those persons upstairs suggest improper subjects to the child. He was
speaking to me last night about his--about his Bones,' said Mr Dombey,
laying an irritated stress upon the word. 'What on earth has anybody to
do with the--with the--Bones of my son? He is not a living skeleton, I
suppose.

'Very far from it,' said Mrs Chick, with unspeakable expression.

'I hope so,' returned her brother. 'Funerals again! who talks to the
child of funerals? We are not undertakers, or mutes, or grave-diggers, I
believe.'

'Very far from it,' interposed Mrs Chick, with the same profound
expression as before.

'Then who puts such things into his head?' said Mr Dombey. 'Really I
was quite dismayed and shocked last night. Who puts such things into his
head, Louisa?'

'My dear Paul,' said Mrs Chick, after a moment's silence, 'it is of no
use inquiring. I do not think, I will tell you candidly that Wickam is a
person of very cheerful spirit, or what one would call a--'

'A daughter of Momus,' Miss Tox softly suggested.

'Exactly so,' said Mrs Chick; 'but she is exceedingly attentive and
useful, and not at all presumptuous; indeed I never saw a more biddable
woman. I would say that for her, if I was put upon my trial before a
Court of Justice.'

'Well! you are not put upon your trial before a Court of Justice, at
present, Louisa,' returned Mr Dombey, chafing,' and therefore it don't
matter.

'My dear Paul,' said Mrs Chick, in a warning voice, 'I must be spoken
to kindly, or there is an end of me,' at the same time a premonitory
redness developed itself in Mrs Chick's eyelids which was an invariable
sign of rain, unless the weather changed directly.

'I was inquiring, Louisa,' observed Mr Dombey, in an altered voice, and
after a decent interval, 'about Paul's health and actual state.

'If the dear child,' said Mrs Chick, in the tone of one who was summing
up what had been previously quite agreed upon, instead of saying it all
for the first time, 'is a little weakened by that last attack, and is
not in quite such vigorous health as we could wish; and if he has some
temporary weakness in his system, and does occasionally seem about to
lose, for the moment, the use of his--'

Mrs Chick was afraid to say limbs, after Mr Dombey's recent objection to
bones, and therefore waited for a suggestion from Miss Tox, who, true to
her office, hazarded 'members.'

'Members!' repeated Mr Dombey.

'I think the medical gentleman mentioned le