nd Miss Floy hope you'll come along with me--and Mr
Walter, Mrs Richards--forgetting what is past, and do a kindness to the
sweet dear that is withering away. Oh, Mrs Richards, withering away!'
Susan Nipper crying, Polly shed tears to see her, and to hear what she
had said; and all the children gathered round (including numbers of new
babies); and Mr Toodle, who had just come home from Birmingham, and was
eating his dinner out of a basin, laid down his knife and fork, and put
on his wife's bonnet and shawl for her, which were hanging up behind the
door; then tapped her on the back; and said, with more fatherly feeling
than eloquence, 'Polly! cut away!'

So they got back to the coach, long before the coachman expected them;
and Walter, putting Susan and Mrs Richards inside, took his seat on the
box himself that there might be no more mistakes, and deposited them
safely in the hall of Mr Dombey's house--where, by the bye, he saw a
mighty nosegay lying, which reminded him of the one Captain Cuttle had
purchased in his company that morning. He would have lingered to know
more of the young invalid, or waited any length of time to see if
he could render the least service; but, painfully sensible that such
conduct would be looked upon by Mr Dombey as presumptuous and forward,
he turned slowly, sadly, anxiously, away.

He had not gone five minutes' walk from the door, when a man came
running after him, and begged him to return. Walter retraced his steps
as quickly as he could, and entered the gloomy house with a sorrowful
foreboding.

CHAPTER 16. What the Waves were always saying

Paul had never risen from his little bed. He lay there, listening to
the noises in the street, quite tranquilly; not caring much how the time
went, but watching it and watching everything about him with observing
eyes.

When the sunbeams struck into his room through the rustling blinds, and
quivered on the opposite wall like golden water, he knew that evening
was coming on, and that the sky was red and beautiful. As the reflection
died away, and a gloom went creeping up the wall, he watched it deepen,
deepen, deepen, into night. Then he thought how the long streets were
dotted with lamps, and how the peaceful stars were shining overhead. His
fancy had a strange tendency to wander to the river, which he knew was
flowing through the great city; and now he thought how black it was,
and how deep it would look, reflecting the hosts of stars--and