 Chapter 32. Book the First of Little Dorrid Read for LibriVox.org by Ellis Christoff Little Dorrid by Charles Dickens Book the First Chapter 32. More Fortune Telly Maggie sat at her work in her great white cap with its quantity of opaque frilling hiding what profile she had she had none to spare and her serviceable eye brought to bear upon her occupation on the window's side of the room what with her flapping cap and what with her unserviceable eye she was quite partitioned off from her little mother whose seat was opposite the window the tread and shuffle of feet on the pavement of the yard had much diminished since the taking of the chair the tide of collegians having set strongly in the direction of harmony some few who had no music in their souls or no money in their pockets dawdled about and the old spectacle of the visitor wife and the depressed unseasoned prisoner still lingered in corners as broken cobwebs and such unsightly discomforts draggle in corners of other places it was the quietest time of the college new saving the night hours when the collegians took the benefit of the act of sleep the occasional rattle of applause upon the tables of the snaggery denoted the successful termination of a morsel of harmony or the responsive acceptance by the united children of some toast or sentiment offered to them by their father occasionally a vocal strain more sonorous than the generality informed the listener that some boastful bass was in blue water or in the hunting field or with the reindeer or on the mountain or among the heather but the marshall of the marshall sea knew better and had got him hard and fast as Arthur clenham moved to sit down by the side of little dorrid she trembled so that she had much ado to hold her needle clenham gently put his hand upon her work and said dear little dorrid let me lay it down she yielded it to him and he put it aside her hands were then nervously clasping together but he took one of them how seldom i have seen you lately little dorrid i have been busy sir but i heard only today said clenham by mere accident of your having been with those good people close by me why not come to me then i don't know or rather i thought you might be busy too you generally are now are you not he saw her trembling little form in her downcast face and the eyes that drooped the moment they were raised to his he saw them almost with as much concern as tenderness my child your manner is so changed the trembling was now quite beyond her control softly withdrawing her hand and laying it in her other hand she sat before him with her head bent and her whole form trembling my own little dorrid said clenham compassionately she burst into tears Maggie looked round of a sudden and stared for at least a minute but did not interpose clenham waited some little while before he spoke again i cannot bear he said then to see you weep but i hope this is a relief to an overcharged heart but yes it is sir nothing but that well well i feared you would think too much of what passed here just now it is of no moment not the least i am only unfortunate to have come in the way let it go by with these tears it is not worth one of them one of them such an idle thing should be repeated with my glad consent 50 times a day to save your moments heartache little dorrid she had taken courage now and answered far more in her usual manner you are so good but even if there was nothing else in it to be sorry for and ashamed of it is such a bad return to you hush said clenham smiling and touching her lips with his hand forgetfulness in you who remember so many and so much would be new indeed shall i remind you that i am not and that i never was anything but the friend whom you agreed to trust no you remember it don't you i'd try to do so or i should have broken the promise just now when my mistaken brother was here you will consider his bringing up in this place and will not judge him hardly poor fellow i know in raising her eyes with these words she observed his face more nearly than she had done yet and said with a quick change of tone you have not been ill mr clenham no not right nor hurt she asked him anxiously it fell to clenham now to be not quite certain how to answer he said in reply to speak the truth i have been a little troubled but it is over do i show it so plainly i ought to have more fortitude and self-command than that i thought i had i must learn them of you who could teach me better he never thought that she saw in him what no one else could see he never thought that in the whole world there were no other eyes that looked upon him with the same light and strength as hers but it brings me to something that i wish to say he continued and therefore i will not quarrel even with my own face for telling tales and being unfaithful to me besides it is a privilege and pleasure to confide in my little dorit let me confess then that forgetting how grave i was and how old i was and how the time for such things had gone by me with the many years of sameness and little happiness that made up my long life far away without marking it that forgetting all this i fancied i loved someone do i know her sir ask little dorit know my child not the lady who has been kind to me for your sake laura no no do you think i never quite thought so said little dorit more to herself than him i did wonder i did a little well said clenum abiding by the feeling that had fallen on him in the avenue on the night of the roses the feeling that he was an older man who had done with that tender part of life i found out my mistake and i thought about it a little in short a good deal and got wiser being wiser i counted up my ears and considered what i am and looked back and looked forward and found that i should soon be gray i found that i had climbed the hill and passed the level ground upon the top and was descending quickly if he had known the sharpness of the pain he caused the patient heart in speaking thus while doing it too with the purpose of easing and serving her i found that the day when any such thing would have been graceful in me or good in me or hopeful or happy for me or any one in connection with me was gone and would never shine again oh if he had known if he had known if he could have seen the dagger in his hand and the cruel wounds it struck in the faithful bleeding breast of his little dorrit all that is over and i have turned my face from it why do i speak of this too little dorrit why do i show you my child the space of years that there is between us and recall to you that i have passed by the amount of your whole life the time that is present to you because you trust me i hope because you know that nothing can touch you without touching me that nothing can make you happy or unhappy but it must make me who i'm so grateful to you the same he heard the thrill in her voice he saw her earnest face he saw her clear true eyes he saw the quickened bosom that would have joyfully thrown itself before him to receive a mortal wound directed at his breast with a dying cry i love him and the remotest suspicion of the truth never dawned upon his mind no he saw the devoted little creature with her worn shoes in her common dress in her jail home a slender child in body a strong heroine in soul and the light of her domestic story made all else dark to him for those reasons assuredly little dorrit but for another two so far removed so different and so much older i am the better fitted for your friend and advisor i mean i'm the more easily to be trusted and any little constraint that you might feel with another may vanish before me why have you kept so retired from me tell me i am better here my place and user here i am much better here said little dorrit faintly so you said that day upon the bridge i thought of it much afterwards have you no secret you could entrust to me with hope and comfort if you would secret no i have no secret said little dorrit in some trouble they had been speaking in low voices more because it was natural to what they said to adopt that tone than with any care to reserve it from maggie at her work all of a sudden maggie stared again and this time spoke i say little mother yes maggie if you aren't got no secret of your own to tell him tell him that about the princess she had a secret you know the princess had a secret said clenin in some surprise what princess was that maggie law how you do go and bother a gal of 10 said maggie catching the poor thing up in that way whoever said the princess had a secret i never said so i beg your pardon i thought you did no i didn't how could i when it was her as wanted to find it out it was the little woman has got the secret and she was always spinning at her wheel and so she says to her why do you keep it there and so did other one says to her no i don't and so did other one says to her yes you do and then they both goes to the cupboard and there it is and she wouldn't go into the hospital and so she died you know little mother tell him that where it was a regular good secret that was cried maggie hugging herself Arthur looked at little dorrid for help to comprehend this and was struck by seeing her so timid and red but when she told him that it was only a fairy tale she could one day made up for maggie and that there was nothing in it which she wouldn't be ashamed to tell again to anybody else even if she could remember it he left the subject where it was however he returned to his own subject by first in treating her to see him oftener and to remember that it was impossible to have a stronger interest in her welfare than he had or to be more set upon promoting it than he was when she answered fervently she well knew that she never forgot it he touched upon his second and more delicate point the suspicion he had formed little dorrid he said taking her hand again and speaking lower than he had spoken yet so that even maggie in the small room could not hear him another word i have wanted very much to say this to you i have tried for opportunities don't mind me who for the matter of years might be your father or your uncle always think of me as quite an old man i know that all your devotion centers in this room and that nothing to the last will ever tempt you away from the duties you discharge here if i were not sure of it i should before now have implored you and implored your father to let me make some provision for you in a more suitable place but you may have an interest i will not say now though even that might be may have at another time an interest in someone else an interest not incompatible with your affection here she was very very pale and silently shook her head it may be dear little dorrid no no no she shook her head after each slow repetition of the word with an air of quiet desolation that he remembered long afterwards the time came when he remembered it well long afterwards within those prison walls within that very room but if it ever should be tell me so my dear child entrust the truth to me point out the object of such an interest to me and i will try with all the zeal and honor and friendship and respect that i feel for you good little dorrid of my heart to do your lasting service oh thank you thank you but oh no oh no she said this looking at him with her work worn hands folded together and in the same resigned accents as before i press for no confidence now i only ask you to repose and hesitating trust in me can i do less than that when you're so good then you will trust me fully will have no secret and happiness or anxiety concealed from me almost none and you have none now she shook her head but she was very pale when i lie down