 CHAPTER X. BOOK THE SECOND OF LITTLE DOROT Read for LibriVox.org by Ellis Christoff. LITTLE DOROT by Charles Dickens BOOK THE SECOND. CHAPTER X. THE DREAMS OF MISSIS FLINTWINCH THICKEN The shady waiting rooms of the circumlocution office, where he passed a good deal of time in company with various troublesome convicts who were under sentence to be broken alive on that wheel, had afforded Arthur Clenum ample leisure in three or four successive days to exhaust the subject of his late glimpse of Miss Wade and Tatticorum. He had been able to make no more of it, and no less of it. And in this unsatisfactory condition he was vain to leave it. During this space he had not been to his mother's dismal old house. One of his customary evenings for repairing the there now coming round, he left his dwelling and his partner at nearly nine o'clock and slowly walked in the direction of that grim home of his youth. It always affected his imagination as wrathful, mysterious and sad, and his imagination was sufficiently impressible to see the whole neighborhood under some tinge of its dark shadow. As he went along upon a dreary night, the dim streets by which he went seemed all depositories of oppressive secrets. The deserted counting houses with their secrets of books and papers locked up in chests and safes, the banking houses with their secrets of strong rooms and wells, the keys of which were in a very few secret pockets and a very few secret breasts, the secrets of all the dispersed grinders in the vast mill, among whom there were doubtless blunderers, forgers and trust betrayers of many sorts, whom the light of any day that dawned might reveal. He could have fancied that these things in hiding imparted a heaviness to the air. The shadow thickening and thickening as he approached its source, he thought of the secrets of the lonely church walls, where the people who had hoarded and secreted in iron coffers were in their turn similarly hoarded, yet at rest from doing harm, and then of the secrets of the river, as it rolled its turbid tide between two frowning wildernesses of secrets, extending thick and dense for many miles, and warding off the free air and the free country swept by winds and wings of birds. The shadow still darkening as he drew near the house, the melancholy room which his father had once occupied, haunted by the appealing face he had himself seen fade away with him, when there was no other watcher by the bed arose before his mind. Its close air was secret, the gloom and must and dust of the whole tenement was secret. At the heart of it, his mother presided, inflexible of face, indomitable of will, firmly holding all the secrets of her own and his father's life, and austere opposing herself, front to front, to the great final secret of all life. He had turned into the narrow and steep street from which the court of enclosure where in the house stood opened, when another footstep turned into it behind him, and so close upon his own that he was jostled to the wall. As his mind was steaming with these thoughts, the encounter took him all together unprepared, so that the other passenger had had time to say boisterously, pardon, not my fault, and to pass on before the instant had elapsed, which was requisite to his recovery of the realities about him. When that moment had flashed away, he saw that the man striding on before him was the man who had been so much in his mind during the last few days. It was no casual resemblance, helped out by the force of the impression the man made upon him. It was the man, the man he had followed in company with the girl, and whom he had overheard talking to miswade. The street was a sharp descent and was crooked too, and the man, who although not drunk had the air of being flushed with some strong drink, went down it so fast that Clenum lost him as he looked at him. With no defined intention of following him, but with an impulse to keep the figure in view a little longer, Clenum quickened his pace to pass the twist in the street, which hit him from his side. On turning it, he saw the man no more. Standing now, close to the gateway of his mother's house, he looked down the street, but it was empty. There was no projecting shadow large enough to obscure the man, there was no turning near that he could have taken, nor had there been any audible sound of the opening and closing of a door. Nevertheless, he concluded that the man must have had a key in his hand and must have opened one of the many house doors and gone in. Ruminating on this strange chance and strange glimpse, he turned into the courtyard. As he looked, by mere habit, towards the feebly lighted windows of his mother's room, his eyes encountered the figure he had just lost, standing against the iron railings of the little waste enclosure, looking up at those windows and laughing to himself. Some of the many vagrant cats who were always prowling about there by night and who had taken fright at him appeared to have stopped when he had stopped and were looking at him with eyes by no means unlike his own from tops of walls and porches and other safe points of pause. He had only halted for a moment to entertain himself thus. He immediately went forward, throwing the end of his cloak off his shoulder as he went, ascended the unevenly sunken steps and knocked a sounding knock at the door. Clenham's surprise was not so absorbing but that he took his resolution without any insertitude. He went up to the door too and ascended the steps too. His friend looked at him with a braggart air and sang to himself, who passes by this road so late, compagnon de la majeolaine, who passes by this road so late, always gay. After which he knocked again. You are impatient, sir, said Arthur. I am, sir, death of my life, sir. Returned the stranger. It's my character to be impatient. The sound of Mistress Aphorie cautiously chaining the door before she opened it caused them both to look that way. Aphorie opened it very little with a flaring candle in her hands and asked who was that at that time of night with that knock. Why, Arthur, she added with astonishment seeing him first. Not you sure? Ah, Lord save us. No, she cried out seeing the other. Him again? It's true. Him again, dear Mrs. Flintwinch, cried the stranger. Open the door and let me take my dear friend Jeremiah to my arms. Open the door and let me hasten myself to embrace my Flintwinch. It's not at home, cried Aphorie. Fetch him, cried the stranger. Fetch my Flintwinch. Tell him that it is his old blond oar who comes from arriving in England. Tell him that it is his little boy who is here. His cabbage is well-beloved. Open the door, beautiful Mrs. Flintwinch, and in the meantime let me to pass upstairs to present my compliments, homage of blond oar to my lady. My lady lives always. It is well. Open then. To Arthur's increased surprise, Mistress Aphorie stretching her eyes wide at himself as if in warning that this was not a gentleman for him to interfere with, drew back the chain and opened the door. The stranger, without ceremony, walked into the hall, leaving Arthur to follow him. Dispatch then! Achieve then! Bring my Flintwinch! Announce me to my lady! cried the stranger, clanking about the stone floor. Pray tell me, Aphorie, said Arthur aloud and sternly, as he surveyed him from head to foot with indignation. Who is this gentleman? Pray tell me, Aphorie, the stranger repeated in his turn. Who, ha ha ha, who is this gentleman? The voice of Mrs. Clenum opportunely called from her chamber above. Aphorie, let them both come up! Arthur, come straight to me! Arthur exclaimed blond oar taking off his hat at arm's length and bringing his heels together from a great stride and making him a flourishing bow. The son of my lady? I am the old devoted of the son of my lady. Arthur looked at him again in no more flattering manner than before and, turning on his heel without acknowledgement, went upstairs. The visitor followed him upstairs. Mistress Aphorie took the key from behind the door and deftly slipped out to fetch her lord. A bystander informed of the previous appearance of Monsieur Blandoir in that room would have observed a difference in Mrs. Clenum's present reception of him. Her face was not one to be trade and her suppressed manner and her set voice were equally under her control. It wholly consisted in her never taking her eyes off his face from the moment of his entrance and in her twice or thrice when he was becoming noisy swaying herself a very little forward in the chair in which she sat upright with her hands immovable upon its elbows as if she gave him the assurance that he should be presently heard at any length he would. Arthur did not fail to observe this though the difference between the present occasion and the former was not within his power of observation. Madame? said Blandoir Do me the honour to present me to Monsieur, your son. It appears to me, Madame, that Monsieur, your son, is disposed to complain of me. He is not polite. Sir, said Arthur, striking inexpeditiously whoever you are and however you come to be here if I were the master of this house I would lose no time in placing you on the outside of it. But you are not, said his mother without looking at him unfortunately for the gratification of your unreasonable temper you are not the master, Arthur. I make no claim to be, mother. If I object to this person's manner of conducting himself here and object to it so much that if I had any authority here I certainly would not suffer him to remain a minute I object on your account. In the case of objection being necessary she returned I could object for myself and of course I should. The subject of their dispute who had seated himself laughed aloud and wrapped his legs with his hand. You have no right, said Mrs. Clenum always intent on Blandoir however directly she addressed her son to speak to the prejudice of any gentleman least of all a gentleman from another country because he does not conform to your standard or square his behaviour by your rules it is possible that the gentleman may on similar grounds object to you. I hope so, returned Arthur. The gentleman, pursued Mrs. Clenum on a former occasion brought a letter of recommendation to us from highly esteemed and responsible correspondents I am perfectly unacquainted with the gentleman's object in coming here at present I am entirely ignorant of it and cannot be supposed likely to be able to form the remotest guest at its nature. Her habitual frown became stronger and she very slowly and weightily emphasized those words but when the gentleman proceeds to explain his object as I shall beg him to have the goodness to do to myself and Flintwinch when Flintwinch returns it will prove no doubt to be one more or less in the usual way of our business which it will be both our business and our pleasure to advance we shall see madam said the man of business we shall see she assented the gentleman is acquainted with Flintwinch and when the gentleman was in London last I remember to have heard that he and Flintwinch had some entertainment or good fellowship together I am not in the way of knowing much that passes outside this room and the jungle of little worldly things beyond it does not much interest me but I remember to have heard that right madam it is true he laughed again and whistled the burden of the tune he had sung at the door therefore Arthur said his mother the gentleman comes here as an acquaintance and no stranger and it is much to be regretted that your unreasonable temper should have found offence in him I regret it I say so to the gentleman you will not say so I know therefore I say it for myself and Flintwinch since with us too the gentleman's business lies the key of the door below was now heard in the lock and the door was heard to open and close in due sequence Mr Flintwinch appeared on whose entrance the visitor rose from his chair laughing loud and folded him in a close embrace how goes it my cherished friend said he how goes the world my Flintwinch rose coloured so much the better so much the better ah but you look charming ah but you look young and fresh as the flowers of spring ah good little boy brave child