see that the shadow of the wall was dark upon | thing shall be left alone. That is what it means. him. That is what it's for. No doubt there's a certain form to be kept up that it's for something else, but it's only a form. Why, good Heaven, we are nothing but forms! Think what a lot of our forms you have gone through. And you have never got any nearer to an end?" "Never!" said Clennam.

One day, when he might have been some ten or twelve weeks in jail, and when he had been trying to read, and had not been able to release even the imaginary 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. Clennam? I hope I am not unwelcome in calling to see you."

"Look at it from the right point of view, and there you have us-official and effectual. It's like a limited game of cricket. A field of outsiders are always going in to bowl at the Pub

It was the sprightly young Barnacle, Ferdinand. He looked very good-natured and pre-lic Service, and we block the balls." possessing, though overpoweringly gay and free, in contrast with the squalid prison.

"You are surprised to see me, Mr. Clennam," he said, taking the seat which Clennam offered him.

"I must confess to being much surprised."
"Not disagreeably, I hope ?"
"By no means."

"Thank you. Frankly," said the engaging
young Barnacle, "I have been excessively sorry
to hear that you were under the necessity of a
temporary retirement here, and I hope (of course
as between two private gentlemen) that our place
has had nothing to do with it?"
"Your office?"

"Our Circumlocution place."

"I can not charge any part of my reverses upon that remarkable establishment."

"Upon my life," said the vivacious young Barnacle, "I am heartily glad to know it. It is quite a relief to me to hear you say it. I should have so exceedingly regretted our place having had any thing to do with your difficulties."

Clennam asked what became of the bowlers? The airy Young Barnacle replied that they grew tired, got dead beat, got lamed, got their backs broken, died off, gave it up, went in for other games.

"And this occasions me to congratulate myself again," he pursued, "on the circumstance that our place has had nothing to do with your temporary retirement. It very easily might have had a hand in it; because it is undeniable that we are sometimes a most unlucky place, in our effects upon people who will not leave us alone. Mr. Clennam, I am quite unreserved with you. As between yourself and myself, I know I may be. I was so, when I first saw you making the mistake of not leaving us alone; because I perceived that you were inexperienced and sanguine, and had—I hope you'll not object to my saying-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 am official when I can help it), something to

Clennam again assured him that he absolved the effect that if I were you, I wouldn't bother it of the responsibility.

"That's right," said Ferdinand. "I am very happy to hear it. I was rather afraid in my own mind that we might have helped to floor you, because there is no doubt that it is our misfortune to do that kind of thing now and then. We don't want to do it; but if men will be graveled, why-we can't help it."

“Without giving an unqualified assent to what you say," returned Arthur, gloomily, "I am much obliged to you for your interest in me.”

"No, but really! Our place is," said the easy Young Barnacle, "the most inoffensive place possible. You'll say we are a Humbug. I 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 Clennam.

"You don't regard it from the right 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 any where."

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. Every body 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. Upon my honor,” said Ferdinand, in a very friendly and confiding way, "I shall be greatly vexed if you don't take warning by the past and keep away from us.". "And the invention ?" said Clennam.

"My good 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. Every body is ready to dislike and ridicule any invention. You have no idea how many people want to be left alone.

"Is your place there to be left alone?" asked You have no idea how the Genius of the counClennam. try (overlook the Parliamentary nature of the phrase, and don't be bored by it) tends to being left alone. Believe me, Mr. Clennam," said

"You exactly hit it," returned Ferdinand. "It is there with the express intention that every

the sprightly young Barnacle, in his pleasantest | way through the Lodge, mounted his horse in manner, "our place is not a wicked Giant to the front court-yard, and rode off to keep an apbe charged at full tilt; but, only a windmill pointment with his noble kinsman: who wanted showing you, as it grinds 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 must have humbug, we all like humbug, we couldn't get on without humbug. A little humbug, and a groove, and every thing goes on admirably, if you leave it alone." With this hopeful confession of his faith as the head of the rising Barnacles who were born of woman, to be followed under a variety of watchwords which they utterly repudiated and disbelieved, Ferdinand rose. Nothing could be more agreeable than his frank and courteous bearing, or adapted with a more gentlemanly instinct to the circumstances of his visit.

a little coaching before he could triumphantly answer certain infidel Snobs, who were going to question the Nobs about their statesmanship.. He must have passed Mr. Rugg on his way out, for, a minute or two afterward, that ruddyheaded gentleman shone in at the door like an elderly Phœbus.

