 Chapter 25. Book the First of Little Dorit Read for LibriVox.org by Ellis Christoff Little Dorit by Charles Dickens Book the First. Chapter 25. Conspirators and Others The private residence of Mr. Panks was in Pentonville, where he lodged on the second floor of a professional gentleman in an extremely small way who had an inner door within the street door poised on a spring and starting open with a click like a trap, and who rode up in the fan light, rug, general agent, accountant, debts recovered. This scroll, majestic in its severe simplicity, illuminated a little slip of front garden abutting on the thirsty high road, where a few of the dustiest of leaves hung their dismal heads and led a life of choking. A professor of writing occupied the first floor and enlivened the garden railings with glass cases containing choice examples of what his pupils had been before six lessons, and while the whole of his young family shook the table, and what they had become after six lessons when the young family was under-restraint. The tenancy of Mr. Panks was limited to one airy bedroom. He covenanted and agreeing with Mr. Racky's landlord that in consideration of a certain scale of payments accurately defined and on certain verbal notice duly given, he should be at liberty to elect to share the Sunday breakfast, dinner, tea or supper, or each or any or all of those repasts or meals of Mr. and Ms. Racky's daughter in the back parlor. Ms. Racky was a lady of a little property which she had acquired together with much distinction in the neighbourhood by having her heart severely lacerated and her feelings mangled by a middle-aged baker resident in the vicinity against whom she had by the agency of Mr. Racky found it necessary to proceed at law to recover damages for a breach of promise of marriage. The baker having been by the council for Ms. Racky witheringly denounced on that occasion up to the full amount of 20 guineas at the rate of about 18 pence an epithet and having been cast in corresponding damages still suffered occasional persecution from the youth of Pentonville. But Ms. Racky, environed by the majesty of the law and having her damages invested in the public securities was regarded with consideration. In the society of Mr. Rigg, who had a round wide visage as if all his blushes had been drawn out of him long ago and who had a ragged yellow head like a worn-out hearth broom and in the society of Ms. Racky who had little nanky spots like shirt buttons all over her face and whose own yellow tresses were rather scrubby than luxuriant. Mr. Panks had usually dined on Sundays for some few years and had twice a week or so enjoyed an evening collation of bread, Dutch cheese and porter. Mr. Panks was one of the very few marriageable men for whom Ms. Racky had no terrors the argument with which he reassured himself being twofold that is to say firstly that it wouldn't do twice and secondly that he wasn't worth it. Votified within this double armor Mr. Panks snorted at Ms. Racky on easy terms. Up to this time Mr. Panks had transacted little or no business at his quarters in Pentonville except in the sleeping line but now that he had become a fortune teller he was often closeted after midnight with Mr. Racky in his little front parlor office and even after those untimely hours burned tallow in his bedroom. Though his duties as his proprietors grubber were in no wise lesson and though that service bore no greater resemblance to a bed of roses than was to be discovered in its many thorns some new branch of industry made a constant demand upon him. When he cast off the patriarch at night it was only to take an anonymous crafting tow and labor away afresh in other waters. The advance from a personal acquaintance with the elder Mr. Chivory to an introduction to his amiable wife and disconsolate son may have been easy but easy or not Mr. Panks soon made it. He nestled in the bosom of the tobacco business within a week or two after his first appearance in the college and particularly addressed himself to the cultivation of a good understanding with young John. In this endeavor he so prospered as to lure that pining shepherd forth from the groves and tempt him to undertake mysterious missions on which he began to disappear at uncertain intervals for as long a space as two or three days together. The prudent Mrs. Chivory, who wondered greatly at this change would have protested against it as detrimental to the Highland typification on the doorpost but for two forcible reasons. One, that her John was roused to take strong interest in the business which the starts were supposed to advance and this she held to be good for his drooping spirits. The other, that Mr. Panks confidentially agreed to pay her for the occupation of her son's time at the handsome rate of seven and six months per day. The proposal originated with himself and was couched in the pithy terms. If your John is weak enough, ma'am, not to take it, that is no reason why you should be, don't you see? So, quite between ourselves, ma'am, business being business, here it is. What Mr. Chivory thought of these things or how much or how little he knew about them was never gathered from himself. It has been already remarked that he was a man of few words and it may be here observed that he had imbibed a professional habit of locking everything up. He locked himself up as carefully as he locked up the Marshall C debtors. Even his custom of bolting his meals may have been a part of a uniform whole. But there is no question that, as to all other purposes, he kept his mouth as he kept the Marshall C door. He never opened it without occasion. When it was necessary to let anything out, he opened it a little way, held it open just as long as sufficed for the purpose and locked it again. Even as he would be sparing of his trouble at the Marshall C door and would keep a visitor who wanted to go out waiting for a few moments if he saw another visitor coming down the yard saw that one turn of the key should suffice for both. Similarly, he would often reserve a remark if he perceived another on its way to his lips and would deliver himself of the two together. As to any key to his inner knowledge being to be found in his face, the Marshall C key was as legible as an index to the individual characters and histories upon which it was turned. That Mr. Panks should be moved to invite anyone to dinner at Pentonville was an unprecedented fact in his calendar. But he invited young John to dinner and even brought him within range of the dangerous, because expensive, fascinations of Miss Rugg. The banquet was appointed for a Sunday and Miss Rugg with her own hands stuffed a leg of mutton with oysters on the occasion and sent it to the bakers, not the bakers, but an opposition establishment. Provision of oranges, apples and nuts was also made and rum was brought home by Mr. Panks on Saturday night to gladden the visitor's heart. The store of creature comforts was not the chief part of the visitor's reception. Its special feature was a foregone family confidence and sympathy. When young John appeared at half-past one without the ivory hand and the waistcoat of golden sprigs, the sun shone of his beams by disastrous clouds, Mr. Panks presented him to the yellow-haired Ruggs as the young man he had so often mentioned who loved Miss Dorit. I am glad, said Mr. Rugg, challenging him specially in that character to have the distinguished gratification of making your acquaintance, sir. Your feelings do you honour. You are young. May you never outlive your feelings. If I was to outlive my own feelings, sir, said Mr. Rugg, was a man of many words and was considered to possess a remarkably good address. If I was to outlive my own feelings, I'd leave fifty pound in my will to the man who would put me out of existence. Miss Rugg heaved aside. My daughter, sir, said Mr. Rugg, Anastacia, you are no stranger to the state of this young man's affections. My daughter has had her trials, sir. Mr. Rugg might have used the word more pointedly in the singular number and she can feel for you. Young John, almost overwhelmed by the touching nature of this greeting, professed himself to that effect. What I envy you, sir, is, said Mr. Rugg, Allow me to take your hat. We are rather short of pegs. I'll put it in the corner. Nobody will tread on it there. What I envy you, sir, is the luxury of your own feelings. I belong to a profession in which that luxury sometimes denied us. Young John replied with acknowledgments that he only hoped he did what was right and what showed how entirely he was devoted to Miss Dorit. He wished to be unselfish and he hoped he was. He wished to do anything as late in his power to serve Miss Dorit, altogether putting himself out of sight and he hoped he did. It was but little that he could do but he hoped he did it. Sir, said Mr. Rugg, taking him by the hand, you are a young man that it does one good to come across. You are a young man that I should like to put in the witness box to humanize the minds of the legal profession. I hope you have brought your appetite with you and intend to play a good knife and fork. Thank you, sir. Returned Young John. I don't eat much at present. Mr. Rugg drew him a little apart. My daughter's case, sir, said he, at the time when in vindication of her outraged feelings in her sex, she became the plaintiff in Rugg and Bokkins. I suppose I could have put it in evidence, Mr. Chivory, if I had thought it worth my while, that the amount of solid sustenance my daughter consumed at that period did not exceed ten ounces per week. I think I go a little beyond that, sir. Returned the other hesitating as if he confessed it with some shame. But in your case there is no fiend in human form, said Mr. Rugg with argumentative smile and action of hand. Observe, Mr. Chivory. No fiend in human form. No, sir, certainly. Young John added with simplicity, I should be very sorry if there was. The sentiment, said Mr. Rugg, is what I should have expected from your known principles. It would affect my daughter greatly, sir, if she heard it. As I perceive the mutton, I am glad she didn't hear it. Mr. Panks, on this occasion pray face me, my dear, face Mr. Chivory, for what we are going to receive may we and Miss Dorit be truly thankful. But for a grave waggishness in Mr. Rugg's manner of delivering this introduction to the feast, it might have appeared that Miss Dorit was expected to be one of the company. Panks recognized the sally in his usual way and took in his provender in his usual way. Miss Rugg, perhaps making up some of her arrears, likewise took very kindly to the mutton and it rapidly diminished to the bone. A bread and butter pudding entirely disappeared and a considerable amount of cheese and radishes vanished by the same means. Then came the dessert. Then also, and before the broaching of the ramen water, came Mr. Panks' notebook. The ensuing business proceedings were brief but curious and rather in the nature of a conspiracy. Mr. Panks looked over his notebook which was now getting full studiously and picked out little extracts which he wrote on separate slips of paper on the table. Mr. Rugg, in the meanwhile, looking at him with close attention and young John losing his uncollected eye in mists of meditation. When Mr. Panks who supported the character of conspirator had completed his extracts, he looked them over, corrected them, put up his notebook and held them like a handed cards. Now there's a churchyard in Bedfordshire, said Panks. Who takes it? I'll take it, sir, returned Mr. Rugg if no one bids. Mr. Panks dealt him his card and looked at his hand again. Now there's an inquiry in York, said Panks. Who takes it? I'm not good for York, said Mr. Rugg. Then perhaps, pursued Panks. You'll be so bludging, John Chivory. Young John ascending, Panks dealt him his card and consulted his hand again. There's a church in London. I may as well take that and a family