ushing flight, and where it stopped; whether the spot where
he and Florence had so often sat, and watched, and talked about these
things, could ever be exactly as it used to be without them; whether it
could ever be the same to Florence, if he were in some distant place,
and she were sitting there alone.

He had to think, too, of Mr Toots, and Mr Feeder, B.A., of all the boys;
and of Doctor Blimber, Mrs Blimber, and Miss Blimber; of home, and of
his aunt and Miss Tox; of his father; Dombey and Son, Walter with the
poor old Uncle who had got the money he wanted, and that gruff-voiced
Captain with the iron hand. Besides all this, he had a number of little
visits to pay, in the course of the day; to the schoolroom, to Doctor
Blimber's study, to Mrs Blimber's private apartment, to Miss Blimber's,
and to the dog. For he was free of the whole house now, to range it
as he chose; and, in his desire to part with everybody on affectionate
terms, he attended, in his way, to them all. Sometimes he found places
in books for Briggs, who was always losing them; sometimes he looked up
words in dictionaries for other young gentlemen who were in extremity;
sometimes he held skeins of silk for Mrs Blimber to wind; sometimes he
put Cornelia's desk to rights; sometimes he would even creep into the
Doctor's study, and, sitting on the carpet near his learned feet, turn
the globes softly, and go round the world, or take a flight among the
far-off stars.

In those days immediately before the holidays, in short, when the
other young gentlemen were labouring for dear life through a general
resumption of the studies of the whole half-year, Paul was such a
privileged pupil as had never been seen in that house before. He could
hardly believe it himself; but his liberty lasted from hour to hour,
and from day to day; and little Dombey was caressed by everyone. Doctor
Blimber was so particular about him, that he requested Johnson to retire
from the dinner-table one day, for having thoughtlessly spoken to him as
'poor little Dombey;' which Paul thought rather hard and severe, though
he had flushed at the moment, and wondered why Johnson should pity him.
It was the more questionable justice, Paul thought, in the Doctor, from
his having certainly overheard that great authority give his assent on
the previous evening, to the proposition (stated by Mrs Blimber) that
poor dear little Dombey was more old-fashioned than ever. And now it
was that Paul began to