ect was
Quadrilles. Mr Toots also showed him, by holding up a companion sheet of
paper, that Doctor and Mrs Blimber requested the pleasure of Mr Toots's
company at an early party on Wednesday Evening the Seventeenth Instant,
when the hour was half-past seven o'clock, and when the object was
Quadrilles. He also found, on glancing at the table where Mr Feeder sat,
that the pleasure of Mr Briggs's company, and of Mr Tozer's company,
and of every young gentleman's company, was requested by Doctor and Mrs
Blimber on the same genteel Occasion.

Mr Feeder then told him, to his great joy, that his sister was invited,
and that it was a half-yearly event, and that, as the holidays began
that day, he could go away with his sister after the party, if he liked,
which Paul interrupted him to say he would like, very much. Mr Feeder
then gave him to understand that he would be expected to inform Doctor
and Mrs Blimber, in superfine small-hand, that Mr P. Dombey would be
happy to have the honour of waiting on them, in accordance with their
polite invitation. Lastly, Mr Feeder said, he had better not refer to
the festive occasion, in the hearing of Doctor and Mrs Blimber; as these
preliminaries, and the whole of the arrangements, were conducted on
principles of classicality and high breeding; and that Doctor and Mrs
Blimber on the one hand, and the young gentlemen on the other, were
supposed, in their scholastic capacities, not to have the least idea of
what was in the wind.

Paul thanked Mr Feeder for these hints, and pocketing his invitation,
sat down on a stool by the side of Mr Toots, as usual. But Paul's head,
which had long been ailing more or less, and was sometimes very heavy
and painful, felt so uneasy that night, that he was obliged to support
it on his hand. And yet it dropped so, that by little and little it sunk
on Mr Toots's knee, and rested there, as if it had no care to be ever
lifted up again.

That was no reason why he should be deaf; but he must have been, he
thought, for, by and by, he heard Mr Feeder calling in his ear, and
gently shaking him to rouse his attention. And when he raised his head,
quite scared, and looked about him, he found that Doctor Blimber had
come into the room; and that the window was open, and that his forehead
was wet with sprinkled water; though how all this had been done without
his knowledge, was very curious indeed.

'Ah! Come, come! That's well! How is my little friend now?' said Docto