About this story
Sent out shopping instead of in to see him, you're separated from your maid in a crowded street and stripped of your fine clothes by an old woman who trades them for rags and one returned coin. A young clerk, Walter Gay, finds you wandering lost outside your father's own shipping office and walks you home — where Mr Dombey repays him with a banknote instead of thanks.
How it opens
Morning pressed pale light through the tall Dombey windows and across carpets muffling every footstep.
Upstairs, the newborn heir cried behind a nursery door guarded more carefully than a bank vault.
Susan NipperMiss Floy, your papa says the carriage is waiting and the house must remain quiet.
Mr DombeyYour brother carries the future of the firm, Florence; do not disturb his rest.
Choose
I only want Paul to know he has a sister.
May I leave the gift beside his cradle without waking him?