Page 455 (1/2)

The opinion of the coates bore hard on

Clenna the community

within

Too depressed to associate with the herd in the yard, who got

together to forget their cares; too retiring and too unhappy to join in

the poor socialities of the tavern; he kept his own room, and was held

in distrust

Some said he was proud; some objected that he was

sullen and reserved; some were conte who pined under his debts The whole population were

shy of him on these various counts of indictment, but especially the

last, which involved a species of domestic treason; and he soon became

so confir up and

dohen the evening Club were asses and toasts

and sentiments, and when the yard was nearly left to the woan to tell upon him He knew that he idled and moped

After what he had known of the influences of imprisonment within the

four small walls of the very room he occupied, this consciousnessfro froht

see that the shadow of the as dark upon hiht have been so to read and had not been able to release even

the iinary people of the book from the Marshalsea, a footstep stopped

at his door, and a hand tapped at it He arose and opened it, and an

agreeable voice accosted him with 'How do you do, Mr Clenna to see you'

It was the sprightly young Barnacle, Ferdinand He looked very

good-natured and prepossessing, though overpoweringly gay and free, in

contrast with the squalid prison

'You are surprised to seethe seat

which Clenna reeably, I hope?'

'By noBarnacle, 'I have been

excessively sorry to hear that you were under the necessity of a

temporary retireentle to do with it?'

'Your office?'

'Our Circue any part of my reverses upon that remarkable

establish Barnacle, 'I alad to

know it It is quite a relief to retted our place having had anything to do with your

difficulties'

Clennaain assured hiht,' said Ferdinand 'I am very happy to hear it I was

rather afraid in ht have helped to floor you,

because there is no doubt that it is ournow and then We don't want to do it; but if iving an unqualified assent to what you say,' returned Arthur,

glooed to you for your interest inBarnacle, 'theI won't say

we are not; but all that sort of thing is intended to be, and must be

Don't you see?'

'I do not,' said Clennaht point of view It is the point of

view that is the essential thing Regard our place from the point of

view that we only ask you to leave us alone, and we are as capital a

Department as you'll find anywhere'

'Is your place there to be left alone?' asked Clennam

'You exactly hit it,' returned Ferdinand 'It is there with the express

intention that everything shall be left alone That is what it means

That is what it's for No doubt there's a certain for else, but it's only a for but forh And you have never got any nearer to an end?'

'Never,' said Clennaht point of view, and there you have

us--official and effectual It's like a li in to bowl at the Public Service, and we

block the balls'

Clenna Barnacle

replied that they grew tired, got dead beat, got laave it up, went in for other gaain,' he pursued,

'on the circu to do with your

teht have had a hand in it;

because it is undeniable that we are sometimes a most unlucky place, in

our effects upon people ill not leave us alone Mr Clennam, I am

quite unreserved with you As between yourself and myself, I know Itheus

alone; because I perceived that you were inexperienced and sanguine, and

had--I hope you'll not object to --some simplicity'

'Not at all'

'Some simplicity Therefore I felt what a pity it was, and I went out

of my way to hint to you (which really was not official, but I never a to the effect that if I were you,

I wouldn't bother myself However, you did bother yourself, and you have

since bothered yourself Now, don't do it any more'

'I am not likely to have the opportunity,' said Clennam

'Oh yes, you are! You'll leave here Everybody leaves here There are no

ends of ways of leaving here Now, don't come back to us That entreaty

is the second object of my call Pray, don't come back to us Uponway, 'I shall

be greatly vexed if you don't take warning by the past and keep away

froood fellow,' returned Ferdinand, 'if you'll excuse the freedom of

that form of address, nobody wants to know of the invention, and nobody

cares twopence-halfpenny about it'

'Nobody in the Office, that is to say?'

'Nor out of it Everybody is ready to dislike and ridicule any

invention You have no idea how many people want to be left alone

You have no idea how the Genius of the country (overlook the

Parliamentary nature of the phrase, and don't be bored by it) tends

to being left alone Believe

Barnacle in his pleasantest ed at full tilt; but only a windrinds

immense quantities of chaff, which way the country wind blows'

'If I could believe that,' said Clennam, 'it would be a dismal prospect

for all of us'

'Oh! Don't say so!' returned Ferdinand 'It's all right We et on without huoes on admirably, if you

leave it alone'

With this hopeful confession of his faith as the head of the rising

Barnacles ere born of woman, to be followed under a variety of

ords which they utterly repudiated and disbelieved, Ferdinand

rose Nothing could be , or adapted with a entlemanly instinct to the

circumstances of his visit

'Is it fair to ask,' he said, as Clenna of thankfulness for his candour and good-humour, 'whether it

is true that our late la

inconvenience?'

