d listening with a tear on his shirt-collar to what he related,
whether it might not be at once genteel and politic to give Mr Dombey a
verbal invitation, whenever they should meet, to come and cut his mutton
in Brig Place on some day of his own naming, and enter on the question
of his young friend's prospects over a social glass. But the uncertain
temper of Mrs MacStinger, and the possibility of her setting up her rest
in the passage during such an entertainment, and there delivering
some homily of an uncomplimentary nature, operated as a check on the
Captain's hospitable thoughts, and rendered him timid of giving them
encouragement.

One fact was quite clear to the Captain, as Walter, sitting thoughtfully
over his untasted dinner, dwelt on all that had happened; namely, that
however Walter's modesty might stand in the way of his perceiving it
himself, he was, as one might say, a member of Mr Dombey's family.
He had been, in his own person, connected with the incident he so
pathetically described; he had been by name remembered and commended
in close association with it; and his fortunes must have a particular
interest in his employer's eyes. If the Captain had any lurking doubt
whatever of his own conclusions, he had not the least doubt that they
were good conclusions for the peace of mind of the Instrument-maker.
Therefore he availed himself of so favourable a moment for breaking
the West Indian intelligence to his friend, as a piece of extraordinary
preferment; declaring that for his part he would freely give a hundred
thousand pounds (if he had it) for Walter's gain in the long-run, and
that he had no doubt such an investment would yield a handsome premium.

Solomon Gills was at first stunned by the communication, which fell
upon the little back-parlour like a thunderbolt, and tore up the hearth
savagely. But the Captain flashed such golden prospects before his dim
sight: hinted so mysteriously at 'Whittingtonian consequences; laid such
emphasis on what Walter had just now told them: and appealed to it so
confidently as a corroboration of his predictions, and a great advance
towards the realisation of the romantic legend of Lovely Peg: that he
bewildered the old man. Walter, for his part, feigned to be so full of
hope and ardour, and so sure of coming home again soon, and backed up
the Captain with such expressive shakings of his head and rubbings of
his hands, that Solomon, looking first at him then at Captain Cut