brave child while heaping these compliments on Mr Flintwinch he rolled him about with a hand on each of his shoulders until the staggering's of that gentleman who under the circumstances was drier and more twisted than ever were like those of a teetotum nearly spent I had a presentiment last time that we should be better and more intimately acquainted is it coming on you Flintwinch is it yet coming on why no sir retorted Mr Flintwinch not unusually how don't you better be seated you have been calling for some more of that point sir I guess ah little joker little pig cried the visitor ha ha ha ha ha and throwing Mr Flintwinch away as a closing piece of railery he sat down again the amazement suspicion resentment and shame with which Arthur looked on at all this struck him dumb Mr Flintwinch who had spun backwards some two or three yards under the impetus last given to him brought himself up with a face completely unchanged in its validity except as it was affected by shortness of breath and looked hard at Arthur not a wit less reticent and wooden was Mr Flintwinch outwardly than in the usual cause of things the only perceptible difference in him being that the knot of cravat which was generally under his ear had worked round to the back of his head where it formed an ornamental appendage not unlike a bagwick and gave him something of a courtly appearance as Mrs Clenham never removed her eyes from Blandois on whom they had some effect as a steady look had on a lower sort of dog so Jeremiah never removed his from Arthur it was as if they had tacitly agreed to take their different provinces thus in the ensuing silence Jeremiah stood scraping his chin and looking at Arthur as though he were trying to screw his thoughts out of him with an instrument after a little the visitor as if he felt the silence irksome rose and impatiently put himself with his back to the sacred fire which had burned through so many years there upon Mrs Clenham said moving one of her hands for the first time and moving it very slightly with an action of dismissal please to leave us to our business Arthur mother I do so with reluctance never mind with what she returned or with what not please to leave us come back at any other time when you may consider it a duty to bury half an hour we are really here good night she held up her muffle fingers that he might touch them with his according to their usual custom and he stood over her wheeled chair to touch her face with his lips he thought then that her cheek was more strained than usual and that it was colder as he followed the direction of her eyes in rising again towards Mr Flintwin's good friend Mr Blandois Mr Blandois snapped his finger and thumb with one loud contemptuous snap I leave your business acquaintance in my mother's room Mr Flintwin's said Clenham with a great deal of surprise and a great deal of unwillingness the person referred to snapped his finger and thumb again good night mother good night I had a friend once my good comrade Flintwin's said Blandois standing astride before the fire and so evidently saying it to arrest Clenham's retreating steps that he lingered near the door I had a friend once who had heard so much of the dark side of this city and its ways that he wouldn't have confided himself alone by night with two people who had an interest in getting him under the ground my faith not even in a respectable house like this unless he was bodily too strong for them bah what a portrayal my Flintwin Che occur sir agreed occur but he wouldn't have done it my Flintwin's unless he had known them to have the will to silence him without the power he wouldn't have drunk from a glass of water and the such circumstances not even in a respectable house like this my Flintwin's unless he had seen one of them drink first and swallow too disdaining to speak and indeed not very well able for he was half choking Clenham only glanced at the visitor as he passed out the visitor saluted him with another parting snap and his nose came down over his moustache and his moustache went up under his nose in an ominous and ugly smile for heaven's sake Afery whispered Clenham as she opened the door for him in the dark hall and he groped his way to the side of the night sky what is going on here her own appearance was sufficiently ghastly standing in the dark with her apron thrown over her head and speaking behind it in a low, deadened voice don't ask me anything Arthur I've been in a dream for ever so long go away he went out and she shut the door upon him he looked up at the windows of his mother's room and the dim light deadened by the yellow blinds seemed to say a response after Afery and to matter don't ask me anything go away end of chapter the 10th book the second of Little Dorit this recording is in the public domain chapter the 11th book the second of Little Dorit read for LibriVox.org by Ellis Christoff Little Dorit by Charles Dickens book the second chapter the 11th a letter from Little Dorit Dear Mr. Clannum as I said in my last that it was best for nobody to write to me and as my sending you another little letter can therefore give you no other trouble than the trouble of reading it perhaps you may not find leisure for even that though I hope you will someday I am now going to devote an hour to writing to you again this time I write from Rome we left Venice before Mr. and Mrs. Gowen did but they were not so long upon the road as we were and did not travel by the same way and so when we arrived we found them in a lodging here in a place called the Via Gregoriana I dare say you know it now I am going to tell you all I can about them because I know that is what you most want to hear theirs is not a very comfortable lodging but perhaps I thought it less so when I first saw it than you would have done because you have been in many different countries and have seen many different customs of course it is a far far better place millions of times than any I have ever been used to until lately and I fancy I don't look at it with my own eyes but with hers for it would be easy to see that she has always been brought up in a tender and happy home even if she had not told me so with great love for it well it is a rather bare lodging up a rather dark common staircase and it is nearly all a large dull room where Mr. Gowan paints the windows are blocked up where anyone could look out and the walls have been all drawn over with chalk and charcoal by others who have lived there before oh I should think for years there is a certain more dust coloured than red which divides it and the part behind the curtain makes the private sitting room when I first saw her there she was alone and her work had fallen out of her hand and she was looking up at the sky shining through the tops of the windows pray to not be uneasy when I tell you but it was not quite so airy not so bright nor so cheerful nor so happy and youthful altogether as I should have liked it to be on account of Mr. Gowan's painting Papa's picture which I am not quite convinced I should have known from the likeness if I had not seen him doing it I have had more opportunities of being with her since then than I might have had without this fortunate chance she's very much alone very much alone indeed shall I tell you about the second time I saw her I went one day when it happened that I should run round by myself at four or five o'clock in the afternoon she was then dining alone and her solitary dinner had been brought in from somewhere over a kind of brazier with a fire in it and she had no company or prospect of company that I could see but the old man who had brought it he was telling her a long story of robbers outside the walls being taken up by a stone statue of a saint to entertain her as he said to me when I came out because he had a daughter of his own though she was not so pretty I ought now to mention Mr. Gowan before I say what little more I have to say about her he must admire her beauty and he must be proud of her where everybody praises it and he must be fond of her and I do not doubt that he is but in his way you know his way and if it appears as careless and discontented in your eyes as it does in mine I am not wrong in thinking that it might be better suited to her if it does not seem so to you I am quite sure I am wholly mistaken for your unchanged poor child confides in your knowledge and goodness more than she could ever tell you if she was to try but don't be frightened I am not going to try owing as I think if you think so too to Mr. Gowan's unsettled and dissatisfied way he applies himself to his profession very little he does nothing steadily or patiently but equally takes things up and throws them down and does them or leaves them undone without caring about them when I have heard him talking to Papa during the sittings for the picture I have started wondering whether it could be that he has no belief in anybody else because he has no belief in himself is it so? I wonder what you will say when you come to this I know how you will look and I can almost hear the voice in which you would tell me on the iron bridge Mr. Gowan goes out a good deal among what is considered the best company here though he does not look as if he enjoyed it or liked it when he is with it and she sometimes accompanies him but lately she has gone out very little I think I have noticed that they have an inconsistent way of speaking about her as if she had made some great self-interested success in marrying Mr. Gowan though at the same time the very same people would not have dreamed of taking him for themselves or their daughters then he goes into the country besides to think about making sketches and in all places where there are visitors he has a large acquaintance and is very well known besides all this he has a friend who is much in his society both at home and away from home though he treats this friend very coolly and is very uncertain in his behaviour to him I am quite sure because she has told me so that she does not like this friend he is so revolting to me too that his being away from here at present is quite a relief to my mind how much more to hers but what I particularly want you to know and why I have resolved to tell you so much while I am afraid it may make you a little uncomfortable without occasion is this she is so true and so devoted and knows so completely that all her love and duty are his forever that you may be certain she will love him admire him, praise him and conceal all his faults until she dies I believe she conceals them and always will conceal them even from herself she has given him a heart that can never be taken back and however much he may try he will never wear out its affection you know the truth of this I know everything far far better than I but I cannot help telling you what a nature she shows and that you can never think too well of her I have not yet called her by her name in this letter but we are such friends now that I do so when we are quietly together and she speaks to me by my name I mean not my Christian name but the name you gave me when she began to call me Amy I told her my short story and that you had always called me little Dorit I told her that the name was much dearer to me than any other and so she calls me little Dorit too perhaps you have not heard from her father or mother yet and may not know that she has a baby son he was born only two days ago and just a week after they came it has made them very happy however I must tell you as I am to tell you all that I fancy they are under a constraint with Mr. Gowan and that they feel as if his mocking way with them was sometimes a slight given to their love for her it was but yesterday when I was there that I saw Mr. Meagles change colour and get up and go out as if he was afraid that he might say so unless he prevented himself by that means yet I am sure they are both so considerate good-humoured and reasonable that he might spare them it is hard in him not to think of them a little more I stopped at the last full stop to read all this over it looked at first as if I was taking on myself to understand and explain so much that I was half inclined not to send it but when