The removal of Little Dorrit herself from their customary association,

did not mend the matter. She was so much out, and so much in her own

room, that he began to miss her and to find a blank in her place. He had

written to her to inquire if she were better, and she had written

back, very gratefully and earnestly telling him not to be uneasy on her

behalf, for she was quite well; but he had not seen her, for what, in

their intercourse, was a long time.

He returned home one evening from an interview with her father, who had

mentioned that she was out visiting--which was what he always said

when she was hard at work to buy his supper--and found Mr Meagles in an

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excited state walking up and down his room. On his opening the door, Mr

Meagles stopped, faced round, and said: 'Clennam!--Tattycoram!' 'What's the matter?' 'Lost!' 'Why, bless my heart alive!' cried Clennam in amazement. 'What do you

mean?' 'Wouldn't count five-and-twenty, sir; couldn't be got to do it; stopped

at eight, and took herself off.' 'Left your house?'

'Never to come back,' said Mr Meagles, shaking his head. 'You don't know

that girl's passionate and proud character. A team of horses couldn't

draw her back now; the bolts and bars of the old Bastille couldn't keep

her.' 'How did it happen? Pray sit down and tell me.'

'As to how it happened, it's not so easy to relate: because you must

have the unfortunate temperament of the poor impetuous girl herself,

before you can fully understand it. But it came about in this way. Pet

and Mother and I have been having a good deal of talk together of late.

I'll not disguise from you, Clennam, that those conversations have not

been of as bright a kind as I could wish; they have referred to our

going away again. In proposing to do which, I have had, in fact, an

object.' Nobody's heart beat quickly.

'An object,' said Mr Meagles, after a moment's pause, 'that I will not

disguise from you, either, Clennam. There's an inclination on the part

of my dear child which I am sorry for. Perhaps you guess the person.

Henry Gowan.' 'I was not unprepared to hear it.'

'Well!' said Mr Meagles, with a heavy sigh, 'I wish to God you had never

had to hear it. However, so it is. Mother and I have done all we could

to get the better of it, Clennam. We have tried tender advice, we

have tried time, we have tried absence. As yet, of no use. Our late

conversations have been upon the subject of going away for another year

at least, in order that there might be an entire separation and breaking

off for that term. Upon that question, Pet has been unhappy, and

therefore Mother and I have been unhappy.' Clennam said that he could

easily believe it. 'Well!' continued Mr Meagles in an apologetic way, 'I admit as a

practical man, and I am sure Mother would admit as a practical woman,

that we do, in families, magnify our troubles and make mountains of our

molehills in a way that is calculated to be rather trying to people who

look on--to mere outsiders, you know, Clennam.




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