 Chapter IV. Book II of Little Dorit. Read for Librevox.org by Ellis Christoff. Little Dorit by Charles Dickens. Book II. Chapter IV. A letter from Little Dorit. Dear Mr. Clenum, I write to you from my own room at Venice, thinking you will be glad to hear from me. But I know you cannot be so glad to hear from me as I am to write to you. For everything about you is as you have been accustomed to see it, and you miss nothing, unless it should be me, which can only be for a very little while together and very seldom, while everything in my life is so strange, and I miss so much. When we were in Switzerland, which appears to have been years ago, though it was only weeks, I met young Mrs. Gowen, who was on a mountain excursion like ourselves. She told me she was very well and very happy. She sent you the message by me that she thanked you affectionately and would never forget you. She was quite confiding with me, and I loved her almost as soon as I spoke to her. But there is nothing singular in that, who could help loving so beautiful and winning a creature. I could not wonder at anyone loving her. No indeed. It will not make you uneasy on Mrs. Gowen's account, I hope, for I remember that you said you had the interest of a true friend in her. If I tell you that I wish she could have married someone better suited to her. Mr. Gowen seems fond of her, and of course she is very fond of him, but I thought he was not earnest enough. I don't mean that respect, I mean in anything. I could not keep it out of my mind that if I was Mrs. Gowen, what a change that would be, and how I must alter to become like her. I should feel that I was rather lonely and lost, for the want of someone who was steadfast and firm in purpose. I even thought she felt this want a little, almost without knowing it. But mind, you're not made uneasy by this, for she was very well and very happy, and she looked most beautiful. I expect to meet her again before long, and indeed have been expecting for some days past to see her here. I will ever be as good a friend to her as I can for your sake. Dear Mr. Clenham, I dare say you think little of having been a friend to me when I had no other. Not that I have any other now, for I have made no new friends, but I think much of it, and I never can forget it. I wish I knew, but it is best for no one to write to me how Mr. and Mrs. Plawnish prosper in the business which my dear father bought for them, and that old Mr. Nandy lives happily with them and his two grandchildren, and sings all his songs over and over again. I cannot quite keep back the tears from my eyes when I think of my poor Maggie, and of the blank she must have felt at first, however kind they all are to her, without her little mother. Will it go and tell her, as a strict secret, with my love that she never can have regretted our separation more than I have regretted it? And will you tell them all that I have thought of them every day, and that my heart is faithful to them everywhere? Oh, if you could know how faithful, you would almost pity me for being so far away and being so grand. You will be glad, I am sure, to know that my dear father is very well in health, and that all these changes are highly beneficial to him, and that he is very different indeed from what he used to be when you used to see him. There is an improvement in my uncle too, I think, though he never complained of old, and never exalts now. Fanny is very graceful, quick and clever. It is natural to her to be a lady. She has adapted herself to our new fortunes with wonderful ease. That reminds me that I have not been able to do so, and that I sometimes almost despair of ever being able to do so. I find that I cannot learn. Mrs. General is always with us, and we speak French and speak Italian, and she takes pains to form us in many ways. When I say we speak French and Italian, I mean they do. As for me, I am so slow that I scarcely get on at all. As soon as I begin to plan and think and try, all my planning, thinking and trying go in all directions, and I begin to feel careful again about the expenses of the day, and about my dear father, and about my work, and then I remember with the start that there are no such cares left, and that in itself is so new and improbable that it sets me wandering again. I should not have the courage to mention this to anyone but you. It is the same with all these new countries and wonderful sites. They are very beautiful and they astonish me, but I am not collected enough, not familiar enough with myself, if you can quite understand what I mean, to have all the pleasure in them that I might have. What I knew before them blends with them too so curiously. For instance, when we were among the mountains, I often felt I hesitated to tell such an idle thing, dear Mr. Clenum, even to you, as if the Marshall Sea must be behind that great rock, or as if Mrs. Clenum's room, where I have worked so many days, and where I first saw you, must be just beyond that snow. Do you remember one night when I came with Maggie to your lodging in Covent Garden? That room I have often and often fancied I have seen before me, travelling along for miles by the side of our carriage, when I have looked out of the carriage window after dark. We were shut out that night, and sat at the iron gate, and walked about till morning. I often look up at the stars, even from the balcony of this room, and believe that I am in the street again, shut out with Maggie. It is the same with people that I left in England. When I go about here in a gondola, I surprise myself looking into other gondolas as if I hoped to see them. It would overcome me with joy to see them, but I don't think it would surprise me much at first. In my fanciful times, I fancy that they might be anywhere, and I almost expect to see their dear faces on the bridges or the keys. Another difficulty that I have will seem very strange to you. It must seem very strange to anyone but me, and does even to me. I often feel the old sad pity for, I need not write the word, for him, changed as he is, and inexpressibly blessed and thankful as I always am to know it. The old sorrowful feeling of compassion comes upon me sometimes, with such strength that I want to put my arms around his neck, tell him how I love him, and cry a little on his breast. I should be glad after that, and proud and happy, but I know that I must not do this, that he would not like it, that Fanny would be angry, that Mrs. General would be amazed, and so I quiet myself. Yet in doing so, I struggle with the feeling that I have come to be at a distance from him, and that even in the midst of all the servants and attendants, he is deserted and in want of me. Dear Mr. Klenom, I have written a great deal about myself, but I must write a little more still, for what I wanted most of all to say in this week letter would be left out of it. In all these foolish thoughts of mine, which I have been so hardiest to confess to you, because I know you will understand me if anybody can, and will make more allowance for me than anybody else would if you cannot, in all these thoughts, there is one thought scarcely ever, never out of my memory, and that is that I hope you sometimes, in a quiet moment, have a thought for me. I must tell you that as to this, I have felt ever since I have been away an anxiety which I am very anxious to relieve. I have been afraid that you may think of me in a new light, or a new character. Don't do that. I could not bear that. It would make me more unhappy than you can suppose. It would break my heart to believe that you thought of me in any way that would make me stranger to you than I was when you were so good to me. What I have to pray and entreat of you is that you will never think of me as the daughter of a rich person, that you will never think of me as dressing any better, or living any better, than when you first knew me, that you will remember me only as the little shabby girl you protected with so much tenderness, from whose threadbare dress you have kept away the rain, and whose wet feet you have dried at your fire, that you will think of me when you think of me at all, and of my true affection and devoted gratitude always without change, as of your poor child, little Dorit. P.S. Particularly remember that you are not to be uneasy about Mrs. Gowan, her words were very well and very happy, and she looked most beautiful. End of chapter IV Book II of Little Dorit This recording is in the public domain. Chapter V Book II of Little Dorit ReadfullyPrivox.org by Alice Christoff Little Dorit by Charles Dickens Book II Chapter V Something wrong somewhere The family had been a month or two at Venice, when Mr. Dorit, who was much among counts and marquises, and had but scant leisure, set an hour of one day apart beforehand for the purpose of holding some conference with Mrs. General. The time he had reserved in his mind arriving, he sent Mr. Tinkler his valet to Mrs. General's apartment, which would have absorbed about a third of the area of the Marshall Sea, to present his compliments to that lady, and represent him as desiring the favour of an interview. It being that period of the forenoon, when the various members of the family had coffee in their own chambers, some couple of hours before assembling at breakfast in a faded hall, which had once been samptuous, but was now the prey of watery vapours and a settled melancholy, Mrs. General was accessible to the valet. That envoy found her on a little square of carpet, so extremely diminutive in