Bible. I may as well take that too. That's two to me. Two to me. Repeated Panks, breathing hard over his cards. Here's a clerk at Durham for you, John and an old seafaring gentleman at Dunstable for you, Mr. Rugg. Two to me, was it? Yes, two to me. Here's a stone. Three to me. And a stillborn baby. Four to me. And all for the present, told. Mr. Panks poked his cards, all being done very quietly and in a suppressed tone. Mr. Panks puffed his way into his own breast pocket and tagged out a canvas bag, from which, with a sparing hand, he told forth money for travelling expenses in two little portions. Cash goes out fast, he said anxiously, as he pushed a portion to each of his male companions. I assure you, Mr. Panks, said young John, that I deeply regret my circumstances being such that I can't afford to pay my own charges or that it's not advisable to allow me the time necessary for my doing the distances on foot because nothing would give me greater satisfaction than to walk myself off my legs without fee or reward. This young man's disinterestedness appeared so very ludicrous in the eyes of Mr. Rugg determined from the company and to sit upon the stairs until she had had her laugh out. Meanwhile Mr. Panks, looking not without some pity at young John, slowly and thoughtfully twisted up his canvas bag as if he were ringing its neck. The lady, returning as he restored it to his pocket, mixed rum and water for the party, not forgetting her fair self and handed to everyone his glass. When all was supplied Mr. Rugg rose and silently holding out his glass at arm's length above the center of the table, by that gesture invited the other three to add theirs and to unite in a general conspiratorial clink. The ceremony was effective up to a certain point and would have been wholly so throughout if Miss Rugg, as she raced her glass to her lips in completion of it, had not happened to look at young John. When she was again so overcome by the temptable comicality of his disinterestedness, as to splatter some ambrosial drops of rum and water around and withdraw in confusion, such was the dinner without precedent, given by Panks at Pentonville, and such was the busy and strange life Panks led. The only waking moments at which he appeared to relax from his scares and to recreate himself by going anywhere or saying anything without a pervading object when he showed a dawning interest in the lame foreigner with a stick down bleeding hard yard. The foreigner, by name John Baptist Cavalletto, they called him Mr Baptist in the yard, was such a chirping, easy, hopeful little fellow that his attraction for Panks was probably in the force of contrast, solitary, weak and scantily acquainted with the most necessary words of the only language in which he could communicate without him. He went with the stream of his fortunes in a brisk way that was new in those parts, with little to eat and less to drink and nothing to wear but what he wore upon him, or had brought tied up in one of the smallest bundles that ever were seen. He put as bright a face upon it as if he were in the most flourishing circumstances when he first hobbled up and down the yard, humbly propitiating the general Goodwill with his white teeth. It was uphill work for a foreigner lay more sound to make his way with the bleeding hearts. In the first place they were vaguely persuaded that every foreigner had a knife about him. In the second they held it to be a sound constitutional national axiom that he ought to go home to his own country. They never thought of inquiring how many of their own countrymen would be returned upon their hands from diverse parts of the world if the principle were generally recognized. They considered it particularly and peculiarly British. In the third place they had a notion that it was a sort of divine visitation upon a foreigner that he was not an Englishman and that all kinds of calamities happened to his country because he did things that England did not and did not do things that England did. In this belief to be sure they had long been carefully trained officials and still-stalkings who were always proclaiming to them officially that no country which failed to submit itself to those two large families could possibly hope to be under the protection of Providence and who, when they believed it, disparaged them in private as the most prejudiced people under the sun. This therefore might be called a political position of the bleeding hearts but they entertained other objections to having foreigners in the yard. They believed that foreigners were always badly off and though they were as ill of themselves as they could desire to be that did not diminish the force of the objection. They believed that foreigners were dragooned and bayoneted and though they certainly got their own skulls promptly fractured if they showed an ill humour still it was with a blunt instrument and that didn't count. They believed that foreigners were always immoral and though they had an occasional a size at home and now and then a divorce case or so that had nothing to do with it. They believed that foreigners had no independent spirit as never being escorted to the polling droves by Lord Decimus tight barnacle with colours flying in the tune of rule Britannia playing. Not to be tedious they had many other beliefs of a similar kind. Against these obstacles the lame foreigner with a stick had to make head as well as he could. Not absolutely single handed because Mr Arthur Clenham had recommended him to the plornishers he lived at the top of the same house but still at heavy odds. However the bleeding hearts were kind hearts and when they saw the little fellow cheerily limping about with a good humoured face doing no harm, drawing no knives committing no outrageous immoralities living chiefly on farinatious and milk diet and playing with Mrs Plornish's children of an evening they began to think that although he could never hope to be an Englishman still it would be hard to visit that affliction on his head. They began to accommodate themselves to his level calling him Mr Baptist but treating him like a baby and laughing immoderately at his lively gestures and his childish English more because he didn't mind it and laughed too. They spoke to him in very loud voices as if he were stone deaf. They constructed sentences by way of teaching him the language in its purity such as were addressed by the savages to Captain Cook or by Friday to Robinson Crusoe. Mrs Plornish was particularly ingenious in this art and attained so much celebrity for saying me hope you leg well soon that it was considered in the yard but a very short remove indeed from speaking Italian. Even Mrs Plornish herself began to think that she had a natural cold towards that language. As he became more popular household objects were brought into requisition for his instruction in a copious vocabulary and whenever he appeared in the yard ladies would fly out at their doors crying Mr Baptist, teapot Mr Baptist, dustpan Mr Baptist, flower dredger Mr Baptist, coffee begin Mr Baptist, coffee begin At the same time exhibiting those articles and penetrating him with a sense of the appalling difficulties of the Anglo-Saxon tongue it was in this stage of his progress and in about the third week of his occupation that Mr Panks' fancy became attracted by the little man. Mounting to his attic attended by Mrs Plornish as interpreter he found Mr Baptist with no furniture but his bed on the ground a table and a chair carving with the aid of a few simple tools in the blightest way possible. Now old chap said Mr Panks pay up he had his money ready folded in a scrap of paper and laughingly handed it in then with a free action threw out as many fingers of his right hand as there were shillings and made a cut crosswise in the air for a not-sixpence. Oh, said Mr Panks watching him wonderingly That's it, is it? You're a quick customer It's alright, I didn't expect to receive it though. Mrs Plornish here interposed with great condescension and explained to Mr Baptist a please a glad get money the little man smiled and nodded his bright face seemed uncommonly attractive to Mr Panks How's he getting on in his limb? he asked Mrs Plornish Oh, he's a deal better sir said Mrs Plornish we expect next week he'll be able to leave off his stick entirely the opportunity being too favorable to be lost Mrs Plornish displayed her great accomplishment by explaining with pardonable pride to Mr Baptist I hope you leg well soon he's a merry fellow too said Mr Panks admiring him as if he were a mechanical toy how does he live why sir rejoined Mrs Plornish it turns out to have quite a power of carving them flowers that you see him at now Mr Baptist watching their faces as they spoke held up his work Mrs Plornish interpreted in her Italian manner on behalf of Mr Panks a please double good can he live by that asked Mr Panks he can live on very little sir he expected he will be able in time to make a very good living Mr Klenom got it him to do and gives him odd jobs besides in the works next door makes them for him in short when he knows he wants them and what does he do with himself now when he ain't hard at it said Mr Panks why not much as yet sir on accounts I suppose of not being able to walk much but he goes about the yard and he chats without particular understanding and he plays with the children and he sits in the sun he'll sit down anywhere as if it was an armchair and he'll sing and he'll laugh laugh I quote Mr Panks he looks to me as if every tooth in his head was always laughing but whenever he gets to the top of the steps at the other end of the yard said Mrs Plornish he'll peep out in the curiousest way so that some of us things what the country is and some of us things he's looking for somebody he don't want to see and some of us don't know what to think Mr Baptist seemed to have a general understanding of what she said or perhaps his quickness caught and applied her slight action of peeping in any case he closed his eyes and tossed his head with the air of a man who had sufficient reasons for what he did and said in his own tongue it didn't matter Mr Panks it's a sort of a general kind of expression said Mrs Plornish is it why then outro to you old chap good afternoon Mr Baptist in his vivacious way repeating the word several times Mr Panks in his dull away gave it him back once from that time it became a frequent custom with Panks the gypsy he went home jaded at night to pass around by bleeding heart yard go quietly up the stairs look in at Mr Baptist's door and finding him in his room to say hello old chap outro to which Mr Baptist would reply with innumerable bright nods and smiles outro signore outro after this highly condensed conversation Mr Panks would go his way with an appearance of being lightened and refreshed end of chapter the 25th book the first this recording is in the public domain chapter the 26th book the first of Little Dorit read for Librebox.org by Alice Christoff Little Dorit by Charles Dickens book the first chapter the 26th nobody's state of mind Clenum had not arrived at that wise decision firmly to restrain himself from loving pet he would have lived in on a state of much perplexity involving difficult struggles with his own heart not to the least of these would have been a contention always waging within it between a tendency to dislike Mr Henry Gowan if not to regard him with positive repugnance and a whisper that the inclination was unworthy such a nature is not prone to stronger versions and is slow to admit them even dispassionately but when it finds ill will gaining upon it it can discern between wiles that its origin is not dispassionate such a nature becomes distressed therefore Mr Henry Gowan would have clouded Clenum's mind and would have been far oftener present to it than more agreeable persons and subjects but for the general prudence of his decision of war said Mr Gowan seemed