Bokelskere.no

'His father's name, Mrs Dombey, and his grandfather's! I wish his grandfather were alive this day!' And again she said 'Dom-bey and Son,' in exactly the same tone as before.

Those three words conveyed the one idea of Mr Dombey's life. The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made togive them light. Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships; rainbows gave them promise of fair weather; winds blew for or against their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their orbits, to preserve inviolate a system of which they were the centre. Common abbreviations took new meanings in his eyes, and had sole reference to them. A.D. had no concern with anno Domini, but stood for anno Dombei - and Son.

He had risen, as his father before him, in the course of life and death, from Son to Dombey, and for nearly twenty years had been the sole representative of the firm.