reference to the size of her stone and marble floor, that she looked as if she might have had it spread for the trying-on of a ready-made pair of shoes, or as if she had come into possession of the enchanted piece of carpet, bought for forty purses by one of the three princes in the Arabian Nights, and had that moment been transported on it, at her wish, into a palatial saloon with which it had no connection. Mrs. General, replying to her envoy as she set down her empty coffee-cup, that she was willing at once to proceed to Mr. Doritz's apartment, and spare him the trouble of coming to her, which in his gallantry he had proposed, the envoy threw open the door and escorted Mrs. General to the presence. It was quite a walk by mysterious staircases and corridors from Mrs. General's apartment, could winked by a narrow side street with a low gloomy bridge in it, and a dungeon like opposite tenements, their walls besmeared with a thousand downward stains and streaks, as if every crazy aperture in them had been weeping tears of rust into the Adriatic for centuries. To Mr. Doritz's apartment, with a whole English house front of window, a prospect of beautiful church domes rising into the blue sky, a clear out of the water, which reflected them, and a hushed murmur of the grand canal, leaving the doorways below, where his gondolas and gondoliers attended his pleasure, drowsily swinging in a little forest of piles. Mr. Doritz, in a resplendent dressing gown and cap, the dormant grub that had so long bided its time among the collegians had burst into a rare butterfly, rose to receive Mrs. General, a chair to Mrs. General. An easier chair, sir. What are you doing? What are you about? What do you mean? Now leave us. Mrs. General, said Mr. Doritz, I took the liberty. By no means, Mrs. General in the post. I was quiet at your disposition. I had had my coffee. I took the liberty, said Mr. Doritz again, with the magnificent placidity of one who was above correction, to solicit the favour of a little private conversation with you, because I feel rather worried respecting my younger daughter. You will have observed a great difference in temperament, madam, between my two daughters? Said Mrs. General in response, crossing her gloved hands, she was never without gloves and they never creased and always fitted. There is a great difference. May I ask to be favoured with your view of it? Said Mr. Doritz with a deference not incompatible with majestic serenity. Fanny, returned Mrs. General, as force of character and self-reliance. Amy, none. None. Oh, Mrs. General, ask the marshal see stones and bars. Oh, Mrs. General, ask the milliner who taught her to work and the dancing master who taught her sister to dance. Oh, Mrs. General, Mrs. General, ask me, a father what I owe her and hear my testimony touching the life of this slighted little creature from her childhood up. No such adoration entered Mr. Doritz' head. He looked at Mrs. General, seated in her usual erect attitude on her coachbox behind the proprieties and he said in a thoughtful manner, True, madam, I would not I would not, said Mrs. General, be understood to say, observe, that there is nothing to improve in Fanny, but there is material there perhaps indeed a little too much. Will you be kind enough, madam, said Mr. Doritz, to be more explicit, I do not quite understand my elder daughters having too much material. What material? Fanny, Mrs. General, at present forms too many opinions. Perfect breeding forms none and is never demonstrative. Lest he himself should be found deficient in perfect breeding, Mr. Dorit hastened to reply, Unquestionably, madam, you are right. Mrs. General returned in her emotionless and expressionless manner. I believe so. But you are aware, my dear madam, Mr. Dorit, that my daughters had the misfortune to lose their lamented mother when they were very young and that, in consequence of my not having been until lately the recognized heir to my property, they have lived with me as a comparatively poor, though always proud gentleman in a... retirement. I do not, said Mrs. General, lose sight of the circumstance. Madam, pursued Mr. Dorit, of my daughter Fanny under her present guidance and with such an example constantly before her, Mrs. General shut her eyes. I have no misgivings. There is adaptability of character in Fanny, but my younger daughter, Mrs. General, rather worries and vexes my thoughts, I must inform you that she has always been my favorite. There is no accounting, said Mrs. General, for these partialities. Oh no, assented Mr. Dorit. No, now madam, I am troubled by noticing that Amy is not, so to speak, one of ourselves. She does not care to go about with us. She is lost in the society we have here. Our tastes are evidently not her tastes, which said Mr. Dorit summing up with judicial gravity say in other words that there is something wrong in, uh, Amy. May we incline to the supposition, said Mrs. General, with a little touch of varnish, that something is referable to the novelty of the position? Excuse me, madam, observed Mr. Dorit rather quickly. The daughter of a gentleman, though, um, himself at one time comparatively far from affluent, comparatively and herself reared in a, um, retirement, need not of necessity find this position so very novel. True, said Mrs. General, true. Therefore, madam, said Mr. Dorit, I took the liberty, he laid an emphasis on the phrase and repeated it, as though he stipulated with our bane firmness, that he must not be contradicted again. I took the liberty of requesting this interview in order that I might mention the topic to you and inquire how you would advise me. Mr. Dorit, returned Mrs. General, I have conversed with Amy several times since we have been residing here on the general subject of the formation of a demeanor. She has expressed herself to me as wandering, exceedingly at Venice. I have mentioned to her that it is better not to wonder. I have pointed out to her that the celebrated Mr. Eustace, the classical tourist, did not think much of it, and that he compared the realtor greatly to its disadvantage with Westminster and Blackfriars bridges. I need not add, after what you have said, that I have not yet found my argument successful. You do me the honour to ask me what to advise. It always appears to me, if this should prove to be a baseless assumption, I shall be pardoned, that Mr. Dorit has been accustomed to exercise influence over the minds of others. Oh, madam, said Mr. Dorit, I have been at the head of a considerable community. You are right in supposing that I am not accustomed to an influential position. I am happy, returned Mrs. General, to be so corroborated. I would therefore the more evidently recommend that Mr. Dorit should speak to Amy himself and make his observations and wishes known to her. Being his favourite besides and no doubt attached to him, she is all the more likely to yield to his influence. I had anticipated your suggestion, madam, said Mr. Dorit, but I was not sure that I might not encroach on my province, Mr. Dorit, said Mrs. General graciously. Do not mention it. Then, with your leave, madam, resumed Mr. Dorit ringing his little bell to summon his valet, I will send for her at once. Does Mr. Dorit wish me to remain? Perhaps if you have no other engagement you would not object for a minute or two, not at all. So, Tinkler the valet was instructed to find Miss Amy's maid and to request that subordinate to inform Miss Amy that Mr. Dorit wished to see her in his own room. In delivering this charge to Tinkler, Mr. Dorit looked severely at him and also kept a jealous eye upon him until he went out at the door, mistrusting that he might have something in his mind prejudicial to the family dignity, that he might even have got wind of some collegiate joke before he came into the service and might be derisively reviving its remembrance at the present moment. If Tinkler had happened to smile, however faintly and innocently, nothing would have persuaded Mr. Dorit to the hour of his death, but that this was the case. As Tinkler happened, however, very fortunately for himself to be of a serious and composed countenance, he escaped the secret danger that threatened him and as on his return when Mr. Dorit eyed him again he announced Miss Amy as if she had come to a funeral. He left a vague impression on Mr. Dorit's mind that he was a well conducted young fellow who had been brought up in the study of his catechism by a widowed mother. Amy, said Mr. Dorit, you have just now been the subject of some conversation between myself and Mrs. General. We agree that you scarcely seem at home here. How is this? A pause. I think, Father, I require a little time. Papa is preferable mode of address, observed Mrs. General. Father is rather vulgar, my dear. The word Papa besides gives a pretty form to the lips. Papa, potatoes, poetry, prunes and prism are all very good words for the lips, especially prunes and prism. You will find it serviceable in the formation of a demeanor if you say to yourself in company on entering a room, for instance, Papa, potatoes, poetry, prunes and prism, prunes and prism. Pray, my child, said Mr. Dorit, attend to the precepts of Mrs. General. Poor little Dorit, with a rather forlorn glance and that eminent varnisher promised to try. You say, Amy, pursued Mr. Dorit, did you think you require time? Time for what? Another pause. To become accustomed to the novelty of my life was all I meant, said little Dorit, with her loving eyes upon her father, whom she had very