transferred to Daniel Dois' mind at all events it so happened that it usually fell to Mr Dois' turn rather than to Clenum's to speak of him in the friendly conversations they held together these were a frequent occurrence now as the two partners shared a portion of a roomy house in one of the grave old-fashioned city streets lying not far from the bank of England by London Wall Mr Dois had been to Trichinum to pass the day Clenum had excused himself Mr Dois was just come home he put in his head at the door of Clenum's sitting room to say good night come in, come in said Clenum he saw you were reading returned Dois as he entered and thought you might not care to be disturbed but for the notable resolution he had made Clenum really might not have known what he had been reading really might not have had his eyes upon the book for an hour past though it lay open before him he shut it up rather quickly are they well? he asked yes said Dois they are well they are all well Daniel had an old workman like habit of carrying his pocket-hunger chief in his hat he took it out and wiped his forehead with it slowly repeating they are all well miss Minnie looking particularly well any company at the cottage? no, no company and how did you get on you for? asked Clenum gaily there were five of us returned his partner there was what's his name he was there who is he? said Clenum Mr Henry Gowan ah to be sure cried Clenum with unusual vivacity yes I forgot him as I mentioned you may remember said Daniel Dois he's always there on Sunday yes yes returned Clenum I remember now Daniel Dois still wiping his forehead ploddingly repeated yes he was there oh yes he was there and his dog he was there too miss Megels is quite attached to the dog? observed Clenum quite so ascended his partner attached to the dog than I am to the man you mean Mr I mean Mr Gowan most decidedly said Daniel Dois there was a gap in the conversation which Clenum devoted to winding up his watch perhaps you're a little hasty in your judgment he said our judgements I am supposing a general case of course said Dois are so liable to be influenced by many considerations which almost without our knowing it are unfair that it is necessary to keep a guard upon them for instance Mr Gowan quietly said Dois upon whom the utterance of the name almost always devolved is young and handsome easy and quick has talent and has seen a good deal of various kinds of life it might be difficult to give an unselfish reason for being prepossessed against him not difficult for me I think Clenum returned his partner I see him bringing present anxiety and I fear huge sorrow into my old friend's house I see him wearing deeper lines into my old friend's face the nearer he draws to and the oftener he looks at the face of his daughter in short I see him with a net about the pretty and affectionate creature whom he will never make happy we don't know of a man in pain that he will not make her happy we don't know returned his partner that the earth will last another hundred years but we think it highly probable well well said Clenum we must be hopeful and we must at least try to be if not generous which in this case we have no opportunity of being just we will not disparage this gentleman because he is successful in his address to the beautiful object of his ambition and we will not question her natural right to bestow her love on one whom she finds worthy of it maybe my friend said Dois maybe also that she is too young and petty too confiding and inexperienced to discriminate well that said Clenum would be far beyond our power of correction Daniel Dois shook his head gravely and rejoined I fear so therefore in a word said Clenum we should make up our minds that it is not worthy of us to say any ill of Mr. Gowan it would be a poor thing to gratify a prejudice against him and I resolve for my part not to depreciate him I am not quite so sure of myself and therefore I reserve my privilege of objecting to him return the other but if I am not sure of myself I am sure of you Clenum how upright man you are and how much to be respected good night, my friend and partner he shook his hand in saying this as if there had been something serious at the bottom of their conversation and they separated by this time they had visited the family on several occasions and had always observed that even a passing allusion to Mr. Henry Gowan when he was not among them brought back the cloud the meagles his sunshine on the morning of the chance encounter at the ferry if Clenum had ever admitted the forbidden passion into his breast this period might have been a period of real trial under the actual circumstances doubtless it was nothing nothing equally if his heart had given entertainment to that prohibited guest his silent fighting of his way through the mental condition of this period might have been a little meritorious in the constant effort not to be betrayed into a new face of the besetting sin of his experience the pursuit of selfish objects by low and small means and to hold instead to some high principle of honor and generosity there might have been a little merit in the resolution not even to avoid Mr. Meagles' house lest in the selfish sparing of himself he should bring any slight distress upon the daughter making her the cause of an estrangement which he believed the father would regret there might have been a little merit in the modus truthfulness of always keeping in view the greater equality of Mr. Garvin's years and the greater attractions of his person and manner there might have been a little merit in doing all this and much more in a perfectly unaffected way and with a manful and composed constancy while the pain within him peculiar as his life and history was very sharp there might have been some quiet strength of character but after the resolution he had made of course he could have no such merits as these and such a state of mind was nobodies nobodies Mr. Garvin made it no concern of his whether it was nobodies or somebodies he preserved his perfect serenity of manner and allocations as if the possibility of Clenum's presuming to have debated the greater question were too distant and ridiculous to be imagined he had always an affability to bestow on Clenum and a niece to treat him with which might of itself in the suppositious case of his not having taken that sagacious cause have been a very uncomfortable element in his state of mind I quite regret you are not with us yesterday said Mr. Henry Garvin calling on Clenum the next morning we had an agreeable day up the river there so he had heard Arthur said from your partner returned Henry Garvin what a dear old fellow he is I have a great regard for him by Jove he is the finest creature said Garvin so fresh so green trusts in such wonderful things here was one of the many little rough points that had a tendency to great on Clenum's hearing he put it aside by merely repeating that he had high regard for Mr. Dois he is charming to see him mooning along to that time of life laying down nothing by the way and picking up nothing by the way is delightful it warns a man so unspoiled so simple such a good soul upon my life Mr. Clenum one feels desperately worldly and wicked in comparison with such an innocent creature I speak for myself let me add without including you you are genuine also thank you for the compliment said Clenum you are too I hope so so we join the other to be candid with you tolerably I am not a great imposter by one of my pictures and I assure you in confidence it will not be worth the money by one of another man's any great professor who beats me hollow and the chances are that the more you give him the more he'll impose upon you they all do it all painters painters, writers, patriots all the rest who have stands in the market give almost any man I know ten pounds and he will impose upon you to a corresponding extent a thousand pounds to a corresponding extent ten thousand pounds to a corresponding extent so great the success so great the imposition but what a capital world it is cried Gowan with warm enthusiasm what a jolly excellent lovable world it is I had rather thought said Clenum that the principle you mention was chiefly acted on by by the barnacles interrupted Gowan laughing by the political gentleman who condescended to keep the circumlecution office ah don't be hard upon the barnacles said Gowan laughing afresh their darling fellows even poor little Clarence the born idiot of the family is the most agreeable and most endearing block head and by Jupiter what a kind of cleverness in him too that would astonish you it would very much said Clenum dryly and after all cried Gowan with that characteristic balancing of his which reduced everything in the wide world to the same light weight though I can't deny that the circumlecution office may ultimately shipwreck everybody and everything still that will probably not be in our time and it's a school for gentlemen it's a very dangerous unsatisfactory and expensive school to the people who pay to keep the pupils there I'm afraid said Clenum shaking his head ah you are a terrible fellow returned Gowan airily I can understand how you have frightened that little donkey Clarence the most estimable of moon calves I really love him nearly out of his wits but enough of him and of all the rest of them I want to present you to my mother Mr. Clenum pray do me the favor to give me the opportunity in nobody's state of mind there was nothing Clenum would have desired less or would have been more at a loss how to avoid my mother lives in a most primitive manner down in that dreary red brick dungeon at Hampton Court said Gowan if you would make your own appointment you would best your own day for permitting me to take you there to dinner you would be bored and she would be charmed really that's the state of the case what could Clenum say after this his retiring character included a great deal that was simple in the best sense because unpracticed and unused and in his simplicity and modesty he could only say that he was happy to place himself at Mr. Gowan's disposal accordingly he said it fixed and a dreaded date was on his part and a very unwelcome day when it came and they went down to Hampton Court together the venerable inhabitants of that venerable pile seemed in those times to be encamped there like a sort of civilized gypsies there was a temporary air about their establishments as if they were going away the moment they could get anything better there was also a dissatisfied air about themselves as if they took it very ill that they had not already got something much better Gentile blinds and make shifts were more or less observable as soon as their doors were opened screens not half high enough which made dining rooms out of arched passages and warded off obscure corners where foot boys slept at nights with their heads among the knives and forks curtains which called upon you to believe that they didn't hide anything pains of glass which requested you not to see them many objects of various forms feigning to have no connection with their guilty secret a bed disguised traps in walls which were clearly coal cellars affectations of no thoroughfares which were evidently doors to little kitchens mental reservations and artful mysteries grew out of these things collars looking steadily into the eyes of their receivers pretended not to smell cooking feet off people confronting closets accidentally left open pretended not to see bottles visitors with their heads against a partition of thin canvas and a page and a young female at high words on the other side made believe to be sitting in a primeval silence there was no end to the small social accommodation bills of this nature which the gypsies of gentility were constantly drawing upon and accepting for one another these bohemians were of an irritable temperament as constantly soured and vexed by two mental trials the first the consciousness