"Mrs. Pipchin and Susan Nipper" — Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s twelfth illustration for Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (1867) (original) (raw)

Context of the Illustration

"Why, hoity toity!" cried the voice of Mrs. Pipchin, as the black bombazeen garments of that fair Peruvian Miner swept into the room. "What’s this, indeed?"

Susan favoured Mrs Pipchin with a look she had invented expressly for her when they first became acquainted, and resigned the reply to Mr. Dombey.

"What’s this?" repeated Mr Dombey, almost foaming. "What’s this, Madam? You who are at the head of this household, and bound to keep it in order, have reason to inquire. Do you know this woman?"

"I know very little good of her, Sir," croaked Mrs Pipchin. "How dare you come here, you 'hussy? Go along with you!"

But the inflexible Nipper, merely honouring Mrs Pipchin with another look, remained.

"Do you call it managing this establishment, Madam," said Mr Dombey, "to leave a person like this at liberty to come and talk to me! A gentleman — in his own house — in his own room — assailed with the impertinences of women-servants!"

"Well, Sir,’ returned Mrs Pipchin, with vengeance in her hard grey eye, "I exceedingly deplore it; nothing can be more irregular; nothing can be more out of all bounds and reason; but I regret to say, Sir, that this young woman is quite beyond control. She has been spoiled by Miss Dombey, and is amenable to nobody. You know you’re not," said Mrs. Pipchin, sharply, and shaking her head at Susan Nipper. "For shame, you hussy! Go along with you!"

"If you find people in my service who are not to be controlled, Mrs Pipchin," said Mr. Dombey, turning back towards the fire, ‘you know what to do with them, I presume. You know what you are here for? Take her away!"

"Sir, I know what to do," retorted Mrs. Pipchin, "and of course shall do it. Susan Nipper," snapping her up particularly short, ‘a month’s warning from this hour."

"Oh indeed!" cried Susan, loftily.

"Yes," returned Mrs. Pipchin, "and don’t smile at me, you minx, or I’ll know the reason why! Go along with you this minute!"

"I intend to go this minute, you may rely upon it," said the voluble Nipper. "I have been in this house waiting on my young lady a dozen year and I won’t stop in it one hour under notice from a person owning to the name of Pipchin trust me, Mrs. P."

"A good riddance of bad rubbish!" said that wrathful old lady. "Get along with you, or I’ll have you carried out!" [Ch XLIV, "A Separation," 352]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). 8 coloured plates. London and Edinburgh: Caxton and Ballantyne, Hanson, 1910.

_______. Dombey and Son.16 Illustrations by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and A. V. S. Anthony (engraver). The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. III.

Hammerton, J. A. "Ch. XVI. Dombey and Son." The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book Co., [1910], 294-338.

Last modified 11 December 2020