nearly addressed as poetry, if not prunes and prism too, in her desire to submit herself to Mrs. General and please him. Mr. Dorit frowned and looked anything but pleased. Amy. He returned. It appears to me, I must say that you have had abundance of time for that. Oh, you surprise me. You disappoint me. Fanny has conquered any such little difficulties and, erm, why not you? I hope I shall do better soon, said little Dorit. I hope so, returned her father. I, er, I most devoutly hope so, Amy. I sent for you in order that I might say, erm, impressively say, in the presence of Mrs. General, to whom we are all so much indebted for obligingly being present among us, on, erm, on this or any other occasion. Mrs. General shut her eyes. That I, erm, am not pleased with you. You make Mrs. General's a thankless task. You, er, embarrass me very much. You have always, as I have informed Mrs. General being my favourite child, I have always made you, erm, a friend and companion. In return, I beg, I, er, I do beg that you accommodate yourself better to, erm, circumstances and dutifully do what becomes your, your station. Mr. Dorit was even a little more fragmentary than usual. Being excited on the subject and anxious to make himself particularly emphatic. I do beg, he repeated, that this may be attended to and that you will seriously take pains and try to conduct yourself in a manner both becoming your position as, erm, Miss Amy Dorit and satisfactory to myself and Mrs. General. This lady shud her eyes again when being again referred to then slowly opening them and rising added these words. If Miss Amy Dorit will direct her own attention to and will accept of my poor assistance in the formation of a surface, Mr. Dorit will have no further cause of anxiety. May I take this opportunity of remarking as an instance in point that it is scarcely delicate to look at the vagrants with the attention that we have seen bestowed upon them by a very dear young friend of mine they should not be looked at. Nothing disagreeable should ever be looked at. Apart from such a habit standing in the way of that graceful equanimity of surface which is so expressive of good breeding it hardly seems compatible with refinement of mind. A truly refined mind will seem to be ignorant of the existence of anything that is not perfectly proper, placid and pleasant. Having delivered this exalted sentiment Mrs. General made a sweeping obeisance and retired with an expression of mouth indicative of prunes and prism. Little Dorit, whether speaking or silent had preserved her quiet earnestness and her loving look. It had not been clouded except for a passing moment until now but now that she was left alone with him the fingers of her lightly folded hands were agitated and there was repressed emotion in her face. Not for herself. She might feel a little wounded but her care was not for herself. Her thoughts still turned as they always had turned to him. A faint misgiving which had hung about her since their accession to fortune that even now she could never see him as he used to be before the prison days had gradually begun to assume form in her mind. That in what he had just now said to her and in his whole bearing towards her there was the well-known shadow of the Marshall Sea Wall. It took a new shape but it was the old sad shadow. She began with sorrowful unwillingness to acknowledge to herself that she was not strong enough to keep off the fear that no space in the life of man could overcome that quarter of a century behind the prison bars. She had no blame to bestow upon him therefore. Nothing to reproach him with no emotions in her faithful heart but great compassion and unbounded tenderness. This is why it was that even as he sat before her on his sofa in the brilliant light of a bright Italian day the wonderful city without and the splendours of an old palace within she saw him at the moment in the long familiar gloom of his Marshall Sea lodging and wished to take her seat beside him and comfort him and be again full of confidence with him and of usefulness to him. If he devined what was in her thoughts his own were not in tune with it. After some uneasy moving in his seat he got up and walked about looking very much dissatisfied. Is there anything else you wish to say to me, dear father? No, no, nothing else. I am sorry you have not been pleased with me, dear. I hope you will not think of me with displeasure now. I am going to try more than ever to adapt myself as you wish to what surrounds me for indeed I have tried all along though I have failed, I know. Amy returned turning short upon her. You habitually hurt me. Hurt you, father? I? There is a... a topic. Said Mr. Dorit looking all about the ceiling of the room and never at the attentive and complainingly shocked face. A painful topic. A series of events which I wish all together to obliterate. This is understood by your sister who has already remonstrated with you in my presence. It is understood by your brother. It is understood by everyone out of delicacy and sensitiveness except yourself. I am sorry to say except yourself. You, Amy, you alone and only you constantly revive the topic though not in words. She laid her hand on his arm. She did nothing more. She gently touched him. The trembling hand may have said with some expression think of me. Think how I have worked. Think of my many cares. But you said not a syllable herself. There was a reproach in the touch so addressed to him that she had not foreseen or she would have withheld her hand. He began to justify himself in a heated, stumbling, angry manner which made nothing of it. I was there all those years. I was a universally acknowledged as the head of the place. I am... I caused you to be respected there, Amy. I... I gave my family a position there. I deserve a return. I claim a return. I say, sweep it off the face of the earth and begin afresh. Is that much? I ask, is that much? He did not once look at her as he rambled on in this way but gesticulated at and appealed to the empty air. I have suffered. Probably I know how much I have suffered better than anyone. I say, than anyone. If I can put that aside, if I can eradicate the marks of what I have endured and can emerge before the world, oh, gentlemen, unspoiled, unspotted, is it a great deal to expect? I say again, is it a great deal to expect that my children should do the same and sweep that a cursed experience off the face of the earth? In spite of his flustered state, he made all these exclamations in a carefully suppressed voice, lest the valley should overhear anything. Accordingly they do it. Your sister does it. Your brother does it. You alone, my favorite child whom I made the friend and companion of my life when you were a mere baby, do not do it. You alone say you can't do it. I provide you with valuable assistance to do it. I touch an accomplished and highly bred lady, a Mrs. General to you for the purpose of doing it. Is it surprising that I should be displeased? Is it necessary that I should defend myself for expressing my displeasure? No. Notwithstanding which, he continued to defend himself without any abatement of his flashed mood. I am careful to appeal to that lady for confirmation before I express any displeasure at all. I I necessarily make that appeal within limited bounds, or I should render legible by that lady what I decide to be blotted out. Am I selfish? Do I complain for my own sake? No. No. Principally for your sake, Amy. This last consideration plainly appeared from his manner of pursuing it to have just that instant come into his head. I said I was hurt. So I am. So I am determined to be whatever is advanced to the contrary. I am hurt that my daughter seated in the lap of fortune should mope and retire and proclaim herself unequal to her destiny. I am hurt that she should systematically reproduce what the rest of us blot out. And, see, I had almost set positively anxious to announce to wealth the undistinguished society that she was born and bred in a place that I myself declined to name. But there is no inconsistency. Not the least in my feeling hurt and yet complainingly principally for your sake. I do. I say again, I do. It is for your sake that I wish you under the auspices of Mrs. General to form a surface. It is for your sake that I wish you to have a truly refined mind and in the striking words of Mrs. General to be ignorant of everything that is not perfectly proper, placid and pleasant. He had been running down by jerks during his last speech like a sort of ill-adjusted alarm. The touch was still upon his arm. He fell silent and after looking about the ceiling again for a little while looked down at her. Her head drooped and he could not see her face but her touch was tender and quiet and in the expression of her dejected figure there was no blame, nothing but love. He began to whimper just as he had done that night in the prison when she afterwards sat at his bedside till morning, exclaimed that he was a poor ruin and a poor wretch in the midst of his wealth and clasped her in his arms. Hush, hush my own dear, kiss me was all she said to him. His tears were soon dried much sooner than on the former occasion and he was presently afterwards very high with his valet as a way of writing himself for having shed any. With one remarkable exception to be recorded in its place this was the only time in his life of freedom and fortune when he spoke to his daughter Amy of the old days. But now the breakfast hour arrived and with it Miss Fanny from her