tonight and my thoughts come back as they will for they do every night even when i have not seen you to this sad place i may believe that there is no grief beyond this room now and its usual occupants which praise some little dorrid's mind she seemed to catch at these words that he remembered too long afterwards and said more brightly yes mr clenum yes you may the crazy staircase usually not slow to give notice when anyone was coming up or down here creaked under a quick tread and a further sound was heard upon it as if a little steam engine with more steam than it knew what to do with were working towards the room as it approached which it did very rapidly it labored with increased energy and after knocking at the door it sounded as if it were stooping down and snorting in at the keyhole before magi could open the door mr panks opening it from without stood without a hat and with his bare head in the wildest condition looking at clenum and little dorrid over her shoulder he had a lighted cigar in his hand and brought with him airs of ale and tobacco smoke panks the gypsy he observed out of breath fortune telling he stood dingily smiling and breathing hard at them with the most curious air as if instead of being his proprietors grubber he were the triumphant proprietor of the marshall sea the marshall old turnkeys and all the collegians in his great self satisfaction he put his cigar to his lips being evidently no smoker and took such a pull at it with his right eye shut up tight for the purpose that he underwent a convulsion of shuddering and choking but even in the midst of that paroxysm he still is safe to repeat his favorite introduction to himself pangs the gypsy fortune telling i am spending the evening with the rest of them said panks i've been singing i've been taking a part in white sand and grey sand i don't know anything about it never mind i'll take any part in anything it's all the same if you're loud enough at first clenum supposed him to be intoxicated but he soon perceived that though he might be a little the worse or better for ale the staple of his excitement was not brewed from malt or distilled from any grain or berry how'd you do miss dorrid said pangs i thought you wouldn't mind my running round and looking in for a moment mr clenum i heard was here from mr dorrid how are you sir clenum thanked him and said he was glad to see him so gay gay said pangs i'm in wonderful feathers sir i can't stop a minute or i shall be missed and i don't want him to miss me hey miss dorrid he seemed to have an insatiate delight in appealing to her and looking at her excitedly sticking his hair up at the same moment like a dark species of cockatoo i haven't been here half an hour i knew mr dorrid was in the chair and i said i'll go and support him i ought to be down in bleeding heart yard by rights but i can't worry them tomorrow hey miss dorrid his little black eye sparkled electrically his very hair seemed to sparkle as he roughened it he was in that highly charged state that one might have expected to draw sparks and snaps from him by presenting a knuckle to any part of his figure capital company here said pangs hey miss dorrid she was half afraid of him and a resolute what to say he laughed with a nod towards clenum don't mind him miss dorrid he's one of us we agreed that you shouldn't take on to mind me before people but we didn't mean mr clenum he is one of us is in it aren't you mr clenum hey miss dorrid the excitement of this strange creature was fast communicating itself to clenum little dorrid with amazement saw this and observed that they exchanged quick looks i was making a remark said pangs but i declare i forget what it was oh i know capital company here i've been treating them all round hey miss dorrid very generous of you she returned noticing another of the quick looks between the two not at all said pangs don't mention it i'm coming into my property that's the fact i can afford to be liberal i think i'll give him a treat here tables laid in the yard bread and stacks pipes and faggots tobacco in hay lords roast beef and plum pudding for everyone quart of doubles tout ahead pint of wine too if they like it and the authorities give permission hey miss dorrid she was thrown into such a confusion by his manner or rather by clenum's growing understanding of his manner but she looked to him after every fresh appeal and cockatoo demonstration on the part of mr pangs that she only moved her lips in answer without forming any word and oh by the by said pangs you were to live to know what was behind us on that little hand of yours and so you shall you shall my darling hey miss dorrid he could suddenly checked himself where he got all the additional black prongs from that now flew up all over his head like the myriads of points that break out in the large change of a great firework was a wonderful mystery but i shall be missed he came back to that and i don't want him to miss me mr clenum you and i made a bargain i said you should find a mistake to it you shall find mistake to it now sir if you'll step out of the room a moment miss dorrid i wish you good night miss dorrid i wish you good fortune he rapidly shook her by both hands and puffed downstairs arthur followed him with such a hurried step that he had very nearly tumbled over him on the last landing and rolled him down into the yard what is it for heaven's sake arthur demanded when they burst out there both together stop a moment sir mr rug let me introduce him with those words he presented another man without a head and also with a cigar and also surrounded with a halo of ale and tobacco smoke which man though not so excited as himself was in a state which would have been akin to lunacy but for its fading into solber method when compared with the rampancy of mr panks mr clenum mr rug said panks stop a moment come to the pump they adjourned to the pump mr panks instantly putting his head under the spout requested mr rug to take a good strong turn at the handle mr rug complying to the letter mr panks came forth snorting and blowing to some purpose and dried himself on his hand achieve i am the clearer for that he gasped to clenum standing astonished but upon my soul to hear her father making speeches in that chair knowing what we know and to see her up in that room in that dress knowing what we know is enough to give me a back mr rug a little higher sir that will do then and there on that martial sea pavement in the shades of evening did mr panks of all mankind lie over the head and shoulders of mr rug of pentonville general agent accountant and recoverer of debts a lighting on his feet he took clenum by the buttonhole let him behind the pump and pantingly produced from his pocket a bundle of papers mr rug also pantingly produced from his pocket a bundle of papers stay said clenum in a whisper you have made a discovery mr panks answered with an unction which there is no language to convey we rather think so does it implicate anyone how implicates her in any suppression or wrong dealing of any kind not a bit of it thank god set clenum to himself now show me you are to understand snorted panks feverishly unfolding papers and speaking in short high pressure blasts of sentences where is the pedigree where's schedule number four mr rug oh all right here we are you are to understand that we are this very day virtually complete we shouldn't be legally for a day or two call it at the outside a week we've been at it night and day for i don't know how long mr rug you know how long never mind don't say you'll only confuse me you shall tell her mr clenum not till we give you leave where's that rough total mr rug oh here we are there's a that's what you'll have to break to her that man's your father of the marshall sea end of chapter the 32nd book the first this recording is in the public domain chapter the 33rd book the first of little dorrit redfully provokes not org by elis christoff little dorrit by charles dickens book the first chapter the 33rd mrs murdell's complaint resigning himself to inevitable fate by making the best of those people the miggles is and submitting her philosophy to the draught upon it of which she had foreseen the likelihood in her interview with arthur mrs gaughan handsomely resolved not to oppose her son's marriage in her progress to end happy arrival at this resolution she was possibly influenced not only by her maternal affections but by three politic considerations of these the first may have been that her son had never signified the smallest intention to ask her consent or any mistrust of his ability to dispense with it the second that the pension bestowed upon her by a grateful country and a barnacle would be freed from any little filial inroads when her henry should be married to the darling only child of a man in very easy circumstances the third that henry's debts must clearly be paid down upon the altar railing by his father-in-law when to these threefold points of prudence there is added the fact that mrs gaughan yielded her consent the moment she knew of mr murdell's having yielded his and that mr murdell's objection to the marriage had been the sole obstacle in its way all along it becomes the height of probability that the relict of the deceased commissioner of nothing particular turned these ideas in her sagacious mind among her connections and acquaintances however she maintained her individual dignity and the dignity of the blood of the barnacles by diligently nursing the pretence that it was a most unfortunate business that she was sadly cut up by it that this was a perfect fascination under which henry labored that she had opposed it for a long time but what could a mother do and the like she had already called arthur clannum to bear witness to this fable as a friend of the meagles family and she followed up the move by now impounding the family itself for the same purpose in the first interview she accorded to mr meagles she slide it herself into the position of disconsolently but gracefully yielding to a resistible pressure with the utmost politeness and good breeding she feigned that it was she not he who had made the difficulty and who at length gave way and that the sacrifice was hers not his the same feigned with the same polite dexterity she foisted on mrs meagles as a conjurer might have forced a card on that innocent lady and when her future daughter-in-law was presented to her by her son she said on embracing her my dear what have you done to henry that has bewitched him so at the same time allowing a few tears to carry before them in little pills a cosmetic powder on her nose as a delicate but touching signal that she suffered much inwardly for the show of composure with which she bore her misfortune among the friends of mrs gowan who peaked herself at once on being society and on maintaining intimate and easy relations with that power mrs muddle occupied a front row true the hampton court bohemians without exception turned up their noses at muddle as an upstart but they turned them down again by falling flat on their faces to worship his wealth in which compensating adjustment of their noses they were pretty much like treasury bar and bishop and all the rest of them to mrs muddle mrs gowan repaired on a visit of self condolence after having given the gracious consent of horse ed she drove into town for the purpose in a one horse carriage irreverently called at that period of english history a pillbox it belonged to a job master in a small way who drove it himself and who jobbed it by the day or hour to most of the old ladies in hampton court palace but it was a point of ceremony