"WOMAN:" "Miss Dorrit, are you quite sure you wish your sister to know the nature of our relationship?" "FANNY:" "Quite sure, ma'am." "WOMAN:" "Then I suppose I shall have to tell her." "Do sit down." "I have a son, Miss Dorrit, by my first husband." "He is 22 years old." "I first married extremely young." "(SQUAWKING)" "Be quiet, bird!" "This son, his name is Edmund Sparkler, is very impressible, very easily led." "So when I heard that my son was fascinated by a dancer," "I was sure it must be a dancer from the Opera, where young men moving in society are usually fascinated." "I need hardly say that when I found out what the theatre was, and the kind of entertainment to be found there, I was much surprised." "And then, when I found that your sister, by rejecting my son's advances, had brought him to the point of proposing marriage, my feelings were of the profoundest anguish." "(SQUAWKING) Bird!" "Be quiet!" "(SQUAWKS)" "And I told her that I might be a dancer, but I consider my family quite as good as her son's, and I did not see any honour in being connected with them." "So you did." "And so it may be." "Sadly, the fact is we are all creatures of society in one way or another, and the society in which I move will never recognise the society in which you and your sister move." "I am afraid we should find ourselves compelled to look down upon you with contempt." "We should feel obliged to recoil from you with abhorrence." "Did I or did I not tell you I'd already refused him?" "You say so, but Sparkler is a young man, and young men are apt to persevere." "And if he were to persevere, you might very well change your mind." "And I tell you now, in the event of a marriage, my son would have nothing whatsoever." "He would be an absolute beggar." "Which makes no odds to me, cos I don't want him anyway!" "(SQUAWKING)" "I am a creature of impulse, Miss Dorrit." "And as such, I beg you to accept this small gift." "And just to seal our mutual understanding, perhaps you will be so good as to accept a mark of my appreciation at the dressmaker's." "You are too kind." "I believe at last we understand each other." "And now, I think, it is time to part for ever, and on the best of terms." "Goodbye, Miss Dorrit." "So pleased to have made your acquaintance." "(WHISTLING AND LAUGHING)" "Rent man!" "Quick, Pancks, get inside, lock the door!" "Rent man!" " All well with the books, Mr Clennam?" " Pretty well." " All well with the works, Mr Doyce?" " Pretty well, I'd say." "That Italian fellow's a good little workman." "I've told you, Auntie, Arthur's really, really..." "Aah!" "Visitors!" " Come along, up you go now." " Get off me!" "." " Slowly, easy does it." " Come, let me assist you." "Mrs Finching, welcome to Doyce and Clennam." "Come through to the office." "Oh, good gracious, Arthur..." "Mr Clennam, I should say, what a climb we have had to get up here." "Most unkind of you never to have come back to see us since that day, but I suppose you were more pleasantly engaged." "And is she fair or dark?" "Blue eyes or black, I wonder?" "And to think of Doyce and Clennam." "How did it all come about, I wonder?" "I know I have no right to ask the question, not any more, the golden chain between us that once was forged being snapped, and very proper." "But I thought that I would call with Mr F's aunt and congratulate you and offer best wishes." "I am very happy to see you, Flora." "Thank you for your good wishes." "There's milestones on the Dover road!" "She's in fine spirits today!" "Let him meet it if he can!" "Oh, dear, very lively." "You seem to stimulate her, Arthur." "Doyce and Clennam, I should say!" "One last remark." "Knowing you were interested in "her", it came to me," ""Good gracious, why not have her here?"" "Um, whom do you mean?" "Why, your little friend, of course!" "The seamstress!" "Little Dorrit?" "Yes!" "I recall you saying you have a very fond and tender feeling for her." "I do, Flora." "As once you had for me in dear, dead days gone by." "Oh, no, no, no, Flora!" "It's nothing like that." "I..." "I am simply interested in Miss Dorrit's welfare, and her family's welfare." "Oh." "But does she know that?" "I'm sure she does." "Oh, well, in that case, it can do no harm either way!" "She can come and do some needlework at our house if she cares to." "I'm sure she'd be glad to, Flora." "Thank you for thinking of her." "You can't make a head and brains out of a brass knob if there's nothing in it." "You couldn't do it with your