CHARLES DICKENS DOMBEY AND SON CHAPTER I Dombey and ...

analysis, and about his being certainly old-fashioned, and took Mrs.
Pipchin's opinion on that point, and whether she knew why it was, and what
it meant. Mrs. Pipchin denied the fact altogether, as the shortest way of
getting out of the difficulty; but Paul was far from satisfied with that
reply, and looked so searchingly at Mrs. Pipchin for a truer answer, that
she was obliged to get up and look out of the window to avoid his eyes.
There was a certain calm Apothecary, who attended at the establishment when
any of the young gentlemen were ill, and somehow he got into the room and
appeared at the bedside, with Mrs. Blimber. How they came there, or how long
they had been there, Paul didn't know; but when he saw them, he sat up in
bed, and answered all the Apothecary's questions at full length, and
whispered to him that Florence was not to know anything about it, if he
pleased, and that he had set his mind upon her coming to the party. He was
very chatty with the Apothecary, and they parted excellent friends. Lying
down again with his eyes shut, he heard the Apothecary say, out of the room
and quite a long way off--or he dreamed it--that there was a want of vital
power (what was that, Paul wondered) and great constitutional weakness. That
as the little fellow had set his heart on parting with his school-mates on
the seventeenth, it would be better to indulge the fancy if he grew no
worse. That he was glad to hear from Mrs. Pipchin, that the little fellow
would go to his friends in London on the eighteenth. That he would write to
Mr. Dombey, when he should have gained a better knowledge of the case, and
before that day. That there was no immediate cause for--what? Paul lost that
word. And that the little fellow had a fine mind, but was an old-fashioned
boy.
What old fashion could that be, Paul wondered with a palpitating heart, that
was so visibly expressed in him; so plainly seen by so many people!
He could neither make it out, not trouble himself long with the effort. Mrs.
Pipchin was again beside him, if she had ever been away (he thought she had
gone out with the Doctor, but it was all a dream perhaps), and presently a
bottle and glass got into her hands magically, and she poured out the
contents for him. After that, he had some real good jelly, which Mrs.
Blimber brought to him herself; and then he was so well, that Mrs. Pipchin