in that encampment that the whole equipage should be tacitly regarded as the private property of the jobber for the time being and that the job master should betray personal knowledge of nobody but the jobber in possession so the circumlocution barnacles who were the largest job masters in the universe always pretended to know of no other job but the job immediately in hand mrs muddle was at home and was in her nest of crimson and gold with the parrot on a neighboring stem watching her with his head on one side as if he took her for another splendid parrot of a larger species to whom entered mrs gowan with her favorite green fan which softened the light on the spots of bloom my dear soul said mrs gowan tapping the back of her friend's hand with this fan after a little indifferent conversation you are my only comfort that affair of henry's that i told you of is to take place now how does it strike you i am dying to know because you represent and express society so well mrs muddle reviewed the bosom which society was accustomed to review and having ascertained that show window of mr muddles and the london jeweler's to be in good order replied as to marriage on the part of a man my dear society requires that he should retrieve his fortunes by marriage society requires that he should gain by marriage society requires that he should found a huntsom establishment by marriage society does not see otherwise what he has to do with marriage but be quiet for the parrot on his cage above them presiding over the conference as if he were a judge and indeed he looked rather like one had wound up the exposition with a shriek cases there are said mrs muddle delicately croaking the little finger of her favorite hand and making her remarks neater by that neat action cases there are where a man is not young or elegant and is rich and has a huntsom establishment already those are of a different kind in such cases mrs muddle shrugged her snowy shoulders and put her hand upon the jewel stand checking a little cough as though to add why a man looks out for this sort of thing my dear then the parrot shrieked again and she put up her glass to look at him and said bird do be quiet but young men resumed mrs muddle and by young men you know what i mean my love i mean people's sons who have the world before them they must place themselves in a better position towards society by marriage or society really will not have any patience with their making fools of themselves dreadfully worldly all this sounds said mrs muddle leaning back in her nest and putting up her glass again does it not but it is true said mrs gowan with a highly moral air my dear it is not to be disputed for a moment returned mrs muddle because society has made up its mind on the subject and there is nothing more to be said if we were in a more primitive state if we lived under roofs of leaves and kept cows and sheep and creatures instead of bankers accounts which would be delicious my dear i'm a pastoral to a degree by nature well and good but we don't live under leaves and keep cows and sheep and creatures i perfectly exhaust myself sometimes in pointing out the distinction to edmund sparkler mrs gowan looking over her green fan when this young gentleman's name was mentioned replied as follows my love you know the rigid state of the country there is an fortunate concessions of john barnacles and you therefore know the reasons for my being as poor as thing of me a church mouse mrs muddle suggested with a smile i was thinking of the other proverbial church person job said mrs gowan either will do it would be idle to disguise consequently but there is a wide difference between the position of your son and mine i may add to that henry has talent which edmund certainly has not said mrs muddle with the greatest gravity and that his talent combined with disappointment mrs gowan went on has led him into a pursuit which are dear me you know my dear such being henry's difference position the question is what is the most inferior class of marriage to which i can reconcile myself mrs muddle was so much engaged with the contemplation of her arms beautiful formed arms and the very thing for bracelets that she admitted to reply for a while roused at length by the silence she folded the arms and with admirable presence of mind looked her friend full in the face and said interrogatively yes and then and then my dear said mrs gowan not quite so sweetly as before i should be glad to hear what you have to say to it here the parrot who had been standing on one leg since he screamed last burst into a fit of laughter bobbed himself derisively up and down on both legs and finished by standing on one leg again and pausing for a reply with his head as much awry as he could possibly twist it sounds mercenary to ask what the gentleman is to get with the lady said mrs muddle but society is perhaps a little mercenary no my dear for what i can make out said mrs gowan i believe i may say that henry will be relieved from death much in debt asked mrs muddle through her eyeglass oh why tolerably i should think said mrs gowan meaning the usual thing i understand just so mrs muddle observed in a comfortable sort of way and that the father will make them an allowance of 300 a year or perhaps altogether something more which in italy oh going to italy said mrs muddle for henry to study you need be at no loss to guess why my dear that dreadful art true mrs muddle hastened to spare the feelings of her afflicted friend she understood say no more and that said mrs gowan shaking her despondent head that's all that repeated mrs gowan furling her green fan for the moment and tapping her chin with it it was on the way to being a double chin might be called a chin and a half at present that's all on the death of the old people i suppose there will be more to come but how it may be restricted or locked up i don't know and as to that they may live forever my dear they're just the kind of people to do it now mrs muddle who really knew her friend society pretty well and who knew what society's mothers were and what society's daughters were and what society's matrimonial market was and how prices ruled in it and what scheming and counter scheming took place for the high buyers and what bargaining and hustling went on thought in the depths of her capacious bosom that this was a sufficiently good catch knowing however what was expected of her and perceiving the exact nature of the fiction to be nursed she took it delicately in her arms and put her required contribution of gloss upon it and that is all my dear said she heaving a friendly sigh well well the fault is not yours you have nothing to reproach yourself with you must exercise the strength of mind for which you are renowned and make the best of it the girl's family have made said mrs gowan of course the most strenuous endeavors too as the lawyers say to have and to hold henry of course they have my dear said mrs muddle i have persisted in every possible objection and have worried myself morning noon and night for means to detach henry from the connection no doubt you have my dear said mrs muddle and all of no use all has broken down beneath me now tell me my love am i justified in at last yielding my most reluctant consent to henry's marrying among people not in society or have i acted with inexcusable weakness in answer to this direct appeal mrs muddle assured mrs gowan speaking as a priestess of society that she was highly to be commended that she was much to be sympathized with that she had taken the highest of parts and had come out of the furnace refined and mrs gowan who of course saw through her own threadbare blind perfectly and who knew that mrs muddle saw through it perfectly and who knew that society would see through it perfectly came out of this form notwithstanding as she had gone into it with immense complacency and gravity the conference was scaled at four or five o'clock in the afternoon when all the region of harley street cavern d square was resonant of carriage wheels and double nox it had reached this point when mr muddle came home from his daily occupation of causing the british name to be more and more respected in all parts of the civilized globe capable of the appreciation of worldwide commercial enterprise and gigantic combinations of skill and capital for though nobody knew with the least precision what mr muddle's business was except that it was to coin money these were the terms in which everybody defined it on all ceremonious occasions and which it was the last new polite reading of the parable of the camel and the needle's eye to accept without inquiry for a gentleman who had this splendid work cut out for him mr muddle looked a little common and rather as if in the course of his vast transactions he had accidentally made an interchange of heads with some inferior spirit he presented himself before the two ladies in the course of a dismal stroll through his mansion which had no apparent object but escape from the presence of the chief butler i beg your pardon he said stopping short in confusion i didn't know there was anybody here but the parrot however as mrs muddle said you can come in and as mrs gowan said she was just going and had already risen to take her leave he came in and stood looking out at a distant window with his hands crossed under his uneasy coat cuffs clasping his wrists as if he were taking himself into custody in this attitude he fell directly into a reverie from which he was only aroused by his wife's calling to him from her auto man when they had been for some quarter of an hour alone hey yes said mr muddle turning towards her what is it what is it repeated mrs muddle it is i suppose that you have not heard a word of my complaint your complaint mrs muddle said mr muddle i didn't know that you were suffering from a complaint what complaint a complaint of you said mrs muddle oh a complaint of me said mr muddle what is the what have i what may you have to complain of in me mrs muddle in his withdrawing abstracted pondering way it took him some time to shape this question as a kind of faint attempt to convince himself that he was the master of the house concluded by presenting his forefinger to the parrot who expressed his opinion on that subject by instantly driving his bill into it you are saying mrs muddle said mr muddle with his wounded finger in his mouth that you had a complaint against me a complaint which i could scarcely show the justice of more emphatically than by having to repeat it said mrs muddle i might as well have stated it to the wall i had far better stated it to the bird he would at least have screamed you don't want me to scream mrs muddle i suppose said mr muddle taking a chair indeed i don't know retorted mrs muddle but that you had better do that than be so moody and distraught one would at least know that you were sensible of what was going on around you a man might scream and yet not be that mrs muddle said mr muddle heavily and might be dogged as you are at present without screaming returned mrs muddle that's very true if you wish to know the complaint i make against you it is in so many plain words that you really ought not to go into society unless you can accommodate yourself to society mr muddle so twisting his hands into what hair he had upon his head that he seemed to lift himself up by it as he started out of his chair cried why in the name of all the infernal powers mrs muddle who does more for society than i do do you see these premises mrs muddle do you see this furniture mrs muddle do you look in the glass and see yourself mrs muddle do you know the