apartment and Mr. Edward from his apartment both these young persons of distinction were something the worse for late hours. As to Miss Fanny she had become the victim of an insatiate mania for what she called going into society and would have gone into it head foremost fifty times between sunset and sunrise if so many opportunities had been at her disposal. As to Mr. Edward he too had a large acquaintance and was generally engaged for the most part in dicing circles or others of a kindred nature during the greater part of every night. For this gentleman when his fortunes changed had stood at the great advantage of being already prepared for the highest associates and having little to learn so much was he indebted to the happy accidents which had made him acquainted with horse dealing and billiard marking. At breakfast Mr. Frederick Doret likewise appeared as the old gentleman inhabited the highest story of the palace where he might have practiced pistol shooting without much chance of discovery by the other inmates his younger niece had taken courage to propose the restoration to him of his clarionette which Mr. Doret had ordered to be confiscated but which he had ventured to preserve notwithstanding some objections from Miss Fanny that it was a low instrument and that she detested the sound of it the concession had been made but it was then discovered that he had had enough of it and never played it now that it was no longer his means of getting bread he had insensibly acquired a new habit of shuffling into the picture galleries always with his twisted paper of snuff in his hand much to the indignation of Miss Fanny who had proposed the purchase of a gold box for him that the family might not be discredited which he had refused to carry when it was brought and of passing hours and hours before the portraits of renowned Venetians it was never made out what his dazed eyes saw in them whether he had an interest in them merely as pictures or whether he confusedly identified them with a glory that was departed like the strength of his own mind but he paid his court to them with great exactness and clearly derived pleasure from the pursuit after the first few days little Dorit happened one morning to assist at these attentions it so evidently heightened his gratification that she often accompanied him afterwards and the greatest delight of which the old man had shown himself susceptible since his ruin aroused out of these excursions when he would carry a chair about for her from picture to picture and stand behind it in spite of all her remonstrances silently presenting her to the noble Venetians it fell out that at this family breakfast he referred to their having seen in the gallery on the previous day the lady and gentleman whom they had encountered on the Great St Bernard I forgot the name said he I dare say you remember them William I dare say you do Edward I remember them well enough said the latter I should think so observed Miss Fanny with a toss of her head and a glance at her sister but they would not have been recalled to our remembrance I suspect if uncle hadn't tumbled over the subject my dear what a curious phrase said Mrs. General would not inadvertently lighted upon or accidentally referred to would be better thank you very much Mrs. General returned the young lady no I think not on the whole I prefer my own expression this was always Miss Fanny's way of receiving a suggestion from Mrs. General but she always stored it up in her mind and adopted it at another time I should have mentioned our having met Mr. and Mrs. Gowan Fanny said little Dorit even if uncle had not I have scarcely seen you since you know I meant to have spoken of it at breakfast because I should like to pay a visit to Mrs. Gowan and to become better acquainted with her if Papa and Mrs. General do not object well Amy said Fanny I'm sure I'm glad to find you at last expressing a wish to become better acquainted with anybody in Venice though whether Mr. and Mrs. Gowan are desirable acquaintances remains to be determined Mrs. Gowan I spoke of dear no doubt said Fanny but you can't separate her from her husband I believe without an act of parliament do you think Papa in quiet little Dorit with diffidence and hesitation there is any objection to my making this visit really he replied I what is Mrs. General's view Mrs. General's view was that not having the honour of any acquaintance with the lady and gentlemen referred to she was not in a position to varnish the present article she could only remark the general principal observed in the vanishing trade that much depended on the quarter from which the lady under consideration was accredited to a family so conspicuously niched in the social temple as the family of Dorit at this remark the face of Mr. Dorit gloomed considerably he was about connecting the accrediting with an obtrusive person of the name of Clenum whom he perfectly remembered in some former state of existence he called the name of Gaon finally when Edward Dorit Esquire came into the conversation with his glass in his eye and the preliminary remark of I say you there go out will you which was addressed to a couple of men who were handing the dishes round as a courteous intimation that their services could be temporarily dispensed with those menials having obeyed the mandate Edward Dorit Esquire proceeded perhaps it's a matter of policy to let you all know that these Gaons in whose favor, or at least the gentlemen's I can't be supposed to be much prepossessed myself are known to people of importance if that makes any difference that I would say, observed the fair varnisher, makes the greatest difference the connection in question being really people of importance and consideration as to that said Edward Dorit Esquire I'll give you the means of judging for yourself you are acquainted perhaps with the famous name of Myrtle the great Myrtle exclaimed Mrs. General the Myrtle said Edward Dorit Esquire they are known to him Mrs. Gaon I mean the Dowager my polite friend's mother is intimate with Mrs. Myrtle and I know these two to be on their visiting list if so a more undeniable guarantee could not be given said Mrs. General to Mr. Dorit raising her gloves and bowing her head as if she were doing homage to some visible graven image I beg to ask my son from motives of curiosity Mr. Dorit observed with a decided change in his manner how he becomes possessed of this timely information it's not a long story sir returned Edward Dorit Esquire and you shall have it out of hand to begin with Mrs. Myrtle is the lady you had the parley with at what's his name place Martini interposed Ms. Fanny with an air of infinite languor Martini ascended her brother with a slight nod and a slight wink in acknowledgement of which Ms. Fanny looked surprised and laughed and reddened how can that be Edward said Mr. Dorit you informed me that the name of the gentleman with whom you conferred was um Sparkler indeed you showed me his card um Sparkler no doubt of it father but it doesn't follow that his mother's name must be the same Mrs. Myrtle was married before and he is her son she's in Rome now where probably we shall know more of her as you decided to winter there Sparkler is just come here I passed last evening in company with Sparkler Sparkler is a very good fellow on the whole though rather a bore on one subject in consequence of being tremendously smitten with a certain young lady here Edward Dorit Esquire I'd Ms. Fanny through his glass across the table we happened last night to compare notes about our travels and I had the information I have given you from Sparkler himself here he seized continuing to I Ms. Fanny through his glass with a face much twisted and not ornamentally so in part by the action of keeping his glass in his eye and in part by the great subtlety of his smile under these circumstances said Mr. Dorit I believe I express the sentiments of Mrs. General no less than my own when I say that there is no objection but um quite the contrary to your gratifying your desire Amy I trust I may uh hail this desire said Mr. Dorit in an encouraging and forgiving manner as an auspicious omen it is quite right to know these people it is a very proper thing Mr. Murdell's is a name of a world wide repute Mr. Murdell's undertakings are immense they bring him in such vast sums of money that they are regarded as um national benefits Mr. Murdell is the man of this time the name of Murdell is the name of the age pray do everything on my behalf that is civil to Mr. and Mrs. Gowan for we will her we will certainly notice them this magnificent accordance of Mr. Dorit's recognition settled the matter it was not observed that Uncle had pushed away his plate and forgotten his breakfast but he was not much observed at any time except by little Dorit the servants were recalled and the meal proceeded to its conclusion Mrs. General rose and left the table little Dorit rose and left the table when Edward and Fanny remained whispering together across it and when Mr. Dorit remained eating figs and reading a French newspaper Uncle suddenly fixed the attention of all three by rising out of his chair striking his hand upon the table and saying brother, I protest against it if he had made a proclamation in an unknown tongue and given up the ghost immediately afterwards he could not have astounded his audience more the paper fell from Mr. Dorit's hand and he sat petrified with a thick half way to his mouth brother said the old man conveying a surprising energy into his