Major Bagstock condoles with Mr. Dombey.

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many another son and heir, gone down, had started on his way before her.

Day after day, Old Sol and Captain Cuttle kept her reckoning in the little back-parlour and worked out her course, with the chart spread before them on the round table. At night, when old Sol climbed up-stairs, so lonely, to the attic where it sometimes blew great guns, he looked up at the stars and listened to the wind, and kept a longer watch than would have fallen to his lot on board the ship. The last bottle of the old Madeira, which had had its cruising days, and known its dangers of the deep, lay silently beneath its dust and cobwebs, in the meanwhile, undisturbed.

CHAPTER XX.

MR. DOMBEY GOES UPON A JOURNEY.

"MR. DOMBEY, sir," said Major Bagstock, "Joey B. is not in general a man of sentiment, for Joseph is tough. But Joe has his feelings, sir, and when they are awakened-damme, Mr. Dombey," cried the major with sudden ferocity, "this is weakness, and I won't submit to it!"

Major Bagstock delivered himself of these expressions on receiving Mr. Dombey as his guest at the head of his own staircase in Princess's Place. Mr. Dombey had come to breakfast with the major, previous to their setting forth on their trip; and the ill-starred native had already undergone a world of misery arising out of the muffins, while, in connection with the general question of boiled eggs, life was a burden to him.

"It is not for an old soldier of the Bagstock breed," observed the major, relapsing into a mild state, "to deliver himself up, a prey to his own emotions; but-damme, sir," cried the major, in another spasm of ferocity, "I condole with you!"

The major's purple visage deepened in its hue, and the major's lobster eyes stood out in bolder relief, as he shook Mr. Dombey by the hand, imparting to that peaceful action as defiant a character as if it had been the prelude to his immediately boxing Mr. Dombey for a thousand pounds a side and the championship of England. With a rotatory motion of his head, and a wheeze very like the cough of a horse, the major then conducted his visitor to the sitting-room, and there welcomed him (having now composed his feelings) with the freedom and frankness of a travelling companion.

"Dombey," said the major, "I'm glad to see you. I'm proud to see you. There are not many men in Europe to whom J. Bagstock would say that-for Josh is blunt, sir: it's his nature-but Joey B. is proud to see you, Dombey."

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Major," returned Mr. Dombey, "you are very obliging."

'No, sir," said the major, "devil a bit! That's not my character. If that had been Joe's character, Joe might have been, by this time, Lieutenant-General Sir Joseph Bagstock, K.C.B., and might have received you in very different quarters. You don't know old Joe yet, I find. But this occasion, being special, is a source of pride to me. By the Lord, sir," said the major resolutely, "it's an honour to me!"

Mr. Dombey, in his estimation of himself and his money, felt that this was very true, and therefore did not dispute the point. But the instinctive recognition of such a truth by the major, and his plain avowal of it, were very agreeable. It was a confirmation to Mr. Dombey, if he had required any, of his not being mistaken in the major. It was an assurance to him that his power extended beyond his own immediate sphere; and that the major as an officer and a gentleman, had a no less becoming sense of it, than the beadle of the Royal Exchange.

And if it were ever consolatory to know this, or the like of this, it was consolatory then, when the impotence of his will, the instability of his hopes, the feebleness of wealth, had been so direfully impressed upon him. What could it do, his boy had asked him. Sometimes, thinking of the baby question, he could hardly forbear inquiring, himself, what could it do indeed: what had it done?

But these were lonely thoughts, bred late at night in the sullen despondency and gloom of his retirement, and pride easily found its reassurance in many testimonies to the truth, as unimpeachable and precious as the major's. Mr Dombey, in his friendlessness, inclined to the major. It cannot be said that he warmed towards him, but he thawed a little. The major had had some part-and not too much— in the days by the seaside. He was a man of the world, and knew some great people. He talked much, and told stories; and Mr. Dombey was disposed to regard him as a choice spirit who shone in society, and who had not that poisonous ingredient of poverty with which choice spirits in general are too much adulterated. His station was undeniable. Altogether the major was a creditable companion, well accustomed to a life of leisure, and to such places as that they were about to visit, and having an air of gentlemanly ease about him that mixed well enough with his own City character, and did not compete with it at all. If Mr. Dombey had any lingering idea that the major, as a man accustomed, in the way of his calling, to make light of the ruthless haud that had lately crushed his hopes, might unconsciously impart some useful philosophy to him, and scare away his weak regrets, he hid it from himself, and left it lying at the bottom of his pride, unexamined.

