The Opening of the Eyes of Mrs Chick
Miss Tox, all unconscious of any such rare appearances in connexion
with Mr Dombey’s house, as scaffoldings and ladders, and men with their
heads tied up in pocket-handkerchiefs, glaring in at the windows like
flying genii or strange birds,—having breakfasted one morning at about
this eventful period of time, on her customary viands; to wit, one
French roll rasped, one egg new laid (or warranted to be), and one
little pot of tea, wherein was infused one little silver scoopful of
that herb on behalf of Miss Tox, and one little silver scoopful on
behalf of the teapot—a flight of fancy in which good housekeepers
delight; went upstairs to set forth the bird waltz on the harpsichord,
to water and arrange the plants, to dust the nick-nacks, and, according
to her daily custom, to make her little drawing-room the garland of
Princess’s Place.
Miss Tox endued herself with a pair of ancient gloves, like dead
leaves, in which she was accustomed to perform these avocations—hidden
from human sight at other times in a table drawer—and went methodically
to work; beginning with the bird waltz; passing, by a natural
association of ideas, to her bird—a very high-shouldered canary,
stricken in years, and much rumpled, but a piercing singer, as
Princess’s Place well knew; taking, next in order, the little china
ornaments, paper fly-cages, and so forth; and coming round, in good
time, to the plants, which generally required to be snipped here and
there with a pair of scissors, for some botanical reason that was very
powerful with Miss Tox.
Miss Tox was slow in coming to the plants, this morning. The weather
was warm, the wind southerly; and there was a sigh of the summer-time
in Princess’s Place, that turned Miss Tox’s thoughts upon the country.
The pot-boy attached to the Princess’s Arms had come out with a can and
trickled water, in a flowering pattern, all over Princess’s Place, and
it gave the weedy ground a fresh scent—quite a growing scent, Miss Tox
said. There was a tiny blink of sun peeping in from the great street
round the corner, and the smoky sparrows hopped over it and back again,
brightening as they passed: or bathed in it, like a stream, and became
glorified sparrows, unconnected with chimneys. Legends in praise of
Ginger-Beer, with pictorial representations of thirsty customers
submerged in the effervescence, or stunned by the flying corks, were
conspicuous in the window of the Princess’s Arms. They were making late
hay, somewhere out of town; and though the fragrance had a long way to
come, and many counter fragrances to contend with among the dwellings
of the poor (may God reward the worthy gentlemen who stickle for the
Plague as part and parcel of the wisdom of our ancestors, and who do
their little best to keep those dwellings miserable!), yet it was
wafted faintly into Princess’s Place, whispering of Nature and her
wholesome air, as such things will, even unto prisoners and captives,
and those who are desolate and oppressed, in very spite of aldermen and
knights to boot: at whose sage nod—and how they nod!—the rolling world
stands still!
Miss Tox sat down upon the window-seat, and thought of her good Papa
deceased—Mr Tox, of the Customs Department of the public service; and
of her childhood, passed at a seaport, among a considerable quantity of
cold tar, and some rusticity. She fell into a softened remembrance of
meadows, in old time, gleaming with buttercups, like so many inverted
firmaments of golden stars; and how she had made chains of
dandelion-stalks for youthful vowers of eternal constancy, dressed
chiefly in nankeen; and how soon those fetters had withered and broken.
Sitting on the window-seat, and looking out upon the sparrows and the
blink of sun, Miss Tox thought likewise of her good Mama
deceased—sister to the owner of the powdered head and pigtail—of her
virtues and her rheumatism. And when a man with bulgy legs, and a rough
voice, and a heavy basket on his head that crushed his hat into a mere
black muffin, came crying flowers down Princess’s Place, making his
timid little roots of daisies shudder in the vibration of every yell he
gave, as though he had been an ogre, hawking little children, summer
recollections were so strong upon Miss Tox, that she shook her head,
and murmured she would be comparatively old before she knew it—which
seemed likely.
In her pensive mood, Miss Tox’s thoughts went wandering on Mr Dombey’s
track; probably because the Major had returned home to his lodgings
opposite, and had just bowed to her from his window. What other reason
could Miss Tox have for connecting Mr Dombey with her summer days and
dandelion fetters? Was he more cheerful? thought Miss Tox. Was he
reconciled to the decrees of fate? Would he ever marry again? and if
yes, whom? What sort of person now!