trembling voice I protest against it I love you you know I love you dearly in these many years I have never been untrue to you in a single thought weak as I am I would at any time have struck any man who spoke ill of you but brother, brother, brother I protest against it it was extraordinary to see what a burst of earnestness such a decrepit man was capable his eyes became bright his grey hair rose on his head markings of purpose on his brow and face which had faded from them for five and twenty years started out again and there was an energy in his hand that made its action nervous once more my dear Frederick exclaimed Mr. Dorit faintly what is wrong what is the matter how dare you said the old man turning round on Fanny how dare you do it have you no memory have you no heart uncle, cried Fanny affrighted and bursting into tears why do you attack me in this cruel manner what have I done done returned the old man pointing to her sister's place where is your affectionate invaluable friend where is your devoted guardian where is your more than mother how dare you set up priorities against all these characters combined in your sister for shame you false girl for shame I love Amy cried Miss Fanny sobbing and weeping as well as I love my life better than I love my life I don't deserve to be so treated I am as grateful to Amy and as fond of Amy as it's possible for any human being to be I wish I was dead I never was so wickedly wronged and only because I am anxious for the family credit to the wins with the family credit cried the old man with great scorn and indignation brother, I protest against pride I protest against ingratitude I protest against any one of us here who have known what we have known and have seen what we have seen setting up any pretension that puts Amy at a moment's disadvantage or to the coast of a moment's pain we may know that it's a base pretension by its having that effect it ought to bring a judgment on us brother, I protest against it in the sight of God as his hand went up above his head and came down on the table it might have been a blacksmith's after a few moments silence it had relaxed into its usual weak condition he went round to his brother with his ordinary shuffling step put the hand on his shoulder and said in a softened voice William, my dear I felt obliged to say it forgive me for I felt obliged to say it and then went in his bowed way out of the palace hall just as he might have gone out of the marshall's sea room all this time Fanny had been sobbing and crying and still continued to do so Edward, beyond opening his mouth in amazement had not opened his lips and had done nothing but stare Mr. Dorit also had been utterly discomfited and quite unable to assert himself in any way Fanny was now the first to speak I never, never, never was so used she sobbed there never was anything so harsh and unjustifiable so disgracefully violent and cruel dear, kind, quiet little Amy too what would she feel if she could know that she had been innocently the means of exposing me to such treatment but I'll never tell her no good darling I'll never tell her this helped Mr. Dorit to break his silence my dear said he I approve of your resolution it will be much better not to speak of this to Amy it might, it might distress her no doubt it would distress her greatly it is considerate and right to avoid doing so we will keep this to ourselves but the cruelty of ankle cried Miss Fanny oh I never can forgive the wanton cruelty of ankle my dear said Mr. Dorit recovering his tone though he remained unusually pale I must request you not to say so you must remember that your uncle is not what he formerly was you must remember that your uncle's state requires great forbearance from us, great forbearance I am sure cried Fanny piteously it is only charitable to suppose that there must be something wrong in him somewhere or he never could have so attacked me of all the people in the world Fanny returned Mr. Dorit in a deeply fraternal tone you know with his innumerable good points what a wreck your uncle is and I entreat you by the fondness that I have for him and by the fidelity that you know I have always shown him to draw your own conclusions and to spare my brotherly feelings this ended the scene Edward Dorit Esquire saying nothing throughout but looking to the last, perplexed and doubtful Miss Fanny awakened much affection at uneasiness in her sister's mind that day by passing the greater part of it in violent fits of her and an alternative giving her brutes and wishing herself dead End of chapter the fifth book the second of little Dorit this recording is in the public domain chapter the sixth book the second of little Dorit read for LibriVox.org by Alice Christoff little Dorit by Charles Dickens book the second chapter the sixth something right somewhere to be in the holding state of Mr Henry Gowan to have left one of two powers in disgust to want the necessary qualifications for finding promotion with another and to be loitering moodily about on neutral ground cursing both is to be in a situation and wholesome for the mind which time is not likely to improve the worst class of some worked in the everyday world bifured by the diseased arithmeticians who are always in the rule of subtraction as to the merits and successes of others and never in addition to their own the habit too of seeking some sort of recompense in the discontented boast of being disappointed is a habit fraught with degeneracy a certain idle carelessness and recklessness of consistency soon comes of it to bring deserving things down to making undeserving things up is one of its perverted delights and there is no playing fast and loose with the truth in any game without growing the worst for it in his expressed opinions of all performances in the art of painting that were completely destitute of merit Gowan was the most liberal fellow on earth he would declare such a man to have more power in his little finger provided he had none than such another had provided he had much in his whole mind and body if the objection were taken that the think commended was trash he would reply on behalf of his art my good fellow what do we all turn out but trash I turn out nothing else and I make you a present of the confession to make a vaunt of being poor was another of the incidents of his planetary state all this may have had the design in it of showing that he ought to be rich just as he would publicly lord and decry the barnacles lest it should be forgotten that he belonged to the family how be it these two subjects were very often on his lips and he managed them so well that he might have praised himself by the month together and not have made himself out half so important a man as he did by his light disparagement of his claims on anybody's consideration out of this same airy talk of his it always soon came to be understood wherever he and his wife went that he had married against the wishes of his exalted relations and had had much ado to prevail on them to countenance her he never made the representation on the contrary seemed to laugh the idea to scorn but it did happen that with all his pains to depreciate himself he was always in the superior position from the days of their honeymoon meaning Gawon felt sensible of being usually regarded as the wife of a man who had made a dissent in marrying her but whose chivalrous love for her had cancelled that inequality to Venice they had been accompanied by Monsieur Blandois of Paris and at Venice Monsieur Blandois of Paris was very much in the society of Gawon when they had first met this gallant gentleman at Geneva Gawon had been undecided whether to kick him or encourage him and had remained for about four and twenty hours so troubled to settle the point to his satisfaction that he had thought of tossing up a five franc piece on the terms tails kick heads encourage and abiding by the voice of the oracle it chanced however that his wife expressed a dislike to the engaging Blandois and that the balance of feeling in the hotel was against him upon it Gawon resolved to encourage him why this perversity if it were not in a generous fit which it was not why should Gawon very much the superior of Blandois of Paris and very well able to pull that prepossessing gentleman to pieces and find out the stuff he was made of take up with such a man in the first place he opposed the first separate wish he observed in his wife because her father had paid his debts and it was desirable to take an early opportunity of asserting his independence in the second place he opposed the prevalent feeling because with many capacities of being otherwise he was an ill conditioned man he found a pleasure in declaring that a courtier with the refined manners of Blandois ought to rise to the greatest distinction in any polished country he found a pleasure in setting up Blandois as the type of elegance and making him a satire upon others who peaked themselves on personal graces he seriously protested that the bow of Blandois was perfect that the address of Blandois was irresistible and that the picturesque ease of Blandois would be cheaply purchased if it were not a gift and un-purchasable for a hundred thousand francs that exaggeration in the manner of the man which has been noticed as a pertaining to him and to every such man whatever his original breeding as certainly as the sun belongs to this system was acceptable to Gowan as a caricature which he found it a humorous resource to have at hand for the ridiculing of numbers of