"Where is my scoundrel?" said the major, looking wrathfully round the room.

The native, who had no particular name, but answered to any

Camp Fare with the Major.

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vituperative epithet, presented himself instantly at the door and ventured to come no nearer.

"You villain!" said the choleric major, "where's the breakfast?” The dark servant disappeared in search of it, and was quickly heard reascending the stairs in such a tremulous state, that the plates and dishes on the tray he carried, trembling sympathetically as he came, rattled again, all the way up.

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'Dombey," said the major, glancing at the native as he arranged the table, and encouraging him with an awful shake of his fist when he upset a spoon, "here is a devilled grill, a savoury pie, a dish of kidneys, and so forth. Pray sit down. Old Joe can give you nothing but camp fare, you see.

"Very excellent fare, major," replied his guest; and not in mere politeness either; for the major always took the best possible care of himself, and indeed ate rather more of rich meats than was good for him, insomuch that his imperial complexion was mainly referred by the faculty to that circumstance.

"You have been looking over the way, sir," observed the major. "Have you seen our friend?"

"You mean Miss Tox," retorted Mr. Dombey. "No."

"Charming woman, sir," said the major, with a fat laugh rising in his short throat, and nearly suffocating him.

"Miss Tox is a very good sort of person, I believe," replied Mr. Dombey.

The haughty coldness of the reply seemed to afford Major Bagstock infinite delight. He swelled and swelled, exceedingly: and even laid down his knife and fork for a moment, to rub his hands.

"Old Jos, sir," said the major, " was a bit of a favourite in that quarter once. But Joe has had his day. J. Bagstock is extinguished -outrivalled-floored, sir. I tell you what, Dombey." The major paused in his eating, and looked mysteriously indignant. "That's a de-vilish ambitious woman, sir."

Mr. Dombey said "Indeed?" with frigid indifference: mingled perhaps with some contemptuous incredulity as to Miss Tox having the presumption to harbour such a superior quality.

"That woman, sir," said the major, "is, in her way, a Lucifer. Joey B. has had his day, sir, but he keeps his eyes. He sees, does Joe. His Royal Highness the late Duke of York observed of Joey, at a levee, that he saw.”

The major accompanied this with such a look, and, between eating, drinking, hot tea, devilled grill, muffins, and meaning, was altogether so swollen and inflamed about the head, that even Mr. Dombey showed some anxiety for him.

"That ridiculous old spectacle, sir," pursued the major, "aspires. She aspires sky-high, sir. Matrimonially, Dombey."

"I am sorry for her," said Mr. Dombey.

"Don't say that, Dombey," returned the major in a warning voice.

"Why should I not, major?" said Mr. Dombey.

The major gave no answer but the horse's cough, and went on eating vigorously.

"She has taken an interest in your household," said the major, stopping short again, "and has been a frequent visitor at your house for some time now."

"Yes," replied Mr. Dombey, with great stateliness, "Miss Tox was originally received there, at the time of Mrs. Dombey's death, as a friend of my sister's; and being a well-behaved person, and showing liking for the poor infant, she was permitted-I may say encouraged --to repeat her visits with my sister, and gradually to occupy a kind of footing of familiarity in the family. I have," said Mr. Dombey, in the tone of a man who was making a great and valuable concession, “I have a respect for Miss Tox. She has been so obliging as to render many little services in my house: trifling and insignificant services perhaps, major, but not to be disparaged on that account and I hope I have had the good fortune to be enabled to acknowledge them by such attention and notice as it has been in my power to bestow. I hold myself indebted to Miss Tox, major," added Mr. Dombey, with a slight wave of his hand, "for the pleasure of your acquaintance." Dombey," said the major, warmly: "no! No, sir! Joseph Bagstock can never permit that assertion to pass uncontradicted. Your knowledge of old Joe, sir, such as he is, and old Joe's knowledge of you, sir, had its origin in a noble fellow, sir- in a great creature, sir. Dombey!" said the major, with a struggle which it was not very difficult to parade, his whole life being a struggle against all kinds of apoplectic symptoms, "we knew each other through your boy."