'I am one of the ly clever fellow,' said Ferdinand

Barnacle

Arthur, not being in the mood to extol the memory of the deceased, was

silent

'A consummate rascal, of course,' said Ferdinand, 'but re the fellow Must have been such a

ot over them so completely--did

so enuine

admiration

'I hope,' said Arthur, 'that he and his dupesto people

not to have so ain'

'My dear Mr Clenna, 'have you really

such a verdant hope? The next enuine a taste for swindling, will succeed as well Pardon me, but

I think you really have no idea how the hu of any old tin kettle; in that fact lies the coot to believe that the kettle is made

of the precious metals, in that fact lies the whole power of men like

our late lamented No doubt there are here and there,' said Ferdinand

politely, 'exceptional cases, where people have been taken in for what

appeared to theo far to

find such a case; but they don't invalidate the rule Good day! I hope

that when I have the pleasure of seeing you, next, this passing cloud

will have given place to sunshine Don't come a step beyond the door I

know the way out perfectly Good day!'

With those words, the best and brightest of the Barnacles went

down-stairs, hue, mounted his horse in the

front court-yard, and rode off to keep an appoint before he could triu to question the Nobs about

their states on his way out, for, a entleman shone in at the door, like an

elderly Phoebus

'How do you do to-day, sir?' said Mr Rugg 'Is there any little thing I

can do for you to-day, sir?'

'No, I thank you'

Mr Rugg's enjoyment of embarrassed affairs was like a housekeeper's

enjoy, or a washerwoman's enjoyment of a

heavy wash, or a dust dust-bin, or any

other professional enjoyment of a mess in the way of business

'I still look round, fro, cheerfully,

'to see whether any lingering Detainers are accuate

They have fallen in pretty thick, sir; as thick as we could have

expected'

He reratulation: rubbing his hands briskly, and rolling his head a

little

'As thick,' repeated Mr Rugg, 'as we could reasonably have expected

Quite a shower-bath of 'em I don't often intrude upon you nohen I

look round, because I know you are not inclined for company, and that if

you wished to see e But I am here

pretty well every day, sir Would this be an unseasonable tily, 'for me to offer an observation?'

'As seasonable a ti, 'has been busy with you'

'I don't doubt it'

'Might it not be advisable, sir,' said Mr Rugg, ly yet, 'now

toconcession to public opinion?

We all do it in one way or another The fact is, we , and have no business to

expect that I ever shall'

'Don't say that, sir, don't say that The cost of being eneral feeling is strong that

you ought to be there, why--really--'

'I thought you had settled, Mr Rugg,' said Arthur, 'that my

determination to remain here was a ood taste, is it good taste? That's the

Question' Mr Rugg was so soothingly persuasive as to be quite pathetic

'I was al? This is an extensive

affair of yours; and your re here where a man can co It is not in keeping

I can't tell you, sir, in how many quarters I heard it ht in a Parlour frequented by what

I should call, if I did not look in there now and then al company--I heard, there, comments on it that I was sorry to hear

They hurtat breakfast My

daughter (but a wos, and even with so and Bawkins) was expressing her great surprise; her great

surprise

Now under these circu that none of us can quite

set ourselves above public opinion, wouldn't a trifling concession to

that opinion be--Coround of arguhts had once more wandered away to Little Dorrit, and the

question re that his eloquence had reduced

him to a state of indecision, 'it is a principle of mine not to consider

myself when a client's inclinations are in the scale But, knowing your

considerate character and general wish to oblige, I will repeat that I

should prefer your being in the Bench

Your case has made a noise; it is a creditable case to be professionally

concerned in; I should feel on a better standing with my connection, if

you went to the Bench Don't let that influence you, sir I merely state

the fact'

So errant had the prisoner's attention already grown in solitude and

dejection, and so accustoure within the ever-frowning walls, that Clennam had to shake

off a kind of stupor before he could look at Mr Rugg, recall the thread

of his talk, and hurriedly say, 'I aeable, in , without concealing that

he was nettled and mortified, replied:

'Oh! Beyond a doubt, sir I have travelled out of the record, sir, I a the point to you But really, when I herd it reood coner, it is not worthy of the spirit of an Englishlorious liberties of his island hoht I would depart from the narrow

professional line , 'I have no opinion on the topic'

'That's well,' returned Arthur

'Oh! None at all, sir!' said Mr Rugg 'If I had, I should have been

unwilling, soo, to see a client of h fa a saddle-horse But it was

not ht have wished to be now eentlee, that my client had never intended to

remain here, and was on the eve of removal to a superior abode Butto do with it

Is it your good pleasure to see the gentle to see me, did you say?'