I thought it over a little I felt more hopeful for your knowing at once that I had only been watchful for you and had only noticed what I think I have noticed because I was quickened by your interest in it indeed you may be sure that is the truth and now I have done with the subject in the present letter and have little left to say we are all quite well and Fanny improves every day you can hardly think how kind she is to me and what pains she takes with me she has a lover who has followed her first all the way from Switzerland and then all the way from Venice and who has just confided to me that he means to follow her everywhere I was much confused by his speaking to me about it but he would I did not know what to say but at last I told him that I thought he had better not for Fanny but I did not tell him this he is much too spirited and clever to suit him still he said he would all the same I have no lover of course if you should ever get so far as this in this long letter you will perhaps say surely little Dorit will not leave off without telling me something about her travels and surely it is time she did I think it is indeed but I don't know what to tell you since we left Venice we have been in a great many wonderful places Genoa and Florence among them and have seen so many wonderful sights that I am almost giddy when I think what a crowd they make but you can tell me so much more about them than I can tell you that why should I tie you with my accounts and descriptions Dear Mr. Clenum as I had the courage to tell you what the familiar difficulties in my travelling mind were before I will not be a coward now one of my frequent thoughts is this old as these cities are their age itself is hardly so curious to my reflections as that they should have been in their places all through those days when I did not even know of the existence of more than two or three of them and when I scarcely knew of anything outside our old walls there is something melancholy in it and I don't know why when we went to see the famous leaning tower at Pisa it was a bright sunny day and it and the buildings near it looked so old and the earth and the sky looked so young and its shadow on the ground was so soft and retired I could not at first think how beautiful it was or how curious but I thought oh how many times when the shadow of the wall was falling on our room and when that weary tread of feet was going up and down the yard oh how many times this place was just as quiet and lovely as it is today it quite overpowered me my heart was so full that tears burst out of my eyes though I did what I could to restrain them and I have the same feeling often often do you know that since the change in our fortunes though I appear to myself to have dreamed more than before I have always dreamed of myself as very young indeed I am not very old you may say no but that is not what I mean I have always dreamed of myself as a child learning to do needlework I have often dreamed of myself as back there seeing faces in the yard little known and which I should have thought I had quite forgotten but as often as not I have been abroad here in Switzerland or France or Italy somewhere where we have been yet always as that little child I have dreamed of going down to Mrs. General with the patches on my clothes in which I can first remember myself I have over and over again dreamed of taking my place at dinner at Venice when we have had a large company in the morning for my poor mother which I wore when I was eight years old and wore long after it was threadbare and would meant no more it has been a great distress to me to think how irreconcilable the company would consider it with my father's wealth and how I should displease and disgrace him and fanny and Edward by so plainly disclosing what they wish to keep secret but I have not grown out of the little child in thinking of it and at the self-same moment I have dreamed that I have sat with the heartache at table calculating the expense of the dinner and quite distracting myself with thinking how there were ever to be made good I have never dreamed of the change in our fortunes itself I have never dreamed of your coming back with me that memorable morning to break it I have never ever dreamed of you Dear Mr. Clenum it is possible that I have thought of you and others so much by day that I have no thoughts left to wander around you by night for I must now confess to you that I suffer from homesickness that I long so ardently and earnestly for home as sometimes when no one sees me to pine for it I cannot bear to turn my face further away from it my heart is a little lightened when we turn towards it even for a few miles and with the knowledge that we are soon to turn away again so dearly do I love the scene of my poverty and your kindness oh so dearly, oh so dearly Heaven knows when your poor child will see England again we are all fond of the life here except me and there are no plans for our return my dear father talks of a visit to London late in this next spring on some affairs connected with the property but I have no hope that he will bring me with him I have tried to get on a little better under Mrs. General's instruction and I hope I am not quite so dull as I used to be I have begun to speak and understand almost easily the hard languages I told you about I did not remember at the moment when I wrote last that you knew them both but I remembered it afterwards and it helped me on God bless you dear Mr. Clenum do not forget your ever-grateful and affectionate little Dorit P.S. particularly remember that Minigowen deserves the best remembrance in which you can hold her you cannot think too generously or too highly of her I forgot Mr. Panks last time please, if you should see him give him your little Dorit's kind regard he was very good to Little D End of Chapter XI Book II of Little Dorit This recording is in the public domain Chapter XII Book II of Little Dorit Read for LibriVox.org by Ellis Christoff Little Dorit by Charles Dickens Book II Chapter XII in which a great patriotic conference is holding The famous name of Murdel became every day more famous in the land Nobody knew that the Murdel of such high renown had ever done any good to anyone alive or dead or to any earthly thing Nobody knew that he had any capacity or utterance of any sort in him which had ever thrown for any creature the feeblest farthing, candle ray of light on any path of duty or diversion pain or pleasure, toil or rest fact or fancy among the multiplicity of paths in the labyrinth trodden by the sons of Adam Nobody had the smallest reason for supposing the clay of which this object of worship was made to be other than the commonest clay with as clogged or wicks mouldering inside of it as ever kept an image of humanity from tumbling to pieces All people knew or thought they knew that he had made himself immensely rich and for that reason alone prostrated themselves before him more degradedly and less exclusively than the darkest savage creeps out of his hole in the ground to propitiate in some logo reptile the deity of his benighted soul nay, the high priests of this worship had the man before them as a protest against their meanness the multitude worshipped on trust though always distinctly knowing why but the officiators at the altar had the man habitually in their view they sat at his feast and he sat at theirs there was a specter always attendant on him saying to these high priests are such the signs you trust and love to honour this head, these eyes, this mode of speech the tone and manner of this man you are the levers of the circumlocution office the rulers of men when half a dozen of you fall out by the ears it seems that Mother Earth can give birth to no other rulers does your qualification lie in the superior knowledge of men which accepts, courts and puffs this man or if you are competent to judge a right the signs I never fail to show you when he appears among you is your superior honest to your qualification two rather ugly questions these always going about town with Mr. Myrtle and there was a tacit agreement that they must be stifled in Mrs. Myrtle's absence abroad Mr. Myrtle still kept the great house open for the passage through it of a stream of visitors a few of these took avable possession of the establishment three or four ladies of distinction and liveliness used to say to one another let us dine at our dear Myrtle's next Thursday whom shall we have our dear Myrtle would then receive his instructions and would sit heavily among the company at table and wander lumpishly about his drawing rooms afterwards only remarkable for appearing to have nothing to do with the entertainment beyond being in its way the chief butler, the avenging spirit of this great man's life relaxed nothing of his severity he looked on at these dinners when the bosom was not there as he looked on at other dinners when the bosom was there and his eye was a basilisk to Mr. Myrtle he was a hard man and would never bait an ounce of plate or a bottle of wine he would not allow a dinner to be given unless it was up to his mark he set forth the table for his own dignity if the guests chose to partake of what was served he saw no objection but it was served for the maintenance of his rank as he stood by the sideboard he seemed to announce I have accepted office to look at this which is now before me and to look at nothing less than this if he missed the presiding bosom it was as a part of his own state of which he was from unavoidable circumstances temporarily deprived just as he might have missed a centerpiece or a choice wine cooler which had been sent to the bankers Mr. Myrtle issued invitations for a barnacle dinner Lord Decimus was to be there Mr. Tite Barnacle was to be there the Pleasant Young Barnacle was to be there and the chorus of parliamentary barnacles who went about the provinces when the house was up were to be represented there it was understood to be a great occasion Mr. Myrtle was going to take up the barnacles some delicate little negotiations had occurred between him and the noble Decimus the young barnacle of engaging manners acting as negotiator and Mr. Myrtle had decided to cast the weight of his great property and great riches into the barnacle scale Jobbery was suspected by the militias perhaps because it was indisputable that if the adherence of the immortal enemy of mankind could have been secured by Job the barnacles would have jobbed him for the good of the country for the good of the country Mrs. Myrtle had written to this magnificent spouse of hers whom it was heresy to regard as anything less than all the British merchants since the days of Whittington rolled into one and gilded three feet deep all over had written to this spouse of hers several letters from Rome in quick succession urging upon him with importunity that now or never was the time to provide for Edmund Sparkler Mrs. Myrtle had shown him that the case of Edmund was urgent and that infinite advantages might result from his having some good thing directly in the grammar of Mrs. Myrtle's verbs on this momentous subject there was only one mood the imperative and that mood had only one tense the present Mrs. Myrtle's verbs were so pressingly presented to Mr. Myrtle to conjugate that his sluggish blood and his long coat cuffs became quite agitated in which state of agitation Mr. Myrtle evasively rolling his eyes around the chief butler's shoes without raising them to the index of that stupendous creature's thoughts had signified to him his intention of giving a special dinner not a very large dinner but a very special dinner the chief butler had signified in return that he had no objection to look on at the most expensive thing in that way that could be done and the day of the dinner was now come Mr. Myrtle stood in one of his drawing rooms with his back to the fire waiting for the arrival of his important guests he seldom or never took the liberty of standing with his back to the fire unless he was quite alone in the presence of the chief butler he could not have done such a deed he would have clasped himself by the wrists in that constabulary manner of his