people who necessarily did more or less of what Blandois over did thus he had taken up with him and thus negligently strengthening these inclinations with habit and idly deriving some amusement from his talk he had glided into a way of having him for a companion this, though he supposed him to live by his wits at playtables and the like though he suspected him to be a coward while he himself was daring and courageous though he thoroughly knew him to be disliked by many and though he cared so little for him after all he had given her any tangible personal cause to regard him with a version he would have had no compunction whatever in flinging him out of the highest window in Venice into the deepest water of the city little Dorit would have been glad to make her visit to Mrs. Gowan alone but as Fanny who had not yet recovered from her uncle's protest though it was four and twenty hours of age pressingly offered her company and two sisters stepped together into one of the gondolas and the Mr. Dorit's window and with the courier in attendance were taken in high state to Mrs. Gowan's lodging in truth their state was rather too high for the lodging which was, as Fanny complained fearfully out of the way and which took them through a complexity of narrow streets of water which the same lady disparaged as mere ditches the house on a little desert island looked as if it had broken away from somewhere else and had floated by chance into its present anchorage in company with a vine almost as much in want of training as the poor wretches who were lying under its leaves the features of the surrounding picture were a church with hoarding and scaffolding about it which had been under suppositious repair so long that the means of repair looked a hundred years old and had themselves fallen into decay a quantity of washed linen spread to dry in the sun a number of houses at odds with one another and grotesquely out of the perpendicular like rotten pre-adamite cheese is cut into fantastic shapes and full of mites and a feverish bewilderment of windows with their lattice blinds all hanging askew and something draggled and dirty dangling out of most of them on the first floor of the house was a bank a surprising experience for any gentlemen of commercial pursuits bringing laws for all mankind from a British city where two spare clerks like dried dragoons in green velvet caps adorned with golden tassels stood bearded behind a small counter in a small room containing no other visible objects than an empty iron safe with a door open a jug of water and a papering of garland of roses but who, unlawful requisition by merely dipping their hands out of sight could produce exhaustless mounds of five franc pieces below the bank was a suite of three or four rooms with barred windows which had the appearance of a jail for criminal rats above the bank was Mrs. Gowen's residence notwithstanding that its walls were blotched as if missionary maps were bursting out of them to impart geographical knowledge notwithstanding that its weird furniture was forlornly faded and musty and that the prevailing Venetian order of bilge water and an ebb tide on a weedy shore was very strong the place was better within than it promised the door was opened by a smiling man like reformed assassin a temporary servant who ushered them into the room where Mrs. Gowen sat with the announcement that two beautiful English ladies were come to see the mistress Mrs. Gowen who was engaged in needle work put her work aside in a covered basket and rose a little hurriedly Miss Fanny was excessively courteous to her and said the usual nothings with the skill of a veteran Papa was extremely sorry, proceeded Fanny to be engaged today he's so much engaged here our acquaintance being so wretchedly large and particularly requested me to bring his card for Mr. Gowen that I may be sure to acquit myself of a commission that impressed upon me at least a dozen times allow me to relieve my conscience by placing it on the table at once which she did with veteran ease we have been, said Fanny, charmed to understand that you know the Murdles we hope it may be another means of bringing us together they are friends, said Mrs. Gowen of Mr. Gowen's family I have not yet had the pleasure of a personal introduction to Mrs. Murdle I suppose I shall be presented to her at Rome indeed, returned Fanny with an appearance of amiably quenching her own superiority I think you like her you know her very well why you see, said Fanny with a frank action of her pretty shoulders in London one knows everyone we met her on our way here and to say the truth Papa was at first rather cross with her for taking one of the rooms that our people had ordered for us however of course that soon blew over and we were all good friends again although the visit had as yet given little Dorrid no opportunity of conversing with Mrs. Gowen there was a silent understanding between them which did as well she looked at Mrs. Gowen with keen and unabated interest the sound of her voice was thrilling to her nothing that was near her or about her or at all concerned her escaped little Dorrid she was quicker to perceive the slightest matter here than in any other case but one you have been quite well she now said since that night quite my dear and you oh I am always well said little Dorrid timidly I yes thank you there was no reason for her faltering and breaking off other than that Mrs. Gowen had touched her hand and speaking to her looks had met something thoughtfully apprehensive in the large soft eyes had checked little Dorrid in an instant you don't know that you are a favourite of my husbands and that I am almost bound to be jealous of you said Mrs. Gowen little Dorrid blushing shook her head he will tell you if he tells you what he tells me that you are quieter and quicker of resource than anyone he ever saw he speaks far too well of me said little Dorrid I doubt that but I don't at all doubt that I must tell him you are here I should never be forgiven if I were to let you and Miss Dorrid go without doing so may I? you can excuse the disorder and discomfort of a painter's studio the enquiries were addressed to Miss Fanny who graciously replied that she would be beyond anything interested and enchanted Gowen went to a door, looked in beyond it and came back do Henry the favour to come in? said she I knew he would be pleased the first object that confronted little Dorrid entering first was Blandoir of Paris in a great cloak and a furtive slouched hat standing on a throne platform in a corner as he had stood on the Great St. Bernard when the warning arms seemed to be all pointing up at him she recoiled from this figure as it smiled at her don't be alarmed said Gowen coming from his easel behind the door it's only Blandoir he is doing duty as a model today I am making a study of him it saves me money to turn him to some use we poor painters have none to spare Blandoir of Paris pulled off his slouched hat and saluted the ladies without coming out of his corner a thousand pardons said he but the professor here is so inexorable with me that I am afraid to stir don't stir then said Gowen Cooley as the sisters approached the easel let the ladies at least see the original of the doorb that they may know what it's meant for there he stands you see a bravo waiting for his prey a distinguished noble waiting to save his country the common enemy waiting to do somebody a bad turn an angelic messenger waiting to do somebody a good turn whatever you think he looks most like say professore mio a poor gentleman waiting to do homage to elegance and beauty remarked Blandoir or say cattivo sogetto mio returned Gowen touching the painted face with his brush in the part where the real face had moved a murderer after the fact show that white hand of yours Blandoir put it outside the cloak keep it still Blandoir's hand was unsteady but he laughed and that would naturally shake it he was formally in some scuffle with another murderer or a victim you observe said Gowen putting in the markings of the hand with a quick impatient unskillful touch and these are the tokens of it outside the cloak man my son Marco what are you thinking of Blandoir of Paris shook with a laugh again so that his hand shook more now he raised it to twist his moustache which had a damp appearance and now he stood in the required position with a little new swagger his face was so directed in reference to the spot where little Dorrid stood by the easel that throughout he looked at her once attracted by his peculiar eyes he did not remove her own and they had looked at each other all the time she trembled now Gowen feeling it and supposing her to be alarmed by the large dock beside him who scared she caressed in her hand and who had just uttered a low growl glanced at her to say he won't hurt you Miss Dorrid I am not afraid of him she returned in the same breath but we look at him in a moment Gowen had thrown down his brush and seized the dock with both hands by the collar Blandoir how can you be such a fool as to provoke him by heaven and the other place too he'll tear you to bits lie down lion do you hear my voice you rebel the great dog regardless of being half choked by his collar was obturately pulling with his dead weight against his master resolved to get across the room he had been crouching for a spring at the moment when his master caught him lion lion he was up on his hind legs and it was a wrestle between master and dog get back down lion get out of his sight Blandoir what