cost of all this and who it's all provided for and yet will you tell me that i ought not to go into society i who shower money upon it in this way i who might always be said to to to harness myself to a watering card full of money and go about saturating society every day of my life pray don't be violent mr muddle said mrs muddle violent said mr muddle you are enough to make me desperate you don't know half of what i do to accommodate society you don't know anything of the sacrifices i make for it i know returned mrs muddle that you receive the best in the land i know that you move in the whole society of the country and i believe i know indeed not to make any ridiculous pretence about it i know i know who sustains you in it mr muddle mrs muddle retorted that gentleman wiping his dull red and yellow face i know that as well as you do if you were not an ornament to society and if i was not a benefactor to society you and i would never have come together when i say a benefactor to it i mean a person who provides it with all sorts of expensive things to eat and drink and look at but to tell me that i am not fit for it after all i have done for it after all i have done for it repeated mr muddle with a wild emphasis that made his wife lift up her eyelids after all all to tell me i have no right to mix with it after all is a pretty reward i say answered mrs muddle composedly that you ought to make yourself fit for it by being more dega jay and less preoccupied there is a positive vulgarity in carrying your business affairs about with you as you do how do i carry them about mrs muddle asked mr muddle how do you carry them about said mrs muddle look at yourself in the glass mr muddle involuntarily turned his eyes in the direction of the nearest mirror and asked with a slow determination of his turbid blood to his temples whether a man was to be called to account for his digestion you have a physician said mrs muddle he does me no good said mr muddle mrs muddle changed her ground besides said she your digestion is nonsense i don't speak of your digestion i speak of your manner mrs muddle returned her husband i looked to you for that you supply manner and i supply money i don't expect you said mrs muddle reposing easily among her cushions to captivate people i don't want you to take any trouble upon yourself or to try to be fascinating i simply request you to care about nothing or seem to care about nothing as everybody else does do i ever say i care about anything ask mr muddle say no nobody would attend to you if you did but you show it show what what do i show demanded mr muddle hurriedly i have already told you you show that you carry your business cares and projects about instead of leaving them in the city or wherever else they belong to said mrs muddle or seeming to seeming would be quite enough i ask no more whereas you couldn't be more occupied with your days calculations and combinations than you habitually show yourself to be if you were a carpenter a carpenter repeated mr muddle checking something like a groan i shouldn't so much mind being a carpenter mrs muddle and my complaint is pursued the lady disregarding the low remark that it is not the tone of society and that you ought to correct it mr muddle if you have any doubt of my judgment ask even edmund sparkler the door of the room had opened and mrs muddle now surveyed the head of her son through her glass edmund we want to hear mr sparkler who had merely put in his head and looked around the room without entering as if he were searching the house for that young lady with no nonsense about her upon this followed up his head with his body and stood before them to whom in a few easy words adapted to his capacity mrs muddle stated the question at issue the young gentleman after anxiously feeling his shirt color as if it were his pulse and he were hypercondriacal observed that he had heard it noticed by fellas edmund sparkler has heard it noticed sit mrs muddle with language triumph why no doubt everybody has heard it noticed which in truth was no unreasonable inference seeing that mr sparkler would probably be the last person in any assemblage of the human species to receive an impression from anything that passed in his presence and edmund sparkler will tell you i dare say said mrs muddle waving her favorite hand towards her husband how he has heard it noticed i couldn't said mr sparkler after feeling his pulse as before couldn't undertake to say what led to it caused memory desperate loose but being in company with the brother of a dosed fine girl well educated too with no bigot nonsense about her at the period alluded to there never mind the sister remarked mrs muddle a little impatiently what did the brother say didn't say a word mom and said mr sparkler as silent a feather as myself equally hard up for a remark somebody said something returned mrs muddle never mind who it was assure you i don't in the least said mr sparkler but tell us what it was mr sparkler referred to his pulse again and put himself through some severe mental discipline before he replied fellas referring to my governor expression not my own occasionally compliment my governor in a very handsome way on being immensely rich and knowing perfect phenomenon of byron bunker and that but say the shop sits heavily on him say he carried the shop about on his back rather like jew clothesman with too much business which said mrs muddle rising with her floating drapery about her is exactly my complaint edmund give me your arm upstairs mr muddle left alone to meditate on a better confirmation of himself to society looked out of nine windows in succession and appeared to see nine wastes of space when he had thus entertained himself he went downstairs and looked intently at all the carpets on the ground floor and then came upstairs again and looked intently at all the carpets on the first floor as if they were gloomy depths in unison with his oppressed soul through all the rooms he wondered as he always did like the last person on earth who had any business to approach them let mrs muddle announced with all her might that she was at home ever so many nights in a season she could not announce more widely and unmistakably than mr muddle did that he was never at home at last he met the chief butler the sight of which splendid retainer always finished him extinguished by this great creature he sneaked to his dressing room and there remained shut up until he rode out to dinner with mrs muddle in her own handsome chariot at dinner he was envied and flattered as a being of might was treasured barred and bishops as much as he would and an hour after midnight came home alone and being instantly put out again in his own hall like a rush light by the chief butler went sighing to bed end of chapter the 33rd book the first this recording is in the public domain chapter the 34th book the first of little dorrit read for LibriVox.org by Alice Christoff little dorrit by Charles Dickens book the first chapter the 34th a show of barnacles mr henry gowan and the dog were established frequenters of the cottage and the day was fixed for the wedding there was to be a convocation of barnacles on the occasion in order that that very high and very large family might shed as much luster on the marriage as so dim an event was capable of receiving to have got the whole barnacle family together would have been impossible for two reasons firstly because no building could have held all the members and connections of that illustrious house secondly because wherever there was a square yard of ground in british occupation under the sun or moon with a public post upon it sticking to that post was a barnacle no intrepid navigator could plant a flag staff upon any spot of earth and take possession of it in the british name but to that spot of earth so soon as the discovery was known the circumlocution office sent out a barnacle and a dispatch box thus the barnacles were all over the world in every direction dispatch boxing the compass but while the so potent art of prospero himself would have failed in summoning the barnacles from every speck of ocean and dry land on which there was nothing except mischief to be done and anything to be pocketed it was perfectly feasible to assemble a good many barnacles this mrs gowan applied herself to do calling on mr meagles frequently with new additions to the list and holding conferences with that gentleman when he was not engaged as he generally was at this period in examining and paying the debts of his future son-in-law in the apartment of scales and scoops one marriage guest there was in reference to whose presence mr meagles felt a nearer interest and concern than in the attendance of the most elevated barnacle expected though he was far from insensible of the honor of having such company this guest was clenum but clenum had made a promise he held sacred among the trees that summer night and in the chivalry of his heart regarded it as binding him to many implied obligations in forgetfulness of himself and delicate service to her on all occasions he was never to fail to begin it he answered mr meagles cheerfully i shall come of course his partner daniel dois was something of a stumbling block in mr meagles's way the worthy gentleman being not at all clear in his own anxious mind but that the mingling of daniel with official barnacles might produce some explosive combination even at a marriage breakfast the national offender however lightened him of his anise in his by coming down to twickenham to represent that he begged with the freedom of an old friend and as a favor to one that he might not be invited for said he as my business with this set of gentlemen was to do a public duty and a public service and as their business with me was to prevent it by wearing my soul out i think we had better not eat and drink together with the show of being of one mind mr meagles was much amused by his friend's oddity and patronized him with a more protecting air of allowance than usual when he rejoined well well done you shall have your own crotchety way to mr henry gowan as the time approached clenum tried to convey by all quiet and unpretending means that he was frankly and is interestingly desirous of tendering him any friendship he would accept mr gowan treated him in return with his usual ease and with his usual show of confidence which was no confidence at all you see clenum he happened to remark in the course of conversation one day when they were walking near the cottage within a week of the marriage i am a disappointed man that you know already upon my word said clenum a little embarrassed i scarcely know how why returned gowan i belong to a clan or a clique or a family or a connection or whatever you like to call it that might have provided for me in any one of 50 ways and that took it into its head not to do it at all so here i am a poor devil of an artist clenum was beginning but on the other hand when gowan took him up yes yes i know i have the good fortune of being beloved by a beautiful and charming girl whom i love with all my heart is there much of it clenum thought and as he thought it felt ashamed of himself and of finding a father-in-law who is a capital fellow and a liberal good old boy still i had other prospects washed and combed it to my childish head when it was washed and combed for me and i took them to a public school when i washed and combed it for myself and i am here without them and thus i am a disappointed man clenum thought and as he thought it again felt ashamed of himself was this notion of being disappointed in life an assertion of station