eted by no jealousy of the many conferences enjoyed by Mr Carker,
and felt a secret satisfaction in having duties to discharge, which
rarely exposed him to be singled out for such distinction. He was a
great musical amateur in his way--after business; and had a paternal
affection for his violoncello, which was once in every week transported
from Islington, his place of abode, to a certain club-room hard by the
Bank, where quartettes of the most tormenting and excruciating nature
were executed every Wednesday evening by a private party.

Mr Carker was a gentleman thirty-eight or forty years old, of a florid
complexion, and with two unbroken rows of glistening teeth, whose
regularity and whiteness were quite distressing. It was impossible to
escape the observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke;
and bore so wide a smile upon his countenance (a smile, however, very
rarely, indeed, extending beyond his mouth), that there was something in
it like the snarl of a cat. He affected a stiff white cravat, after the
example of his principal, and was always closely buttoned up and tightly
dressed. His manner towards Mr Dombey was deeply conceived and perfectly
expressed. He was familiar with him, in the very extremity of his sense
of the distance between them. 'Mr Dombey, to a man in your position
from a man in mine, there is no show of subservience compatible with the
transaction of business between us, that I should think sufficient. I
frankly tell you, Sir, I give it up altogether. I feel that I could
not satisfy my own mind; and Heaven knows, Mr Dombey, you can afford to
dispense with the endeavour.' If he had carried these words about with
him printed on a placard, and had constantly offered it to Mr Dombey's
perusal on the breast of his coat, he could not have been more explicit
than he was.

This was Carker the Manager. Mr Carker the Junior, Walter's friend, was
his brother; two or three years older than he, but widely removed in
station. The younger brother's post was on the top of the official
ladder; the elder brother's at the bottom. The elder brother never
gained a stave, or raised his foot to mount one. Young men passed above
his head, and rose and rose; but he was always at the bottom. He was
quite resigned to occupy that low condition: never complained of it: and
certainly never hoped to escape from it.

'How do you do this morning?' said Mr Carker the Manager, entering Mr
Dombey's room soon after his