devil have you conjured into the dog I have done nothing to him get out of his sight or I can't hold a wild beast get out of the room buy my soul he'll kill you the dog with a ferocious bark made one other struggle as Blandoir vanished then in the moment of the dog's submission the master little less angry than the dog fell him with a blow on the head and standing over him strike him many times severely with the heel of his boot so that his mouth was presently bloody now get you into that corner and lie down said Gowen or I'll take you out and shoot you lion did as he was ordered and lay down licking his mouth and chest lion's master stopped for a moment to take breath and then recovering his usual coolness of manner turned to speak to his frightened wife and her visitors probably the whole occurrence cannot occupy two minutes come come mini you know he's always good humor and tractable Blandoir must have irritated him made faces at him the dog has his likings and dislikings and Blandoir is no great favorite of his but I'm sure you will give him a character mini for never having been like this before mini was too much disturbed to say anything connected in reply little Dorit was already occupied in soothing her Fanny who had cried out twice or thrice held Gowen's arm for protection lion deeply ashamed of having caused them this alarm came trailing himself along the ground to the feet of his mistress you furious brute said Gowen striking him with his foot again you shall do penance for this and he struck him again and yet again oh pray don't punish him anymore cried little Dorit don't hurt him see how gentle he is at her entreaty Gowen spared him and he deserved her intercession for truly he was a submissive and a sorry and as wretched as a dog could be it was not easy to recover this shock and make the visit unrestrained even though Fanny had not been under the best of circumstances the least trifle in the way in such further communication as passed among them before the sisters took their departure little Dorit fancied it was revealed to her that Mr. Gowen treated his wife even in his very fondness too much like a beautiful child he seemed so unsuspicious of the depths of feeling which she knew must lie below that surface that she doubted if there could be any such depths in himself she wondered whether his want of earnestness might be the natural result of his want of such qualities and whether it was with people as with ships that in too shallow and rocky waters their anchors get no hold and they drifted anywhere he attended them down the staircase geocosely apologizing for the poor quarters to which such poor fellows as himself were limited and remarking that when the high and mighty barnacles his relatives who would be dreadfully ashamed of them presented him with better he would live in better to oblige them at the water-edge they were saluted by Blandois who looked white enough after his late adventure but who made very light of it notwithstanding laughing at the mention of Lyon leaving the two together under the scrap of vine upon the causeway Garwen idly scattering the leaves from it into the water and Blandois lighting a cigarette the sisters were paddled away in state as they had come they had not glided on for many minutes when little Dorrid became aware that Fanny was more showy in manner than the occasion appeared to require and looking about for the cause through the window and through the open door saw another gondola evidently in waiting on them as this gondola attended their progress in various artful ways sometimes shooting on her head and stopping to let them pass sometimes when the way was broad enough skimming along side by side with them and sometimes following closest turn and as Fanny gradually made no disguise that she was playing off-graces upon somebody within it of whom she at the same time feigned to be unconscious little Dorrid at length asked who it was to which Fanny made the short answer that gay be who? said little Dorrid my dear child returned Fanny in a tone suggesting that before her uncle's protest she might have said you little fool instead how slow you are young sparkler she lowered the window on her side and leaning back and resting her elbow on it negligently fanned herself with a rich Spanish fan of black and gold the attendant gondola having skimmed forward again with some swift trace of an eye in the window Fanny laughed coquettishly and said did you ever see such a fool my love do you think he means to follow you all the way? asked little Dorrid my precious child returned Fanny I can't possibly answer for what an idiot in a state of desperation may do but I should think it highly probable it's not such an enormous distance all Venice would scarcely be that I imagine if he's dying for a glimpse of me well my love that really is an awkward question for me to answer said her sister I believe he is you had better ask Edward he tells Edward he is I believe I understand he makes a perfect spectacle of himself at the casino and that sort of places by going on about me but you had better ask Edward if you want to know I wonder he doesn't call said little Dorrid after thinking a moment my dear Amy your wonder will soon cease if I am rightly informed I should not be at all surprised if he called today the creature has only been waiting to get his courage up I suspect will you see him? indeed my darling said Fanny that's just as it may happen here he is again look at him oh you simpoten Mr. Sparkler had undeniably a weak appearance with his eye in the window like a knot in the glass and no reason on earth for stopping his park suddenly except the real reason when you asked me if I will see him my dear said Fanny almost as well composed in the graceful indifference of her attitude as Mrs. Murdell herself what do you mean? I mean said little Dorrid I think I rather mean what do you mean dear Fanny Fanny laughed again in a manner at once condescending arch and affable and said putting her arm round her sister in a playfully affectionate way now tell me my little pet when we saw that woman at martini how did you think she carried it off? did you see what she decided on in a moment? no Fanny then I'll tell you Amy she settled with herself now I'll never refer to that meeting under such different circumstances and I'll never pretend to have any idea that these are the same girls that's her way out of a difficulty what did I tell you when we came away from Harley Street that time she is as insolent and forced as any woman in the world but in the first capacity my love she may find people who can match her a significant turn of the Spanish fan towards Fanny's bosom indicated with great expression where one of these people was to be found not only that pursued Fanny but she gives the same charge to young sparkler and doesn't let him come after me until she has got it thoroughly into his most ridiculous of all ridiculous noddles for one really can't call it ahead that he is to pretend to have been first struck with me in that in-yard why? asked little Dorit why? good gracious my love again very much in the tone of you stupid little creature how can you ask? don't you see that I may have become a rather desirable match for a noddle and don't you see that she puts the deception upon us and makes a pretence while she shifts it from her own shoulders very good shoulders there too I must say observed Miss Fanny glancing complacently at herself of considering our feelings but we can always go back to the plain truth yes but if you please we won't retorted Fanny no I am not going to have that done Amy the pretext is none of mine it's hers and she shall have enough of it in the triumphant exaltation of her feelings Miss Fanny using her Spanish fan with one hand squeezed her sister's waist with the other as if she were crushing Mrs. Mardel no repeated Fanny she shall find me go her way she took it and I'll follow it and with a blessing of fate and fortune I'll go on improving that woman's acquaintance until I have given her maid before her eyes things from my dressmaker's ten times as handsome and expensive as she once gave me from hers little Dorit was silent sensible that she was not to be heard on any question affecting the family dignity and unwilling to lose to no purpose her sisters newly and unexpectedly restored favor she could not concur but she was silent Fanny well knew what she was thinking of so well that she soon asked her her reply was do you mean to encourage Mr. Sparkle Fanny encourage him my dear said her sister smiling contemptuously that depends upon what you call encourage no I don't mean to encourage him but I'll make a slave of him little Dorit glanced seriously and doubtfully in her face but Fanny was not to be so brought to a check she furled her fan of black and gold and used it to tap her sister's nose with the air of a proud beauty and a great spirit who toyed with and playfully instructed a homely companion I shall make him fetch and carry my dear and I shall make him subject to me and if I don't make his mother subject to me too it shall not be my fault do you think dear Fanny don't be offended we are so comfortable together now that you can quite see the end of that cause I can't say I have so much to look for it yet my dear answered Fanny with supreme indifference such are my intentions and really they have taken me so long to develop that here we are at home and young sparkler at the door inquiring who is within by the merest accident of course in effect