Uncle George while he was living, much less now he's dead!" "Oh, dear, livelier than ever." "Perhaps we'd better go." "Oh!" " (WAILS)" " Oh, er..." " Come along, Auntie." "Time for your rest." " Let him chuck me out the window!" "Come on, Auntie!" "Mr Casby!" "Mr Casby!" "Mr Casby!" "Mr Casby!" "Pa's visiting his tenants." "They love him, you know." "They think he's a saint, I don't know why." "They think it's Pancks grinding their faces in the dust, but it's Pa all the time." "You know, he loves money so very much, it's quite a scandal, really." "Ah, ain't he a lovely man, Mr Clennam?" "Come on, Auntie." " Where are you taking me now?" " Careful, be careful!" "That's it." "(DOOR OPENS)" "Chivery old and Chivery new." "Just the men I wanted to see." "Mr Pancks." "And what can I do for you?" "Bit of private business for a client." "And what has your business to do with me?" "I want to see your books, Mr Chivery." "1 805." "Who came in and who left." "Confidential, that is, Mr Pancks." "No, it ain't." "(SNORTING)" "Oh, dear, oh, dear." "All right, then, there's half a crown to oil your joints." "Much obliged, Mr Pancks." "Edwards, Mathews, Bishop, Kitchner, Elliot, Dickens..." "William Dorrit. £1 20." "Address - 4 Gower Street North." "Date of birth - 24th October 1 775." "County of birth" " Dorset." "I'm much obliged to you, Mr Chivery." "Oh, Amy!" "(SQUAWKING)" "Hello, Mater." "Pa home?" "Your stepfather is returned from the City, yes." " Good-oh." " By the way, Edmund," "I had a visitor today." "Miss Dorrit called, with her sister." "Did she, biggod?" "And I missed her!" "What a shame." "She's a deuced fine girl." "You will not be seeing her again, Edmund." "Now, look here!" "I say!" "You can't do that." "She's a deuced fine girl." "I have done it, Edmund." "And with Miss Dorrit's full assent." "She...she's chucked me?" "Yes." "I'm afraid she has, Edmund." "Now, go and get dressed for dinner." "(CHUCKLES)" " This is so unfair!" " Go and get dressed." "(SQUAWKING)" "AUDIENCE:" "Encore!" "Encore!" "I don't know why you're looking so disapproving." "I don't know what to say." "You don't like Mr Sparkler?" "Like him?" "No." "He's an idiot." "So you'll be quite happy not to see him any more?" " I'll be delighted, Amy." " I wish you hadn't taken jewellery and things from Mrs Merdle, Fanny." "You little fool!" "Have you no spirit at all?" "Would you let a woman like that put her foot upon your family, and thank her?" " No, but..." " Then you make her pay for it, you mouse!" "What else could you do?" "You make her pay for it, and do your family some credit!" "(PIANO PLAYS) If you despise me because I'm a dancer, why did you put me in the way of being one?" "It was your doing." "You're the one who chivvied me into taking lessons." "Now you'd have me stoop as low as the ground before this Mrs Merdle." "I wouldn't, Fanny." "It was only taking jewellery from her seemed..." "Oh, I suppose you'd have us starve!" "You drag us down, Amy." "Sometimes I think you want to see us in the gutter!" "Fanny!" "Forgive me, Amy!" "You didn't deserve that." "But I do have my pride." "So do I, Fanny." "It just comes out in different ways, I suppose." "(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)" "(KNOCK ON DOOR)" "Mr Clennam, sir." "To see Mr Dorrit?" "Actually, I just wanted to leave this note for Amy, if you wouldn't mind passing it on." "Of course." "Before you go, sir, perhaps I might ask a favour." "He'll sit there hours, Mr Clennam." "Hours, he will." "May I ask..." "It's Miss Dorrit, sir." "He's breaking his heart for her." "Ever since he asked her and she refused him." "I had no idea." "But of course, he must have known her a long time." "Brought up together, sir." "Played together." "Always dreamed that one day..." "But her brother and sister are very high in their views and look down on John, and her father's all for himself and against sharing her with anyone." "So she's made a sacrifice of herself and turned him down." "And you believe...she loves your son?" "Never had eyes for no-one else." "Mr Clennam, if you felt able to have a word with her, make her see there's a young man there who loves her very dearly." "I'm not sure I'm the right person for the job, Mr Chivery." "I don't think my interference would be appreciated." "She looks up to you, sir." "You look out for her and her family." "She knows that you have her best interests at heart." "I wouldn't ask, but it breaks a father's heart, as well." "(STRING QUARTET