which the bridegroom brought into the family as his property having already carried it detrimentally into his pursuit and was it a hopeful or a promising thing anywhere not bitterly disappointed i think he said aloud hang it no not bitterly laughed gowan my people are not worth that though they are charming fellows and i have the greatest affection for them besides it's pleasant to show them that i can do without them and that they may all go to the devil and besides again most men are disappointed in life somehow or other and influenced by their disappointment but it's a dear good world and i love it it lies fair before you now said Arthur fair as this summer river cried the other with enthusiasm and by joe by glow with admiration of it and with ardor to run a race in it it's the best of old worlds and my calling the best of old callings isn't it full of interest and ambition i conceive said clenum and imposition added gowan laughing we won't leave out the imposition i hope i may not break down in that but there my being a disappointed man may show itself i may not be able to face it out gravely enough between you and me i think there is some danger of my being just enough sourd not to be able to do that to do what asked clenum to keep it up to help myself in my turn as the man before me helps himself in his and pass the bottle of smoke to keep up the pretense as to labor and study and patience and being devoted to my art and giving up many solitary days to it and abandoning many pleasures for it and living in it and all the rest of it in short to pass the bottle of smoke according to rule but it is well for a man to respect his own vocation whatever it is and to think himself bound to uphold it and to claim for it the respect it deserves is it not Arthur reasoned and your vocation gowan may really demand this suit and service i confess i should have thought that all art did what a good fellow you are clenum exclaimed the other stopping to look at him as if with irrepressible admiration what a capital fellow you have never been disappointed that's easy to see it would have been so cruel if he had meant it that clenum firmly resolved to believe he did not mean it gowan without pausing laid his hand upon his shoulder and laughingly and lightly went on clenum i don't like to dispel your generous visions and i would give any money if i had any to live in such a rose colored mist but what i do in my trade i do to sell what all we fellows do we do to sell if we didn't want to sell it for the most we can get for it we shouldn't do it being work it has to be done but it's easily enough done all the rest is hocus pocus now here's one of the advantages or disadvantages of knowing a disappointed man you hear the truth whatever he had heard and whether it deserved that name or another it sank into clenum's mind it so took root there that he began to fear henry gowan would always be a trouble to him and at so far he had gained little or nothing from the dismissal of nobody with all his inconsistencies anxieties and contradictions he found a contest still always going on in his breast between his promise to keep gowan in none but good aspects before the mind of mr meagles and his enforced observation of gowan in aspects that he had no good in them nor could he quite support his own conscientious nature against misgivings that he distorted and discolored himself by reminding himself that he never sought those discoveries and that he would have avoided them with willingness and great relief for he never could forget what he had been and he knew that he had once disliked gowan for no better reason than that he had come in his way harassed by these thoughts he now began to wish the marriage over gowan and his young wife gone and himself left to fulfill his promise and discharge the generous function he had accepted this last week was in truth and an easy interval for the whole house before pet or before gowan mr meagles was radiant but clenham had more than once found him alone with his view of the scales and scoop much blurred and had often seen him look after the lovers in the garden or elsewhere when he was not seen by them with the old clouded face on which gowan had fallen like a shadow in the arrangement of the house for the great occasion many little reminders of the old travels of the father and mother and daughter had to be disturbed and passed from hand to hand and sometimes in the midst of these mute witnesses to the life they had had together even pet herself would yield to lamenting and weeping mrs meagles the blithest and busiest of mothers went about singing and cheering everybody but she honest soul had her flights into storerooms where she would cry until her eyes were red and would then come out attributing that appearance to pickled onions and pepper and singing clearer than ever mrs ticket finding no balsam for a wounded mind in bockens domestic medicine suffered greatly from low spirits and from moving recollections of minis infancy when the latter was powerful with her she usually sent up secret messages importing that she was not in parlor condition as to her attire and that she solicited a side of her child in the kitchen there she would bless her child's face and bless her child's heart and hug her child in a medley of tears and congratulations chopping boards rolling pins and pie crust with the tenderness of an old attached servant which is a very pretty tenderness indeed but all days come that are to be and the marriage day was to be and it came and with it came all the barnacles who were bid into the feast there was mr tight barnacle from the circumlocution office and mu street gravener square with the expensive mrs tight barnacle knee stills talking who made the quarter day so long in coming and the three expensive mrs tight barnacles double loaded with accomplishments and ready to go off and yet not going off with the sharpness of flash and bang that might have been expected but rather hanging fire there was barnacle junior also from the circumlocution office leaving the tonnage of the country which he was somehow supposed to take under his protection to look after itself and sooth to say not at all impairing the efficiency of its protection by leaving it alone there was the engaging young barnacle deriving from the sprightly side of the family also from the circumlocution office gaily and agreeably helping the occasion along and treating it in his sparkling way as one of the official forms and fees of the church department of how not to do it there were three other young barnacles from three other offices incipit to all the senses and terribly in want of seasoning doing the marriage as they would have done the Nile old Rome a new singer or Jerusalem but there was greater game than this there was lord decimus tight barnacle himself in the odor of circumlocution with the very smell of dispatch boxes upon him yes there was lord decimus tight barnacle who had risen to official heights on the wings of one indignant idea and that was my lord's that i am yet to be told that it behoves a minister of this free country to set bounds to the philanthropy to cramp the charity to fatter the public spirit to contract the enterprise to dump the independent self-reliance of its people that was in other words that this great statesman was always yet to be told that it behoved the pilot of the ship to do anything but prosper in the private loaf and fish trader shore the crew being able by dint of heart pumping to keep the ship above water without him on this sublime discovery in the great art how not to do it lord decimus had long sustained the highest glory of the barnacle family and let any ill-advised member of either house but try how to do it by bringing in a bill to do it that bill was as good as dead and buried when lord decimus tight barnacle rose up in his place and solemnly said soaring into indignant majesty as the circumlocution cheering soared around him that he was yet to be told my lord's that it behoved him as the minister of this free country to set bounds to the philanthropy to cramp the charity to fatter the public spirit to contract the enterprise to dump the independent self-reliance of its people the discovery of this behoving machine was the discovery of the political perpetual motion it never wore out though it was always going round and round in all the state departments and there with his noble friend and relative lord decimus was william barnacle who had made the ever famous coalition with tutor still stalking and who always kept ready his own particular recipe for how not to do it sometimes tapping the speaker and drawing it fresh out of him with first i will beg you sir to inform the house what precedent we have for the cause into which the honorable gentleman would precipitate us sometimes asking the honorable gentleman to favor him with his own version of the precedent sometimes telling the honorable gentleman that he william barnacle would search for a precedent and oftentimes crushing the honorable gentleman flat on the spot by telling him there was no precedent but precedent and precipitate were under all circumstances the well-matched pair of battle horses of this able circumlocutionist no matter that the unhappy honorable gentleman had been trying in vain for 25 years to precipitate william barnacle into this william barnacle still put it to the house and at second hand or so to the country whether he was to be precipitated into this no matter that it was utterly irreconcilable with the nature of things and cause of events that the wretched honorable gentleman could possibly produce a precedent for this william barnacle would nevertheless thank the honorable gentleman for that ironical cheer and would close with him upon that issue and would tell him to his teeth that there was no precedent for this it might perhaps have been objected that the william barnacle wisdom was not high wisdom or the earth it bamboozled would never have been made or if made in a rash mistake would have remained blank mud but precedent and precipitated together frightened all objection out of most people and there too was another barnacle a lively one who had leaped through 20 places in quick succession and was always in two or three at once and who was the much respected inventor of an art which he practiced with great success and admiration in all barnacle governments this was when he was asked a parliamentary question on any one topic to return an answer on any other it had done immense service and brought him into high esteem with the circumlocution office and there too was a sprinkling of less distinguished parliamentary barnacles who had not as yet got anything snug and were going through their probation to prove their worthiness these barnacles perched upon staircases and hidden passages waiting their orders to make houses or not to make houses and they did all their hearing and owing and cheering and barking under directions from the heads of the family and they put dummy motions on the paper in the way of other men's motions and they stole disagreeable subjects often till late in the night and late in the session and then with virtuous patriotism cried out that it was too late and they went down into the country whenever they were sent and swore that lord decimus had revived trade from a swoon and commerce from a fit and had doubled the harvest of corn quadrupled the harvest of hay and prevented no end of gold from flying out of the bank also these barnacles were dealt by the heads of the family like so many cards below the court cards to public meetings and dinners