 the child is hardly,« said Mr. Dombey, »as stout as I could wish.«
    »With your usual happy discrimination, my dear Paul,« returned Mrs. Chick,
»you have hit the point at once. Our darling is not altogether as stout as we
could wish. The fact is, that his mind is too much for him. His soul is a great
deal too large for his frame. I am sure the way in which that dear child talks!«
said Mrs. Chick, shaking her head; »no one would believe. His expressions,
Lucretia, only yesterday upon the subject of Funerals! -«
    »I am afraid,« said Mr. Dombey, interrupting her testily, »that some of
those persons up stairs suggest improper subjects to the child. He was speaking
to me last night about his - about his Bones,« said Mr. Dombey, laying an
irritated stress upon the word. »What on earth has anybody to do with the - with
the - Bones of my son? He is not a living skeleton, I suppose.«
    »Very far from it,« said Mrs. Chick, with unspeakable expression.
    »I hope so,« returned her brother. »Funerals again ho talks to the child of
funerals? We are not undertakers, or mutes, or grave-diggers, I believe.«
    »Very far from it,« interposed Mrs. Chick, with the same profound expression
as before.
    »Then who puts such things into his head?« said Mr. Dombey. »Really I was
quite dismayed and shocked last night. Who puts such things into his head,
Louisa?«
    »My dear Paul,« said Mrs. Chick, after a moment's sile, »it is of no use
inquiring. I do not think, I will tell you candidly, that Wickam is a person of
very cheerful spirit, or what one would call a -«
    »A daughter of Momus,« Miss Tox softly suggested.
    »Exactly so,« said Mrs. Chick; »but she is exceedingly attentive and useful,
and not at all presumptuous; indeed I never saw a more biddable woman. If the
dear child,« pursued Mrs. Chick, in the tone of one who was summing up what had
been previously quite agreed upon, instead of saying it all for the first time,
»is a little weakened by that last attack, and is not in quite such vigorous
health as we could wish; and if he has some temporary weakness in his system,
and