PLAYS)" "Ah-hem!" "Ah..." "Your guests are here, sir." "Yes." "I suppose they are." "Do you intend to go down and greet them, sir?" "Yes, yes." "I..." "I suppose I should." "(MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH)" "So that's Merdle, is it?" "He don't look like anybody very much to me." "You might think that." "He's a quiet bird." "But he's got the City in the palm of his hand." "And Parliament." "And the Circumlocution Office." "Well, look, look, there's Tite Barnacle himself, dancing attendance." " Mrs Merdle's a fine-looking woman." " Yes, indeed." "Magnificent pair of lungs." "I speak as a medical man, of course." "And very well decorated." "Well, he can afford it." "They say he made another £1 00,000 just last week." "Two, I heard, and Bellows at the Treasury said four!" "Well, good luck to him." "My lords, ladies and gentlemen, my friends and colleagues." "Before we dine, I cannot allow the moment to pass without a word of gratitude to our host." "Hear, hear." "Mr Merdle, one can say without any exaggeration, is the wonder of the age." "Everything he touches, it would seem, turns to gold." "(APPLAUSE)" "Money, we have heard it said, is the root of all evil." "Oh, no, no, no, no." "But look around you!" "What do you see here but an abundance of goodness?" "Goodness, my friends!" "All the riches of nature." "And what has made this possible but money?" "Money is the fuel that feeds the engine of our great and glorious Empire, and our host is the Great Engineer!" "My lords, ladies and gentlemen, I give you our host, Mr Merdle!" "ALL:" "Mr Merdle!" "I thought he didn't look too chipper." "Man like that must be under a good deal of mental strain, I suppose." "No doubt, no doubt." "But as a matter of fact, I've found nothing at all the matter with him." "He may have some deep-seated, recondite complaint, I suppose." "But I'm damned if I could identify it." " They say that gold's a poison." " Nonsense." "Mercury, now, or lead." "Well, he doesn't look a happy man." "I wouldn't change places with him, for all his millions." "Nor I. Nor I." "(BELL TOLLS)" "CABBY:" "Where to, sir?" " MAN:" "Take me to the City." " CABBY:" "Very good, sir." "Gee up!" "Yes, I have to say, a very bad day's work, Pancks, a very bad day's work." "It seems to me, and I must insist on making the observation forcefully, you should have collected much more money." " I can't..." " Much..." "Ssh!" "...more money!" "I can't collect what they haven't got, Mr Casby." "The fact is, the rent you charge is more than they can pay, most of 'em." "My dear man, that's nothing to do with me." "My mind is on higher things." "Your job is to collect the rent, and I expect you to do it." "(CLOCK CHIMES) Well, well!" "I think it must be teatime." "Well, well." "Miss Dorrit, is it?" "Yes, sir." "Very good." "Very good." "You make yourself comfortable, Miss Dorrit while you wait." "(SNORTING)" "There you are, my dear, so sorry to have kept you waiting, have you been sitting there in your bonnet all this time?" "Pray, for goodness' sake, let me take it off for you..." "There!" "Oh, what a good little thing you are, my dear!" "Though anyone that interested Arthur Clennam so much must interest me." " Have you known him long?" " Not very long." "I met him when I was working at Mrs Clennam's house." "Oh, Mrs Clennam!" "Aren't you terribly frightened of her?" "I know I was when Arthur and I were childhood sweethearts in the dear, dead days gone by without recall, though the spark still remains, and something rather more than a spark, I like to fancy!" "Ah!" "(CLOCKS CHIME)" "Should I start my work now, ma'am?" "Oh, you industrious little fairy, there's not the slightest hurry for that, and it's better that we begin by being confidential about our mutual friend, is it not?" "But I can work and listen at the same time." "I would feel more comfortable." "Truly, ma'am." "Oh, very well, whatever you like best!" "Here!" "Hem away!" "Hem away!" "Now, where was I?" "Yes." "You must know, and I am sure you do know, that before I was introduced to the late Mr F," "I was engaged to dear Arthur Clennam." "We were all in all to one another, it was the morning of life, it was bliss, it was frenzy, till we were rent asunder by the Fates and Arthur went to China and I became the statue bride of Mr F." "But that was quite a long time ago, wasn't it?" "Not to me, you adorable little elf, not to me!" "To me, it is as if it was only yesterday!" "Ask me not if I love him still, or