"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 enjoyment in pickling and preserving, or a washerwoman's enjoyment of a heavy wash, or a dustman's enjoyment of an overflowing dust binn, or any other professional enjoyment of a mess in the way of busi

"Is it fair to ask," he said, as Clennam gaveness. him his hand with a real feeling of thankfulness for his candor and good humor, "whether it is true that our late lamented Merdle is the cause of this passing inconvenience ?"

"I am one of the many he has ruined. Yes." "He must have been an exceedingly clever fellow," said Ferdinand Barnacle.

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

A consummate rascal, of course," said Ferdinand, "but remarkably clever! One can not help admiring the fellow. Must have been such a master of humbug, Knew people so wellgot over them so completely-did so much with them !"

In his easy way, he was really moved to gen

wins admiration.

"I hope," said Arthur, "that he and his dupes may be a warning to people not to have so much dons with them again."

My dear Mr. Clennam," returned Ferdinand, laughing, "have you really such a verdant hope? The next man who has as large a sapacity and as genuine a taste for swindling will mureeed na well. Pardon me, but I think you really have no idea how the human bees will swarm to the beating of any old tin kettle; In that fact How the complete manual of governling them. When they can be got to believe thout the battle is made of the precious metals, In that fack Des the whole power of men like cour late lamented. No doubt there are here and thorn," said ferdinand, politely, "excepHound saska, whees people have been taken in ba what appeared to them to be much better Temenney and I pad not go far to find such a Fan, lak Hoey don't invalidate the rule. Gooddey Floge pot when I have the pleasure of aking pm week, this passing cloud will have proste plans to an away cure a step Topound this done I know the way out perfectly. Wheat day

Wok town words, the best and brightest of kw Hacmacher went down stairs, hummed his

|

"I still look round, from time to time, Sir," said Mr. Rugg, cheerfully, "to see whether any lingering Detainers are accumulating at the gate. They have fallen in pretty thick, Sir; as thick as we could have expected."

He remarked upon the circumstance as if it were a matter of congratulation; rubbing his hands briskly, and rolling his head a little.

"As thick," repeated Mr. Rugg, "as we could reasonably have expected. Quite a showerbath of 'em. I don't often intrude upon you, now, when I look round, because I know you are not inclined for company, and that if you wished to see me, you would leave word in the Lodge. But I am here pretty well every day, Sir. Would this be an unseasonable time, Sir," asked Mr. Rugg, coaxingly, "for me to offer an observation ?"

"As seasonable a time as any other."

"Hum! Public opinion, Sir," said Mr. Rugg, "has been busy with you."

"I don't doubt it."

"Might it not be advisable, Sir," said Mr. Rugg, more coaxingly yet, "now to make, at last and after all, a trifling concession to public opinion? We all do it in one way or another. The fact is, we must do it."

"I can not set myself right with it, Mr. Rugg, and have no business to expect that I ever shall."

"Don't say that, Sir; don't say that. The cost of being moved to the Bench is almost insignificant, and if the general 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 matter of taste."

"Well, Sir, well! But is it good taste, is it good taste? That's the question." Mr. Rugg was so soothingly persuasive as to be quite pathetic. "I was almost going to say, is it good feeling? This is an extensive affair of yours; and your remaining here where a man can come for a pound or two, is remarked upon as not in

tended to remain here, and was on the eve of removal to a superior abode. But my course, as a professional machine, is clear; I have nothing to do with it. Is it your good pleasure to see the gentleman, Sir ?"

"Who is waiting to see me, did you say?"

keeping. It is not in keeping. I can't tell you, | ing in the Lodge, that my client had never inSir, in how many quarters I hear it mentioned. I heard comments made upon it last night in a Parlor frequented by what I should call, if I did not look in there now and then myself, the best legal company-I heard, there, comments on it that I was sorry to hear. They hurt me on your account. Again, only this morning at breakfast. My daughter (but a woman, you'll say yet still with a feeling for these things, and even with some little personal experience, as the plaintiff in Rugg and Bawkins) was expressing her great surprise-her great surprise. Now, under these circumstances, and considering that none of us can quite set ourselves above public opinion, wouldn't a trifling concession to that opinion be-Come, Sir!" said Rugg, "I will put it on the lowest ground of argument, and say, Amiable ?"