and have paced up and down the hearth rug or gone creeping about among the rich objects of furniture if his oppressive retainer had appeared in the room at that very moment the sly shadows which seemed to dart out of hiding when the fire rose and to dart back into it when the fire fell were sufficient witnesses of his making himself so easy they were even more than sufficient if his uncomfortable glances at them might be taken to mean anything Mr. Myrtle's right hand was filled with the evening paper and the evening paper was full of Mr. Myrtle his wonderful enterprise his wonderful wealth his wonderful bank were the fattening food of the evening paper that night the wonderful bank of which he was the chief projector establisher and manager was the latest of the many Myrtle wonders so modest was Mr. Myrtle with all in the midst of these splendid achievements that he looked far more like a man in possession of his house under a destraint than a commercial colossus bestriding his own hearth rug while the little ships were sailing into dinner behold the vessels coming into port the engaging young barnacle was the first arrival but Bar over took him on the staircase Bar strengthened as usual with his double eyeglass and his little jury droop was overjoyed to see the engaging young barnacle and opined that we were going to sit in Banco as we lawyers called it to take a special argument indeed said the sprightly young barnacle whose name was Ferdinand how so? nay, smiled Bar if you don't know how can I know you are in the innermost sanctuary of the temple I am one of the admiring concourse on the plain without Bar could be light in hand or heavy in hand according to the customer he had to deal with with Ferdinand barnacle he was gossamer Bar was likewise always modest and self-depreciatory in his way Bar was a man of great variety but one leading thread ran through the wolf of all his patterns every man with whom he had to do was in his eyes a jury man and he must get that jury man over if he could our illustrious host and friend said Bar our shining mercantile star going into politics? going? he has been in parliament some time you know returned the engaging young barnacle true said Bar with his light comedy laugh for special jury men which was a very different thing from his low comedy laugh for comic tradesmen on common juries he has been in parliament for some time yet hither to our star has been a vacillating and wavering star an average witness would have been seduced by the into an affirmative answer but Ferdinand barnacle looked knowingly at Bar as he strolled upstairs and gave him no answer at all just so, just so said Bar nodding his head for he was not to be put off in that way and therefore I spoke of our sitting in barnacle to take a special argument meaning this to be a high and solemn occasion when as captain Macaeth says the judges are met, a terrible show we lawyers are sufficiently liberal you see to quote the captain though the captain is severe upon us nevertheless I think I could put in evidence an admission of the captains Bar with a little jocose roll of his head for in his legal current of speech he always assumed the air of rallying himself with the best grace in the world an admission of the captains that law in the groves is at least intended to be impartial for what says the captain if I quote him correctly and if not, with a light comedy touch of his double eyeglass on his companion's shoulder my learned friend will set me right since laws were made for every degree to curb vice in others as well as in me I wonder we aren't better company upon Tyburn tree these words brought them to the drawing room where Mr. Myrtle stood before the fire so immensely astounded was Mr. Myrtle by the entrance of Bar with such a reference in his mouth that Bar explained himself to have been quoting gay assurately not one of our Westminster whole authorities said he but still no despicable one to a man possessing the largely practical Mr. Myrtle's knowledge of the world Mr. Myrtle looked as if he thought he would say something but subsequently looked as if he thought he wouldn't the interval afforded time for Bishop to be announced Bishop came in with meekness and yet with a strong and rapid step as if he wanted to get his seven league dress shoes on and go round the world to see that everybody was in a satisfactory state Bishop had no idea that there was anything significant in the occasion that was the most remarkable trait of his demeanor he was crisp, fresh, cheerful, affable, bland but so surprisingly innocent Bar sidled up to prefer his politest inquiries in reference to the health of Mrs. Bishop Mrs. Bishop had been a little unfortunate in the article of taking cold at a confirmation but otherwise was well young Mr. Bishop was also well he was down with his young wife and little family at his cure of souls the representatives of the barnacle chorus dropped in next and Mr. Myrtle's physician dropped in next Bar, who had a bit of one eye a bit of his double eye glass for everyone who came in at the door no matter with whom he was conversing or what he was talking about got among them all by some skillful means without being seen to get at them and touched each individual gentleman of the jury on his own individual favorite spot with some of the chorus he laughed about the sleepy member who had gone out into the lobby the other night and voted the wrong way with others he deplored that innovating spirit in the time could not even be prevented from taking an unnatural interest in the public service and the public money with the physician he had a word to say about the general health he had also a little information to ask him for concerning a professional man of unquestioned erudition and polished manners but those credentials in their highest development he believed were the possession of other professors of the healing art jury droop whom he had happened to have in the witness box the day before yesterday and from whom he had elicited in cross-examination that he claimed to be one of the exponents of this new mode of treatment which appeared to Barr to well, Barr thought so Barr had thought and hoped physician would tell him so without presuming to decide where doctors disagreed it did appear to Barr viewing it as a question of common sense and not of so-called legal penetration that this new system was, might be in the presence of so great an authority say humbug ah, fortified by such encouragement he could venture to say humbug and now Barr's mind was relieved Mr. Tide Barnacle who, like Dr. Johnson's celebrated acquaintance had only one idea in his head and that was a wrong one had appeared by this time this eminent gentleman and Mr. Murdell seated diverse ways and with ruminating aspects on a yellow ottoman in the light of the fire holding no verbal communication with each other bore a strong general resemblance to the two cows in the Kai picture over against them but now Lord Desimus arrived the chief butler who up to this time had limited himself to a branch of his usual function by looking at the company as they entered and sat with more of defiance than favour put himself so far out of his way as to come upstairs with him and announce him Lord Desimus being an overpowering peer a bashful young member of the lower house who was the last fish but one caught by the barnacles and who had been invited on this occasion to commemorate his capture shut his eyes when his lordship came in Lord Desimus nevertheless was glad to see the member he was also glad to see Mr. Murdell glad to see bishop glad to see bar glad to see physician glad to see tight barnacle glad to see chorus glad to see Ferdinand his private secretary Lord Desimus though one of the greatest of the earth was not remarkable for ingratiatory manners and Ferdinand had coached him up to the point of noticing all the fellows he might find there was glad to see them when he had achieved this rush of vivacity and condescension his lordship composed himself into the picture after kaip and made a third cow in the group bar who felt that he had got all the rest of the jury and must now lay hold of the foreman soon came sidling up double eyed glass in hand bar tendered the weather as a subject neatly aloof from official reserve for the foreman's consideration bar said that he was told as everybody always is told though who tells them and why will ever remain a mystery that there was to be no wall fruit this year Lord Desimus had not heard anything amiss of his speeches but rather believed if his people were correct he was to have no apples no apples bar was lost in astonishment and concern it would have been all one to him in reality if there had not been a pippin on the surface of the earth but his show of interest in this apple question was positively painful now to what Lord Desimus for we trouble some lawyers loved to gather information and could never tell how useful it might prove to us to what Lord Desimus was this to be attributed Lord Desimus could not undertake to propound any theory about it this might have stopped another man but a bar sticking to him fresh as ever said as to pairs now long after bar got made attorney general this was told of him as a masterstroke Lord Desimus had a reminiscence about a pear tree formally growing in a garden near the back of his dames house at Eton upon which pear tree the only joke of his life perennially bloomed it was a joke of a compact and portable nature turning on the difference between Eton pairs and parliamentary pairs but it was a joke a refined relish of which would seem to have appeared to Lord Desimus impossible to be had without a thorough and intimate acquaintance with the tree therefore the story at first had no idea of such a tree sir then gradually found it in winter carried it through the changing season saw it bud saw it blossom saw it bear fruit saw the fruit ripen in short cultivated the tree in that diligent and minute manner before it got out of the bedroom window to steal the fruit that many thanks had been offered up by belated listeners for the trees having been planted and grafted prior to Lord Desimus' time bar's interest in apples was so overtopped by the rapt suspense in which he pursued his pairs from the moment when Lord Desimus solemnly opened with your mentioning pairs recalls to my remembrance a poetry down to the rich conclusion and so we pass through the various changes of life from Eton pairs to parliamentary pairs that he had to go downstairs with Lord Desimus and even then to be seated next to him at table in order that he might hear the anecdote out by that time bar felt that he had secured the foreman and might go to dinner with a good appetite it was a dinner to provoke an appetite though he had not had one the rarest dishes sumptuously cooked and sumptuously served the choicest fruits the most exquisite wines marvels of workmanship in gold and silver, china and glass innumerable things delicious to the senses of taste smell and sight were insinuated into its composition oh what a wonderful man this model, what a great man what a master man how blessedly and enviably endowed in one word what a rich man he took his usual poor 18 penny worth of food in his usual indigestive way and had as little to save for himself as even a wonderful man had fortunately Lord Decimus was one of those sublimities who had no occasion to be talked to for they can be at any time sufficiently occupied with the contemplation of their own greatness this enabled the bashful young member to keep his eyes open long enough at a time to see his dinner but whenever Lord Decimus spoke he shut them again the agreeable young barnacle and bar were the talkers of the party bishop would have been exceedingly agreeable also but that his innocence stood in his way he was so soon left behind when there was any little hint of anything being in the wind he got lost directly worldly affairs were too much for him he couldn't make them out at all this was observable when Bar said incidentally that he was happy to have heard that we were soon to have the advantage of enlisting on the good side the sound and plain