that they had never got enough out of the public the second the consciousness that the public were admitted into the building under the latter great wrong a few suffered dreadfully particularly on Sundays when they had for some time expected the earth to open and swallow the public up but which desirable event the public had not yet occurred then consequence of some reprehensible laxity in the arrangements of the universe mrs. garland's door was attended by a family servant of several years standing who had his own crow to pluck with the public concerning a situation in the post office which he had been for some time expecting and to which he was not yet appointed he perfectly knew that the public could never have got him in but he grimly gratified himself that the public kept him out under the influence of this injury and perhaps of some little straightness and irregularity in the matter of wages he had grown neglectful of his person and morose in mind and now beholding in clenum one of the degraded body of his oppressors received him with ignominy mrs. gowan however received him with condescension he found her a courtly old lady formerly a beauty and still sufficiently well favored to have dispensed with the powder on her nose and a certain impossible bloom under each eye she was a little lofty with him so was another old lady dark-browed and high-nosed and who must have had something real about her or she could not have existed but it was certainly not her hair or her teeth or her figure or her complexion so was a grey old gentleman of dignified and silent appearance both of whom had come to dinner but as they had all been in the British Embassy way in sundry parts of the earth and as a British Embassy cannot better establish a character with the circumlocution office than by treating its compatriots with the limitable contempt else it would become like the embassies of other countries clenum felt that on the whole they let him off lightly the dignified old gentleman turned out to be a young caster still stalking who had been maintained by the circumlocution office for many years as a representative of the britannic majesty abroad this noble refrigerator had iced several european courts in his time and had done it with such complete success that the very name of Englishman yet struck cold to the stomachs of foreigners who had the distinguished honour of remembering him at a distance of a quarter of a century he was now in retirement and hence in a ponderous white cravat like a stiff snowdrift so obliging as to shade the dinner there was a whisper of the pervading bohemian character in the nomadic nature of the service and its curious races of plates and dishes but the noble refrigerator infinitely better than plate or porcelain made it superb he shaded the dinner cooled the wines chilled the gravy and decorated the vegetables there was only one other person in the room a microscopically small foot boy who waited on the malevolent man who hadn't got into the post office even this youth if his jacket could have been unbuttoned and his hard laid bare would have been seen as a distant adherent of the barnacle family all ready to aspire to a situation under government mrs. gowan a melancholy upon her occasioned by her sons being reduced to court the swinish public as a follower of the low arts instead of asserting his birthright and putting a ring through its nose as an acknowledged barnacle headed the conversation at dinner on the evil days it was then that clenum learned for the first time what little pivots this great world goes round upon if john barnacle at other times had been fully ascertained if john barnacle had put abundant his most unfortunate idea of conciliating the mob all would have been well and i think the country would have been preserved the old lady with the high nose assented but added that if augusta still stalking had in a general way ordered the cavalry out with instructions to charge she thought the country would have been preserved the noble refrigerator but added that if william barnacle and tutor still stalking when they came over to one another and formed their ever memorable coalition had boldly muzzled the newspapers and rendered it penal for any editor person to presume to discuss the conduct of any appointed authority abroad or at home he thought the country would have been preserved it was agreed that the country another word for the barnacles and still stalkings wanted preserving but how it came to want preserving was not so clear it was only clear that the question was all about john barnacle augusta still stalking william barnacle and tutor still stalking tom dick or harry barnacle or still stalking because there was nobody else but mob and this was the feature of the conversation which impressed clenham as a man not used to it very disagreeably making him doubt if it were quite right to sit there silently hearing a great nation narrowed to such little bounds remembering however that in the parliamentary debates whether on the life of that nation's body or the life of its soul the question was usually all about and between john barnacle augusta still stalking william barnacle and tutor still stalking tom dick or harry barnacle or still stalking and nobody else he said nothing on the part of mob be thinking himself that mob was used to it mr. henry garland seemed to have a malicious pleasure in playing off the three talkers against each other and in seeing clenham startled by what they said having a supreme a contempt for the class that had thrown him off as for the class that had not taken him on yet no personal disquiet in anything that passed his healthy state of mind appeared even to derive a gratification from clenham's position of embarrassment and isolation among the good company and if clenham had been in that condition with which nobody was incessantly contending he would have suspected it and would have struggled with the suspicion as a meanness even while he sat at the table in the cause of a couple of hours the noble refrigerator at no time less than hundred years behind the period got about five centuries in arrears and delivered solemn political articles appropriate to that epoch he finished by freezing a cup of tea for his own drinking and retiring at his lowest temperature then mrs. gowan who had been accustomed in her days of a vacant arm chair beside her to which to summon state to retain her devoted slaves one by one for short audiences as marks of her a special favor invited clenham with a turn of her fan to approach the presence he obeyed and took the tripod recently vacated by lord Lancaster still stalking Mr. clenham said mrs. gowan apart from the happiness I have in becoming known to you though in this odiously inconvenient place a mere barrack there is a subject on which I am dying to speak to you it is the subject in connection with which my son first had I believe the pleasure of cultivating your acquaintance clenham inclined his kid as a generally suitable reply to what he did not yet quite understand first said mrs. gowan now is she really pretty in nobody's difficulties you would have found it very difficult to answer very difficult indeed to smile and say who oh you know she returned this blame of henry's this unfortunate fancy there if it is a point of honor that I should originate the name mrs. miggles miggles miggles said clenham is very beautiful men are so often mistaken on these points returned mrs. gowan shaking her head that I candidly confess to you I feel anything but sure of it even now though it is something to have henry corroborated with so much gravity and emphasis he picked the people up at Rome I think the phrase would have given nobody mortal offense clenham replied excuse me I doubt if I understand your expression pick the people up said mrs. gowan tapping the sticks of her closed fan a large green one which she used as a handscreen on her little table came upon them found them out stumbled up against them the people yes the miggles people I really cannot say said clenham where my friend mr. miggles first presented mr. henry gowan to his daughter I am pretty sure he picked her up at Rome but never mind where somewhere now this is entirely between ourselves is she very plebeian really ma'am returned clenham I am so undoubtedly plebeian myself that I do not feel qualified to judge very neat said mrs. gowan unfurling her screen very happy from which I infer that you secretly think her manner equal to her looks clenham after a moment's stiffness bowed that's comforting and I hope you may be right did henry tell me you had traveled with them I traveled with my friend mr. miggles and his wife and daughter during some months nobody's heart might have been wrong by the remembrance really comforting because you must have had a large experience of them you see mr. clenham this thing has been going on for a long time and I find no improvement in it therefore to have the opportunity of speaking to one so well informed about it as yourself is an immense relief to me quite a boon quite a blessing I am sure pardon me returned clenham but I am not in mr. henry gowan's confidence I am far from being so well informed as you suppose me to be your mistake makes my position a very delicate one no word on this topic has ever passed between mr. henry gowan and myself mrs. gowan glanced at the other end of the room where her son was playing a karte on a sofa with the old lady who was for a charge of cavalry not in his confidence no said mrs. gowan no word has passed between you no that I can imagine but there are unexpressed confidences mr. clenham and as you have been together intimately among these people I cannot doubt that a confidence of that sort exists in the present case perhaps you have heard that I have suffered the keenest distress of mind from henry's having taken to a pursuit which well shrugging her shoulders a very respectable pursuit I dare say and some artists are quite superior persons still we never yet in our family have gone beyond an amateur and it is a pardonable weakness to feel a little as mrs. gowan broke off to heave a sigh clenham however resolute to be magnanimous could not keep down the thought that there was mighty little danger of the families ever going beyond an amateur even as it was henry the mother resumed is self-willed and resolute and as these people naturally strain every nerve to catch him I can entertain very little hope mr. clenham that the thing will be broken off I apprehend the girl's fortune will be very small henry might have done much better there is scarcely anything to compensate for the connection still he acts for himself and if I find no improvement within a short time I see no other cause than to resign myself and make the best of these people I am infinitely obliged to you for what you have told me as she shrugged her shoulders clenham stiffly bowed again with an uneasy flush upon his face and hesitation in his manner he then sat in a still lower tone than he had adopted yet mrs. gowan I scarcely know how to acquit myself of what I feel to be a duty and yet I must ask you for your kind consideration in attempting to discharge it your conception on your part a very great misconception if I may venture to call it so seems to require setting right you have supposed mr. meagles and his family to strain every nerve I think you said every nerve repeated mrs. gowan looking at him in calm obstinacy with her green fan between her face and the fire to secure mr. henry gowan the lady placidly assented now so far said Arthur from being the case that I know mr. meagles to be unhappy in this matter and to have interposed all reasonable obstacles with the hope of putting an end to it mrs. gowan shut up her great green fan tapped him on the arm with it and tapped her smiling lips why of course said she just what I mean Arthur watched her face for some explanation of what she did mean are