t be--and as the
sister of my brother--and as the sister-in-law of my brother's wife--and
as a connexion by marriage of my brother's wife's mother--may I be
permitted to add, as a Dombey?--I can wish you nothing else but good
morning.'

These words, delivered with cutting suavity, tempered and chastened by a
lofty air of moral rectitude, carried the speaker to the door. There she
inclined her head in a ghostly and statue-like manner, and so withdrew
to her carriage, to seek comfort and consolation in the arms of Mr
Chick, her lord.

Figuratively speaking, that is to say; for the arms of Mr Chick were
full of his newspaper. Neither did that gentleman address his eyes
towards his wife otherwise than by stealth. Neither did he offer any
consolation whatever. In short, he sat reading, and humming fag ends
of tunes, and sometimes glancing furtively at her without delivering
himself of a word, good, bad, or indifferent.

In the meantime Mrs Chick sat swelling and bridling, and tossing her
head, as if she were still repeating that solemn formula of farewell
to Lucretia Tox. At length, she said aloud, 'Oh the extent to which her
eyes had been opened that day!'

'To which your eyes have been opened, my dear!' repeated Mr Chick.

'Oh, don't talk to me!' said Mrs Chic 'if you can bear to see me in
this state, and not ask me what the matter is, you had better hold your
tongue for ever.'

'What is the matter, my dear?' asked Mr Chick

'To think,' said Mrs Chick, in a state of soliloquy, 'that she should
ever have conceived the base idea of connecting herself with our family
by a marriage with Paul! To think that when she was playing at horses
with that dear child who is now in his grave--I never liked it at the
time--she should have been hiding such a double-faced design! I
wonder she was never afraid that something would happen to her. She is
fortunate if nothing does.'

'I really thought, my dear,' said Mr Chick slowly, after rubbing the
bridge of his nose for some time with his newspaper, 'that you had
gone on the same tack yourself, all along, until this morning; and had
thought it would be a convenient thing enough, if it could have been
brought about.'

Mrs Chick instantly burst into tears, and told Mr Chick that if he
wished to trample upon her with his boots, he had better do It.

'But with Lucretia Tox I have done,' said Mrs Chick, after abandoning
herself to her feelings for some minutes, to Mr Chick's great t