sagacity not demonstrative or ostentatious but thoroughly sound and practical of our friend Mr. Sparkler Ferdinand Barnacle laughed and said oh yes he believed so a vote was a vote and always acceptable Bar was sorry to miss our good friend Mr. Sparkler today Mr. Murdole he is always with Mrs. Murdole returned that gentleman slowly coming out of a long abstraction in the cause of which he had been fitting a table spoon up his sleeve it is not indispensable for him to be on the spot the magic name of Murdole said Bar with the jury droop no doubt will suffice for all why yes I believe so ascended Mr. Murdole putting his spoon aside and clumsily hiding each of his hands in the coat cuff I believe the people in my interest down there will not make any difficulty modal people said Bar I am glad you approve of them said Mr. Murdole and the people of those two places now pursued Bar with a bright twinkle in his keen eye as it slightly turned in the direction of his magnificent neighbor we lawyers are always curious always inquisitive always picking up odds and ends for our patchwork minds since there is no knowing when and where they may fit into some corner the people of those are the two places now do they yield so lordably to the vast and cumulative influence of such enterprise and such renown do those little rills become absorbed so quietly and easily and as it were by the influence of natural laws so beautifully in the swoop of the majestic stream as it flows upon its wondrous way enriching the surrounding lands that their course is perfectly to be calculated and distinctly to be predicated Mr. Murdole a little troubled by Bar's eloquence looked fitfully about the nearest soul cellar for some moments and then said hesitating they are perfectly aware sir of their duty to society they will return anybody I send to them for that purpose cheering to know cheering to know the three places in question were three little rotten holes in this island containing three little ignorant drunken guzzling, dirty out of the way constituencies that had reeled into Mr. Murdole's pocket Ferdinand Barnacle laughed in his easy way and airily said there were a nice set of fellows bishop mentally perambulating among paths of peace was altogether swallowed up in absence of mind pray asked Lord Decimus casting his eyes around the table what is this story I have heard of a gentleman long confined in a debtor's prison proving to be of a wealthy family and having come into the inheritance of a large sum of money I have met with a variety of illusions to it do you know anything of it Ferdinand I only know this much said Ferdinand that he was given the department with which I have the honour to be associated this sparkling young Barnacle threw off the phrase sportively as who should say we know all about these forms of speech but we must keep it up we must keep the game alive no end of trouble and has put us into innumerable fixes fixes repeated Lord Decimus with a majestic pausing and pondering on the words that made the bashful member shut his eyes quite tight fixes a very perplexing business indeed observed Mr. Tight Barnacle with an air of grave resentment what said Lord Decimus was the character of his business what was the nature of these oh fixes Ferdinand oh it's a good story as a story returned that gentleman as good a thing of its kind as need be this Mr. Dorit his name is Dorit had incurred a responsibility to us ages before the fairy came out of the bank and gave him his fortune under a bond he had signed for the performance of a contract which was not at all performed he was a partner in a house in some large way spirits or buttons or wine or blacking or oatmeal or woollen or pork hooks and eyes or iron or treacle or shoes or something or rather that was wanted for troops or semen or somebody and the house burst and we being among the creditors detainees were lodged on the part of the crown in a scientific manner and all the rest of it when the fairy had appeared and he wanted to pay us off egot we had got into such an exemplary state of checking and counter-checking signing and countersigning that it was six months before we knew how to take the money or how to give a receipt for it it was a triumph of public business said this handsome young barnacle laughing heartily you never saw such a lot of forms in your life why the attorney said to me one day if I wanted this office to give me two or three thousand pounds instead of take it I couldn't have more trouble about it you are right old fellow I told him and in future you'll know that we have something to do here the pleasant young barnacle finished by one small laughing heartily he was a very easy pleasant fellow indeed and his manners were exceedingly winning Mr. Tide Barnacle's view of the business was of a less airy character he took it ill that Mr. Dorit had troubled the department by wanting to pay the money and considered it a grossly informal thing to do after so many years but Mr. Tide Barnacle was a buttoned up man and consequently a weighty one all buttoned up men are weighty all buttoned up men are believed in whether or no the reserved and never exercised power of unbuttoning fascinates mankind whether or no wisdom is supposed to condense and augment when buttoned up and to evaporate when unbuttoned it is certain that the man to whom importance is accorded is the buttoned up man Mr. Tide Barnacle never would have passed for half his current value unless his code had been always to his wide cravat may I ask said Lord Decimus if Mr. Dorit or Dorit has any family nobody else replying the host said he has two daughters my lord oh you are acquainted with him asked Lord Decimus Mrs. Myrtle is Mr. Sparkler is too in fact said Mr. Myrtle I rather believe that one young ladies has made an impression on Edmund Sparkler he is susceptible and I think the conquest here Mr. Myrtle stopped and looked at the table cloth as he usually did when he found himself observed or listened to Bar was uncommonly pleased to find that the Myrtle family and this family had already been brought into contact he submitted in a low voice across the table to Bishop that there was a kind of analogical illustration of those physical laws in virtue of which like flies to like he regarded this power of attraction and wealth to draw wealth to it as something remarkably interesting and curious something indefinably allied to the lodestone and gravitation Bishop who had ambled back to earth again when the present theme was broached acquiesced he said it was indeed highly important that the trying situation of an expectedly finding himself invested with the power for good or for evil in society should become as it were merged in the superior power of a more legitimate and more gigantic growth the influence of which as in the case of our friend at whose board we sat was habitually exercised in harmony with the best interests of society thus instead of two rival and contending flames a larger and a lesser each burning with a lurid and uncertain glare we had a blended and a softened light whose genial ray diffused an equitable warmth throughout the land Bishop seemed to like his own way of putting the case very much and rather dwelt upon it bar meanwhile not to throw away a jury man making a show of sitting at his feet and feeding on his precepts the dinner and dessert being three hours long the bashful member cooled in the shadow of Lord Decimus faster than he warmed with food and drink and had but a chilly time of it Lord Decimus like a tall tower in a flat country seemed to project himself across the tablecloth hide the light from the honorable member cool the honorable member's marrow and give him a woeful idea of distance when he asked this unfortunate traveller to take wine he encompassed his faltering steps the gloomiest of shades and when he said your health sir all around him was barrenness and desolation at length Lord Decimus with a coffee cup in his hand began to hover about among the pictures and to cause an interesting speculation to arise in all minds as to the probabilities of his ceasing to hover and enabling the smaller birds to flutter upstairs which could not be done until he had urged his noble opinions in that direction after some delay and several stretches of his wings which came to nothing he soared to the drawing rooms and here a difficulty arose which always does arise when two people are specially brought together at a dinner to confer with one another everybody except bishop who had no suspicion of it knew perfectly well that this dinner had been eaten and drunk specifically to the end that Lord Decimus and Mr. Murdell have five minutes conversation together the opportunity so elaborately prepared was now arrived and it seemed from that moment that no mere human ingenuity could so much as get the two chieftains into the same room Mr. Murdell and his noble guest persisted in prowling about at opposite ends of the perspective it was in vain for the engaging Ferdinand to bring Lord Decimus to look at the bronze horses near Mr. Murdell then Mr. Murdell evaded and wandered away it was in vain for him to bring Mr. Murdell to Lord Decimus to tell him the history of the unique Dresden vases then Lord Decimus evaded and wandered away while he was getting his man up to the mark did you ever see such a thing as this said Ferdinand to Bar when he had been baffled 20 times often returned Bar unless I but one of them into an appointed corner and you but the other said Ferdinand it will not come off after all very good said Bar I'll but Murdell if you like but not my Lord Ferdinand laughed in the midst of his vexation confound them both said he looking at his watch I want to get away why the Jews can they come together they both know what they want and mean to do look at them they were still looming at opposite ends of the perspective each with an absurd pretence of not having the other on his mind which could not have been more transparently ridiculous though his real mind had been chalked on his back bishop who had just now made a third with Bar and Ferdinand but whose innocence had again cut him out of the subject and washed him in sweet oil was seen to approach Lord Decimus and glide into conversation I must get Murdell's doctor to catch and secure my suppose and then I must lay hold of my illustrious kinsman and decoy him if I can drag him if I can't to the conference since you do me the honor said Bar with his slyest smile to ask for my poor aid it shall be yours with the greatest pleasure I don't think this is to be done by one man but if you will undertake to pen my Lord into that furthest drawing room where he is now so profoundly engaged I will undertake to bring our dear Murdell into the presence without the possibility of getting away done said Ferdinand done said Bar Bar was a sight wondrous to behold and full of matter when jointly waving his double eyeglass by its ribbon and jointly drooping to an universe of jury men he in the most accidental manner ever seen found himself at Mr. Murdell's shoulder and embraced that opportunity of mentioning a little point to him on which he particularly wished to be guided by the light of his practical knowledge here he took Mr. Murdell's arm and walked him gently away a banker whom we would call A B advanced a considerable sum of money which we would call 15,000 pounds to a client or customer of his whom he would call P Q as they were getting towards Lord Decimus he held Mr. Murdell tight as a security for the repayment of his advance to P Q whom we would call a widow lady there were placed in A B's hands the title deeds of a free hold estate which we would call Blinketer Doddles now the point was this a limited right of felling and lopping in the woods of Blinketer Doddles lay in the sun of P Q then passed his majority and whom we would call X Y but really this was too bad in the presence of Lord Decimus to detain the host with chopping out the dry chaff of law was really too bad another time B was truly repentant and would not say another syllable would Bishop favor him with half a dozen words he had now set Mr. Murdell down on a couch side by side with