3 Review(s)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The little altercation' between them had attracted the notice of Mr. Dombey, who inquired, from the table where he was sitting, what the matter was. " Miss Florence was afraid of interrupting, sir, if she came in to say good-night," said Kichards. "It doesn't matter," returned Mr. Dombey. "You can let her come and go without regarding me." The child shrunk as she listenedâand was gone before her humble friend looked round again. OHAPTEK III. CAPTAIN' CUTTLE IS INTRODUCED. The offices of Dombey and Son were in the City of London, and within hearing of Bow Bells,2 when their clashing voices were not drowned by the uproar in the streets. In the vicinity might be seen pictures of ships speeding away full sail to all parts of the world; outfitting warehouses ready to pack off anybody anywhere, fully equipped, in half an hour; and little timber midshipmen in obsolete naval uniforms, eternally employed outside the shopdoors of nautical instrument- makers in taking observations of the hackney coaches. Sole master and proprietor of one of these effigiesâof that which might be called, familiarly, the wooderiest; of that which thrust itself out above the pavement, right leg foremost, âsole master and proprietor of that midshipman, and proud of him too, an elderly gentleman in a Welsh wig had paid house-rent, taxes, and dues for more years than many a full- grown midshipman of flesh and blood has numbered in his life. The stock in trade of this old gentleman comprised chronometers, barometers, telescopes, compasses, charts, maps, sextants, quadrants, and specimens of every kind of instrument used in the working of a ship's course, or the keeping of aship's reckoning, or the prosecuting of a ship's discoveries. Objects in brass and glass were in his drawers and on his s...