ow how faithful and earnest all you say and feel is. I am
sure of it. You don't doubt that I am as sure of it as I am that my foot
is again upon this door-step, or that I again have hold of this true
hand. Do you?'

'No, no, Wal'r,' returned the Captain, with his beaming

'I'll hazard no more conjectures,' said Walter, fervently shaking the
hard hand of the Captain, who shook his with no less goodwill. 'All I
will add is, Heaven forbid that I should touch my Uncle's possessions,
Captain Cuttle! Everything that he left here, shall remain in the care
of the truest of stewards and kindest of men--and if his name is not
Cuttle, he has no name! Now, best of friends, about--Miss Dombey.'

There was a change in Walter's manner, as he came to these two words;
and when he uttered them, all his confidence and cheerfulness appeared
to have deserted him.

'I thought, before Miss Dombey stopped me when I spoke of her father
last night,' said Walter, '--you remember how?'

The Captain well remembered, and shook his head.

'I thought,' said Walter, 'before that, that we had but one hard duty
to perform, and that it was, to prevail upon her to communicate with her
friends, and to return home.'

The Captain muttered a feeble 'Awast!' or a 'Stand by!' or something
or other, equally pertinent to the occasion; but it was rendered so
extremely feeble by the total discomfiture with which he received this
announcement, that what it was, is mere matter of conjecture.

'But,' said Walter, 'that is over. I think so, no longer. I would sooner
be put back again upon that piece of wreck, on which I have so often
floated, since my preservation, in my dreams, and there left to drift,
and drive, and die!'

'Hooroar, my lad!' exclaimed the Captain, in a burst of uncontrollable
satisfaction. 'Hooroar! hooroar! hooroar!'

'To think that she, so young, so good, and beautiful,' said Walter,
'so delicately brought up, and born to such a different fortune, should
strive with the rough world! But we have seen the gulf that cuts off all
behind her, though no one but herself can know how deep it is; and there
is no return.

Captain Cuttle, without quite understanding this, greatly approved of
it, and observed in a tone of strong corroboration, that the wind was
quite abaft.

'She ought not to be alone here; ought she, Captain Cuttle?' said
Walter, anxiously.

'Well, my lad,' replied the Captain, after a little sagacious
consideration. 'I don't