you really serious mr. clenham don't you see Arthur did not see and said so why don't I know my son and don't I know that this is exactly the way to hold him said mrs. gowan contemptuously and do not these meagles people know it at least as well as I oh shrewd people mr. clenham evidently people of business I believe meagles belong to a bank it ought to have been a very profitable bank if he had matched to do with its management this is very well done indeed I beg and entreat you ma'am Arthur interposed oh mr. clenham can you really be so credulous it made such a painful impression upon him to hear her talking in this haughty tone and to see her patting her contemptuously lips with her fan that he said very earnestly believe me ma'am this is unjust a perfectly groundless suspicion suspicion repeated mrs. gowan not suspicion mr. clenham certainty it is very knowingly done indeed and seems to have taken you in completely she laughed and again sat tapping her lips with her fan and tossing her head as if she added don't tell me I know such people will do anything for the honor of such an alliance at this opportune moment the cards were thrown up and mr. henry gowan came across the room saying mother if you can spare mr. clenham for this time we have a long way to go and it's getting late mr. clenham there upon rose as he had no choice but to do and mrs. gowan showed him to the last the same look and the same tapped contemptuous lips you have had a portentously long audience of my mother gowan as the door closed upon them I fervently hope she has not bored you not at all said clenham they had a little open faton for the journey and were soon in it on the road home gowan driving lighted a cigar clenham declined one do what he would if they're into such a mood of abstraction that gowan said again I am very much afraid my mother has bored you to which he roused himself to answer not at all and soon relapsed again in that state of mind which rendered nobody uneasy his thoughtfulness would have turned principally on the man at his side he would have thought of the morning when he first saw him rooting out the stones with his heel and would have asked himself does he jerk me out of the path in the same careless cruel way he would have thought the introduction to his mother being brought about by him because he knew what she would say and that he could thus place his position before a rival and loftily warn him of without himself reposing a word of confidence in him he would have thought even if there were no such designers that had he brought him there to play with his repressed emotions and torment him the current of these meditations would have been state sometimes by a rush of shame bearing a remonstrance to himself from his own open nature representing that to shelter such suspicions even for the passing moment was not to hold the high an envious cause he had resolved to keep at those times the striving within him would have been hardest and looking up and catching Gao'en's eyes he would have started as if he had done him an injury then looking at the dark road and its uncertain objects he would have gradually trailed off again into thinking where are we driving? he and I I wonder on the darker road of life how will it be with us and with her in the obscure distance thinking of her he would have been troubled anew with a reproachful misgiving that it was not even loyal to her to dislike him and that in being so easily prejudiced against him he was less deserving of her at first you are evidently out of spirits said Gao'en I am very much afraid my mother must have bored you dreadfully believe me not at all said Glenham it's nothing nothing end of chapter the 26th book the first this recording is in the public domain chapter the 27th book the first of little Dorit read for LibriVox.org by Alice Kristoff little Dorit by Charles Dickens book the first chapter the 27th 5 and 20 a frequently recurring doubt where the Mr.Panks' desire to collect information relative to the Dorit family could have any possible bearing on the misgivings he had imparted to his mother on his return from his long exile caused Arthur Glenham much uneasiness at this period what Mr.Panks already knew about the Dorit family what more he really wanted to find out and why he should trouble his busy head about them at all were questions that often perplexed him Mr.Panks was not a man to waste his time and trouble in researches prompted by idle curiosity that he had a specific object Glenham could not doubt and whether the attainment of that object by Mr.Panks' industry might bring to light in some untimely way secret reasons which had induced his mother to take little Dorit by the hand was a serious speculation not that he ever wavered either in his desire or his determination to repair a wrong that had been done in his father's time should a wrong come to light and be repairable the shadow of a supposed act of injustice which had hung over him since his father's death was so vague and formless it might be the result of a reality widely removed from his idea of it but if his apprehensions should prove to be well founded he was ready at any moment to lay down all he had and begin the world anew as the fierce dark teaching of his childhood had never sunk into his heart so that first article in his Code of Moral was that he must begin in practical humility with looking well to his feet on earth and that he could never mount on wings of words to heaven duty on earth restitution on earth action on earth these first as the first steep steps upward straight was the gate and narrow was the way far straighter and narrower than the broad high road paved with vain professions and vain repetitions modes from other men's eyes and liberal delivery of others to the judgment all cheap materials costing absolutely nothing no, it was not a selfish fear or hesitation that rendered him uneasy but a mistrust lest banks might not observe his part of the understanding between them and making any discovery might take some cause upon it without imparting it to him on the other hand when he recalled his conversation with banks and the little reason he had to suppose that there was any likelihood of that strange personage being on that track at all there were times when he wondered that he made so much of it laboring in this sea as all barks laboring cross seas he tossed about and came to know Haven the removal of little Dorrid herself from their customary association did not meant the matter she was so much out and so much in her own room that he began to miss her and to find a blank in her place he had written to her to inquire if she were better and she had written back very gratefully and earnestly telling him not to be uneasy on her behalf for she was quite well but he had not seen her or what their intercourse was a long time he returned home one evening from an interview with her father who had mentioned that she was out visiting which was what he always said when she was hard at work to buy his supper and found Mr. Meagles in an excited state walking up and down his room on his opening the door Mr. Meagles stopped, faced round and said Clenum Daddy Corum what's the matter? lost why bless my heart alive cried Clenum in amazement what do you mean wouldn't count five and twenty sir couldn't be god to do it he took herself off left your house never to come back said Mr. Meagles shaking his head you don't know that girl's passionate and proud character a team of horses couldn't draw her back now the bolts and bars of the old Bastille couldn't keep her how did it happen pray sit down and tell me as to how it happened it's not so easy to relate because you must have the unfortunate temperament yourself before you can fully understand it but it came about in this way pett and mother and I have been having a good deal of talk together of late I'll not disguise from you, Clenum that those conversations have not been of as bright a kind as I could wish they have referred to our going away again in proposing to do which I have had in fact an object nobody's heart beat quickly an object said Mr. Meagles after a moment's pause that I will not disguise from you either, Clenum there is an inclination on the part of my dear child which I am sorry for perhaps you guess the person Henry Gowan I was not unprepared to hear it well, said Mr. Meagles with a heavy sigh I wish to God you had never had to hear it however, so it is mother and I have done all we could to get the better of it, Clenum we have tried tender advice we have tried time we have tried absence as yet have no use our late conversations have been upon the subject of going away for another ear at least in order that there might be an entire separation and breaking off for that term upon that question pett has been unhappy and therefore mother and I have been unhappy Clenum said that he could easily believe it well, continued Mr. Meagles in an apologetic way I admit as a practical man and I am sure mother would admit as a practical woman that we do in families magnify our troubles and make mountains of our molehills in a way that is calculated to be rather trying to people who look on to mere outsiders you know, Clenum still pett's happiness or unhappiness is quite a life or death question with us and we may be excused by hope for making much of it at all events it might have been born by Taticorum now don't you think so? I do indeed think so returned Clenum in most emphatic recognition of this very moderate expectation no sir said Mr. Meagles shaking his head ruefully she couldn't stand it the chafing and firing of that girl the wearing and tearing of that girl within her own breast has been such that I have softly said to her again and again in passing her 5 and 20 Taticorum 5 and 20 I heartily wish she could have gone on counting 5 and 20 day and night and then it wouldn't have happened Mr. Meagles with a despondent countenance in which the goodness of his heart was even more expressed than in his times of cheerfulness and gaiety stroked his face down from his forehead to his chin and took his head again I said to mother not that it was necessary for she would have thought it all for herself we are practical people my dear and we know her story we see in this unhappy girl some reflection of what was raging in her mother's heart before ever such a creature as this poor thing was in the world we'll gloss her temper over mother we won't notice it at present my dear we'll take advantage of some better disposition in her another time so we said nothing but do what we would it seems as if it was to be she broke out violently one night how and why if you ask me why said Mr. Meagles a little disturbed by the question for he was far more intent on softening her case than the family's I can only refer you to what I have just repeated as having been pretty near my words to mother as to how we had said good night to the pet in her presence very affectionately I must allow and she had attended pep upstairs you remember she was commade perhaps pet having been out of sorts may have been a little more inconsiderate than usual in requiring services of her but I don't know that I have any right to say so she was always thoughtful and gentle a gentlest mistress in the world thank you, clenum said Mr. Meagles, shaking him by the hand you have often seen them together well, we presently heard this unfortunate Taticorum loud and angry and before we could ask what was the matter pet came back in a tremble saying she was frightened of her close after her came Taticorum in a flaming rage I hate you all three says she is stamping her foot at us I am bursting with hate of the whole house upon which you I, said Mr. Meagles with a plain good faith that might have commanded the belief of Mrs. Gowan herself I said count five and twenty Taticorum Mr. Meagles again stroked his face and took his head with an air of profound regret she was