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In this strange scene, and with these strange spectres
flitting about him, Arthur Clennam looked on at the rep-
arations, as if they were part of a dream.’ Pending w icli,
the long-initiated Tip, with an awful enjoyment of the
Snuggery’s resources, pointed out the common kitchen
fire maintained by subscription of collegians, the boiler
for hot water supported in like manner, and other premises
generally tending to theideduction that the way to be
healthy, wealthy, and wise, was to come to the Marshal-
sea. ' ’ '
The two tables put together in a corner, were, at length,
‘converted into a very fair bed ; and the stranger was left
to the VVindsor chairs, the presidential tribune, the beery
atmosphere, sawdust,‘pipe-lights, spittoons and repose.
But the last item was long, long, long, in linking itself
to the rest. ”’ The novelty of the place, the coming upon
it without preparation, the sense of being locked up, the
remembrance of that !'0O1n‘llp-'Stal!'S, of the two brothers,
and above all of the retiring childish form, and the face
in which he now saw years of insuiiicient food, if not of
want, kept himwaking and unhappy, ' V ‘
Speculations, too, ‘bearing the strangest relations
towards the prison, but always concerning the-prison, ‘
ran like nightmareslthrougli his mind while he lay
awake.‘ VVhetlier coffins were kept ready for people
who might die there,,where they were kept, how they
were kept, where people who died in tlieprison were-
buried, how they were taken out, what forms were ob-
served, whether an implacable creditor could arrest the
dead? As to escapiiignvhat chances there were of escape?
‘Vhether a prisoner could scale the walls with a cord and
grapple, how-‘ he would descend upon the other side :
whether he could alight on a liousetop, steal down a
staircase, let himself out at a door, and get lost in the
crowd? As to Fire in the prison, if one were to break'oiit
while he lay there?
And these involuntary starts of fancy were, after all
but the setting of a picture in which three people kept
before him. His father, with the’ steadfast look with
which. he had died, prophetically darkened forth in the
portrait; his mother, with her arm up, warding off his
suspicion ; Little Dorrit, with her hand on the degraded
arm, and her drooping head tumedaway; . .
‘Vliat if his mother had an old reason she well knew
for softening to this poor girl ‘2 VVliat if the prisoner now
sleeping quietly-Heaven grant it I-by the light of the
great Day of Judgment should trace back his fall to her.
What if any act of hers, and of his father's, should have
even remotely brought the grey heads of those two broth.
ers so low I v - 4 .-
A swift thought shot into his mind. In that long irn-
prisonm.ent‘liere, and in her own long confinement to her
room, did his mother find a balance to be struck? I admit
, that lwas accessory to that man’s captivity. I have suf-
‘oias:22:-.h:‘;:;::.‘;iW‘ W I
ien al t e other thoughts ha . -
held possession of him. ‘ iVhen lie(l'etllddglegl[it’slii31Scaone
before him in her wheeled chair, warding hirh off
this justification. ‘When he awoke, and spraiw 11 ca‘ 1 I
lessly frightened,‘ the words were in his ear: agifllsel
voice had slowly spoken them at his pillow ti; break
rest: " Ho withers away in his prison; Ilwither aha
in mine; inexorable justice is done; what do I owe by
this score l” ‘ ‘ 3 D
CHAPTER IX.
' Lillie illolhg;-,
Tim morning light was in no hiirr to cli
wall and look in at tlie'Snuggery wiiidows I,-n;’nt(i“:'v ,en it
did come, it would have been more wdcome if it had
come al0nc,‘instea(l of bringng a rush of rain with it
,But‘ the equinoctial gales were blowing out at sea and
the impartial southwest wind, in its 1li;;1,t' 1,,’-o'u1(i‘mt
neglect even the narrow Marshalsca. W’hile it roared
through the steeple pf Saint George's Church and
twirled all the cowls 1n'tli0 neighbourhood, it made a
swoop to beat the Soiitliwark smoke into the jun . and
plunging down.tlic.Cl1lml1(fY5 Of the few early colldgiang
who were yet lighting their fires, half suffocated them,
7%. X?
rison
‘in wi
UHARLES DI OK ENS’ WORKS. ' I ’
Arthur Cleiinam ‘would have been little disposed to
linger in bed, though his bed had been in a more private
situation, and less affected by the raking 'out of yester-
day’s fire, the kindling of to-day's under the collegiate
boiler, the filling of that Spartan vessel at the pump. the
sweeping and sawdusting of the common room, and other
such preparations. llcartily glad ‘to see the morning,
though little rested by the night, he turned out ‘as soon
as he could -distinguish objects about him, and paced
the yard for two heavy . hours? before the gate was
opened. , w . i , ‘= “' ' '.