where they bore testimony to all sorts of services on the part of their noble and honorable relatives and buttered the barnacles on all sorts of toasts and they stood under similar orders at all sorts of elections and they turned out of their own seats on the shortest notice and the most unreasonable terms to let in other men and they fetched and carried and towed it and jobbed and corrupted and at heaps of dirt and were indefatigable in the public service and there was not a list in all the circumlocution office of places that might fall vacant anywhere within half a century from a lord of the treasury to a chinese council and up again to a governor general of india but as applicants for such places the names of some or of every one of these hungry and adhesive barnacles were down it was necessarily but a sprinkling of any class of barnacles that attended the marriage for there were not two score in all and what is that subtracted from a legion but the sprinkling was a swarm in the twickenham cottage and filled it a barnacle assisted by a barnacle married the happy pair and it behoved lord decimus tight barnacle himself to conduct mrs. meagles to breakfast the entertainment was not as agreeable and natural as it might have been mr. meagles moved down by his good company while he highly appreciated it was not himself mrs. garland was herself and that did not improve him the fiction that it was not mr. meagles who had stood in the way but that it was the family greatness and that the family greatness had made a concession and there was now a soothing unanimity pervaded the affair though it was never openly expressed then the barnacles felt that they for their parts would have done with the meagles is when the present patronizing occasion was over and the meagles is felt the same for their parts then garland asserting his rights as a disappointed man who had his grudge against the family and who perhaps had allowed his mother to have them there as much in the hope it might give them some annoyance as with any other benevolent object aired his pencil and his poverty ostentatiously before them and told them he hoped in time to settle a crust of bread and cheese on his wife and that he begged such of them as more fortunate than himself came in for any good thing and could buy a picture to please to remember the poor painter then lord decimus was a wonder on his own parliamentary pedestal turned out to be the windiest creature here proposing happiness to the bride and bridegroom in a series of platitudes that would have made the hair of any sincere disciple and believer stand on end and trotting with the complacency of an idiotic elephant among howling labyrinths of sentences which he seemed to take for high roads and never so much as wanted to get out of then mr tight barnacle could not but feel that there was a person in company who would have disturbed his lifelong sitting to sir Thomas Lawrence in full official character if such disturbance had been possible while barnacle junior did with indignation communicate to two vapid gentlemen his relatives that there was a fella here look here who had come to our department without an appointment and said he wanted to know you know and that look here if he was to break out now as he might you know for you never could tell what an ungentlemanly radical of that sort would be up to next and was to say look here that he wanted to know this moment you know that would be jolly wouldn't it the pleasantest part of the occasion by far to clenum was the painfulest when mr and mrs meagles at last hung about pet in the room with the two pictures where the company were not before going with her to the threshold which she could never recross to be the old pet and the old delight nothing could be more natural and simple than the three were gowan himself was touched and answered mr meagles is oh gowan take care of her take care of her with an earnest don't be so broken hearted sir by heaven i will and so with the last sobs and last loving words and a last look to clenum of confidence in his promise pet fell back in the carriage and her husband waved his hand and they were away for dover though not until the faithful mrs ticket in her silk gown and jet black curls had rushed out from some hiding place and thrown both her shoes after the carriage an apparition which occasioned great surprise to the distinguished company at the windows the said company being now relieved from further attendance and the chief barnacles being rather hurried but they had it in hand just then to send a mail or two which was in danger of going straight to its destination beating about the seas like the flying dutchman and to arrange with complexity for the stoppage of a good deal of important business otherwise in peril of being done went there several ways with all our ability conveying to mr and mrs meagles that general assurance that what they had been doing there they had been doing at a sacrifice for mr and mrs meagles is good which they always conveyed to mr john bull in their official condescension to that most unfortunate creature a miserable blank remained in the house and in the hearts of the father and mother and clenum mr meagles called only one remembrance to his aid that really did him good it's very gratifying Arthur he said after all to look back upon the past said clenum yes but i mean the company it had made him much more low and unhappy at the time but now it really did him good it's very gratifying he said often repeating the remark in the course of the evening such high company end of chapter the 34th book the first this recording is in the public domain chapter the 35th book the first of little dorrit read for LibriVox.org by ellis christoff little dorrit by charles dickens book the first chapter the 35th what was behind mr pangs on little dorrit's hand it was at this time that mr pangs in discharge of his compact with clenum revealed to him the whole of his gypsy story and told him little dorrit's fortune a father was heir at law to a great estate that had long lain and known of unclaimed and accumulating his right was now clear nothing interposed in his way the marshall sea gates stood open the marshall seawalls were down a few flourishes of his pen and he was extremely rich in his tracking out of the claim to its complete establishment mr pangs had shown a sagacity that nothing could baffle and a patience and secrecy that nothing could tire i little thought sir said banks were new and i crossed smithfield that night and i told you what sort of a collector i was that this would come of it i little thought sir when i told you you were not of the clenums of cornwall that i was ever going to tell you who are of the dorrit's of dorset char he then went on to detail how having that name recorded in his notebook he was first attracted by the name alone how having often found two exactly similar names even belonging to the same place to involve no traceable consanguinity near or distant he did not at first give much heat to this except in the way of speculation as to what a surprising change would be made in the condition of a little seamstress if she could be shown to have any interest in so large a property how he rather supposed himself to have pursued the idea into its next degree because there was something uncommon in the quiet little seamstress which pleased him and provoked his curiosity how he had felt his way inch by inch and molded out sir that was mr pank's expression grain by grain how in the beginning of the labor described by this new verb and to render which the most expressive mr panks shut his eyes in pronouncing it and took his care over them he had alternated from sudden lights and hopes to sudden darkness and no hopes and back again and back again how he had made acquaintances in the prison expressly that he might come and go there as all other commas and goers did and how his first ray of light was unconsciously given him by mr dorrit himself and by his son to both of whom he easily became known with both of whom he talked much casually but always mowling you'll observe said mr panks and from whom he derived without being at all suspected two or three little points of family history which as he began to hold clues of his own suggested others how it had at length become plain to mr panks that he had made a real discovery of the errant law to a great fortune and that his discovery had but to be ripened to legal fullness and perfection how he had there upon sworn his landlord mr rug to secrecy in a solemn manner and taking him into mowling partnership or they had employed john chivory as their sole clark and agent seeing to whom he was devoted and how until the present hour when authorities might in the bank and learned in the law declared their successful labors ended they had confided in no other human being so if the whole thing had broken down sir concluded panks at the very last say the day before the other day when i showed you our papers in the prison yard or say that very day nobody but ourselves would have been cruelly disappointed or a penny the worse clenum who had been almost incessantly shaking hands with him throughout the narrative was reminded by this to say in an amazement which even the preparation he had had for the main disclosure smoothed down my dear mr panks this must have cost you a great sum of money pretty well sir said the triumphant panks no trifle though we did it as cheap as it could be done and the outlay was a difficulty let me tell you a difficulty repeated clenum but the difficulties you have so wonderfully conquered in the whole business shaking his hand again i'll tell you how i did it said the delighted banks putting his hair into a condition as elevated as himself first i spent all i had of my own that wasn't much i am sorry for it said clenum not that it matters now though then what did you do then answered banks i borrowed a sum of my proprietor of mr casby said clenum he's a final fellow noble old boy and he said mr panks entering on a series of the driest snorts generous old buck confiding old boy philanthropic old buck benevolent old boy 20 percent i engage to pay him sir but we never do business for less at our shop arthur felt an awkward consciousness of having in his exultant condition been a little premature i searched that boiling over old christian mr panks pursued appearing greatly to relish this descriptive epithet that i had got a little project on hand a hopeful one i told him a hopeful one which wanted a certain small capital i proposed to him to lend me the money on my note which he did at 20 sticking the 20 on a business like way and putting it into the note to look like a part of the principle if i had broken down after that i should have been his grabber for the next seven years at half wages and double grind but he's a perfect patriarch and it would do a man good to serve him on such terms on any terms arthur for his life could not have said with confidence whether panks really thought so or not when that was gone saw resumed panks and it did go though i dribbled it out like so much blood i had taken mr rug into the secret i proposed to borrow of mr rug or of mr rug it's the same thing she made a little money by speculation in the common please once he lent it at 10 and thought that pretty high but mr rug's a red haired man sir and gets his hair cut and as to the crown of his hat it's high and as to the brim of his hat it's narrow and there's no more benevolence bubbling out of him than out of a nine pin your own recompense for all this mr panks said clenum ought to be a large one i