 whose
aversion and contempt,« with great expression, »are so keen.«
    »Is it honest in you, sir,« said Edith, »to confess to your limited
commendation, and to speak in that tone of disparagement, even of him: being his
chief counsellor and flatterer!«
    »Counsellor, - yes,« said Carker. »Flatterer, - no. A little reservation I
fear I must confess to. But our interest and convenience commonly oblige many of
us to make professions that we cannot feel. We have partnerships of interest and
convenience, friendships of interest and convenience, dealings of interest and
convenience, marriages of interest and convenience, every day.«
    She bit her blood-red lip; but without wavering in the dark, stern watch she
kept upon him.
    »Madam,« said Mr. Carker, sitting down in a chair that was near her, with an
air of the most profound and most considerate respect, »why should I hesitate
now, being altogether devoted to your service, to speak plainly! It was natural
that a lady, endowed as you are, should think it feasible to change her
husband's character in some respects, and mould him to a better form.«
    »It was not natural to me, Sir,« she rejoined. »I had never any expectation
or intention of that kind.«
    The proud undaunted face showed him it was resolute to wear no mask he
offered, but was set upon a reckless disclosure of itself, indifferent to any
aspect in which it might present itself to such as he.
    »At least it was natural,« he resumed, »that you should deem it quite
possible to live with Mr. Dombey as his wife, at once without submitting to him,
and without coming into such violent collision with him. But, Madam, you did not
know Mr. Dombey (as you have since ascertained), when you thought that. You did
not know how exacting and how proud he is, or how he is, if I may say so, the
slave of his own greatness, and goes yoked to his own triumphal car like a beast
of burden, with no idea on earth but that it is behind him and is to be drawn
on, over everything and through everything.«
    His teeth gleamed through his malicious relish of this conceit, as he went
on talking:
    »Mr. Dombey is really capable of no more true consideration for you, Madam,
than for me. The comparison is an extreme one; I intend it to be so; but quite