if he still loves me, or what the end will be, and wonder not if I should seem comparatively cold to Arthur or he should seem comparatively cold to me," "surrounded as we are by watchful eyes." "Ssh!" "Now I have told you all, and for Arthur's sake I will always be a friend to you, my dear girl, and in Arthur's name you may always rely upon me!" " I hope I didn't startle you." " No." "I was just thinking about you." "I have been at Mrs Finching's this afternoon, and she talked a good deal about you." "She cares about you very much, I think." "Mmm." "I sometimes come here to think." "It seems unfeeling, somehow, to be seeing the river and the sky, and so much change and motion... and then to go back, and find Father in that same cramped place." "Well, you bring back the freshness of the world with you." "That cheers him, I'm sure." "Do you think so?" "Yes." "Yes, I do, Little Dorrit." "Er..." "I..." "I had a talk with Mr Chivery today." "Er..." " He wanted to speak to me about his son." " Oh." "I wish he had not!" "He made me promise I would say something to you." "I know what these affairs of the heart are like." "How we... how we hesitate." "There's someone I care about very much, but I have held back from declaring my love." "Not Mrs Finching?" "No, no, no." "Not Flora!" "No, someone much younger than Flora." "You don't know her." "But this is not about me." "All I really wanted to say was that if you love John Chivery... if you truly do love him, then..." "seize your chance of happiness." "You shouldn't sacrifice yourself for your father's sake." "He'll be well looked after whether you marry or not." "Please!" "Please, stop." "I don't love John." "Oh, I wish I could." "It distresses me to see him unhappy, but I can't love him, not in that way, not to be his wife." "And now everyone is unhappy, or angry with me." "I wish you hadn't spoken to Mr Chivery." "I wish you hadn't spoken to me." "You will never hear another word from me upon the subject, I promise you." "Thank you." "Are we still friends?" "Yes." "Still friends." "Oi!" "Little Mother!" "Maggy!" "You promised to stay near Father." "So I did, but he wouldn't let me." " If he sends me out, I have to go." " What did he send you out for?" "It's a secret, you're not to know." "I'm to take two letters to so-and-so." "That's you." "Come over here, where she can't see." "I see." "All right, Maggy." "I'll take care of them." "Come, Maggy." "I had better go home." "Goodbye." "Don't be distressed." " I know what those letters were." " They were nothing." "How can you and I be friends when my family sponge upon you?" "Come, Maggy!" "I thought I might look in on Fanny later - get a pass for the show, see what's what." "Might even take her out for supper if I get what I'm expecting." "(KNOCK ON DOOR)" " A letter for you, Mr Dorrit." " Oh, yes!" "Very good of you to bring it up, Chivery." "Yes, it was, wasn't it?" "Oh, yes." "Oh, very handsome, very gratifying." "Well, I'm blowed!" ""Mr Clennam begs to be excused from complying with your request."" "How about that?" "And he calls himself a gentleman!" "He is nothing but a mean, low-spirited sort of a fellow and tight as an oyster!" "Well, that's my evening spoilt." "Perhaps you phrased your request in a less than appropriate manner, Edward." "Are you not ashamed of yourself, Tip?" "Begging from a man you hardly know when you are perfectly able to earn your bread?" "No need to take that line with me, Amy." "As a matter of fact, it's you who's letting us down, going about like a little timid mouse, and dressing like a skivvy." "You could at least put on a bit of a show like the rest of us." "But I suppose you ain't got no pride." "How dare you speak like that to me?" "!" "And how dare you insult a man who is worth ten of you?" "!" "Have you any idea who got your debts paid?" "I love you, Tip, but sometimes I am ashamed to have you as my brother!" "Excuse me, Father." "Don't let 'em see you crying, Miss Dorrit." "Dry your eyes." "Give me your hand." "It's all right, I'm a fortune teller." "I'm studying to be your good fairy, I am." "A life of toil." "What else are we made for?" "But what's this?" "Prison bars and a family fallen on hard times." "But who is this trying to look after them all?" "It's you!" "But the deuce of it is, if this isn't Pancks the gypsy in the corner here, seeing it all." "Now, what am I doing there, eh?" "What is all that about?" "Well, you shall live to see, Miss Dorrit." "You shall live to see."