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. ...vLITTLE'.-DORRIT. ., . . 935
merited suffering ;;was there no difference between my
I 1-spurninglthatvinjustice, . and coveting. mere money-a
thing..which you. and. your comrades -in‘ the prisons,
maysteal from'any’one?”,: . ,w...-,. -V V. .2 .33.;
r;: ‘.‘.!l‘ime.presses, madame.'z;.’I‘ake care l.”,w.- .r ' - - r .-.i
“If this house was blazing from tho roof.’.to nthe,
ground,’,’,shc2returned,- .“I‘ wouldstay iniit torjustify
myself, against my..righteous, motives being classed with
those of stahbers and thieves." : .' y I v .. r'T.v.'u
:.’.vRigaud: snapped vhis fingers Ltauntingly, in her,face.
it One thousand guineas to the little beauty you slowly
hunted to death. ,One thousand guineas to the youngest .,
daughter.her.patronzmight have at fifty, or (if he had
none) brothcr’s youngest daughter, on her coming of age,
1 as the remembrance his disinterestedness may like best,
of his protection of a friendless young orphan girl.’ Two
thousand guineas.w VVhat 1. You will never. come to the
rnoncy?’.’,
.‘.‘ .'I‘hatrpatron,"’.'shc was vehemently proceeding, when
he checked her. ,. . i :1 . I 4 -
m;‘.‘ Names in LCail him Mr. Frederick Dorrit. Nomore
evnsionsfin mi v-J; ..: r ' ' -v’ v ‘-
I .‘.'.That Frederick Dorritwns the beginning of it all.
Ifxhe had not been a player of music,’ and had not kept,
in those days of his youth and prosperity, an idle house
where singers,‘ and'players,'.aud such-like children of
Evil; turned their backs on the Light and their faces to
the Darkness,’ she might: have rremained in her lowly
station, andrmight not have‘been raised out of it to be
castdown. .But, no. Satan entered into that Frederick
Dorrit,rnnd counselled h.im thatihe was :1 ma.n‘of.inno-
cent and laudable tasteswho did kind actions, and that
here was a poor girl with ’a voice for singing music with.
Then heiis to have her taught. l.Then'Arthur’s father,
whohasvall along beemsecretly pining in the ways of
virtuous! ruggedness; for those accursed snares which
are’ called the:Arts,.becomes acquainted with her. -And
sowa gracelessorphan, training to be a‘ singing girl,
carries it; by that Frederick Dorrit’s agency, against me,
and I amhumbled and deceived l-Not I, that is to say,”
shezadded quickly. as colour flushed into her face, “a
greater than I...zWhat am‘I‘?”, ' v in i , T
Jeremiah Flintwinch, who had been gradually screwing
himself towards her, and who was now very near her
clbow.without her knowing it, made a specially wryrfacc
ofzobjection when'she.'said thcsewords, and moreover
twirched his gaiters, as if such prctensionswcre equiva-
lent to little barbs in his legs. ‘ , r ,,
v.''.‘Iiza.stly,’’Ashe continucd,. “for I am at the end of
these things, and Izwill say. no more of them,’ and you
shall say no more of them,.and all that remains will be
t,ordcter1hine,1vhcthcr the knowledge of them can be
kept among us.who. are. here present: lastly, when .I
suppressed that paper, with the knowledge of Arthur’s
father-” I v " -2 is .- " v ‘-w
‘ -;.“ But not with his consent, you know,” said.Mr. Flint-
xvinch, ... 1.‘ 43.2, . v. ;;
“Who said with his. consent?" She started to.tind
Jeremiah so neanher,’ and drew back her head, looking
nt".hi1u with some rising distrust. “ You were often
enough between us, when he would have had me pio-
duceit and I would not, to have contradicted me if I had
said, with his consent. I.say,rwhen I suppressed that
paper; I made no effort to destroy it, but kept it by me,
here in this house, many years. 1 The rest of the Gilbert
propertysbeingleft to Arthur's father,'I' could at any
time, without iinsettling more than the . two sumsxhavo
. made a pretence of finding it. But, besides that I must have
supported such pretence by a direct falsehood (a great re-
sponsibility), I have seen no new reason, in all the time
I.have.been tried here, to bring it to light. It wasa re-
warding ofsin ';:the wrong-result of :1 rlelusion.. QI did
whatl was appointed to do.‘and I have undergone, within
these . four :walls,‘ what I .was, appointed ‘to ‘ undergo.
VVhcn the paper was at last destroyed-as I thought--in
mypresence, she had long beendead, and :her patron.
Frederick Dorrit, had long been.deservedly'2ruined and
imbecile.‘ ‘He hadno daughter. . I had found the niece
Ueforeithen ; and what I did for her was better for her.
far,?than'the‘ money of‘-wlrichzshe 'wonld have ‘had xno
good.’.’%' .She' added, after nimoment; asthough slid ad.
dressed thezwatch :'r.!‘She'hcrself was inuoce:1t,.‘ and I
might not haveforgotten torelinquish it to her, atmy
death;”;and sat looking at it. . ' s r -
5‘ Shall I recall something to.you, worthyomadame
' Baid‘Rigaud.