The walls were so near to one another, and‘tlie wild
cloudslhurried over them so fast, that it gave him a sen-
sation. like the beginning of sea-sickness to look up at
the gusty sky. The rain, carried aslant by flaws -of
wind, blackened that side of the central building which
he had visited last night, but left a narrow dry trough
under the lee of the wall, wherehe walked up and down
anionggwaifs of straw and dust and paper, the Waste
droppings ‘of the pump, and the stray leaves of yester-
day's greens. It wasas haggard a View of life ‘asa infill
need look upon. ' H V ' A " ‘ ’ ‘
Nor was it relieved by any glimpse of the‘ little crea-
ture whoihad brought him there. Perhaps she glided
out oflier "doorway and in at that where her father lived,
while his face was turned -from both ; but he saw notli-
ing of her. Itiwas too early for her brothcr;‘t0 lw-V9
seen him once, was to have seen enough Qf.lllI11 to know
that he would be sluggish to leave whatever frowsy bed
he occupied at night ;.so, as Arthur Clennam walked up
and down, waiting for the gate to open, he castalioiit in
his mind for future rather than for present means of
pursuing his discoveries. - ’ ' '
At last the lodge- gate turned, and the. turn.key,‘stand-
ing on the step, taking an early coinli at his hair, was
ready to let him out. “’ith a joyful sense of rcleaselle
passed through the lodge, and found himself again, in
the little outer court-yard where he had ‘spoken to the
brother last night. ' - . ’ ' , , ,' .
,Tlierewas a string of people already straggling .1”!
whom it was not difficult to identify as the nondescidld
messengers, gobetweens, and errand,-bearers of the place-
Somc of them had been lounging in the rain -ulllllille
gate should open; others, who had timed their a!Tl)'11l
with greater nicety, were coming up now, and paSSmS'
t 1 damp whitey-brown paper bags from the gr099T5:
loaves of bread, lumps of butter, eggs, milk; and ll’?
like.’ The shabbiness of these attendants upon Sllflbllk
ness, the poverty of these insolvent waiters upon insol-
vency, was a sight to see. Such threadbare coats and
trousers, such fustyggowns andshawls, such sduaslle
hats and boiincts, s'ucli boots and shoes, such umbrellas
and walkingvsticks, never were seen in Bag Fair. ‘All 0.
them wore the cast-off clothes of other men and !"01fl9f’ r
were made up of patches and pieces of other people 5 1"‘
dividuality, and li-ad‘ no sartorial existence of, their own
proper. Their walk was the walk of a race apart.“ They
had a peculiar way of doggedly slinking round the cor-
ner, as if they were eternally going to the pawnbroker'S-
“'hen they co'iighcd,.tliey coughed like people accus-
tomed to be forgotten on door-steps and in drauglili’
passages,‘ waiting for answers to letters in, failed ink,
which gave the recipients of those manuscripts great
mental disturbance, and no satisfaction." As they 939
the stranger in assing, they eyed him with Vborrowm.g
eyes--hungry, s arp, speculative as to ‘his'soItiiess 3
they were accredited to him, and the likelihood qf'l“5
standing something handsome. Mcndicity on coniI11.1S510"
stooped in their high shoulders, shainbled ‘in their‘un-
Steadylegs, buttonedand pinned and darned and dragged
their clothes, fraycdtlieir button’-liolcs," lcakedout of
their figures in dirty little ends of tape, and issued'fI0m
their months in alcoholic breathings. ‘ 9 1 '
As these people passed him standing still in the court-
yard. and one of them turned back toinquire if he 90111
assist him with his ‘services, it came into Arthur C1611‘
“‘.“l1’S mind that he would speak to Dorrit again-bef0T9
he went away. She would have recovered her first 511.?‘
P558, and might feel easier with him. He askffd “K15
niembcr of the fratcrnitv (who had two red l1eI‘rl1]gSl.n
his hand, and a loaf and a blackinrr-brush-under lH5
am). Where was the nearest place to get a cup of <cofIe0
r
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