Lord Decimus and to it they must go now or never and now the rest of the company highly excited and interested always accepting Bishop who had not the slightest idea that anything was going on formed in one group round the fire in the next drawing room and pretending to be chatting easily on the infinite variety of small topics while everybody's thoughts and eyes were secretly straying towards the secluded pair the chorus were excessively nervous perhaps as laboring under the dreadful apprehension that some good thing was going to be diverted from them Bishop alone talked steadily and evenly he conversed with the great physician on that relaxation of the throat with which young curates were too frequently afflicted and on the means of lessening the great prevalence of that disorder in the church physician as a general rule was of opinion that the best way to avoid it was to know how to read before you made a profession of reading Bishop said dubiously did he really think so and physician said decidedly yes he did Ferdinand meanwhile was the only one of the party who skirmished on the outside of the circle he kept about midway between it and the two as if some sort of surgical operation were being performed by lord decimus on mr. muddle or by mr. muddle on lord decimus and his services might at any moment provide as dresser in fact within a quarter of an hour lord decimus called to him Ferdinand and he went and took his place in the conference for some five minutes more then a half suppressed gasp broke out among the chorus for lord decimus rose to take his leave again coached up by Ferdinand to the point of making himself popular he shook hands in the most brilliant manner with the whole company and even said to bar I hope you are not bored by my pairs to which bar retorted eaten my lord or parliamentary neatly showing that he had mastered the joke and delicately insinuating that he could never forget it while his life remained all the grave importance that was buttoned up in mr. tight barnacle took itself away next and Ferdinand took himself away next to the opera some of the rest lingered a little carrying golden liqueur glasses to ball tables with sticky rings on the desperate chance of mr. muddle saying something but muddle as usual oozed sluggishly and muddily about his drawing room saying never a word in a day or two it was announced to all the town that Edmund sparkler Esquire son in law of the eminent mr. muddle of worldwide renown was made one of the lords of the circumlocution office the commission was issued to all true believers that this admirable appointment was to be hailed as a graceful and gracious mark of homage rendered by the graceful and gracious decimus to that commercial interest which must ever in a great commercial country and all the rest of it with blast of trumpet so bolstered by this mark of government homage the wonderful bank and all the other wonderful undertakings went on and went up and gapers came to Harley street Cavendish square only to look at the house where the golden wonder lived and when they saw the chief butler looking out at the whole door in his moments of condescension the gapers said how rich he looked and wondered how much money he had in the wonderful bank but if they had known that respectable nemesis better they would not have wondered about it and might have stated the amount with utmost precision to stay a moral infection as a physical one that such a disease will spread with the malignity and rapidity of the plague that the contagion when it has once made head will spare no pursuit or condition but will lay hold on people in their soundest health and become developed in the most unlikely constitutions is a factors firmly established by experience as that we human creatures breathe an atmosphere lessing beyond appreciation would be conferred upon mankind if the tainted in whose weakness or wickedness these virulent disorders are bred could be instantly seized and placed in close confinement not to say summarily smothered before the poison is communicable as a vast fire will fill the air to a great distance with its raw so the sacred flame which the mighty barnacles had found caused the air to resound more and more with the name of Myrtle it was deposited on every lip and carried into every air there never was there never had been there never again should be such a man as Mr. Myrtle nobody, as aforesaid knew what he had done but everybody knew him to be the greatest that had appeared down in bleeding hardyard where there was not one unappropriated hapeny as lively an interest was taken in this paragon of men as on the stock exchange Mrs. Plournish now established in the small grocery and general trade in a snug little shop at the crack end of the yard at the top of the steps with her little old father and Maggie acting as assistants habitually held forth about him over the counter in conversation with her customers Mr. Plournish who had a small share in a small builder's business in the neighborhood said on the tops of scaffolds and on the tiles of houses that people did tell him as Mr. Myrtle was the one mind you to put us all to rights in respects of that which all on us looked to and to bring us all safe home as much as we needed mind you Mr. Baptist so lodger of Mr. and Mrs. Plournish was reputed in whispers to lay by the savings which were the result of his simple and moderate life for investment in one of Mr. Myrtle's certain enterprises the female bleeding hearts when they came for ounces of tea and hundred weights of torque gave Mrs. Plournish to understand that how ma'am they had heard from their cousin Mary Anne which worked in the line that his ladies dresses would fill three wagons that how she was as handsome a lady ma'am who lived no matter wears and a busk like marble itself that how according to what they were stored ma'am it was her son by a former husband as was took into the government and the general he had been and armies he had marched again and victory crowned if all you heard was to be believed that how it was reported that Mr. Myrtle's words had been that if they could have made it worth his while to take the whole government he would have took it without a profit but that take it he could not and stand a loss that how it was not to be expected ma'am that he should lose by it his ways being as you might say and utter no falsehood paved with gold but that how it was much to be regretted that something handsome hadn't been got up to make it worth his while for it was such and only such that knowed the height to which the bread and butcher's meat had rose it was such and only such that both could and would bring that height down so rife and potent was the fever in bleeding heart-yard that Mr. Panks rend days cause no interval in the patients the disease took the singular form on those occasions of causing the infected to find an unfathomable excuse and consolation in allusions to the magic name now then Mr. Panks would say to a defaulting lodger pay up come on I haven't got it Mr. Panks defaulted would reply I tell you the truth sir when I say I haven't got so much as a single sixpence of it to bless myself with this won't do you know Mr. Panks would retort you don't expect it will do do you defaulted would admit with a low spirited no sir having no such expectation my proprietor isn't going to stand this you know Mr. Panks would proceed you don't say me a for this pay up come the defaulted would make answer oh Mr. Panks if I was the regent of Manu's name is in everybody's mouth if my name was Myrtle sir I'd soon pay up and be glad to do it dialogues on the rend question usually took place at the house doors or in the entries and in the presence of several deeply interested bleeding hearts they always receive a reference of this kind with a low murmur of response as if it were convincing and the defaulter however black and discomforted before always cheered up a little in making it if I was Mr. Myrtle sir you wouldn't have cause to complain of me then no believe me the defaulter would proceed with a shake of the head I'd pay up so quick then Mr. Panks that you shouldn't have to ask me the response would be heard again here implying that it was impossible to say anything fairer and that this was the next thing to paying the money down Mr. Panks would be now reduced to saying as he booked the case well, you will have the broker in and be turned out that's what'll happen to you it's no use talking to me about Mr. Myrtle you are not Mr. Myrtle anymore than I am no sir the defaulter would reply I only wish you were him sir you'd be easier with us if you were Mr. Myrtle sir the defaulter would go on with rising spirits and it would be better for all parties better for our sakes and better for yours too you wouldn't have to worry no one then sir you wouldn't have to worry us and you wouldn't have to worry yourself it'd be easier in your own mind sir and you'd leave others easier too you would if you were Mr. Myrtle Mr. Panks in whom these impersonal compliments produced an irresistible sheepishness never allied after such a charge he could only bite his nails and puff away to the next defaulter the responsive bleeding hearts would then gather round the defaulter whom he had just abandoned and the most extravagant rumours would circulate among them to their great comfort touching the amount of Mr. Myrtle's ready money from one of the many such defeats of one of many rent days Mr. Panks having finished his day's collection repaired with his notebook under his arm to Mrs. Plawnish corner Mr. Panks' object was not professional but social he had had a trying day and wanted a little brightening by this time he was on friendly terms with the Plawnish family having often looked in upon them at similar seasons and borne his part in recollections of Miss Dorit Mrs. Plawnish's shoppala had been decorated with his own eye and presented, on the side towards the shop a little fiction in which Mrs. Plawnish unspeakably rejoiced this poetical heightening of the pala consisted in the well being painted to represent the exterior of a thatched cottage the artist having introduced in as effective a manner as he found compatible with their highly disproportionate dimensions the real door and window the modest sunflower and hollyhock were depicted as flourishing with great luxuriance on this rusting dwelling while a quantity of dense smoke issuing from the chimney indicated good cheer within and also perhaps that it had not been lately swept a faithful dog was represented as flying at the legs of the friendly visitor from the threshold and a circular pigeon house enveloped in a cloud of pigeons arose from behind the garden pailing when it was shut appeared the semblance of a brass plate presenting the inscription happy cottage T and M Plawnish the partnership expressing man and wife no poetry and no art ever charmed the imagination more than the union of the two in this counterfeit cottage charmed Mrs. Plawnish it was nothing to her that Plawnish had a habit of leaning against it as he smoked his pipe after work when his head pointed out the pigeon house and all the pigeons when his back swallowed up the dwelling when his hands in his pockets uprooted the blooming garden and laid waste the adjacent country to Mrs. Plawnish it was still a most beautiful cottage a most wonderful deception and it made no difference that Mr. Plawnish sigh was some inches above the level of the gable bedroom in the thatch to come out into the shop after it was shut near her father sing a song inside this cottage was a perfect pastoral to Mrs. Plawnish the golden age revived and truly if that famous period had been revived or had ever been at all it may be doubted whether it would have produced many more heartily admiring daughters than the poor woman warned of a visitor by the tinkling bell at the shop door Mrs. Plawnish came out of happy cottage to see who it might be I guess it was you Mr. Panks said she for it's quite your regular night ain't it? here's father you see come out to serve at the sound of the bell like a brisky young shopman ain't it looking well father's more pleased to see you that