“,The little pa eriwas in this house, on
the night. when our-friend t o prisoner--jail-comrade
of .my soul-came home from foreign-countriesn: ?Shali
I recall yet somethingniore to you ‘I; ' The little singing.
bird that never was fiedged,; was long kept in Va cagejby
a guardian. of; your appointing, wellenoughrknown to
our old intriguer here.- --Shall we coax our old intriguer
to tell us when he saw him.last‘Z” : I gr x ’-.r
“ I’ll,tell you l’.’ cried Atiery, unstopping-her mouth;
"I dreamed it, first of all my dreams. ulereniialr, if you
come a-nigh me now, I’ll scream’ to be heard at St,
Paul’s l The person as this man , has spoken of, was
Jeremiah’s own twin brother; and he. was here, in the
dead of the night, on the night when Arthurcome home;
and Jeremiah with his own hands give lximzthis paper,-
along with,I don’t know what more, and he took it away
in an iron -box.-Help! Murder! Save me from Jerei
Mr. Flintwinch had made a run at her, but Rigaud
had caught him in his-armsvmidway. After a moment's
wrestle with him,,Flintwinch gave up, and put his hands
inhispocketsnt,-, .1, , ., I ,2.
“. lVhat ;” cried Rigaud, rallying him as he poked and
jerked him back with his elbows.-, r “ Assault a lady with
such a genius for dreaming‘? ,Ha, ha, ha i VVh'y she'll
be a fortune to you as an exhibition. , All that she dreams
comes true. Ha“ ha, ha ! You’re so like him. little
Flintwinch. 'So likeihim, as I knew him (when I first
spoke English for him to the host) in the Cabaret of, the
Three Billiard Tables, in, the little street ofithe high
roofs,‘ by. the. wharf r. at Antwerp l, Ah, but [he was
a brave boy to. drink. ‘ Ah, but he was a braveiboy
to smoke I it Ah, but he lived -in a sweet bacheloreaparto
ment,-furnished, on.the fifth floor, above the wood and
charcoal merchants, and the dressmakers, and the chair-
makers, and the maker of tubs-where I knew him too‘;
and where,‘ with his cognac and tobacco, he had twelve
sleeps :1. day undone fit, until he had a. fit too much, and
ascended to the skies. Ha, ha, ha I VVhat does it mat;
terhow I ‘took possession of the papers in his-ironxbox ‘I
Perhaps he confided it to my hands for you, perhaps it
was locked and my curiosity was piqued, perhaps I sup’-
pressed it. Ha, ha, ha I IVhat‘does it matter, so that I
have it safe? We are not particular hero ; hey, Flint.’
winch? we are not particular here; is it not so, I11Q- .
dame?" = r . . . . , ..
‘ Retiring before him with vicious counter-jerks of his
own elbows, Mr. Flintwinch had ot back into his cor-"
ner, .where.l1e,now stood with hisgiands in his pockets;
taking breath, and returning Mrs. Clennarn’s stare. “ Ha,‘-
ha, ha I But what's this?” cried Rigaud. " It appears
asif.yourdon’t know, one the other. Permit me, Ma--
dame Clennum who suppresses, ‘to present Monsieur
Flintwinch who intrigues”. is > x '
Mr. Flintwinch, unpocketing one of his hands, to
scrape his jaw. advanced a step or so in that attitude,‘
ptill returning Mrs. Clennam’s look, and thus addressed
ier: . ‘ , , ,
“Now, I know what you mean -by opening your eyes
so Wide at me,‘but‘you needn't take the trouble.becauso
I donlt care for:it. ‘live been telling you for how many‘
years, that you're one of the most opiniated and obsti:
note of women.‘ That‘s.what you are. ‘ You call your-3
selfhumble and sinful; but you are the most Bumptious
of your sexl ‘ 'I‘hat's-what you are- I have told you,-
over and over again when we have had a tiff, that you
wanted tomoke everything, go down before you, but I-
wouldn’t go down before you-that you wanted to swal-'-
Iowr upreverybody alive, but I wouldn’t be ‘swallowed
up alive“ VVhy didn’t you destroy the paper when you‘
first laid hands upon it? I advised you to: but no, it's
not your way to takeradvice. You must keep it, for-
sooth. Perhaps you may carry it out at some other
time, forsooth. ‘As if I didn't know better than that 1.
I think Iysee your pride carrying it out, with a chance‘-
ofbeiug suspected of having kept it byynu. : But that‘s'
the way you cheat yourself. 1 Just as you cheat your-3‘
self into making-out,‘ that you didn't do all this-,busi-‘
ness.becauso' you were a rigorous I woman, all ‘slight,"=
.. -4. A.,.....g-.1.‘ .. A2