 who are beyond
all hope of it, are quite sure they would rather not have it, and don't at all
envy the person for whom it may prove to be reserved. Nothing like the
prevailing sensation has existed in the Counting House since Mr. Dombey's little
son died; but all such excitements there take a social, not to say a jovial
turn, and lead to the cultivation of good fellowship. A reconciliation is
established on this propitious occasion between the acknowledged wit of the
Counting House and an aspiring rival, with whom he has been at deadly feud for
months; and a little dinner being proposed, in commemoration of their happily
restored amity, takes place at a neighbouring tavern; the wit in the chair; the
rival acting as Vice-President. The orations following the removal of the cloth
are opened by the Chair, who says, Gentlemen, he can't disguise from himself
that this is not a time for private dissensions. Recent occurrences to which he
need not more particularly allude, but which have not been altogether without
notice in some Sunday Papers, and in a daily paper which he need not name (here
every other member of the company names it in an audible murmur), have caused
him to reflect; and he feels that for him and Robinson to have any personal
differences at such a moment, would be for ever to deny that good feeling in the
general cause, for which he has reason to think and hope that the gentlemen in
Dombey's House have always been distinguished. Robinson replies to this like a
man and a brother; and one gentleman who has been in the office three years,
under continual notice to quit on account of lapses in his arithmetic, appears
in a perfectly new light, suddenly bursting out with a thrilling speech, in
which he says, May their respected chief never again know the desolation which
has fallen on his hearth! and says a great variety of things, beginning with
»May he never again,« which are received with thunders of applause. In short, a
most delightful evening is passed, only interrupted by a difference between two
juniors, who, quarrelling about the probable amount of Mr. Carker's late
receipts per annum, defy each other with decanters, and are taken out greatly
excited. Soda water is in general request at the office next day, and most of
the party deem the bill an imposition.
    As to Perch, the messenger, he is in a fair way of being ruined for life. He
finds himself again constantly in bars of public-houses, being treated and
