friend Fairfax; or they were together on the river boating, or
enjoying a picnic on "Dixie" Island. Occasionally, when the weather
was unfavorable to out-door amusements, they would engage in a
rubber of whist, generally ending the evening with a little music.
Dombey did not know one tune from another, but his wife praised
Mrs. Trotter's singing so highly that he soon imagined that in that
art, as in others, she was nearly, if not altogether, perfect. When
it became time for Mrs. Trotter to go home, Jacob used to escort her
to her cottage on the river bank, about a mile distant from his own
residence, and after a few weeks there sprang up an intimacy between
them which culminated in the incidents which gave rise to my
narrative.

On the day following that on which I had engaged her apartments
Mrs. Trotter took up her abode at Madame Charbonneau's, and about
six weeks afterwards her baby, a beautiful girl, was born; she sent
a message to Mr. Dombey's office, and in the afternoon he called to
see her. He was greatly pleased with the baby, and took it up fondly
in his arms, and on leaving placed a roll of bank bills in my hand,
telling me to get everything necessary for either the mother or her
child, also to get the latter whatever clothing it might require.
After that he called almost daily, and when Mrs. Trotter was
sufficiently recovered to return to her home, he pressed me so
strongly to keep the baby till it was a little older, and not to
leave it to the tender mercies of an ignorant nurse, that I
consented to keep it till it was two years old, and then to obtain
for it, if possible, adoption by some respectable married persons.

Margery, the baby aforementioned, turned out one of the most
beautiful children I had ever seen. Her father and mother visited