A flush—it was warm weather—overspread Miss Tox’s face, as, while
entertaining these meditations, she turned her head, and was surprised
by the reflection of her thoughtful image in the chimney-glass. Another
flush succeeded when she saw a little carriage drive into Princess’s
Place, and make straight for her own door. Miss Tox arose, took up her
scissors hastily, and so coming, at last, to the plants, was very busy
with them when Mrs Chick entered the room.
“How is my sweetest friend!” exclaimed Miss Tox, with open arms.
A little stateliness was mingled with Miss Tox’s sweetest friend’s
demeanour, but she kissed Miss Tox, and said, “Lucretia, thank you, I
am pretty well. I hope you are the same. Hem!”
Mrs Chick was labouring under a peculiar little monosyllabic cough; a
sort of primer, or easy introduction to the art of coughing.
“You call very early, and how kind that is, my dear!” pursued Miss Tox.
“Now, have you breakfasted?”
“Thank you, Lucretia,” said Mrs Chick, “I have. I took an early
breakfast”—the good lady seemed curious on the subject of Princess’s
Place, and looked all round it as she spoke—“with my brother, who has
come home.”
“He is better, I trust, my love,” faltered Miss Tox.
“He is greatly better, thank you. Hem!”
“My dear Louisa must be careful of that cough” remarked Miss Tox.
“It’s nothing,” returned Mrs Chick. “It’s merely change of weather. We
must expect change.”
“Of weather?” asked Miss Tox, in her simplicity.
“Of everything,” returned Mrs Chick. “Of course we must. It’s a world
of change. Anyone would surprise me very much, Lucretia, and would
greatly alter my opinion of their understanding, if they attempted to
contradict or evade what is so perfectly evident. Change!” exclaimed
Mrs Chick, with severe philosophy. “Why, my gracious me, what is there
that does _not_ change! even the silkworm, who I am sure might be
supposed not to trouble itself about such subjects, changes into all
sorts of unexpected things continually.”
“My Louisa,” said the mild Miss Tox, “is ever happy in her
illustrations.”
“You are so kind, Lucretia,” returned Mrs Chick, a little softened, “as
to say so, and to think so, I believe. I hope neither of us may ever
have any cause to lessen our opinion of the other, Lucretia.”
“I am sure of it,” returned Miss Tox.
Mrs Chick coughed as before, and drew lines on the carpet with the
ivory end of her parasol. Miss Tox, who had experience of her fair
friend, and knew that under the pressure of any slight fatigue or
vexation she was prone to a discursive kind of irritability, availed
herself of the pause, to change the subject.
“Pardon me, my dear Louisa,” said Miss Tox, “but have I caught sight of
the manly form of Mr Chick in the carriage?”
“He is there,” said Mrs Chick, “but pray leave him there. He has his
newspaper, and would be quite contented for the next two hours. Go on
with your flowers, Lucretia, and allow me to sit here and rest.”
“My Louisa knows,” observed Miss Tox, “that between friends like
ourselves, any approach to ceremony would be out of the question.
Therefore—” Therefore Miss Tox finished the sentence, not in words but
action; and putting on her gloves again, which she had taken off, and
arming herself once more with her scissors, began to snip and clip
among the leaves with microscopic industry.
“Florence has returned home also,” said Mrs Chick, after sitting silent
for some time, with her head on one side, and her parasol sketching on
the floor; “and really Florence is a great deal too old now, to
continue to lead that solitary life to which she has been accustomed.
Of course she is. There can be no doubt about it. I should have very
little respect, indeed, for anybody who could advocate a different
opinion. Whatever my wishes might be, I could not respect them. We
cannot command our feelings to such an extent as that.”
Miss Tox assented, without being particular as to the intelligibility
of the proposition.
“If she’s a strange girl,” said Mrs Chick, “and if my brother Paul
cannot feel perfectly comfortable in her society, after all the sad
things that have happened, and all the terrible disappointments that
have been undergone, then, what is the reply? That he must make an
effort. That he is bound to make an effort. We have always been a
family remarkable for effort. Paul is at the head of the family; almost
the only representative of it left—for what am I—I am of no
consequence—”
“My dearest love,” remonstrated Miss Tox.
