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On a healthy autumn day, the Marshalsea prisoner, weak but otherwise

restored, sat listening to a voice that read to hiolden fields had been reaped and ploughed again, when the

sureen perspectives of hops

had been laid low by the busy pickers, when the apples clustering in the

orchards were russet, and the berries of the e

Already in the woods, glimpses of the hardy

winter that was co the boughs where the prospect shone defined and clear, free from

the bloom of the drowsy summer weather, which had rested on it as the

bloom lies on the pluer to

be seen lying asleep in the heat, but its thousand sparkling eyes were

open, and its whole breadth was in joyful animation, from the cool sand

on the beach to the little sails on the horizon, drifting away like

autueless and

barren, looking ignorantly at all the seasons with its fixed, pinched

face of poverty and care, the prison had not a touch of any of these

beauties on it Blossom ould, its bricks and bars bore unifor to the voice as it read to

hi, heard in it all the

soothing songs she sings to man At no Mother's knee but hers had he

ever dwelt in his youth on hopeful promises, on playful fancies, on

the harvests of tenderness and humility that lie hidden in the

early-fostered seeds of the i winds, that have the ger roots in nursery

acorns

But, in the tones of the voice that read to his, and echoes of every

whisper that had ever stolen to him in his life

When the voice stopped, he put his hand over his eyes,upon them

Little Dorrit put the book by, and presently arose quietly to shade

theMaggy sat at her needlework in her old place The light

softened, Little Dorrit brought her chair closer to his side

'This will soon be over now, dear Mr Clennam Not only are Mr Doyce's

letters to you so full of friendship and encourage says

his letters to hier is past) is so considerate, and speaks so well of you, that it

will soon be over now'

'Dear girl Dear heart Good angel!'

'You praise me far too much And yet it is such an exquisite pleasure

to ly, and to--and to see,' said Little

Dorrit, raising her eyes to his, 'how deeply you mean it, that I cannot

say Don't'

He lifted her hand to his lips

'You have been here many, many times, when I have not seen you, Little

Dorrit?'

'Yes, I have been here sometimes when I have not come into the room'

'Very often?'

'Rather often,' said Little Dorrit, timidly

'Every day?'

'I think,' said Little Dorrit, after hesitating, 'that I have been here

at least twice every day' He ht hand

after fervently kissing it again; but that, with a very gentle lingering

where it was, it see retained He took it in both of

his, and it lay softly on his breast

'Dear Little Dorrit, it is not my imprisonment only that will soon be

over This sacrifice of you ain,

and to take our different ways so wide asunder You have not forgotten

e said together, when you ca has been--You feel quite

strong to-day, don't you?'

'Quite strong'

The hand he held crept up a little nearer his face

'Do you feel quite strong enough to knohat a great fortune I have

got?'

'I shall be very glad to be told No fortune can be too great or good

for Little Dorrit'

'I have been anxiously waiting to tell you I have been longing and

longing to tell you You are sure you will not take it?'

'Never!'

'You are quite sure you will not take half of it?'

'Never, dear Little Dorrit!'

As she looked at hi in her affectionate

face that he did not quite co that could have broken

into tears in a moment, and yet that was happy and proud

'You will be sorry to hear what I have to tell you about Fanny Poor

Fanny has lost everything She has nothing left but her husband's

incoave her when she married was lost as your one'

Arthur was ht

not be so bad,' he said: 'but I had feared a heavy loss there, knowing

the connection between her husband and the defaulter'

'Yes It is all gone I am very sorry for Fanny; very, very, very sorry

for poor Fanny My poor brother too!' 'Had he property in the saone--How reat fortune

is?'

As Arthur looked at her inquiringly, with a new apprehension on him,

she withdrew her hand, and laid her face down on the spot where it had

rested

'I have nothing in the world I aland, he confided everything he had to the same

hands, and it is all swept away O my dearest and best, are you quite

sure you will not share my fortune with me now?'

Locked in his arms, held to his heart, with his ht hand round his neck, and clasped it in its

fellow-hand

'Never to part, my dearest Arthur; never any more, until the last!

I never was rich before, I never was proud before, I never was happy

before, I a been

resigned by you, I a with you in this prison, as I

should be happy in co back to it with you, if it should be the will

of GOD, and co you with all my love and truth I am

yours anywhere, everywhere! I love you dearly! I would rather passfor our bread, than I

would have the greatest fortune that ever was told, and be the greatest

lady that ever was honoured O, if poor papa may only kno blest at

last my heart is, in this rooy had of course been staring fro before this Maggy was now so overjoyed that,

after hugging her little -hornpipe to find soladness Whoyin? And who, should

Little Dorrit find waiting for herself, when, a good two or three hours

afterwards, she went out?

Flora's eyes were a little red, and she seemed rather out of spirits

Mr F's Aunt was so stiffened that she had the appearance of being past

bending by any means short of powerful mechanical pressure Her bonnet

was cocked up behind in a terrific id as if it had been petrified by the Gorgon's head, and had got it

at thatattributes, Mr F's Aunt,

publicly seated on the steps of the Marshal's official residence, had

been for the two or three hours in question a great boon to the younger

inhabitants of the Borough, whose sallies of hu at the point of her umbrella, from time to

time

'Painfully aware, Miss Dorrit, I am sure,' said Flora, 'that to propose

an adjournment to any place to one so far removed by fortune and so

courted and caressed by the best society

even if not a pie-shop far below your present sphere and a back-parlour

though a civil man but if for the sake of Arthur--cannot overcome it

more improper now than ever late Doyce and Clennaht wish to ht wish to offer perhaps

your good nature ht excuse under pretence of three kidney ones the

hu this rather obscure speech, Little Dorrit returned

that she was quite at Flora's disposition Flora accordingly led the

way across the road to the pie-shop in question: Mr F's Aunt stalking

across in the rear, and putting herself in the way of being run over,

with a perseverance worthy of a better cause

When the 'three kidney ones,' which were to be a blind to the

conversation, were set before them on three little tin platters, each

kidney one ornamented with a hole at the top, into which the civil ravy out of a spouted can as if he were feeding three lamps,