so used to do it, clenum that even then such a picture of passion as you never saw she stopped short looked me full in the face and counted as I made out to eight but she couldn't control herself to go any further there she broke down poor thing and gave the other seventeen to the four wins then it all burst out she detested us she was miserable with us she couldn't bear it she was determined to go away she was younger than her young mistress and would she remain to see her always held up as the only creature who was young and interesting and to be cherished and loved no, she wouldn't she wouldn't, she wouldn't what did we think she, Taticorum might have been if she had been caressed and cared for in her childhood like her young mistress as good as her, ah perhaps fifty times as good when we pretended to be so fond of one another we exalted over her that was what we did we exalted over her and shamed her and all in the house did the same they talked about her fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters they like to drag them up before her face there was Mrs. Ticket only yesterday when her little grand child was with her had been amused by the child's trying to call her Taticorum by the wretched name we gave her and had laughed at the name why, who didn't and who were we that we should have a right to name her like a dog or a cat but she didn't care she would take no more benefits from us she would fling us her name back again and she would go she would leave us that minute nobody should stop her and we should never hear of her again Mr. Meagles had recited all this with such a vivid remembrance of his original that he was almost as flushed and hot by this time as he described her to have been ah well he said wiping his face it was of no use trying to reason then with that vehement panting creature heaven knows what her mother's story must have been so I quietly told her that she should not go at that late hour of night and I gave her my hand and took her to her room and locked the house doors but she was gone this morning and you know no more of her no more returned Mr. Meagles I have been hunting about all day she must have gone very early and very silently I have found no trace of her down about us stay you won't said clenum after a moment's reflection to see her? I assume that yes assuredly I want to give her another chance mother and pet want to give her another chance come you yourself said Mr. Meagles persuasively as if the provocation to be angry were not his own at all want to give the poor passionate girl another chance I know clenum it would be strange and hard indeed if I did not said clenum when you are all so forgiving what I was going to ask you was have you thought of that miss Wade? I have I did not think of her until I had pervaded the whole of our neighborhood and I don't know that I should have done so then but for finding mother and pet when I went home full of the idea that Tate Corum must have gone to her then of course I recalled what she said that day at dinner when you were first with us have you any idea where miss Wade is to be found? to tell you the truth returned Mr. Meagles it's because I have an adult jumble of a notion on that subject that you found me waiting here there is one of those odd impressions in my house which do mysteriously get into houses sometimes which nobody seems to have picked up in a distinct form from anybody and yet which everybody seems to have got hold of loosely from somebody and let go again that she lives or was living thereabouts Mr. Meagles candid him a slip of paper on which was written the name of one of the dull by-streets in the Grovner region near Park Lane there is no number said Arthur looking over it no number my dear Clenum return his friend know anything the very name of the street may have been floating in the air for as I tell you none of my people can say where they got it from however it's worth an inquiry and as I would rather make it in company than alone and as you too were a fellow traveler that immovable woman I thought perhaps Clenum finished the sentence for him by taking up his cat again and saying he was ready it was now summer time a grey hot dusty evening they rode to the top of Oxford Street and there a lighting dived in among the great streets of melancholy stateliness and the little streets there try to be a stately and succeed in being more melancholy of which there is a labyrinth near Park Lane wilderness of corner houses with barbarous old particles and appurtenances horrors that came into existence under some wrong headed person in some wrong headed time still demanding the blind admiration of all ensuing generations and determined to do so until they tumbled down round upon the twilight parasite little tenements with the cramp in their whole frame from the dwarf whole door on the giant model of his graces in the square to the squeezed window of the Boudoir commanding the dunk hills in the mews made the evening doleful rickety dwellings of undoubted fashion but of a capacity to hold nothing comfortably except a dismal smell looked like the last result of the great mansions breeding in and in and where their little supplementary boughs and balconies were supported on thin iron columns seemed to be scruffulously resting upon crutches here and there a hatchment with the whole science of heraldry in it loomed down upon the street like an archbishop discoursing on vanity the shops few in number made no show for popular opinion was as nothing to them the pastry cook knew who was on his books and in that knowledge could be calm with a few glass cylinders of dowager peppermint drops in his window and half a dozen ancient specimens of current jelly a few oranges formed the greengrocer's whole concession to the vulgar mind a single basket made of moss once containing plover's eggs held all that the polterer had to say to the rabble everybody in those streets seemed which is always the case at that hour and season to be gone out to dinner and nobody seemed to be giving the dinners they had gone to on the doorsteps there were lounging footmen with bright particle at plumage and white paws like an extinct race of monstrous birds and butlers, solitary men of recluse demeanor each of whom appeared distrustful of all other butlers the roll of carriages in the park was done for the day the street lamps were lighting and wicked little grooms in the tightest fitting garments with twists in their legs answering to the twists in their minds hung about in pairs, chewing straws and exchanging fraudulent secrets the spotted dogs who went out with the carriages and who are so associated with splendid equipages that it looked like a condescension in those animals to come out without them accompanied helpers to and fro on messages here and there was a retiring public house which did not require to be supported on the shoulders of the people and where a gentleman out of livery were not much wanted this last discovery was made by the two friends in pursuing their inquiries nothing was there or anywhere known of such a person as Miss Wade in connection with the street they sought it was one of the parasite streets long, regular, narrow, dull and gloomy like a brick and mortar funeral they inquired at several little area gates where a dejected youth stood spiking his chin on the summit of a precipitous little shoot of wooden steps but could gain no information they walked up the street on one side of the way and down it on the other what time two vociferous news sellers announcing an extraordinary event that had never happened and never would happen pitched their horse voices into the secret chambers but nothing came of it at length they stood at the corner from which they had begun and it had fallen quite dark and they were no wiser it happened that in the street they had several times passed a dingy house apparently empty with bills in the windows announcing that it was to let the bills as a variety in the funeral procession almost amounted to a decoration perhaps because they kept the house separated in his mind or perhaps because Mr. Meagles and himself had twice agreed in passing it is clear she don't live there Clenum now proposed that they should go back and try that house before finally going away Mr. Meagles agreed and back they went they knocked once and they rang once without any response empty said Mr. Meagles listening once more said Clenum and knocked again after that knock they heard a movement below and somebody shuffling up towards the door the confined entrance was so dark that it was impossible to make out distinctly what kind of person opened the door but it appeared to be an old woman excuse our troubling you said Clenum pray can you tell us where Ms. Wade lives the voice in the darkness unexpectedly replied lives here is she at home no answer coming Mr. Meagles asked again pray is she at home after another delay I suppose she is said the voice abruptly you had better come in and I'll ask they were summarily shot into the closed black house and the figure wrestling away and speaking from a higher level said come up if you please you can't tumble over anything they groped their way upstairs towards a faint light which proved to be the light of the street shining through a window and the figure left them shut in an airless room this is odd Clenum said Mr. Meagles softly odd enough ascended Clenum in the same tone but we have succeeded that's the main point here's a light coming the light was a lamp and the bearer was an old woman very dirty very wrinkled and dry she's at home she said and the voice was the same that had spoken before she'll come directly having set the lamp down on the table the old woman dusted her hands on her apron which she might have done forever without cleaning them looked at the visitors with a dim pair of eyes and backed out the lady whom they had come to see if she were the present occupant of the house appeared to have taken up her quarters there as she might have established herself in an eastern caravan serai a small square of carpet in the middle of the room a few articles of furniture that evidently did not belong to the room and a disorder of trunks and travelling articles formed the whole of her surroundings under some form a regular inhabitant the stifling little apartment had broken out into a pure glass and a gilt table but the gilding was as faded as last year's flowers and the glass was so clouded that it seemed to hold in magic preservation all the fogs and bad weather it had ever reflected the visitors had had a minute or two to look about them when the door opened and miss Wade came in she was exactly the same as when they had parted just as handsome just as cornful just as repressed she manifested no surprise in seeing them nor any other emotion she requested them to be seated and declining to take a seat herself at once anticipated any introduction of their business I apprehend she said that I know the cause of your favouring me with this visit we may come to it at once the cause then ma'am said Mr. Migos so I supposed Miss Wade said Mr. Migos will you be so kind as to say whether you know anything of her surely I know she is here with me then ma'am said Mr. Migos allow me to make known to you that I shall be happy to have her back and that my wife and daughter will be happy to have her back she has been with us a long time we don't forget her claims upon us and I hope we know how to make allowances you hope to know how to make allowances she returned in a level measured voice for what I think my friend would say Miss Wade are the clenamen opposed seeing Mr. Migos rather at a loss for the passionate sense that sometimes comes upon the poor girl of being at a disadvantage which occasionally gets the better of better remembrances the lady broke into a smile as she turned her eyes upon him indeed was all she answered she stood by the table so perfectly