'Like him? He is almost an idiot.' 'I am so sorry--don't be hurt--but, since you ask me what I have to
say, I am so very sorry, Fanny, that you suffered this lady to give you
anything.' 'You little Fool!' returned her sister, shaking her with the sharp pull
she gave her arm. 'Have you no spirit at all? But that's just the way!
You have no self-respect, you have no becoming pride, just as you allow
yourself to be followed about by a contemptible little Chivery of a
thing,' with the scornfullest emphasis, 'you would let your family be
trodden on, and never turn.'
'Don't say that, dear Fanny. I do what I can for them.'
'You do what you can for them!' repeated Fanny, walking her on very
fast. 'Would you let a woman like this, whom you could see, if you had
any experience of anything, to be as false and insolent as a woman can
be--would you let her put her foot upon your family, and thank her for
it?' 'No, Fanny, I am sure.' 'Then make her pay for it, you mean little
thing. What else can you make her do? Make her pay for it, you stupid
child; and do your family some credit with the money!'
They spoke no more all the way back to the lodging where Fanny and her
uncle lived. When they arrived there, they found the old man practising
his clarionet in the dolefullest manner in a corner of the room.
Fanny had a composite meal to make, of chops, and porter, and tea; and
indignantly pretended to prepare it for herself, though her sister did
all that in quiet reality. When at last Fanny sat down to eat and drink,
she threw the table implements about and was angry with her bread, much
as her father had been last night.
'If you despise me,' she said, bursting into vehement tears, 'because I
am a dancer, why did you put me in the way of being one?
It was your doing. You would have me stoop as low as the ground before
this Mrs Merdle, and let her say what she liked and do what she liked,
and hold us all in contempt, and tell me so to my face. Because I am a
dancer!' 'O Fanny!' 'And Tip, too, poor fellow. She is to disparage him just as much as she
likes, without any check--I suppose because he has been in the law, and
the docks, and different things. Why, it was your doing, Amy. You might
at least approve of his being defended.'