Mr. Dombey seemed touched, as it is not improbable the major designed he should be, by this allusion. He looked down and sighed: and the major, rousing himself fiercely, again said, in reference to the state of mind into which he felt himself in danger of falling, that this was weakness, and nothing should induce him to submit to it.

"Our friend had a remote connection with that event," said the major, "and all the credit that belongs to her, J. B. is willing to give her, sir. Notwithstanding which, ma'am," he added, raising his eyes from his plate, and casting them across Princess's Place, to where Miss Tox was at that moment visible at her window watering her flowers, "you're a scheming jade, ma'am, and your ambition is a piece of monstrous impudence. If it only made yourself ridiculous, ma'am,” said the major rolling his head at the unconscious Miss Tox, while his starting eyes appeared to make a leap towards her, "you might do that to your heart's content, ma'am, without any objection, I assure you, on the part of Bagstock." Here the major laughed frightfully up in the tips of his ears and in the veins of his head. “But when, ma'am," said the major, "you compromise other people, and generous, unsuspicious people too, as a repayment for their condescension, you stir the blood of old Joe in his body."

Dombey's Travelling Companion, sir.

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"Major," said Mr. Dombey, reddening, "I hope you do not hint at anything so absurd on the part of Miss Tox as

Dombey," returned the major, "I hint at nothing. But Joey B. has lived in the world, sir: lived in the world with his eyes open, sir, and his ears cocked: and Joe tells you, Dombey, that there's a de-vilish artful and ambitious woman over the way."

Mr. Dombey involuntarily glanced over the way; and an angry glance he sent in that direction, too.

"That's all on such a subject that shall pass the lips of Joseph Bagstock," said the major firmly. "Joe is not a tale-bearer, but there are times when he must speak, when he will speak!-confound your arts, ma'am," cried the major, again apostrophising his fair neighbour, with great ire, “—when the provocation is too strong to admit of his remaining silent."

The emotion of this outbreak threw the major into a paroxysm of horse's conghs, which held him for a long time. On recovering he added

"And now, Dombey, as you have invited Joe-old Joe, who has no other merit, sir, but that he is tough and hearty-to be your guest and guide at Leamington, command him in any way you please, and he is wholly yours. I don't know, sir," said the major, wagging his double chin with a jocose air, "what it is you people see in Joe to make you hold him in such great request, all of you; but this I know, sir, that if he wasn't pretty tough, and obstinate in his refusals, you'd kill him among you with your invitations and so forth, in doublequick time."

Mr. Dombey, in a few words, expressed his sense of the preference he received over those other distingished members of society who were clamouring for the possession of Major Bagstock. But the major cut him short by giving him to understand that he followed his own inclinations, and that they had risen up in a body and said with one accord, "J. B., Dombey is the man for you to choose as a friend."

The major being by this time in a state of repletion, with essence of savoury pie oozing out at the corners of his eyes, and devilled grill and kidneys tightening his cravat: and the time moreover approaching for the departure of the railway train to Birmingham, by which they were to leave town: the native got him into his great-coat with immense difficulty, and buttoned him up until his face looked staring and gasping, over the top of that garment, as if he were in a barrel. The native then handed him separately, and with a decent interval between each supply, his wash-leather gloves, his thick stick, and his hat; which latter article the major wore with a rakish air on one side of his head, by way of toning down his remarkable visage. The native had previously packed, in all possible and impossible parts of Mr. Dombey's chariot, which was in waiting, an unusual quantity of carpet-bags and small portmanteaus, no less apoplectic in appearance than the major himself: and having filled his own pockets with Seltzer