Mrs Chick dried her eyes, which were, for the moment, overflowing; and
proceeded:
“And consequently he is more than ever bound to make an effort. And
though his having done so, comes upon me with a sort of shock—for mine
is a very weak and foolish nature; which is anything but a blessing I
am sure; I often wish my heart was a marble slab, or a paving-stone—”
“My sweet Louisa,” remonstrated Miss Tox again.
“Still, it is a triumph to me to know that he is so true to himself,
and to his name of Dombey; although, of course, I always knew he would
be. I only hope,” said Mrs Chick, after a pause, “that she may be
worthy of the name too.”
Miss Tox filled a little green watering-pot from a jug, and happening
to look up when she had done so, was so surprised by the amount of
expression Mrs Chick had conveyed into her face, and was bestowing upon
her, that she put the little watering-pot on the table for the present,
and sat down near it.
“My dear Louisa,” said Miss Tox, “will it be the least satisfaction to
you, if I venture to observe in reference to that remark, that I, as a
humble individual, think your sweet niece in every way most promising?”
“What do you mean, Lucretia?” returned Mrs Chick, with increased
stateliness of manner. “To what remark of mine, my dear, do you refer?”
“Her being worthy of her name, my love,” replied Miss Tox.
“If,” said Mrs Chick, with solemn patience, “I have not expressed
myself with clearness, Lucretia, the fault of course is mine. There is,
perhaps, no reason why I should express myself at all, except the
intimacy that has subsisted between us, and which I very much hope,
Lucretia—confidently hope—nothing will occur to disturb. Because, why
should I do anything else? There is no reason; it would be absurd. But
I wish to express myself clearly, Lucretia; and therefore to go back to
that remark, I must beg to say that it was not intended to relate to
Florence, in any way.”
“Indeed!” returned Miss Tox.
“No,” said Mrs Chick shortly and decisively.
“Pardon me, my dear,” rejoined her meek friend; “but I cannot have
understood it. I fear I am dull.”
Mrs Chick looked round the room and over the way; at the plants, at the
bird, at the watering-pot, at almost everything within view, except
Miss Tox; and finally dropping her glance upon Miss Tox, for a moment,
on its way to the ground, said, looking meanwhile with elevated
eyebrows at the carpet:
“When I speak, Lucretia, of her being worthy of the name, I speak of my
brother Paul’s second wife. I believe I have already said, in effect,
if not in the very words I now use, that it is his intention to marry a
second wife.”
Miss Tox left her seat in a hurry, and returned to her plants; clipping
among the stems and leaves, with as little favour as a barber working
at so many pauper heads of hair.
“Whether she will be fully sensible of the distinction conferred upon
her,” said Mrs Chick, in a lofty tone, “is quite another question. I
hope she may be. We are bound to think well of one another in this
world, and I hope she may be. I have not been advised with myself. If I
had been advised with, I have no doubt my advice would have been
cavalierly received, and therefore it is infinitely better as it is. I
much prefer it as it is.”
Miss Tox, with head bent down, still clipped among the plants. Mrs
Chick, with energetic shakings of her own head from time to time,
continued to hold forth, as if in defiance of somebody.
“If my brother Paul had consulted with me, which he sometimes does—or
rather, sometimes used to do; for he will naturally do that no more
now, and this is a circumstance which I regard as a relief from
responsibility,” said Mrs Chick, hysterically, “for I thank Heaven I am
not jealous—” here Mrs Chick again shed tears: “if my brother Paul had
come to me, and had said, ‘Louisa, what kind of qualities would you
advise me to look out for, in a wife?’ I should certainly have
answered, ‘Paul, you must have family, you must have beauty, you must
have dignity, you must have connexion.’ Those are the words I should
have used. You might have led me to the block immediately afterwards,”
said Mrs Chick, as if that consequence were highly probable, “but I
should have used them. I should have said, ‘Paul! You to marry a second
time without family! You to marry without beauty! You to marry without
dignity! You to marry without connexion! There is nobody in the world,
not mad, who could dream of daring to entertain such a preposterous
idea!’”
