The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-04-09
all his blindness and his Efforts to help

all his kindness and his Efforts to help
and comfort them.
But Little Dorrit never forgot. Her
present existence seemed q dream she
tried to care for her father as she used to.
& do, but he was afraid people would think
he had not been used to servants (foollsh
many SO she lost even the little pleasure
of her old prison life in the Marshalsea.
There were Wallets and maids now to 90
.allHthe little things she had once loveol
to do with her own hands, and she SEEM.
ed toabe no longer OF use TO him. she
loved her father is dearly as she always
had, but now she had begun to feel that
she could never see him as he used TO be
before his prison days, because first
poverty and now wealth had changed
him. The old sad shadow grew over her.
He grew angry at her and chlded her,
and hurt her. It seemed that he had en-.
tirelyi forgotten the old days when she
shaved so for him.
Poor. Little Dorrie! She was far lonelier
now than she had ever been before IN the
debtors prison-lonelier and unhappleri
than Arthur Clennam in London could
have guessed. The gay, fashionable life OF
her brother and sister did not attract her.
She was tin,id Of joining In their gay ties
and only asked leave to be left alone, ana
went about the city IN q gondola IN
quiet, scared, lost manner It often seemed
to her as If the Marshalsea must be
just behind the next big building, OF Mrs.
Clenman's house, where she had first
met Arthur just around the next corner.
i And she used to look into gondoas as
they passed ms IL she might see Arthur
any minute.
In5the days of their prison poverty Fan
ME had occasionally earned some money
by dancing at theatre. There she had
met a silly, ch,lckle- headed young man.
the son OF a Mrs, Merdle, who had been
fascinated by her beauty. Now, In their
wealth, no saw Fannie again, and fell
even more deeply in love with her. Mrs.
Merdle was a cold-hearted, art fetal Wo-
man, who kept parrot that was all
ways shrieking, and who thought of Moth
ing but riches and society, SHE would
have refused to let her son marry Fam
Mo iuethe old days, but now 1t was an
other matter. He proposed, and Fam:
ME, who had been made angry q thou
sand times by Mrs. Mcrdles sinsolence and
tpatronlzng ways. made up her mind to
marry hin, II only to take her revenge
on his mother.
Mrs. Merdle's husband always stayed
In london. lilo was immensely, rich--so
rich that people said everything he touch
ed turned into gold 1te WAS " aulel, uulI
man, with dull red cheeks, and cared
nothing at Ill for society. though every
body flattered and courted him.
FL When old Mr.. porrit saw MRS. Merdle's
son 4 was In love with fannie he was
greatly pleased. He had by this time
grown so selfish that he considered much
less her happiness than his3own Profit.
and he thought II they married he could
persuade Mr.. Merdle to invest his own
great fortune for him, so that he would
be even richerthan he was now Alerdlo's
name had been g9w no5oS Ssf Ss,sysd bg
great man could make a mistake, and tina t,
he was going to keep, on getting richer
and richer 1enough nobody knew how
he did I'll as long as he lived,
So, before long, Fannie married and
went back to London 10 take up life in
the ma yniflcent Merdle mansion with her