e, as my so doing cannot be unpleasant to
anybody, under the circumstances, I think I'll take a pipe.'

Mr Toots begins to smoke, accordingly, and in the openness of his heart
is very loquacious.

'Of all the remarkable instances that that delightful woman has given of
her excellent sense, Captain Gills and Mr Sols,' said Mr Toots, 'I
think none is more remarkable than the perfection with which she has
understood my devotion to Miss Dombey.'

Both his auditors assent.

'Because you know,' says Mr Toots, 'I have never changed my sentiments
towards Miss Dombey. They are the same as ever. She is the same
bright vision to me, at present, that she was before I made Walters's
acquaintance. When Mrs Toots and myself first began to talk of--in
short, of the tender passion, you know, Captain Gills.'

'Ay, ay, my lad,' says the Captain, 'as makes us all slue round--for
which you'll overhaul the book--'

'I shall certainly do so, Captain Gills,' says Mr Toots, with great
earnestness; 'when we first began to mention such subjects, I explained
that I was what you may call a Blighted Flower, you know.'

The Captain approves of this figure greatly; and murmurs that no flower
as blows, is like the rose.

'But Lord bless me,' pursues Mr Toots, 'she was as entirely conscious of
the state of my feelings as I was myself. There was nothing I could tell
her. She was the only person who could have stood between me and the
silent Tomb, and she did it, in a manner to command my everlasting
admiration. She knows that there's nobody in the world I look up to, as
I do to Miss Dombey. Knows that there's nothing on earth I wouldn't
do for Miss Dombey. She knows that I consider Miss Dombey the most
beautiful, the most amiable, the most angelic of her sex. What is her
observation upon that? The perfection of sense. "My dear, you're right.
I think so too."'

'And so do I!' says the Captain.

'So do I,' says Sol Gills.

'Then,' resumes Mr Toots, after some contemplative pulling at his pipe,
during which his visage has expressed the most contented reflection,
'what an observant woman my wife is! What sagacity she possesses! What
remarks she makes! It was only last night, when we were sitting in
the enjoyment of connubial bliss--which, upon my word and honour, is a
feeble term to express my feelings in the society of my wife--that
she said how remarkable it was to consider the present position of
our friend Walters. "Here," observes my wife,