Arthur's thoughts had once more wandered away to Little Dorrit, and the question remained unanswered.

"As to myself, Sir," said Mr. Rugg, hoping 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 makes 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 accustomed had it become to commune with only one silent figure 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 am unchanged, and unchangeable in my decision. Pray, let it be; let it be!" Mr. Rugg, without concealing that he was nettled and mortified, replied,

"I did take that unprofessional liberty, Sir. Hearing that I was your professional adviser, he declined to interpose before my very limited function was performed. Happily," said Mr. Rugg, with sarcasm, "I did not so far travel out of the record as to ask the gentleman for his name."

"I suppose I have no resource but to see him," sighed Clennam, wearily.

"Then it is your good pleasure, Sir ?" retorted Rugg. "Am I honored by your instructions to mention as much to the gentleman, as I pass out? I am? Thank you, Sir. I take my leave." His leave he took, accordingly, in dudgeon.

The gentleman of military exterior had so imperfectly awakened Clennam's curiosity, in the existing state of his mind, that a half forgetfulness of such a visitor's having been referred to, was already creeping over it as a part of the sombre vail which almost always dimmed it now, when 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 clatter meant to be insulting. As it paused for a moment on the landing outside his door, he could not recall his association with the peculiarity of its sound, though he thought he had one. Only a moment was given him for consideration. His door was immediately swung open by a thump, and in the door-way stood the missing Blandois, the cause of many anxieties. "Salve, fellow jail-bird!" said he. "You want me, it seems. See me here!"

Before Arthur could speak to him in his indignant 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,

"Oh! Beyond a doubt, Sir! I have traveled out of the record, Sir, I am aware, in putting the point to you. But really, when I hear it re-breathing hard, sidled near the window, put his marked in several companies and in very good company, that however worthy of a foreigner, it is not worthy of the spirit of an Englishman to remain in the Marshalsea when the glorious liberties of his island home admit of his removal to the Bench, I thought I would depart from the narrow professional line marked out to me, and mention it. Personally," said Mr. Rugg, "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, some minutes ago, to see a client of mine visited in this place by a gentleman of high family riding a saddle-horse. But it was not my business. If I had, I might have wished to be now empowered to mention to another gentleman, a gentleman of military exterior at present wait

hat on the ground, stirred his hair up with both hands, and folded his arms, like a man who had come to a pause in a hard day's work. Mr. Baptist, never taking his eyes from his dreaded chum of old, softly sat down on the floor with his back against the door and one of his ankles in each hand: resuming the attitude (except that it was now expressive of unwinking watchfulness) in which he had sat before the same man in the deeper shade of another prison, one hot morning at Marseilles.

"I have it on the witnessing of these two madmen," said Monsieur Blandois, otherwise Lagnier, otherwise Rigaud, "that you want me, brother-bird. Here I am!"

Glancing round contemptuously at the bedstead, which was turned up by day, he leaned his back against it as a resting-place, without

removing his hat from his head, and stood defiantly lounging with his hands in his pock

ets.

"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 prompted you to the devilish inven

tion "

"I go, consequentementally," it would have given Mrs. Plornish great concern if she could have been persuaded that his occasional lengthening of an adverb in this way, was the chief fault of his English, "first, among my countrymen. I ask them what news in Londra, of foreigners arrived. Then, I go among the French. Then, I go among the Germans. They all tell Monsieur Rigand, after frowning at him for me. The great part of us know well the other, a moment, laughed. "Hear this noble gentle- and they all tell me. But!-no person can tell man! Listen, all the world, to this creature me nothing of him, Rigaud. Fifteen times," of Virtue! But, take care, take care. It is said Cavalletto, thrice throwing out his left hand possible, my friend, that your ardor is a little with all its fingers spread, and doing it so rapidcompromising. Holy Blue! It is possible." ly that the sense of sight could hardly follow the Signore" interposed Cavalletto, also ad-action, "I ask of him in every place where go dressing Arthur: "for to commence, hear me! the foreigners; and fifteen times," repeating the I received your instructions to find him, Rigaud; same swift performance, "they know nothing. But-"

is it not "

"It is the truth."