composed and still after this acknowledgement of his remark that Mr. Migos stared at her under a sort of fascination and could not even look to clenum to make another move after waiting awkwardly enough for some moments Arthur said perhaps it would be well if Mr. Migos could see her Miss Wade that is easily done said she come here child she had opened a door while saying this and now led the girl in by the hand it was very curious to see them standing together the girl with her disengaged fingers plaiting the bosom of her dress half irresolutely, half passionately Miss Wade with her composed face attentively regarding her and suggesting to an observer with extraordinary force in her composure itself as available suggest the form it covers the unquenchable passion of her own nature see here she said in the same level way as before here is your patron your master he is willing to take you back my dear if you are sensible of the favor and choose to go you can be again a foil to his pretty daughter a slave to her pleasant willfulness and a toy in the house showing the goodness of the family you can have your draw name again playfully pointing you out and sitting you apart as it is right that you should be pointed out and set apart your birth you know you must not forget your birth you can again be shown to this gentleman's daughter Harriet and kept before her as a living reminder of her own superiority and her gracious condescension you can recover all these advantages and many more of the same kind which I dare say start up in your memory while I speak and which you lose in taking refuge with me you can recover them all by telling these gentlemen how humbled and penitent you are and by going back to them to be forgiven what do you say Harriet? will you go? the girl who wanted the influence of these words had gradually risen in anger and heightened in color answered raising her lustrous black eyes for the moment and clenching her hand upon the folds it had been puckering up I'd die sooner miss Wade still standing at her side holding her hand looked quietly round and said with a smile gentlemen what do you do upon that? poor Mr. Meagles his inexpressible consternation in hearing his motives and actions so perverted had prevented him from interposing any word until now but now he regained the power of speech Taticorum said he for I'll call you by that name still my good girl conscious that I meant nothing but kindness when I gave it to you and conscious that you know it I don't said she looking up again and almost rending herself with the same busy hand no not now perhaps said Mr. Meagles not with that lady's eye so intent upon you Taticorum she glanced at them for a moment and that power over you which we see she exercises not now perhaps but at another time Taticorum I'll not ask that lady whether she believes what she has said even in the anger and ill blood in which I and my friend here equally know she has spoken though she subdues herself with the determination that anyone who has once seen her is not likely to forget I'll not ask you with your remembrance of my house and all belonging to it whether you believe it I'll only say that you have no profession to make to me or mine and no forgiveness to entreat and that all in the world that I ask you to do is to count five and twenty Taticorum she looked at him for an instant and then said frowningly I won't Miss Wade take me away please the contention that raged within her had no softening in it now it was wholly between passionate defiance and stubborn defiance her rich color her quick blood her rapid breath were all setting themselves against the opportunity of retracing their steps I won't I won't I won't she repeated in a low thick voice I'd be torn to pieces first I'd tear myself to pieces first Miss Wade, who had released her hold laid her hand protectingly on the girl's neck for a moment and then said looking round with her former smile and speaking exactly in her former tone gentlemen what do you do upon that? oh Taticorum, Taticorum cried Mr. Meagles adjuring her besides with an earnest hand hear that lady's voice look at that lady's face consider what is in that lady's heart and think what a future lies before you my child whatever you may think that lady's influence over you astonishing to us and I should hardly go too far in saying terrible to us to see is founded in passion fiercer than yours and temper more violent than yours what can you two be together what can come of it? I am alone here gentlemen observed Miss Wade with no change of voice or manner say anything you will politeness must yield to this misguided girl, ma'am said Mr. Meagles at her present pass though I hope not altogether to dismiss it even with the injury you do her so strongly before me excuse me for reminding you in her hearing I must say that you were a mystery to all of us and had nothing in common with any of us when she unfortunately fell in your way I don't know what you are but you don't hide, can't hide what a dark spirit you have within you if it should happen that you are a woman who from whatever cause has a perverted delight in making a sister woman as wretched as she is I am old enough to have heard of such I warn her against you and I warn you against yourself gentlemen said Miss Wade calmly when you have concluded, Mr. Clenham perhaps you will induce your friend not without another effort said Mr. Meagles stoutly Tatticorum my poor dear girl count five and twenty do not reject the hope the certainty this kind man offers you said Clenham in a low emphatic voice turn to the friends you have not forgotten think once more I won't Miss Wade said the girl with her bosom swelling high and speaking with her hand held to her throat take me away Tatticorum said Mr. Meagles once more yet the only thing I ask of you in the world my child count five and twenty she put her hands tightly over her ears confusedly tumbling down her bright black hair in the vehemence of the action and turned her face resolutely to the wall Miss Wade who had watched her under this final appeal with that strange attentive smile and that repressing hand upon her own bosom with which she had watched her in her struggle at Marseille then put her arm about her waist as if she took possession of her forever more and there was a visible triumph in her face when she turned it to dismiss the visitors as it is the last time I shall have the honour she said and as you have spoken of not knowing what I am and also of the foundation of my influence here you may now know that it is founded in a common cause what your broken plaything is as to birth I am she has no name I have no name Kerr-Rong is my wrong I have nothing more to say to you this was addressed to Mr. Meagles who sorrowfully went out as Clenum followed she said to him with the same external composure and in the same level voice but with a smile that is only seen on cruel faces a very faint smile lifting the nostril scarcely touching the lips and not breaking away gradually but instantly dismissed when done with I hope the wife of your dear friend Mr. Gowan may be happy in the contrast of her extraction to these girls and mine and in the high good fortune that awaits her end of chapter the 27th book the first this recording is in the public domain chapter the 28th book the first of Little Dorit read for LibriVox.org by Ellis Christoff Little Dorit by Charles Dickens book the first chapter the 28th nobody's disappearance not resting satisfied with the endeavours he had made to recover his lost charge Mr. Meagles addressed a letter of remonstrance breathing nothing but goodwill not only to her but to Miss Wade too no answer coming to these epistles or to another written to the stubborn girl by the hand of her late young mistress which might have melted her if anything could all three letters were returned weeks afterwards as having been refused at the house door he deputed Mrs. Meagles to make the experiment of a personal interview that worthy lady being unable to obtain one and being steadfastly denied admission Mr. Meagles besought Arthur to say once more what he could do all that came of his compliance was his discovery that the empty house was left in charge of the old woman that Miss Wade was gone that the waves and strays of furniture were gone and that the old woman would accept any number of half crowns and thank the donor kindly but had no information whatever to exchange for those coins beyond constantly offering for perusal a memorandum relative to fixtures which the house agent's young man had left in the hall unwilling even under this discomforture to resign the ingrate and leave her hopeless in case of her better disposition and mastery over the darker side of her character Mr. Meagles for six successive days published a discreetly covered advertisement in the morning papers to the effect that if a certain young person who had lately left home without reflection would at any time apply to his address at Twickenham everything would be as it had been before and no reproaches need to be apprehended the unexpected consequences of this notification suggested to the dismayed Mr. Meagles for the first time that some hundreds of young persons must be leaving their homes without reflection every day for shows of wrong young people came down to Twickenham who, not finding themselves received with enthusiasm generally demanded compensation by way of damages in addition to coach hire there and back nor were these the only uninvited clients whom the advertisement produced the swarm of begging letter writers who would seem to be always watching eagerly for any hook however small to hang a letter upon wrote to say that having seen the advertisement they were induced to apply with confidence for various sums ranging from 10 shillings to 50 pounds not because they knew anything about the young person but because they felt that to part with those donations would greatly relieve the advertiser's mind several projectors likewise availed themselves of the same opportunity to correspond with Mr. Meagles as for example to apprise him that their attention having been called to the advertisement by a friend they begged to state that if they should ever hear anything of the young person they would not fail to make it known to him immediately and that in the meantime if he would oblige them with the funds necessary for bringing to perfection a certain entirely novel description of pump the happiest results would ensue to mankind Mr. Meagles and his family under these combined discouragements had begun reluctantly to give up Taticorum as irrecoverable when the new and active firm of Dois and Clenum in their private capacities went down on a Saturday to stay at the cottage until Monday the senior partner took the coach and the junior partner took his walking stick a tranquil summer sunset shown upon him as he approached the end of his walk and passed through the meadows by the riverside he had that sense of peace and of being lightened of a weight of care which count required awakens in the breasts of dwellers in towns everything within his view was lovely and placid the rich foliage of the trees the luxuriant grass diversified with wild flowers the little green islands in the river the beds of rushes the water lilies floating on the surface of the stream the distant voices in boats born musically towards him on the ripple of the water and the evening air were all expressive of rest in the occasional leap of a fish or dip of an oar or twittering of a bird not yet at roost or distant barking of a dog or lowing of a cow in all such sounds there was the prevailing breath of rest which seemed to encompass him in every scent that sweetened the fragrant air the long lines of red and gold in the sky and the glorious track of the descending sun were all divinely calm upon the purple treetops far away and on the green height near at hand up which the shades