the swain was standing up in his gondola card case in hand affecting to put the question to a servant this conjunction of circumstances led to his immediately afterwards presenting himself before the young ladies in a posture which in ancient times would not have been considered one of favorably augury for his suit since the gondoliers of the young ladies having been put to some inconvenience by the chase so neatly brought their own boat in the gentlest collision with the bark of Mr. Sparkler as to tip that gentleman over like a larger species of nine pin and cause him to exhibit the souls of his shoes to the object of his dearest wishes while the nobler potions of his anatomy struggled at the bottom of his boat in the arms of one of his men however as Miss Fanny called out with much concern was the gentleman heard Mr. Sparkler rose more restored than might have been expected and stammered for himself with blushes not at all so Miss Fanny had no recollection of having ever seen him before and was passing on with a distant inclination of her head when he announced himself by name even then she was in a difficulty from being unable to call it to mind until he explained that he had had the honor of seeing her at Martini then she remembered him and hoped his lady mother was well thank you stammered Mr. Sparkler she is uncommonly well or at least poorly in Venice said Miss Fanny in Rome Mr. Sparkler answered I am here by myself myself I came to call upon Mr. Edward Dorit myself indeed upon Mr. Dorit likewise in fact upon the family turning graciously to the attendants Miss Fanny inquired whether her papa or brother was within the reply being that they were both within Mr. Sparkler humbly offered his arm Miss Fanny accepting it was squared up the great staircase by Mr. Sparkler who if he still believed which there is not any reason to doubt that she had no nonsense about her rather deceived himself arrived in a mouldering reception room where the faded hangings of a sad sea green had worn and withered until they looked as if they might have claimed kindred with the waves of seaweed drifting under the windows or clinging to the walls and weeping for their imprisoned relations Miss Fanny dispatched the emissaries for her father and brother pending whose appearance she showed to great advantage on a sofa completing Mr. Sparkler's conquest with some remarks upon Dante known to that gentleman as an eccentric man in the nature of an old file who used to put leaves around his head and sit upon a stool for some unaccountable purpose outside the cathedral at Florence Mr. Dorit welcomed the visitor with the highest urbanity and most curtly manners he inquired particularly after Mrs. Murdell he inquired particularly after Mr. Murdell Mr. Sparkler said or rather twitched out of himself in small pieces by the shirt collar that Mrs. Murdell having completely used up her place in the country and also her house at Brighton and being of course unable don't you see to remain in London when there wasn't a soul there and not feeling herself this year quite up to visiting about at people's places had resolved to have a touch at Rome where a woman like herself with a proverbially fine appearance and with no nonsense about her couldn't fail to be a great acquisition as to Mr. Murdell he was so much wanted by the men in the city and the rest of those places and was such a doosed extraordinary phenomenon in buying and banking and that that Mr. Sparkler doubted if the monetary system of the country would be able to spare him though that his work was occasionally one too many for him and that he would be all the better for a temporary shy at an entirely new scene and climate Mr. Sparkler did not conceal as to himself Mr. Sparkler conveyed to the Dorit family that he was going on rather particular business wherever they were going this immense conversational achievement required time but was effected being effected Mr. Dorit expressed his hope that Mr. Sparkler would shortly dine with them Mr. Sparkler received the idea so kindly that Mr. Dorit asked what he was going to do that day for instance as he was going to do nothing that day his usual occupation and one for which he was particularly qualified he was secured without postponement being further bound over to accompany the ladies to the opera in the evening at dinner time Mr. Sparkler rose out of the sea like Venus' son taking after his mother and made a splendid appearance ascending the great staircase if Fanny had been charming in the morning she was now thrice charming very becomingly dressed in her most suitable colours and with an air of negligence upon her that doubled Mr. Sparkler's fetters and riveted them I hear you are acquainted Mr. Sparkler said his host at dinner with Mr. Gowan Mr. Henry Gowan perfectly sir returned Mr. Sparkler his mother and my mother are cronies in fact if I had thought of it Amy said Mr. Dorit with a patronage as magnificent as that of Lord Decimus himself you should have dispatched a note to them asking them to dine today some of our people could have fetched them and taken them home we could have spared a gondola for that purpose I am sorry to have forgotten this pray remind me of them tomorrow little Dorit was not without doubts how Mr. Henry Gowan might take their patronage I promise not to fail in the reminder pray does Mr. Henry Gowan paint portraits inquired Mr. Dorit Mr. Sparkler opined that he painted anything if he could get the job has he no particular walk said Mr. Dorit Mr. Sparkler stimulated by love to brilliancy replied that for a particular walk a man ought to have a particular pair of shoes as for example shooting shooting shoes cricket cricket shoes whereas he believed that Henry Gowan had no particular pair of shoes no speciality said Mr. Dorit this being a very long word for Mr. Sparkler and his mind being exhausted by his late effort he replied no thank you I seldom take it well said Mr. Dorit it would be very agreeable to me to present a gentleman so connected with some testimonial of my desire to further his interests and develop the germs of his genius I think I must engage Mr. Gowan to paint my picture if the result should be mutually satisfactory I might afterwards engage him to try his hand upon my family the exquisitely bold and original thought presented itself to Mr. Sparkler that there was an opening here for saying there were some of the family emphasizing some in a market manner to whom no painter could render justice but for want of a form of words in which to express the idea it returned to the skies this was the more to be regretted as Miss Fanny greatly applauded the notion of the portrait and urged her papato act upon it she surmised, she said that Mr. Gowan had lost better and higher opportunities by marrying his pretty wife and love in a cottage painting pictures for dinner was so delightfully interesting that she begged her papato give him the commission whether he could paint a likeness or not though indeed both she and Amy knew he could from having seen a speaking likeness on his easel that day and having had the opportunity of comparing it with the original these remarks made Mr. Sparkler as perhaps they were intended to do nearly distracted for while on the one hand they expressed Miss Fanny's susceptibility of the tender passion she herself showed such an innocent unconsciousness of his admiration that his eyes goggled in his head with jealousy of an unknown rival descending into the sea again after dinner and ascending out of it at the opera staircase preceded by one of their gondoliers like an attendant merman with a great linen lantern they entered their box and Mr. Sparkler entered on an evening of agony the theatre being dark and the box light several visitors lounged in during the representation in whom Fanny was so interested and in conversation with whom she fell into such charming attitudes as she had little confidences with them and little disputes concerning the identity of people in distant boxes that the wretched Sparkler hated all mankind but he had two consolations at the close of the performance she gave him her fan to hold while she adjusted her cloak and it was his blessed privilege to give her his arm downstairs again these crumbs of encouragement Mr. Sparkler thought would just keep him going and it is not impossible that Miss Dorit thought so too the merman with his light was ready at the box door and other merman with other lights were ready at many of the doors the Dorit merman held his lantern low to show the steps and Mr. Sparkler put on another heavy set of fetters over his former set as he watched her radiant feet twinkling down the stairs beside him among the loiterers here was Blandois of Paris he spoke and moved forward beside Fanny little Dorit was in front with her brother and Mrs. General Mr. Dorit had remained at home but on the brink of the key they all came together she started again to find Blandois close to her handing Fanny into the boat Gawain has had a loss he said since he was made happy today by a visit from fair ladies a loss? repeated Fanny relinquished by the bereaved Sparkler and taking her seat a loss said Blandois his dog Lion little Dorit's hand was in his as he spoke he's dead said Blandois dead? echoed little Dorit that noble dog? faith dear ladies said Blandois smiling and shrugging his shoulders somebody has poisoned that noble dog he is as dead as the doge's end of chapter the sixth book the second of little Dorit this recording is in the public domain