Miss Tox stopped clipping; and with her head among the plants, listened
attentively. Perhaps Miss Tox thought there was hope in this exordium,
and the warmth of Mrs Chick.
“I should have adopted this course of argument,” pursued the discreet
lady, “because I trust I am not a fool. I make no claim to be
considered a person of superior intellect—though I believe some people
have been extraordinary enough to consider me so; one so little
humoured as I am, would very soon be disabused of any such notion; but
I trust I am not a downright fool. And to tell ME,” said Mrs Chick with
ineffable disdain, “that my brother Paul Dombey could ever contemplate
the possibility of uniting himself to anybody—I don’t care who”—she was
more sharp and emphatic in that short clause than in any other part of
her discourse—“not possessing these requisites, would be to insult what
understanding I have got, as much as if I was to be told that I was
born and bred an elephant, which I may be told next,” said Mrs Chick,
with resignation. “It wouldn’t surprise me at all. I expect it.”
In the moment’s silence that ensued, Miss Tox’s scissors gave a feeble
clip or two; but Miss Tox’s face was still invisible, and Miss Tox’s
morning gown was agitated. Mrs Chick looked sideways at her, through
the intervening plants, and went on to say, in a tone of bland
conviction, and as one dwelling on a point of fact that hardly required
to be stated:
“Therefore, of course my brother Paul has done what was to be expected
of him, and what anybody might have foreseen he would do, if he entered
the marriage state again. I confess it takes me rather by surprise,
however gratifying; because when Paul went out of town I had no idea at
all that he would form any attachment out of town, and he certainly had
no attachment when he left here. However, it seems to be extremely
desirable in every point of view. I have no doubt the mother is a most
genteel and elegant creature, and I have no right whatever to dispute
the policy of her living with them: which is Paul’s affair, not
mine—and as to Paul’s choice, herself, I have only seen her picture
yet, but that is beautiful indeed. Her name is beautiful too,” said Mrs
Chick, shaking her head with energy, and arranging herself in her
chair; “Edith is at once uncommon, as it strikes me, and distinguished.
Consequently, Lucretia, I have no doubt you will be happy to hear that
the marriage is to take place immediately—of course, you will:” great
emphasis again: “and that you are delighted with this change in the
condition of my brother, who has shown you a great deal of pleasant
attention at various times.”
Miss Tox made no verbal answer, but took up the little watering-pot
with a trembling hand, and looked vacantly round as if considering what
article of furniture would be improved by the contents. The room door
opening at this crisis of Miss Tox’s feelings, she started, laughed
aloud, and fell into the arms of the person entering; happily
insensible alike of Mrs Chick’s indignant countenance and of the Major
at his window over the way, who had his double-barrelled eye-glass in
full action, and whose face and figure were dilated with
Mephistophelean joy.
Not so the expatriated Native, amazed supporter of Miss Tox’s swooning
form, who, coming straight upstairs, with a polite inquiry touching
Miss Tox’s health (in exact pursuance of the Major’s malicious
instructions), had accidentally arrived in the very nick of time to
catch the delicate burden in his arms, and to receive the contents of
the little watering-pot in his shoe; both of which circumstances,
coupled with his consciousness of being closely watched by the wrathful
Major, who had threatened the usual penalty in regard of every bone in
his skin in case of any failure, combined to render him a moving
spectacle of mental and bodily distress.
For some moments, this afflicted foreigner remained clasping Miss Tox
to his heart, with an energy of action in remarkable opposition to his
disconcerted face, while that poor lady trickled slowly down upon him
the very last sprinklings of the little watering-pot, as if he were a
delicate exotic (which indeed he was), and might be almost expected to
blow while the gentle rain descended. Mrs Chick, at length recovering
sufficient presence of mind to interpose, commanded him to drop Miss
Tox upon the sofa and withdraw; and the exile promptly obeying, she
applied herself to promote Miss Tox’s recovery.
But none of that gentle concern which usually characterises the
daughters of Eve in their tending of each other; none of that
freemasonry in fainting, by which they are generally bound together in
a mysterious bond of sisterhood; was visible in Mrs Chick’s demeanour.