were slowly creeping there was an equal hush between the real landscape and its shadow in the water there was no division both were so untroubled and clear and while so fraught with solemn mystery of life and death so hopefully reassuring to the gaze a soothed heart because so tenderly and mercifully beautiful clenum had stopped not for the first time by many times to look about him and suffer what he saw to sink into his soul as the shadows looked at seemed to sink deeper and deeper into the water he was slowly resuming his way when he saw a figure in the path before him which he had perhaps already associated with the evening and its impressions Mini was there, alone she had some roses in her hand and seemed to have stood still on seeing him waiting for him her face was towards him and she appeared to have been coming from the opposite direction there was a flutter in her manner which clenum had never seen in it before and as he came near her it entered his mind all at once that she was there of a set purpose to speak to him she gave him her hand and said you wanted to see me here by myself but the evening is so lovely I have strolled farther than I meant at first I thought it likely I might meet you and that made me more confident you always come this way do you not? as clenum said that it was his favorite way he felt her hand falter on his arm and saw the roses shake will you let me give you one Mr. Clenum? I gathered them as I came out of the garden indeed I almost gathered them for you thinking it's so likely I might meet you Mr. Dois arrived more than an hour ago and told us you were walking down his own hand shook as he accepted a rose or two from hers and thanked her they were now by an avenue of trees whether they turned into it on his movement or on hers matters little he never knew how that was it is very grave here said clenum but very pleasant at this hour passing along this deep shade and out at that arch of light at the other end we come upon the ferry and the cottage by the best approach I think in her simple garden hat and her light-sum address which brown hair naturally clustered about her and her wonderful eyes raised to his for a moment with a look in which regard for him and trustfulness in him was strikingly blended with a kind of timid sorrow for him she was so beautiful that it was well for his peace or ill for his peace he did not quite know which that he had made that vigorous resolution he had so often thought about she broke a momentary silence inquiring if he knew that papa had been thinking of another tour abroad he said he had heard it mentioned she broke another momentary silence by adding with some hesitation that papa had abandoned the idea at this he thought directly they are to be married Mr. Clenum she said hesitating more timidly yet and speaking so low that he bent his head to hear her I should very much like to give you my confidence if you would not mind having the goodness to receive it I should have very much liked to have given it to you long ago because I felt that you are becoming so much our friend how can I be otherwise than proud of it at any time pray give it to me pray trust me I could never have been afraid of trusting you she returned raising her eyes frankly to his face I think I would have done so some time ago if I had known how but I scarcely know how even now Mr. Gowan said Arthur Clenum has reason to be very happy God bless his wife and him she wept as she tried to thank him he reassured her took her hand as it lay with the trembling roses in it on his arm took the remaining roses from it and put it to his lips at that time it seemed to him he first finally resigned the dying hope that had flickered in nobody's heart so much to its pain and trouble and from that time he became in his own eyes as to any similar hope or prospect a very much older man who had done with that part of life he put the roses in his breast and they walked on for a little while slowly and silently under the unbridled trees then he asked her in a voice of cheerful kindness was there anything else that she would say to him as her friend and her father's friend many years older than herself was there any trust she would repose in him any service she would ask of him any little aid to her happiness that she could give him the lasting gratification of believing it was in his power to render she was going to answer when she was so touched by some little hidden sorrow or sympathy what could it have been that she said bursting into tears again oh Mr. Clenham good generous Mr. Clenham pray tell me you do not blame me I blame you said Clenham my dearest girl I blame you no after clasping both her hands upon his arm and looking confidentially up into his face with some harried words to the effect that she thanked him from her heart as she did if it be the source of earnestness she gradually composed herself with now and then a word of encouragement from him as they walked on slowly and almost silently under the darkening trees and now Minigawan at length said Clenham smiling will you ask me nothing oh I have very much to ask of you that's well I hope so I am not disappointed you know how I am loved at home and how I love home you can hardly think it perhaps dear Mr. Clenham she spoke with great agitation seeing me going from it of my own free will and choice but I do so dearly love it I am sure of that said Clenham can you suppose I doubt it no no but it is strange even to me that loving it so much and being so much beloved in it I can bear to cast it away it seems so neglectful of it so unthankful my dear girl said Clenham it is in the natural progress and change of time all homes are left so yes I know but all homes are not left with such a blank in them as there will be in mine when I am gone not that there is any scarcity of far better and more endearing and more accomplished girls than I am not that I am much but that they have made so much of me Pet's affectionate heart was overcharged and she sobbed while she pictured what would happen I know what a change Papa will feel at first and I know that at first I cannot be to him anything like what I have been these many years and it is then Mr. Clenham then more than at any time but I beg and entreat you to remember him and sometimes to keep him company when you can spare a little while and to tell him that you know I was fonder of him when I left him than I ever was in all my life there is nobody he told me so himself when he talked to me this very day there is nobody he likes so well as you or trusts so much a clue to what had passed between the father and daughter dropped like a heavy stone into the well of Clenham's heart and swelled the water to his eyes he said cheerily but not quite so cheerily as he tried to say that it should be done that he gave her his faithful promise if I do not speak of mama said Pet more moved by and more pretty in her innocent grief than Clenham could trust himself even to consider for which reason he counted the trees between them and the fading light as they slowly diminished in number it is because mama will understand me better in this action and will feel my loss in a different way and will look forward in a different manner but you know what a dear devoted mother she is and you will remember her too will you not let Mini trust him Clenham said let Mini trust him to do all she wished and dear Mr. Clenham said Mini because papa and one whom I need not name do not fully appreciate and understand one another yet as they will buy and buy and because it will be the duty and the pride and pleasure of my new life to draw them to a better knowledge of one another and to be a happiness to one another and to be proud of one another and to love one another both loving me so dearly oh as you are a kind true man when I am first separated from home I am going a long distance away try to reconcile papa to him a little more and use your great influence to keep him before papa's mind free from prejudice and in his real form will you do this for me as your noble hearted friend poor pet self deceived mistaken child when were such changes ever made in men's natural relations to one another when were such reconcilement of ingrained differences ever affected it has been tried many times by other daughters Mini it has never succeeded nothing has ever come of it but failure so Clenham thought so he did not say it was too late he bound himself to do all she asked and she knew full well that he would do it they were now at the last tree in the avenue she stopped and withdrew her arm speaking to him with her eyes lifted up to his and with the hand that had lately rested on his sleep trembling by touching one of the roses in his breast as an additional appeal to him she said dear Mr. Clenham in my happiness for I am happy though you have seen me crying I cannot bear to leave any cloud between us if you have anything to forgive me not anything that I have willfully done but any trouble I may have caused you without meaning it or having it in my power to help it forgive me tonight out of your noble heart he stooped to meet the guileless face that met his without drinking he kissed it and answered heaven knew that he had nothing to forgive as he stooped to meet the innocent face once again she whispered goodbye and he repeated it it was taking leave of all his old hopes all nobody's old restless doubts they came out of the avenue next moment arm in arm as they had entered it and the trees seemed to close up behind them in the darkness like their own perspective of the past the voices of Mr. and Mrs. Meagles and Joyce were audible directly speaking near the garden gate hearing Pet's name among them Clenum called out she's here with me there was some little wondering and laughing until they came up but as soon as they had all come together it ceased and Pet glided away Mr. Meagles, Joyce and Clenum without speaking walked up and down on the brink of the river in the light of the rising moon for a few minutes and then Joyce lingered behind and went into the house Mr. Meagles and Clenum walked up and down together for a few minutes more without speaking until at length the former broke silence Arthur said he using that familiar address for the first time in their communication do you remember my telling you as we walked up and down one hot morning looking over the harbor at Marseille that Pet's baby sister who was dead seemed to mother and to me to have grown as she had grown and changed as she had changed very well remember my saying that our thoughts had never been able to separate those twin sisters and that in our fancy whatever Pet was the other was yes very well Arthur said Mr. Meagles much subdued I carry that fancy further tonight I feel tonight my dear fellow as if you had loved my dead child very tenderly and had lost her when she was like what Pet is now thank you thank you and pressed his hand will you come in said Mr. Meagles presently in a little while Mr. Meagles fell away and he was left alone when he had walked on the river's brink in the peaceful moonlight for some half an hour he put his hand in his breast and tenderly took out the handful of roses perhaps he put them to his heart perhaps he put them to his lips but certainly he bent down on the shore and gently launched them on the flowing river pale and unreal in the moonlight the river floated them away the lights were bright within doors when he entered and the faces on which they shone his own face not accepted were soon quietly cheerful they talked of many subjects his partner never had had such a ready star to draw upon for the beguiling of the time and so to bed and to sleep while the flowers pale and unreal in the moonlight floated away upon the river and thus do greater things that once were in our breasts and near our hearts flow from us to the eternal seas and of chapter the 28th book the first this recording is in the public domain