t come, and she rated of her wery high, and said she had
been gone a long time.'

'Then,' said Walter, 'do you ask Miss Dombey where she's gone, and we'll
try to find her. The morning's getting on, and Miss Dombey will soon be
rising. You are her best friend. Wait for her upstairs, and leave me to
take care of all down here.'

The Captain, very crest-fallen indeed, echoed the sigh with which Walter
said this, and complied. Florence was delighted with her new room,
anxious to see Walter, and overjoyed at the prospect of greeting her old
friend Susan. But Florence could not say where Susan was gone, except
that it was in Essex, and no one could say, she remembered, unless it
were Mr Toots.

With this information the melancholy Captain returned to Walter, and
gave him to understand that Mr Toots was the young gentleman whom he had
encountered on the door-step, and that he was a friend of his, and that
he was a young gentleman of property, and that he hopelessly adored
Miss Dombey. The Captain also related how the intelligence of Walter's
supposed fate had first made him acquainted with Mr Toots, and how there
was solemn treaty and compact between them, that Mr Toots should be mute
upon the subject of his love.

The question then was, whether Florence could trust Mr Toots; and
Florence saying, with a smile, 'Oh, yes, with her whole heart!' it
became important to find out where Mr Toots lived. This, Florence didn't
know, and the Captain had forgotten; and the Captain was telling Walter,
in the little parlour, that Mr Toots was sure to be there soon, when in
came Mr Toots himself.

'Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, rushing into the parlour without any
ceremony, 'I'm in a state of mind bordering on distraction!'

Mr Toots had discharged those words, as from a mortar, before he
observed Walter, whom he recognised with what may be described as a
chuckle of misery.

'You'll excuse me, Sir,' said Mr Toots, holding his forehead, 'but
I'm at present in that state that my brain is going, if not gone, and
anything approaching to politeness in an individual so situated would
be a hollow mockery. Captain Gills, I beg to request the favour of a
private interview.'

'Why, Brother,' returned the Captain, taking him by the hand, 'you are
the man as we was on the look-out for.'

'Oh, Captain Gills,' said Mr Toots, 'what a look-out that must be, of
which I am the object! I haven't dared to shave, I'm in that rash state.
I haven't ha