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

here my own dear dove with nobody to wait upon you and no home to call your
own but never never will I go away again Miss Floy for though I may not
gather moss I'm not a rolling stone nor is my heart a stone or else it
wouldn't bust as it is busting now oh dear oh dear!'
Pouring out these words, without the faintest indication of a stop, of any
sort, Miss Nipper, on her knees beside her mistress, hugged her close.
'Oh love!' cried Susan, 'I know all that's past I know it all my tender pet
and I'm a choking give me air!'
'Susan, dear good Susan!' said Florence.
'Oh bless her! I that was her little maid when she was a little child! and
is she really, really truly going to be married?' exclaimed Susan, in a
burst of pain and pleasure, pride and grief, and Heaven knows how many other
conflicting feelings.
'Who told you so?' said Florence.
'Oh gracious me! that innocentest creetur Toots,' returned Susan
hysterically. 'I knew he must be right my dear because he took on so. He's
the devotedest and innocentest infant!And is my darling,' pursued Susan,
with another close embrace and burst of tears, 'really really going to be
married!'
The mixture of compassion, pleasure, tenderness, protection, and regret with
which the Nipper constantly recurred to this subject, and at every such
recurrence, raised her head to look in the young face and kiss it, and then
laid her head again upon her mistress's shoulder, caressing her and sobbing,
was as womanly and good a thing, in its way, as ever was seen in the world.
'There, there!' said the soothing voice of Florence presently. 'Now you're
quite yourself, dear Susan!'
Miss Nipper, sitting down upon the floor, at her mistress's feet, laughing