T

At his significant Italian rest on the word

IN THE OLD ROOM.

"But," his back-handed shake of his right fore- | to know that you are a bully and coward. I finger came into play; a very little, and very need no revival of my spirits from the effects of cautiously. this wretched place, to tell you so plain a fact, and one that you know so well."

"But! After long time when I have not been able to find that he is here in Londra, some one tells me of a soldier with white hair-hey?—not | hair like this that he carries-white-who lives retired secretementally, 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 smokes. He is a soldier with gray hair-But!-" a very decided rest indeed, and a very vigorous play from side to side of the back-handed forefinger -"he is also this man that you see."

It was noticeable that, in his old habit of submission to one who had been at the trouble of asserting superiority over him, he even then bestowed upon Rigaud a confused bend of his head, after thus pointing him out.

“Eh well, Signore!" he cried, in conclusion, addressing Arthur again. "I waited for a good opportunity. I writed some words to Signor Panco" - an air of novelty came over Mr. Pancks with this designation-"to come and help. I showed him, Rigaud, at his window to Signor Panco, who was 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 honorable mention of Mr. Rugg-" we waited down below there together, 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 mustache, and the mustache went up under the nose. When nose and mustache had settled into their places again, Monsieur Rigaud loudly snapped his fingers half a dozen times, bending forward to jerk the snaps at Arthur, as if they were palpable missiles which he jerked into his face.

White to the lips, Rigaud stroked his mustache, muttering, “By Heaven, my small boy, but you are a little compromising of my lady, your respectable mother," and seemed for a minute undecided how to act. His indecision was soon gone. He sat himself down with a threatening swagger, and said,

"Give me a bottle of wine. You can buy wine here. Send one of your madmen to get me a bottle of wine. I won't talk to you without wine. Come! Yes or no?"

"Fetch him what he wants, Cavalletto," said Arthur, scornfully, producing the money.

"Contraband beast," added Rigaud, “bring port wine! I'll drink nothing but Porto-Porto."

The contraband beast, however, assuring all present, with his significant finger, that he peremptorily declined to leave his post at the door, Signor Panco offered his services. He soon returned with the bottle of wine, which, according to the custom of the place, originating in a scarcity of corkscrews among the Collegians (in common with a scarcity of much else), was already opened for use.

"Madman! A large glass," said Rigaud. Signor Panco put a tumbler before him; not without a visible conflict of feeling on the question of throwing it at his head.

"Haha!" boasted Rigaud. "Once a gentleman, and always a gentleman. A gentleman from the beginning, and a gentleman to the end. What the devil! A gentleman must be waited on, I hope? It's a part of my character to be waited on!"

He half filled the tumbler as he said it, and drank off the contents when he had done saying it.

"Hah!" smacking his lips. "Not a very old prisoner that! I judge by your looks, brave Sir, that imprisonment will subdue your blood much sooner than it softens this hot wine. You are mellowing-losing body and color already. I salute you!"

He tossed off another half glass; holding it up both before and afterward, so as to display

"Now, Philosopher!" said Rigaud. "What his small, white hand. do you want with me?"

"I want to know," returned Arthur, without disguising his abhorrence, "how you dare direct a suspicion of murder against my mother's house ?"

"Dare!" cried Rigaud. "Ho, ho! Hear him! Dare? Is it dare? By Heaven, my small boy, but you are a little compromising !" "I want that suspicion to be cleared away,' said Arthur. "You shall be taken there, and be publicly seen. I want to know, moreover, what business you had there, when I had a burning desire to fling you down stairs. Don't frown at me, man! I have seen enough of you

"To

"To business," he then continued. conversation. You have shown yourself more free of speech than body, Sir."

"I have used the freedom of telling you what. you know yourself to be. You know yourself, as we all know you, to be far worse than that, however."

"Add, always, a gentleman, and it's no matter. Except in that regard, we are all alike. You couldn't for your life be a gentleman, for example; I couldn't for my life be otherwise. How great the difference! Let us go on. Words, Sir, never influenced the course of the cards, or the course of the dice. Do you know