, don't you believe that you are kept here, as a
cheap example, and a famous instance of the clemency of Dombey and Son,
redounding to the credit of the illustrious House?'

'No,' replied his brother, mildly, 'I have long believed that I am kept
here for more kind and disinterested reasons.

'But you were going,' said the Manager, with the snarl of a tiger-cat,
'to recite some Christian precept, I observed.'

'Nay, James,' returned the other, 'though the tie of brotherhood between
us has been long broken and thrown away--'

'Who broke it, good Sir?' said the Manager.

'I, by my misconduct. I do not charge it upon you.'

The Manager replied, with that mute action of his bristling mouth, 'Oh,
you don't charge it upon