if you was a customer for he dearly loves a gossip and when he turns upon misdor it he loves it all the more you never heard father in such voice as he is at present said Mrs. Plawnish her own voice quavering she was so proud and pleased he gave a stref and last night to that degree that Plawnish gets up and makes him this speech across the table John Edward Nandy says Plawnish to father I never heard you come the warbles as I have heard you come the warbles this night ain't it gratifying Mr. Panks though really? Mr. Panks who had snorted at the old man in his friendliest manner replied in the affirmative and casually asked whether that lively Mr. Chap had come in yet Mrs. Plawnish answered no not yet though he had gone to the west end with some work and had said he should be back by tea time Mr. Panks was then hospitably pressed into happy cottage where he encountered the elder master Plawnish just come home from school examining that young student lightly on the educational proceedings of the day he found that the more advanced pupils who were in the large text letter M had been set the copy MIRDAL MILLIONS and how are you getting on Mrs. Plawnish said Panks since we're mentioning millions very steady indeed sir returned Mrs. Plawnish father dear would you go into the shop and tidy the window a little bit before tea your taste being so beautiful John Edward Nandy trotted away much gratified to comply with his daughter's request Mrs. Plawnish who was always in mortal terror of mentioning pecuniary affairs before the old gentleman lest any disclosure she made might rouse his spirit and induce him to run away to the workhouse was thus left free to be confidential with Mr. Panks it's quite true that the business is very steady indeed said Mrs. Plawnish lowering her voice and has an excellent connection the only thing that stands in its way sir is the credit this drawback rather severely felt by most people who engaged in commercial transactions with the inhabitants of Bleeding Heartyard was a large stumbling block in Mrs. Plawnish Strait when Mr. Doret had established her in the business the Bleeding Hearts had shown an amount of emotion and a determination to support her in it that did honor to human nature recognizing her claim upon their generous feelings as one who had long been a member of their community they pledged themselves with great feeling to deal with Mrs. Plawnish come what would and bestow their patronage on no other establishment influenced by these noble sentiments they had even gone out of their way to purchase little luxuries in the grocery and bottle line to which they were accustomed saying to one another that if they did stretch a point was it not for a neighbor and a friend and for whom ought a point to be stretched if not for such so stimulated the business was extremely brisk and the articles in stock went off with the greatest celerity in short if the Bleeding Hearts had but paid the undertaking would have been a complete success whereas by reason of their exclusively confining themselves to owing the profits actually realized had not yet begun to appear in the books Mr. Panks was making a very porcupine of himself by sticking his hair up in the contemplation of this state of accounts when old Mr. Nandi reentering the cottage with an air of mystery entreated them to come and look at the strange behavior of Mr. Baptist who seemed to have met with something that had scared him all three going into the shop and watching through the window then saw Mr. Baptist pale and agitated go through the following extraordinary performances first he was observed hiding at the top of the steps leading down into the yard and peeping up and down the street with his head cautiously thrust out close to the side of the shop door after very anxious scrutiny he came out of his retreat and when briskly down the street as if he were going away altogether then suddenly turned about and went at the same pace and with the same faint up the street he had gone no further up the street than he had gone down when he crossed the road and disappeared the object of this last maneuver was only apparent when he's entering the shop with a sudden twist from the steps again explained that he had made a wide and obscure circuit round to the other or Doris and Clenum end of the yard and had come through the yard and bolted in he was out of breath by that time as he might well be and his heart seemed to jerk faster than the little shop bell as it quivered and jingled behind him with his hasty shouting of the door hello old chap said Mr. Panks ultra old boy what's the matter Mr. Baptist or Sr. Cavalletto understood English now almost as well as Mr. Panks himself and could speak it very well too nevertheless Mrs. Plournish with a pardonable vanity in that accomplishment of hers which made her all but Italian stepped in as interpreter he asked no said Mrs. Plournish what go wrong come into the happy little cottage Padrona returned Mr. Baptist imparting great stealthiness to his flurried backhanded shake of his right forefinger come there Mrs. Plournish was proud of the title Padrona which she regarded as signifying not so much mistress of the house as mistress of the Italian tongue she immediately complied with Mr. Baptist's request and they all went into the cottage a opi no fright said Mrs. Plournish then interpreting Mr. Panks in a new way with her usual fertility of resource what happen pica padrona I have seen someone returned Baptist I have re-encontrato him him who him asked Mrs. Plournish a bad man a baddest man I have hoped that I should never see him again are you knowing bad asked Mrs. Plournish it does not matter Padrona I know it too well ACU asked Mrs. Plournish I hope not I believe not he says Mrs. Plournish then interpreted addressing her father and panks with mild condescension that he has met a bad man but he hopes the bad man didn't see him why inquired Mrs. Plournish reverting to the Italian language why op bad man no see Padrona dearest returned a little foreigner whom she so considerably protected do not ask I pray once again I say it matters not I have fear of this man I do not wish to see him I do not wish to be known of him never again enough most beautiful leave it the topic was so disagreeable to him and so put his usual liveliness to the route that Mrs. Plournish forbore to press him further the rather as the tea had been drawing for some time on the hob but she was not the less surprised and curious for asking no more questions neither was Mr. Panks whose expressive breathing had been laboring hard since the entrance of the little man like a locomotive engine with a great load getting up a steep incline Maggie now better dressed than of your though still faithful to the monstrous character of her cap had been in the background from the first with open mouth and eyes which staring and gaping features were not diminished in breadth by the untimely suppression of the subject however no more was said about it though much appeared to be thought on all sides by no means accepting the two young Plournish's who partook of the evening meal as if their eating the bread and butter were rendered almost superfluous by the painful probability of the worst of men shortly presenting himself for the purpose of eating them Mr. Baptist by degrees began to chirp a little but never stirred from the seat he had taken behind the door and close to the window though it was not his usual place as often as the little bell rang he started and peeped out secretly with the end of the little curtain in his hand and the rest before his face evidently not at all satisfied but that the man he dreaded had tracked him through all his doublings and turnings with the certainty of a terrible bloodhound the entrance at various times of two or three customers and of Mr. Plournish gave Mr. Baptist just enough of this employment to keep the attention of the company fixed upon him he was over and the children were a bed and Mrs. Plournish was feeling her way to the dutiful proposal that her father should favour them with Chloe when the bell rang again and Mr. Clenum came in Clenum had been pouring late over his books and letters for the waiting rooms of the circumlocution office ravaged his time sorely over and above that he was depressed and made uneasy by the later currents at his mothers he looked worn and solitary he felt so too but nevertheless was returning home from his counting house by that end of the yard the intelligence that he had received another letter from Mr. Dorit the news made a sensation in the cottage which drew off the general attention from Mr. Baptist Maggie who pushed her way into the foreground immediately would have seemed to draw in the tidings of her little mother equally at her ears nose, mouth and eyes but that the last were obstructed by tears she was particularly delighted when Clenum assured her that there were hospitals and very kindly conducted hospitals in Rome Mr. Panks rose into new distinction in virtue of being specially remembered in the letter everybody was pleased and interested and Clenum was well repaid for his trouble but you're tired sir let me make your cup of tea said Mrs. Plournish if it can't descend a take such a thing in the cottage and many thanks to you too I am sure for bearing us in mind so kindly Mr. Plournish deeming it incumbent on him as host to add his personal acknowledgement tendered them in the form which always expressed his highest ideal of a combination of ceremony with sincerity John Edward Nandy said Mr. Plournish addressing the old gentleman sir it's not too often that you see unpretending actions without a spark of pride and therefore when you see them give grateful honor unto the same being that if you don't and live to want them it follows serve you right to which Mr. Nandy replied I am heartily of your opinion Thomas and which your opinion is the same as mine and therefore no more words and not being backwards with that opinion which opinion giving it as yes Thomas yes is the opinion in which yourself and me must ever be unanimously all and there there is not difference of opinion there can be none but one opinion which fully know Thomas Thomas know Arthur with less formality expressed himself gratified by their high appreciation of so very slight and attention on his part and explained as to the tea that he had not yet dined and was going straight home to refresh after a long days labor or he would have readily accepted the inevitable offer as Mr. Panks was somewhat noisily getting his steam up for departure he concluded by asking that gentleman if he would walk with him Mr. Panks said he desired no better engagement and the two took leave of happy cottage if you will come home with me Panks said Arthur when they got into the street and will share what dinner or supper there is it will be next door to an act of charity for I am weary and out of sorts tonight ask me to do a greater thing than that said Panks when you want it done and I'll do it between this eccentric personage and clenum a tacit understanding and accord had been always improving since Mr. Panks flew over Mr. Ruggs back in the Marshall sea yard when the carriage drove away on the memorable day of the family's departure these two had looked after it together and had walked slowly away together when the first letter came from little Dorit nobody was more interested in hearing of her than Mr. Panks the second letter at that moment in clenum's breast pocket particularly remembered him by name though he had never before made any professional protestation to clenum and though what he had just said was little enough as to the words in which it was expressed clenum had long had a growing belief that Mr. Panks in his own odd way was becoming attached to him all these strings intertwining made Panks a very cable of anchorage that night I am quite alone Arthur explained as they walked on my partner is away busy engaged at a distance of his branch of our business and you shall do just as you like thank you you didn't take particular notice of the little ultra just now did you said Panks why he's a bright fellow and I like him