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So always as he sat alone in the faded chair, thinking

Always, Little Dorrit Until it see wandered away fro to pass between him

and his remembrance of her virtues

His door was opened, and the head of the elder Chivery was put in a very

little ithout being turned towards hi out Can I do anything for

you?'

'Many thanks Nothing'

'You'll excusethe door,' said Mr Chivery; 'but I couldn't

make you hear'

'Did you knock?' 'Half-a-dozen ti himself, Clennam observed that the prison had awakened fro about the shady yard, and

that it was late in the afternoon He had been thinking for hours 'Your

things is co to carry 'e to carry 'em himself

Indeed he would have 'em himself, and so I couldn't send 'em up Mr

Clennam, could I say a word to you?'

'Pray come in,' said Arthur; for Mr Chivery's head was still put in at

the door a very little way, and Mr Chivery had but one ear upon him,

instead of both eyes This was native delicacy in Mr Chivery--true

politeness; though his exterior had very entle; 'it's no oddsin Mr Clennaood) in case you find him cut up anyways difficult My son has a

'art, and ht place Me and his mother knohere to find it, and we find it sitiwated correct'

With this mysterious speech, Mr Chivery took his ear away and shut the

door He one ten minutes, when his son succeeded hi it carefully down

'It's very kind of you I aone before it ca exactly as

before, 'Here's your black box:' which he also put doith care

'I am very sensible of this attention I hope weJohn, however, drew back, turning his right wrist in a socket er and said as he had said at first,

'I don't know as I can No; I find I can't!' He then stood regarding the

prisoner sternly, though with a swelling hury with me,' said Clennam, 'and yet so ready to do me

these kind services? Thereto occasion it I a the wrist backwards and

forwards in the socket, for which it was rather tight 'No s hich my eyes behold you at the present ht, Mr Clennam--which I am not;

and if you weren't under a cloud--which you are; and if it wasn't

against all rules of the Marshalsea--which it is; those feelings are

such, that they would sti it out with you in

a Round on the present spot than to anything else I could name' Arthur

looked at hier 'Well,

well!' he said 'Aaway, he sat doith a

heavy sigh in the faded chair again

Young John followed hi your pardon!'

'Freely granted,' said Clenna his

sunken head 'Say noJohn in a voice of s toit out to

parties without furniture, that have the room It an't much, but it's at

your service Free, Iyou have it on

any other ter'

Arthur raised his head again to thank him, and to say he could

not accept the favour John was still turning his wrist, and still

contending with himself in his former divided manner

'What is the matter between us?' said Arthur

'I decline to na loud

and sharp 'Nothing's the ain, in vain, for an explanation of his

behaviour After a while, Arthur turned away his head again Young John

said, presently afterwards, with the uth your elboas--you knohose--I needn't ht it of

an individual that he gave it to, and that lived here after him But the

individual wasn't any ways equal to him Most individuals would find it

hard to come up to his level'

Arthur drew the little table nearer, rested his arm upon it, and kept it

there

'Perhaps youJohn, 'that I intruded

upon him when he was over here in London On the whole he was of opinion

that it WAS an intrusion, though he was so good as to ask me to sit

down and to inquire after father and all other old friends Leastways

hued, and I

said so when I came back I asked him if Miss Aht you would have knoithout putting the question

to such as e

invisible pill 'Since you do put me the question, I am sorry I can't

answer it But the truth is, he looked upon the inquiry as a liberty,

and said, "What was that to : of which I had been fearful before However, he spoke very

handsome afterwards; very handsome'

They were both silent for severalJohn

remarked, at about the middle of the pause, 'He both spoke and acted

very handso John who broke the silence by inquiring:

'If it's not a liberty, how longand drinking?'

'I have not felt the want of anything yet,' returned Clennam 'I have no

appetite just now'

'The ed Young

John 'If you find yourself going on sitting here for hours and hours

partaking of no refreshment because you have no appetite, why then you

should andto

have tea in my own apartment If it's not a liberty, please to co a tray here in twoJohn would impose that trouble on hi anxious to show that he bore in er Mr Chivery's apology,

Arthur rose and expressed his willingness to take a cup of tea in Mr

john's apart John locked his door for hireat dexterity, and led the way to

his own residence

It was at the top of the house nearest to the gateway It was the room

to which Clennam had hurried on the day when the enriched family had

left the prison for ever, and where he had lifted her insensible fro as soon as their feet

touched the staircase The rooed that it was papered

now, and had been repainted, and was far more comfortably furnished; but

he could recall it just as he had seen it in that single glance, when he

raised her fro John looked hard at hiers

'I see you recollect the room, Mr Clennam?' 'I recollect it well, Heaven

bless her!'