don't mistrust getting it sir said panks i have made no bargain i owed you one on that score now i have paid it money out of pocket made good time fairly allowed for and mr rug's bill settled a thousand pounds would be our fortune to me that matter i place in your hands i authorize you now to break all this to the family in any way you think best miss a midori it will be with mrs finching this morning the sooner done the better can't be done too soon this conversation took place in clenum's bedroom while he was yet in bed for mr panks had knocked up the house and made his way in very early in the morning and without one setting down or standing still had delivered himself of the whole of his details illustrated with a variety of documents at the bedside he now said he would go and look up mr rug from whom his excited state of mind appeared to require another back and bundling up his papers and exchanging one more hearty shake of the hand with clenum he went at full speed downstairs and steamed off clenum of course resolved to go direct to mr kasby's he dressed and got out so quickly that he found himself at the corner of the patriarchal street nearly an hour before her time but he was not sorry to have the opportunity of calming himself with a leisurely walk when he returned to the street and had knocked at the bright brass knocker he was informed that she had come and was shown upstairs to flora's breakfast room little dorrit was not there herself but flora was and testified the greatest amazement at seeing him could gracious arthur dois and clenum cry that lady who would have ever thought of seeing such a sight as this and pray excuse a rapper for upon my word i really never and a faded check too which is worse but our little friend is making me a not that i need mind mentioning it to you for you must know that there are such things a skirt and having arranged that a triangle should take place after breakfast is the reason though i wish not so badly starched i ought to make an apology said arthur for so early and abrupt a visit but you will excuse it when i tell you the cause in times forever fled arthur returned mrs finching pray excuse me dois and clenum infinitely more correct and though unquestionably distant still this distance lands enchantment to the view at least i don't mean that and if i did i suppose it would depend considerably on the nature of the view but i am running on again and you put it all out of my head she glanced at him tenderly and resumed in times forever fled i was going to say it would have sounded strange indeed for other clenum dois and clenum naturally quite different to make apologies for coming here at any time but that is past and what is past can never be recalled except in his own case as poor mr f said when he was in spirit's cucumber and therefore never at it she was making the tea when arthur came in and now hastily finished that operation papa she said all mistery and whisper as she shut down the teapot lid he's sitting prosingly breaking his new lady in the back parlor over the city article exactly like the woodpecker tapping and need never know that you are here and our little friend you are well aware maybe fully trusted when she comes down from cutting out on the large table overhead arthur then told her in the fewest words that it was their little friend he came to see and what he had to announce to their little friend at which astounding intelligence flora clasped her hands fell into a tremble and shed tears of sympathy and pleasure like the good nature at creature she really was for goodness sake let me get out of the way first said flora putting her hands to her ears and moving towards the door or i know i shall go off dead and screaming and make everybody worse and the dear little thing only this morning looking so nice and neat and good and yet so poor and now of fortune is she really and deserves it too and might i mention it to mr f's aunt arthur not dois and clenum for this one's or if objectionable not on any account arthur nodded his free permission since flora shut out all verbal communication flora nodded in return to thank him and hurry it out of the room little doritz step was already on the stairs and in another moment she was at the door do what he could to compose his face he could not convey so much of an ordinary expression into it but at the moment she saw it she dropped her work and cried mr clenum what's the matter nothing nothing that is no misfortune has happened i have come to tell you something but it is a piece of great good fortune good fortune wonderful fortune they stood in a window and her eyes full of light were fixed upon his face he put an arm about her seeing her likely to sink down she put a hand upon that arm partly to rest upon it and partly so to preserve their relative positions as that her intent look at him should be shaken by no change of attitude in either of them her lips seemed to repeat wonderful fortune he repeated it again aloud dear little dorrit your father the eyes of the pale face broke at the word and little lights and shoots of expression passed all over it there were all expressions of pain her breath was faint and hurried her heart beat fast he would have clasped the little figure closer but he saw that the eyes appealed to him not to be moved your father can be free within this week he does not know it we must go to him from here to tell him of it your father will be free within a few days your father will be free within a few hours remember we must go to him from here to tell him of it that brought her back her eyes were closing but they opened again this is not all the good fortune this is not all the wonderful good fortune my dear little dorrit shall i tell you more her lips shaped yes your father will be no beggar when he is free he will want for nothing shall i tell you more remember he knows nothing of it we must go to him from here to tell him of it she seemed to entreat him for a little time he held her in his arm and after a pause bent down his ear to listen did you ask me to go on yes he will be a rich man he is a rich man a great sum of money is waiting to be paid over to him as his inheritance you are all henceforth very wealthy bravest and best of children i thank heaven that you are rewarded as he kissed her she turned her head towards his shoulder and raised her arm towards his neck cried out father father father and swooned away upon which flora returned to take care of her and hovered about her on a sofa in the mingling kind offices and incoherent scraps of conversation in a manner so confounding that whether she pressed the marshal's seat to take a spoonful of unclaimed dividends or it would do her good or whether she congratulated little doret's father on coming into possession of a hundred thousand smelling bottles or whether she explained that she put seventy five thousand drops of spirits of lavender and fifty thousand pounds of lump sugar and that she entreated little doret to take that gentle restorative or whether she bathed the foreheads of doys and clannam in vinegar and gave the late mr f moria no one with any sense of responsibility could have undertaken to decide a tributary stream of confusion moreover poured in from an adjoining bedroom where mr f sand appeared from the sound of her voice to be in a horizontal posture awaiting her breakfast and from which power that inexorable lady snapped off short taunts whenever she could get a hearing as don't believe it's his doing and he didn't take no credit to himself for it and it'll be long enough i expect a fore he'll give up any of his own money all designed to disparage clannam's share in the discovery and to relieve those inveterate feelings with which mr f sand regarded him but little doret solicitude to get to her father and to carry the joyful tidings to him and not to leave him in his jail a moment with this happiness in store for him and still unknown to him did more for her speedy restoration than all the skill and attention on earth could have done come with me to my dear father pray come and tell my dear father were the first words she said her father her father she spoke of nothing but him thought of nothing but him kneeling down and pouring out her thankfulness with uplifted hands her thanks were for her father flora's tenderness was quite overcome by this and she launched out among the cups and saucers into a wonderful flow of tears and speech i declare she sobbed i never was so cut up since y'all mama and my papa not doys and clannam for this once but give the precious little thing a cup of tea and make her put it to her lips at least pray arthur do not even mr f's last illness for that was of another kind and gout is not a child's affection though very painful for all parties and mr f amata with his leg upon arrest and the wine trade in itself inflammatory for they will do it more or less among themselves and who can wonder it seems like a dream i am sure to think of nothing at all this morning and now minds of money is it really but you must know my darling love because you never will be strong enough to tell him all about it upon teaspoons might indeed be even best to try the directions of my own medical man though the flavor is anything but agreeable still i force myself to do it as a prescription and find the benefit you'd rather not why no my dear i'd rather not but still i do it as a duty everybody will congratulate you some in earnest and some not and many will congratulate you with all their hearts but none more so i do assure you from the bottom of my own i do myself though sensible of blundering and being stupid and will be judged by arthur not doys and clenum for this one so goodbye darling and god bless you and may you be very happy and excuse the liberty vowing that the dress shall never be finished by anybody else but shall be laid by for a keepsake just as it is and called little dorrid though why that strangest of denominations at any time i never did myself and now i never shall thus flora in taking leave of her favorite little dorrid thanked her and embraced her over and over again and finally came out of the house with clenum and took coach for the marshall sea it was strangely unreal right through the old squalid streets with the sensation of being raised out of them into an airy world of wealth and grandeur when arthur told her that she would soon ride in her own carriage through very different scenes when all the familiar experiences would have vanished away she looked frightened but when he substituted her father for herself and told her how he would ride in his carriage and how great and grand he would be her tears of joy and innocent pride fell fast seeing that the happiness her mind could realize was all shining upon him arthur kept that single figure before her and so they rode brightly through the poor streets in the prison neighborhood to carry him the great news when mr chivory who was on duty admitted them into the lodge he saw something in their faces which filled him with astonishment he stood looking after them when they hurried into the prison as though he perceived that they had come back accompanied by a ghost apiece two or three collegians whom they passed looked after them too and presently joining mr chivory formed a little group on the lodge steps in the midst of which they spontaneously originated a whisper that the father was going to get his discharge within a few minutes it was heard in the remotest room in the college little door it opened the door from without and they both entered it was sitting in his old gray gown and his old black cap