n he had of any other definite
possibility or proposition. On the contrary, he was disposed to consider
her rather a remarkable character, with many points of interest about
her. For this reason he smiled on her with so much urbanity, and asked
her how she did, so often, in the course of her visits to little Paul,
that at last she one night told him plainly, she wasn't used to it,
whatever he might think; and she could not, and she would not bear
it, either from himself or any other puppy then existing: at which
unexpected acknowledgment of his civilities, Mr Toots was so alarmed
that he secreted himself in a retired spot until she had gone. Nor did
he ever again face the doughty Mrs Pipchin, under Doctor Blimber's roof.

They were within two or three weeks of the holidays, when, one day,
Cornelia Blimber called Paul into her room, and said, 'Dombey, I am
going to send home your analysis.'

'Thank you, Ma'am,' returned Paul.

'You know what I mean, do you, Dombey?' inquired Miss Blimber, looking
hard at him, through the spectacles.

'No, Ma'am,' said Paul.

'Dombey, Dombey,' said Miss Blimber, 'I begin to be afraid you are a
sad boy. When you don't know the meaning of an expression, why don't you
seek for information?'

'Mrs Pipchin told me I wasn't to ask questions,' returned Paul.

'I must beg you not to mention Mrs Pipchin to me, on any account,
Dombey,' returned Miss Blimber. 'I couldn't think of allowing it. The
course of study here, is very far removed from anything of that sort. A
repetition of such allusions would make it necessary for me to request
to hear, without a mistake, before breakfast-time to-morrow morning,
from Verbum personale down to simillimia cygno.'

'I didn't mean, Ma'am--' began little Paul.

'I must trouble you not to tell me that you didn't mean, if you please,
Dombey,' said Miss Blimber, who preserved an awful politeness in
her admonitions. 'That is a line of argument I couldn't dream of
permitting.'

Paul felt it safest to say nothing at all, so he only looked at Miss
Blimber's spectacles. Miss Blimber having shaken her head at him
gravely, referred to a paper lying before her.

'"Analysis of the character of P. Dombey." If my recollection serves
me,' said Miss Blimber breaking off, 'the word analysis as opposed to
synthesis, is thus defined by Walker. "The resolution of an object,
whether of the senses or of the intellect, into its first elements."
As opposed to synthesis, yo