'I did take that unprofessional liberty, sir Hearing that I was your

professional adviser, he declined to interpose before my very li, with sarcasm, 'I did not

so far travel out of the record as to ask the gentleman for his nahed Clennaood pleasure, sir?' retorted Rugg 'Am I honoured by

your instructions to entleman, as I pass out? I

am? Thank you, sir I take eon

The gentleman of military exterior had so i state of hisbeen referred to, was already creeping over

it as a part of the sombre veil which almost always dimmed it nohen

a heavy footstep on the stairs aroused him It appeared to ascend them,

not very promptly or spontaneously, yet with a display of stride and

clatterAs it paused for aoutside his door, he could not recall his association with the

peculiarity of its sound, though he thought he had one Only a iven hi open

by a thu Blandois, the cause of

many anxieties

'Salve, fellow jail-bird!' said he 'You want me, it seems Here I anant wonder, Cavalletto

followed him into the room Mr Pancks followed Cavalletto Neither of

the two had been there since its present occupant had had possession of

it Mr Pancks, breathing hard, sidled near the , put his hat on

the ground, stirred his hair up with both hands, and folded his arms,

like a man who had co his eyes from his dreaded chuainst the door and one of his ankles in

each hand: resu the attitude (except that it was now expressive of

unwinking watchfulness) in which he had sat before the sameat Marseilles 'I have

it on the witnessing of these two nier, otherwise Rigaud, 'that you wantround contemptuously at the bedstead, which was

turned up by day, he leaned his back against it as a resting-place,

without re

with his hands in his pockets

'You villain of ill-omen!' said Arthur 'You have purposely cast a

dreadful suspicion upon my mother's house Why have you done it?

What proaud, after frowning at hientleman! Listen, all the world, to this creature of Virtue! But

take care, take care It is possible,Holy Blue! It is possible'

'Signore!' interposed Cavalletto, also addressing Arthur: 'for to

coaud; is

it not?'

'It is the truth'

'I go, consequentereat

concern if she could have been persuaded that his occasional lengthening

of an adverb in this as the chief fault of his English,--'first

aners

arrived Then I go a the Gerreat part of us knoell the other, and they all tell

aud Fifteen ti out his left hand with all its fingers

spread, and doing it so rapidly that the sense of sight could hardly

follow the action, 'I ask of hiners;

and fifteen ti the sa But!--' At this significant Italian rest on the word 'But,' his

backhanded shake of his right forefinger came into play; a very little,

and very cautiously

'But!--After a long time when I have not been able to find that he

is here in Londra, some one tells me of a soldier hite

hair--hey?--not hair like this that he carries--white--who lives retired

secrettementally, in a certain place But!--' with another rest upon

the word, 'who sometimes in the after-dinner, walks, and smokes It is

necessary, as they say in Italy (and as they know, poor people), to

have patience I have patience I ask where is this certain place One

believes it is here, one believes it is there Eh well! It is not here,

it is not there I wait patientissamentally At last I find it Then I

watch; then I hide, until he walks and srey

hair--But!--' a very decided rest indeed, and a very vigorous play froer--'he is also this man that

you see'

It was noticeable, that, in his old habit of sub superiority over hiaud a confused bend of his head, after thus pointing

hinore!' he cried in conclusion, addressing Arthur again 'I

waited for a good opportunity I writed sonor Panco,' an

air of novelty canation, 'to conor Panco, as

often the spy in the day I slept at night near the door of the house

At last we entered, only this to-day, and now you see him! As he would

not come up in presence of the illustrious Advocate,' such was Mr

Baptist's honourable ether, and Signor Panco guarded the street'

At the close of this recital, Arthur turned his eyes upon the impudent

and wicked face As it met his, the nose came down over the moustache

and the moustache went up under the nose When nose and aud loudly snapped his

fingers half-a-dozen ti forward to jerk the snaps at Arthur,

as if they were palpable missiles which he jerked into his face

'Now, Philosopher!' said Rigaud'What do you ithhis abhorrence,

'how you dare direct a suspicion of aud 'Ho, ho! Hear him! Dare? Is it dare? By Heaven, my

small boy, but you are a little imprudent!'

'I want that suspicion to be cleared away,' said Arthur 'You shall

be taken there, and be publicly seen I want to know,desire to fling you