Rather like the executioner who restores the victim to sensation
previous to proceeding with the torture (or was wont to do so, in the
good old times for which all true men wear perpetual mourning), did Mrs
Chick administer the smelling-bottle, the slapping on the hands, the
dashing of cold water on the face, and the other proved remedies. And
when, at length, Miss Tox opened her eyes, and gradually became
restored to animation and consciousness, Mrs Chick drew off as from a
criminal, and reversing the precedent of the murdered king of Denmark,
regarded her more in anger than in sorrow.”
“Lucretia!” said Mrs Chick “I will not attempt to disguise what I feel.
My eyes are opened, all at once. I wouldn’t have believed this, if a
Saint had told it to me.”
[Illustration]
“I am foolish to give way to faintness,” Miss Tox faltered. “I shall be
better presently.”
“You will be better presently, Lucretia!” repeated Mrs Chick, with
exceeding scorn. “Do you suppose I am blind? Do you imagine I am in my
second childhood? No, Lucretia! I am obliged to you!”
Miss Tox directed an imploring, helpless kind of look towards her
friend, and put her handkerchief before her face.
“If anyone had told me this yesterday,” said Mrs Chick, with majesty,
“or even half-an-hour ago, I should have been tempted, I almost
believe, to strike them to the earth. Lucretia Tox, my eyes are opened
to you all at once. The scales:” here Mrs Chick cast down an imaginary
pair, such as are commonly used in grocers” shops: “have fallen from my
sight. The blindness of my confidence is past, Lucretia. It has been
abused and played, upon, and evasion is quite out of the question now,
I assure you.”
“Oh! to what do you allude so cruelly, my love?” asked Miss Tox,
through her tears.
“Lucretia,” said Mrs Chick, “ask your own heart. I must entreat you not
to address me by any such familiar term as you have just used, if you
please. I have some self-respect left, though you may think otherwise.”
“Oh, Louisa!” cried Miss Tox. “How can you speak to me like that?”
“How can I speak to you like that?” retorted Mrs Chick, who, in default
of having any particular argument to sustain herself upon, relied
principally on such repetitions for her most withering effects. “Like
that! You may well say like that, indeed!”
Miss Tox sobbed pitifully.
“The idea!” said Mrs Chick, “of your having basked at my brother’s
fireside, like a serpent, and wound yourself, through me, almost into
his confidence, Lucretia, that you might, in secret, entertain designs
upon him, and dare to aspire to contemplate the possibility of his
uniting himself to you! Why, it is an idea,” said Mrs Chick, with
sarcastic dignity, “the absurdity of which almost relieves its
treachery.”
“Pray, Louisa,” urged Miss Tox, “do not say such dreadful things.”
“Dreadful things!” repeated Mrs Chick. “Dreadful things! Is it not a
fact, Lucretia, that you have just now been unable to command your
feelings even before me, whose eyes you had so completely closed?”
“I have made no complaint,” sobbed Miss Tox. “I have said nothing. If I
have been a little overpowered by your news, Louisa, and have ever had
any lingering thought that Mr Dombey was inclined to be particular
towards me, surely you will not condemn me.”
“She is going to say,” said Mrs Chick, addressing herself to the whole
of the furniture, in a comprehensive glance of resignation and appeal,
“She is going to say—I know it—that I have encouraged her!”
“I don’t wish to exchange reproaches, dear Louisa,” sobbed Miss Tox.
“Nor do I wish to complain. But, in my own defence—”
“Yes,” cried Mrs Chick, looking round the room with a prophetic smile,
“that’s what she’s going to say. I knew it. You had better say it. Say
it openly! Be open, Lucretia Tox,” said Mrs Chick, with desperate
sternness, “whatever you are.”
“In my own defence,” faltered Miss Tox, “and only in my own defence
against your unkind words, my dear Louisa, I would merely ask you if
you haven’t often favoured such a fancy, and even said it might happen,
for anything we could tell?”
