necessary to have some solitary meditation on the
changes of human affairs, and to shake his glazed hat profoundly over
the fall of Mr Dombey, for whom the generosity and simplicity of his
nature were awakened in a lively manner. The Captain would have been
very low, indeed, on the unhappy gentleman's account, but for the
recollection of the baby; which afforded him such intense satisfaction
whenever it arose, that he laughed aloud as he went along the street,
and, indeed, more than once, in a sudden impulse of joy, threw up his
glazed hat and caught it again; much to the amazement of the spectators.
The rapid alternations of light and shade to which these two conflicting
subjects of reflection exposed the Captain, were so very trying to his
spirits, that he felt a long walk necessary to his composure; and as
there is a great deal in the influence of harmonious associations, he
chose, for the scene of this walk, his old neighbourhood, down among
the mast, oar, and block makers, ship-biscuit bakers, coal-whippers,
pitch-kettles, sailors, canals, docks, swing-bridges, and other soothing
objects.

These peaceful scenes, and particularly the region of Limehouse Hole and
thereabouts, were so influential in calming the Captain, that he walked
on with restored tranquillity, and was, in fact, regaling himself, under
his breath, with the ballad of Lovely Peg, when, on turning a corner,
he was suddenly transfixed and rendered speechless by a triumphant
procession that he beheld advancing towards him.

This awful demonstration was headed by that determined woman Mrs
MacStinger, who, preserving a countenance of inexorable resolution, and
wearing conspicuously attached to her obdurate bosom a stupendous watch
and appendages, which the Captain recognised at a glance as the property
of Bunsby, conducted under her arm no other than that sagacious mariner;
he, with the distraught and melancholy visage of a captive borne into a
foreign land, meekly resigning himself to her will. Behind them appeared
the young MacStingers, in a body, exulting. Behind them, two ladies
of a terrible and steadfast aspect, leading between them a short
gentleman in a tall hat, who likewise exulted. In the wake, appeared
Bunsby's boy, bearing umbrellas. The whole were in good marching order;
and a dreadful smartness that pervaded the party would have sufficiently
announced, if the intrepid countenances of the ladies had been wanting,
that it was a procession