said Panks something has gone amiss with him today have you any idea of any cause that can have over said him you surprise me none whatever Mr. Panks gave his reasons for the inquiry Arthur was quite unprepared for them and quite unable to suggest an explanation of them perhaps you'll ask him said Panks as he is a stranger to him what returned Clenum what he has on his mind I owed first to see for myself that he has something on his mind I think said Clenum I have found him in every way so diligent so grateful for little enough and so trustworthy that it might look like suspecting him and that would be very unjust true said Panks but I say Clenum you're much too delicate for the matter of that returned Clenum laughing I have not a large proprietary share in Cavaletto his carving is his livelihood he keeps the keys of the factory watches it every alternate night and acts as a sort of housekeeper to it generally but we have little work in the way of his ingenuity though we give him what we have no I am rather his advisor than his proprietor to call me his standing council and his banker would be nearer the fact speaking of being his banker is it not curious Panks that the ventures which run just now in so many people's heads should run even in little Cavalettos ventures retorted Panks with a snort what ventures these myrtle enterprises oh investments said Panks I I didn't know you were speaking of investments his quick way of replying Clenum to look at him with a doubt whether he meant more than he said as it was accompanied however with a quickening of his space and a corresponding increase in the laboring of his machinery Arthur did not pursue the matter and they soon arrived at his house a dinner of soup and a pigeon pie served on a little round table before the fire and flavored with a bottle of good wine oiled Mr. Panks works in a highly effective manner so that when Clenum produced his eastern pipe and handed Mr. Panks another eastern pipe the latter gentleman was perfectly comfortable they puffed for a while in silence Mr. Panks, like a steam vessel with wind, tide, calm water and all other sea-going conditions in her favor he was the first to speak and he spoke thus investments is the word Clenum, with his former look said I am going back to it, you see said Panks yes, I see you are going back to it returned Clenum wondering why wasn't it a curious thing that they should run in a little outrageous caret, eh? said Panks as he smoked wasn't that how you put it that was what I said I, but think of the whole yard having got it think of there all meeting me with it on my collecting days, here and there and everywhere whether they pay or whether they don't pay model, model, model always model very strange how these runs on an infatuation prevail said Arthur and it returned Panks after smoking for a minute or so more dryly than comported with his decent oiling he added because you see these people don't understand the subject not a bit, assented Clenum not a bit cried Panks, no nothing of figures, no nothing of money questions, never made a calculation never worked it sir if they had Clenum was going on to say when Mr. Panks, without change of countenance produced a sound so far surpassing all his usual efforts nasal or bronchial that he stopped if they had repeated Panks in an inquiring tone I thought you spoke, said Arthur hesitating what name to give the interruption not at all, said Panks not yet, I may in a minute if they had if they had observed Clenum who was a little less how to take his friend why, I suppose they would have known better how so Mr. Clenum Panks asked quickly and with an odd effect of having been from the commencement of the conversation loaded with the heavy charge he now fired off they're right you know, they don't mean to be but they're right right in sharing Cavalletto's inclination to speculate with Mr. Myrtle perfectly sir said Panks I've gone to it, I've made the calculations I've worked it they're safe and genuine relieved by having got to this Mr. Panks took as long a pull as his lungs would permit at his eastern pipe and looked sagaciously and steadily at Clenum while inhaling and exhaling too in those moments Mr. Panks began to give out the dangerous infection with which he was laden in a manner of communicating these diseases it is the subtle way in which they go about do you mean my good Panks asked Clenum emphatically that you would put that thousand pounds of yours let us say for instance out at this kind of interest suddenly said Panks already done it sir Mr. Panks took another long inhalation another long exhalation another long sagacious look at the long sagacious look at Clenum I tell you Mr. Clenum I've gone into it said Panks is a man of immense resources, enormous capital government influence they're the best schemes afloat they're safe, they're certain well returned Clenum looking first at him gravely and then at the fire gravely you surprise me Bah Panks retorted, don't say that sir it's what you ought to do yourself why don't you do as I do of whom Mr. Panks had taken the prevalent disease you could no more have told than if he had unconsciously taken a fever bred at first as many physical diseases are in the wickedness of men and then disseminated in their ignorance these epidemics after a period get communicated to many sufferers who are neither ignorant nor wicked Mr. Panks might or might not have caught the illness himself from a subject of this class but in this category he appeared before Clenum and the infection he threw off was all the more virulent and you have really invested Clenum had already passed to that word you're a thousand pounds Panks to be sure sir replied Panks boldly with a puff of smoke then now Clenum had two subjects lying heavy on his lonely mind that night the one his partner's long deferred hope the other what he had seen and heard at his mother's in the relief of having this companion and a feeling that he could trust him he passed on to both and both brought him round again with an increase and acceleration of force to his point of departure how about in the simplest manner quitting the investment subject after an interval of silent looking at the fire through the smoke of his pipe he told Panks how and why he was occupied with the great national department a hard case it has been and a hard case it is on Doys he finished by saying with all the honest feeling the topic roused in him hard indeed Panks acquiesced but you manage for him Mr. Clenum how do you mean manage the money part of the business yes as well as I can manage it better sir said Panks recompense him for his toils and disappointments give him the chances of the time he'll never benefit himself in that way patient and preoccupied workman he looks to you sir I do my best Panks returned Clenum uneasily as to duly weighing and considering these new enterprises of which I have had no experience I doubt if I am fit for it I am growing old growing old cried Panks there was something so indubitably genuine in the wonderful love and series of snorts and puffs engendered in Mr. Panks astonishment at and utter rejection of the idea that his being quite in earnest could not be questioned growing old cried Panks the positive refusal expressed in Mr. Panks continued snorts no less than in these exclamations to entertain the sentiment for a single instant drove Arthur away from it indeed he was fearful of something happening to Mr. Panks in the violent conflict that took place between the breath he jerked out of himself and the smoke he jerked into himself this abandonment of the second topic threw him on the third young, old or middle aged Panks he said when there was a favorable pause I am in a very anxious and uncertain state a state that even leads me to doubt whether anything now seeming to belong to me may be really mine shall I tell you how this is shall I put a great trust in you you shall sir said Panks if you believe me worthy of it I do you may Mr. Panks short and sharp rejoinder confirmed by the sudden outstretching of his coley hand was most expressive and convincing Arthur shook the hand warmly he then softening the nature of his old apprehensions as much as was possible consistently with their being made intelligible and never alluding to his mother by name but speaking vaguely of a relation of his confided to Mr. Panks a broad outline of the misgivings he entertained and of the interview he had witnessed Mr. Panks listened with such interest that regardless of the charms of the eastern pipe he put it in the great among the fire irons and occupied his hands during the whole recital in so erecting the loops and hooks of hair all over his head that he looked when it came to a conclusion like a journeyman hamlet in conversation with his father's spirit brings me back sir was his exclamation then with a startling touch on clenum's knee brings me back sir to the investments I don't say anything of your making yourself poor to repair a wrong that you never committed that's you a man must be himself but I say this fearing you may want money to save your own blood from exposure and his grace make as much as you can Arthur shook his head but looked at him thoughtfully too be as rich as you can sir Panks adored him with a powerful concentration of all his energies on the advice be as rich as you honestly can it's your duty not for your sake but for the sake of others take time by the forelock poor Mr. Dois who really is growing old depends upon you your relative depends upon you you don't know what depends upon you well well well returned Arthur enough for tonight one word more Mr. Clenum retorted Panks and then enough for tonight why should you leave all the gains to the glutton slaves and imposters why should you leave all the gains that are to be got to my proprietor and the like of him yet you're always doing it where I say you I mean such men as you you know you are why I see every day of my life I see nothing else it's my business to see it therefore I say urged Panks going and win but what if going and lose said Arthur can't be done sir returned Panks I have looked into it name up everywhere great position high connection government influence can't be done gradually after this closing exposition Mr. Panks subsided allowed his hair to droop as much as it ever would droop on the utmost persuasion reclaimed the pipe from the fire irons filled it anew and smoked it out they said little more but were accompanied to one another in silently pursuing the same subjects and did not part until midnight on taking his leave Mr. Panks when he had shaken hands with Clenom worked completely around him before he steamed out at the door this Arthur received as an assurance that he might implicitly rely on Panks if he ever should come to need assistance either in any of the matters of which they had spoken that night or any other subject that could in any way affect himself at intervals all next day and even while his attention was fixed on other things he thought of Mr. Panks investment of his thousand pounds and of his having looked into it he thought of Mr. Panks being so sanguine in this matter and of his not being usually of a sanguine character he thought of the great national department and of the delight it would be to him to see Dois better off he thought of the darkly threatening place that went by the name of home in his remembrance and of the gathering shadows which made it yet more darkly threatening than of old he observed anew that wherever he went he saw or heard or touched the celebrated name of Myrtle he found it difficult even to remain at his desk a couple of hours without having it presented to one of his bodily senses through some agency or other he began to think it was curious too that it should be everywhere and that nobody but he should seem to have any mistrust of it though indeed he began to remember when he got to this even he did not mistrust it he had only happened to keep aloof from it such symptoms when a disease of the kind is rife are usually the signs of sickening end of chapter the thirteenth book the second of Little Dorrid this recording is in the public domain