in the sunlight by the window reading his newspaper his glasses were in his hand and he had just looked around surprised at first no doubt by her step upon the stairs not expecting her until night surprised again by seeing arthur clenham in her company as they came in the same unwanted look in both of them which had already caught attention in the yard below struck him he did not rise or speak but laid down his glasses and his newspaper on the table beside him and looked at them with his mouth a little open and his lips trembling when arthur put out his hand he touched it but not with his usual state and then he turned to his daughter who had sat down close beside him with her hands upon his shoulder and looked attentively in her face father i have been made so happy this morning you have been made so happy my dear by mr clenham father he brought me such joyful and wonderful intelligence about you if he had not with his great kindness and gentleness prepared me for it father prepared me for it father i think i could have not born it her agitation was exceedingly great and the tears rolled down her face he put his hand suddenly to his heart and looked at clenham compose yourself sir said clenham and take a little time to think to think of the brightest and most fortunate accidents of life we have all heard of great surprises of joy they are not at an end sir they are rare but not at an end mr clenham not at an end not at an end for he touched himself upon the breast instead of saying me no returned clenham what surprise he asked keeping his left hand over his heart and they are stopping in his speech while with his right hand he put his glasses exactly level on the table what such surprise can be in store for me let me answer with another question tell me mr dorrit what surprise would be the most and looked for and the most acceptable to you do not be afraid to imagine it or to say what it would be he looked steadfastly at clenham and so looking at him seemed to change into a very old haggard man the sun was bright upon the wall beyond the window and on the spikes at top he slowly stretched out the hand that had been upon his heart and pointed at the wall it is down said clenham gone he remained in the same attitude looking steadfastly at him and in its place said clenham slowly and distinctly are the means to possess and enjoy the utmost that they have so long shut out mr dorrit there is not the smallest doubt that within a few days you will be free and highly prosperous i congratulate you with all my soul on this change of fortune and on the happy future into which you are soon to carry the treasure you have been blessed with here the best of all the riches you can have elsewhere the treasure at your side with those words he pressed his hand and released it and his daughter playing her face against his encircled him in the hour of his prosperity with her arms as she had in the long years of his adversity encircled him with her love and toil and truth and poured out her full heart in gratitude hope joy blissful ecstasy and all for him i shall see him as i never saw him yet i shall see my dear love with a dark cloud cleared away i shall see him as my poor mother saw him long ago oh my dear my dear oh father father oh thank god thank god he yielded himself to her kisses and caresses but did not return them except that he put an arm about her neither did he say one word his steadfast look was now divided between her and clenum and he began to shake as if he were very cold explaining to little dorrit that he would run to the coffee house for a bottle of wine arthur fetched it with all the haste he could use while it was being brought from the cellar to the bar a number of excited people asked him what had happened when he hurriedly informed them that mr. dorrit had succeeded to a fortune on coming back with the wine in his hand he found that she had placed her father in his easy chair and had loosened his shirt and necklace they filled a tumbler with wine and held it to his lips when he had swallowed a little he took the glass himself and emptied it soon after that he leaned back in his chair and cried with his handkerchief before his face after this had lasted a while clenum thought it a good season for diverting his attention from the main surprise by relating its details slowly therefore and in a quiet tone of voice he explained them as best he could and enlarged on the nature of pang's service he shall be uh he shall be handsomely recompensed sir said the father starting up and moving hurriedly about the room assure yourself mr. clenum that everybody concerned shall be uh shall be nobly rewarded no one my dear sir shall say that he has an unsatisfied claim against me i shall repay the the advances i have had from you sir with peculiar pleasure i beg to be informed that your earliest convenience what advances you have made my son he had no purpose in going about the room but he was not still a moment everybody he said shall be remembered i will not go away from here in anybody's debt all the people who have been her well behaved towards myself and my family shall be rewarded jivory shall be rewarded young john shall be rewarded i particularly wish and intend to act munificently mr. clenum will you allow me said Arthur laying his purse on the table to supply any present contingencies mr. dorrid i thought it best to bring a sum of money for the purpose thank you sir thank you i accept with readiness at the present moment what i could not an hour ago have conscientiously taken i'm obliged to you for the temporary accommodation exceedingly temporary but well timed well timed his hand had closed upon the money and he carried it about with him be so kind sir as to add the amount to those former advances to which i have already referred being careful if you please not to omit advances made to my son a mere verbal statement of the gross amount is all i shall i shall require is i fell upon his daughter at this point and he stopped for a moment to kiss her and to pat her head it will be necessary to find a milliner my love and to make a speedy and complete change in your very plain dress something must be done with magi too who at present is a barely respectable barely respectable and your sister amir and your brother and my brother your uncle poor soul i trust this will rouse him messengers must be dispatched to fetch them they must be informed of this we must break it to them cautiously but they must be informed directly we owe it as a duty to them and to ourselves from this moment not to let them um not to let them do anything this was the first intimation he had ever given that he was privy to the fact that they did something for a livelihood he was still jogging about the room with the purse clutched in his hand when a great cheering arose in the yard the news got spread already said clenham looking down from the window will you show yourself to them mr dorrid they are very earnest and they evidently wish it i um i confess i could have desired amy my dear he said jogging about in a more feverish flatter than before to have made some change in my dress first and to have bought a um a watch and chain but if it must be done as it is it um it must be done pass on the collar of my shirt my dear mr clenham would you oblige me with a blue neck cloth you will find in that drawer at your elbow button my coat across at the chest my love it looks uh it looks broder buttoned with his trembling hand he pushed his gray hair up and then taking clenham and his daughter for supporters appeared at the window leaning on an arm of each the collegians cheered him very heartily and he kissed his hand to them with great urbanity and protection when he withdrew into the room again he said poor creatures in a tone of much pity for their miserable condition little dorrid was deeply anxious that he should lie down to compose himself or neither speaking to her if he is going to inform pangs that he might now appear as soon as he would and pursue the joyful business to its close she entreated him in a whisper to stay with her until her father should be quite calm and at rest he needed no second in treaty and she prepared her father's bed and begged him to lie down for another half hour or more he would be persuaded to do nothing but go about the room discussing with himself the probabilities for and against the marshals allowing the whole of the prisoners to go to the windows of the official residence which commanded the street to see himself and family depart forever in a carriage which he said he thought would be a sight for them but gradually he began to droop and tire and at last stretched himself upon the bed she took her faithful place beside him fanning him and cooling his forehead and he seemed to be falling asleep always with the money in his hand when he unexpectedly set up and said mr clenum i beg your pardon am i to understand my dear sir that i could uh could pass through the lodge at this moment and um take a walk i think not mr dorrett was the unwilling reply there are certain forms to be completed and although your detention here is now in itself a form i fear it is one that for a little long has to be observed too and this he shed tears again it is but a few hours sir clenum cheerfully urged upon him a few hours sir he returned in a sudden passion you talk very easily of ours sir how long do you suppose sir that an hour is to a man who is choking for want of air it was his last demonstration for that time as after shedding some more tears and credulously complaining that he could not breathe he slowly fell into a slumber clenum had abandoned occupation for his thoughts as he sat in the quiet room watching the father on his bed and the daughter fanning his face little dorrett had been thinking too after softly putting his gray hair aside and touching his forehead with her lips she looked towards ather who came nearer to her and pursued in a low whisper the subject of her thoughts mr clenum will he pay all his debts before he leaves here no doubt all all the debts for which he had been imprisoned here all my life and longer no doubt there was something of uncertainty and remonstrance in her look something that was not all satisfaction he wondered to detect it and said you're glad that you should do so are you asked little dorrett wistfully am i most heartily glad then i know i ought to be and are you not it seems to me hard said little dorrett that you should have lost so many years and suffered so much and at last pay all the debts as well it seems to me hard that you should pay in life and money both my dear child clenum was beginning yes i know i am wrong she played it timidly don't think any worse of me it has grown up with me here the prison which could spoil so many things had tainted little dorrett's mind no more than this engendered as the confusion was in compassion for the poor prisoner her father it was the first speck clenum had ever seen it was the last speck clenum ever saw of the prison atmosphere upon her he thought this and for bore to say another word with the thought her purity and goodness came before him in their brightest light the little spot made them the more beautiful worn out with her own emotions and yielding to the silence of the room her hand slowly slackened and failed in its fanning movement and her head dropped down on the pillow at her father's side clenum rose softly opened and closed the door without a sound and passed from the prison carrying the quiet with him into the turbulent streets end of chapter the 35th book the first this recording is in the public domain