« said Carker.
    Swiftly and darkly, Mr. Dombey's face changed. His confidential agent eyed
it keenly.
    »I have approached a painful subject,« he said, in a soft regretful tone of
voice, irreconcileable with his eager eye. »Pray forgive me. I forget these
chains of association in the interest I have. Pray forgive me.«
    But for all he said, his eager eye scanned Mr. Dombey's downcast face none
the less closely; and then it shot a strange triumphant look at the picture, as
appealing to it to bear witness how he led him on again, and what was coming.
    »Carker,« said Mr. Dombey, looking here and there upon the table, and
speaking in a somewhat altered and more hurried voice, and with a paler lip,
»there is no occasion for apology. You mistake. The association is with the
matter in hand, and not with any recollection, as you suppose. I do not approve
of Mrs. Dombey's behaviour towards my daughter.«
    »Pardon me,« said Mr. Carker, »I don't quite understand.«
    »Understand then,« returned Mr. Dombey, »that you may make that - that you
will make that, if you please - matter of direct objection from me to Mrs.
Dombey. You will please to tell her that her show of devotion for my daughter is
disagreeable to me. It is likely to be noticed. It is likely to induce people to
contrast Mrs. Dombey in her relation towards my daughter, with Mrs. Dombey in
her relation towards myself. You will have the goodness to let Mrs. Dombey know,
plainly, that I object to it; and that I expect her to defer, immediately, to my
objection. Mrs. Dombey may be in earnest, or she may be pursuing a whim, or she
may be opposing me; but I object to it in any case, and in every case. If Mrs.
Dombey is in earnest, so much the less reluctant should she be to desist; for
she will not serve my daughter by any such display. If my wife has any
superfluous gentleness and duty over and above her proper submission to me, she
may bestow them where she pleases, perhaps; but I will have submission first! -
Carker,« said Mr. Dombey, checking the unusual emotion with which he had spoken,
and falling into a tone more like that in which he was accustomed to assert his
greatness, »you will have the goodness not to omit or slur