Oblivious of the tea, Young John continued to bite his fingers and to

look at his visitor, as long as his visitor continued to glance about

the rooustily rattled a

quantity of tea into it from a canister, and set off for the common

kitchen to fill it with hot water

The rooed circumstances of his

return to the miserable Marshalsea; it spoke to him so mournfully of

her, and of his loss of her; that it would have gone hard with hih he had not been alone Alone, he did not try

He had his hand on the insensible wall as tenderly as if it had been

herself that he touched, and pronounced her na over the prison-parapet with its grih the summer haze

towards the distant land where she was rich and prosperous

Young John was some time absent, and, when he ca with hie leaf,

soe leaf, and a little

basket of water-cresses and salad herbs When these were arranged upon

the table to his satisfaction, they sat down to tea

Clennaly The ham

sickened him, the bread see upon hireen,' said Young John, handing hi or so of water-cress, and tried again; but the bread

turned to a heavier sand than before, and the hah of itself) seeh the whole

Marshalsea

'Try a little ain

handed the basket

It was so like handing green e of a dull iht the little basket as a handful

of fresh relief fro-stones and bricks of the jail,

that Clennam said, with a s this between the wires; but I cannot even get this down to-day'

As if the difficulty were contagious, Young John soon pushed away his

own plate, and fell to folding the cabbage-leaf that had contained the

ham When he had folded it into a number of layers, one over another,

so that it was san to flatten it

between both his hands, and to eye Clenna his green packet with some force, 'that if

it's not worth your while to take care of yourself for your own sake,

it's not worth doing for soh and a smile, 'I don't know for

whose'

'Mr Clennaentlehtforwardness that you are capable of, should be

capable of theentle a heart of his own,

should be capable of the heartlessness of treating mine in that way I

am astonished at it, sir Really and truly I aot upon his feet to eain, and fell to rolling his green packet on his right leg;

never taking his eyes off Clennanant reproach

'I had got over it, sir,' said John 'I had conquered it, knowing that

it must be conquered, and had come to the resolution to think no ain, I hope, if to this

prison you had not been brought, and in an hour unfortunate forJohn adopted his mother's powerful

construction of sentences) 'When you first cae, this day, more as if a Upas tree had been led strea was for the first fewround and round in a vortex I got out of

it I struggled, and got out of it If it was the last word I had to

speak, against that vortex with ued that if I had been rude, apologies was due, and those

apologies without a question of de, I did make And nohen

I've been so wishful to show that one thought is next to being a holy

one with e ently hint at it, and throwJohn, 'do not be so base as to deny that dodge you

do, and thrown azed at hi, 'What is

it? What do youin that state ofwould seem to beof an ansent ahead blindly

'I hadn't,' John declared, 'no, I hadn't, and I never had the

audaciousness to think, I a but lost I

hadn't, no, why should I say I hadn't if I ever had, any hope that it

was possible to be so blest, not after the words that passed, not even

if barriers insurmountable had not been raised! But is that a reason why

I ahts, why I a?'

'What can you mean?' cried Arthur

'It's all very well to tra a

very prairie of ords, 'if a person can uilty of the action It's all very well to trample on it, but it's

there It may be that it couldn't be traentlemanly, that doesn'ta person back upon hiled and strived out of himself like a butterfly The world may

sneer at a turnkey, but he's a

female criminals he's expected to be'

Ridiculous as the incoherence of his talk was, there was yet a

truthfulness in Young john's si wounded in so

face and in the agitation of his voice and ard He turned his thoughts back to the

starting-point of this unknown injury; and in the reen packet pretty round, cut it carefully into three

pieces, and laid it on a plate as if it were some particular delicacy

'It seems to me just possible,' said Arthur, when he had retraced the

conversation to the water-cresses and back again, 'that you have made

some reference to Miss Dorrit'

'It is just possible, sir,' returned John Chivery

'I don't understand it I hope I may not be so unlucky as to ain, for I never have meant to offend you

yet, when I say I don't understand it'

'Sir,' said Young John, 'will you have the perfidy to deny that you know

and long have known that I felt towards Miss Dorrit, call it not the

presumption of love, but adoration and sacrifice?'

'Indeed, John, I will not have any perfidy if I know it; why you should

suspect me of it I am at a loss to think Did you ever hear from Mrs

Chivery, your mother, that I went to see her once?'

'No, sir,' returned John, shortly 'Never heard of such a thing'

'But I did Can you iine why?'

'No, sir,' returned John, shortly 'I can't iine why'

'I will tell you I was solicitous to promote Miss Dorrit's happiness;

and if I could have supposed that Miss Dorrit returned your affection--'

Poor John Chivery turned crimson to the tips of his ears 'Miss Dorrit

never did, sir I wish to be honourable and true, so far as in my humble

way I can, and I would scorn to pretend for a moment that she ever did,

or that she ever led me to believe she did; no, nor even that it was

ever to be expected in any cool reason that she would or could She was

far above me in all respects at all tien-teel faed to her made him so very respectable, in spite of his

ss, and his very weak hair, and

his poetical teht have sat in his place

de less consideration at Arthur's hands