«
    »No one can be a stranger,« said Mrs. Skewton, »to Mr. Dombey's immense
influence.«
    As Mr. Dombey acknowledged the compliment with a bend of his head, the
younger lady glancing at him, met his eyes.
    »You reside here, Madam?« said Mr. Dombey, addressing her.
    »No, we have been to a great many places. To Harrogate and Scarborough, and
into Devonshire. We have been visiting, and resting here and there. Mama likes
change.«
    »Edith of course does not,« said Mrs. Skewton, with a ghastly archness.
    »I have not found that there is any change in such places,« was the answer,
delivered with supreme indifference.
    »They libel me. There is only one change, Mr. Dombey,« observed Mrs.
Skewton, with a mincing sigh, »for which I really care, and that I fear I shall
never be permitted to enjoy. People cannot spare one. But seclusion and
contemplation are my what's-his-name -«
    »If you mean Paradise, Mama, you had better say so, to render yourself
intelligible,« said the younger lady.
    »My dearest Edith,« returned Mrs. Skewton, »you know that I am wholly
dependent upon you for those odious names. I assure you, Mr. Dombey, Nature
intended me for an Arcadian. I am thrown away in society. Cows are my passion.
What I have ever sighed for, has been to retreat to a Swiss farm, and live
entirely surrounded by cows - and china.«
    This curious association of objects, suggesting a remembrance of the
celebrated bull who got by mistake into a crockery shop, was received with
perfect gravity by Mr. Dombey, who intimated his opinion that Nature was, no
doubt, a very respectable institution.
    »What I want,« drawled Mrs. Skewton, pinching her shrivelled throat, »is
heart.« It was frightfully true in one sense, if not in that in which she used
the phrase. »What I want, is frankness, confidence, less conventionality, and
freer play of soul. We are so dreadfully artificial.«
    We were, indeed.
    »In short« said Mrs. Skewton, »I want Nature everywhere. It would be so
extremely charming.«
    »Nature is inviting us away now, Mama, if you are ready,« said the younger
lady, curling her handsome lip. At this hint, the wan page, who had been
surveying the party over the