“There is a point,” said Mrs Chick, rising, not as if she were going to
stop at the floor, but as if she were about to soar up, high, into her
native skies, “beyond which endurance becomes ridiculous, if not
culpable. I can bear much; but not too much. What spell was on me when
I came into this house this day, I don’t know; but I had a
presentiment—a dark presentiment,” said Mrs Chick, with a shiver, “that
something was going to happen. Well may I have had that foreboding,
Lucretia, when my confidence of many years is destroyed in an instant,
when my eyes are opened all at once, and when I find you revealed in
your true colours. Lucretia, I have been mistaken in you. It is better
for us both that this subject should end here. I wish you well, and I
shall ever wish you well. But, as an individual who desires to be true
to herself in her own poor position, whatever that position may be, or
may not be—and as the sister of my brother—and as the sister-in-law of
my brother’s wife—and as a connexion by marriage of my brother’s wife’s
mother—may I be permitted to add, as a Dombey?—I can wish you nothing
else but good morning.”
These words, delivered with cutting suavity, tempered and chastened by
a lofty air of moral rectitude, carried the speaker to the door. There
she inclined her head in a ghostly and statue-like manner, and so
withdrew to her carriage, to seek comfort and consolation in the arms
of Mr Chick, her lord.
Figuratively speaking, that is to say; for the arms of Mr Chick were
full of his newspaper. Neither did that gentleman address his eyes
towards his wife otherwise than by stealth. Neither did he offer any
consolation whatever. In short, he sat reading, and humming fag ends of
tunes, and sometimes glancing furtively at her without delivering
himself of a word, good, bad, or indifferent.
In the meantime Mrs Chick sat swelling and bridling, and tossing her
head, as if she were still repeating that solemn formula of farewell to
Lucretia Tox. At length, she said aloud, “Oh the extent to which her
eyes had been opened that day!”
“To which your eyes have been opened, my dear!” repeated Mr Chick.
“Oh, don’t talk to me!” said Mrs Chic “if you can bear to see me in
this state, and not ask me what the matter is, you had better hold your
tongue for ever.”
“What is the matter, my dear?” asked Mr Chick
“To think,” said Mrs Chick, in a state of soliloquy, “that she should
ever have conceived the base idea of connecting herself with our family
by a marriage with Paul! To think that when she was playing at horses
with that dear child who is now in his grave—I never liked it at the
time—she should have been hiding such a double-faced design! I wonder
she was never afraid that something would happen to her. She is
fortunate if nothing does.”
“I really thought, my dear,” said Mr Chick slowly, after rubbing the
bridge of his nose for some time with his newspaper, “that you had gone
on the same tack yourself, all along, until this morning; and had
thought it would be a convenient thing enough, if it could have been
brought about.”
Mrs Chick instantly burst into tears, and told Mr Chick that if he
wished to trample upon her with his boots, he had better do It.
“But with Lucretia Tox I have done,” said Mrs Chick, after abandoning
herself to her feelings for some minutes, to Mr Chick’s great terror.
“I can bear to resign Paul’s confidence in favour of one who, I hope
and trust, may be deserving of it, and with whom he has a perfect right
to replace poor Fanny if he chooses; I can bear to be informed, in
Paul’s cool manner, of such a change in his plans, and never to be
consulted until all is settled and determined; but deceit I can not
bear, and with Lucretia Tox I have done. It is better as it is,” said
Mrs Chick, piously; “much better. It would have been a long time before
I could have accommodated myself comfortably with her, after this; and
I really don’t know, as Paul is going to be very grand, and these are
people of condition, that she would have been quite presentable, and
might not have compromised myself. There’s a providence in everything;
everything works for the best; I have been tried today but on the whole
I do not regret it.”
In which Christian spirit, Mrs Chick dried her eyes and smoothed her
lap, and sat as became a person calm under a great wrong. Mr Chick
feeling his unworthiness no doubt, took an early opportunity of being
set down at a street corner and walking away whistling, with his
shoulders very much raised, and his hands in his pockets.
While poor excommunicated Miss Tox, who, if she were a fawner and
toad-eater, was at least an honest and a constant one, and had ever
borne a faithful friendship towards her impeacher and had been truly
absorbed and swallowed up in devotion to the magnificence of Mr
Dombey—while poor excommunicated Miss Tox watered her plants with her
tears, and felt that it was winter in Princess’s Place.