"(BELLS TOLL)" " I'll row, Lizzie." " Father, I cannot sit so near it." "What hurt can he do yer?" "None..." "I cannot bear it." "It's my belief that you hate the very sight of this river as if it wasn't your living." "As if it wasn't meat and drink to yer." "Lizzie?" "The driftwood fire that warmed you as a baby was pulled out of the river, alongside the coal barges." "I made your cradle rocker out of that same wood." "(RIDERHOOD ) In luck again, Gaffer?" "I know'd you was in luck again!" "Don't fret yourself, partner." "I didn't touch him." "(RIDERHOOD ) I must have passed him as I went upriver." "I sometimes think you're like a vulture, partner." "You can smell them bodies clean out the water." "Ain't been eating nothing as disagreed with you, 'ave you, partner?" "Yes, I have!" "Swallowing too much of that word "partner"!" " I ain't no partner of yours, Riderhood!" " Since when?" "Since you was accused of robbing a man, a live man!" " Well, what if he'd been a dead man?" " You can't rob the dead!" "What world does a dead man belong to?" "T'other world." "What world does money belong to?" "This world!" "You did time for putting your hand in the pocket of a sailor, a live sailor!" "You count yourself lucky!" "But we work together no more!" "In this world or t'other!" "Cast off!" "(RIDERHOOD ) You'll not get rid of me!" "(COACHMAN) Whoa, there!" "Whoa!" "Did I tell you, Mortimer?" "My respected father has found a wife for his not-generally-respected son." "Really, Eugene?" " With some money, of course." " With some money, of course, or he would never have found her." " So, who exactly is our host today?" " Veneering." "Over there." "Mr Empire." "This is his good deed for the year." "Lord!" "I'm surprised our Tippins has graced this gorgeous spectacle with her royal presence." "Oh, old money doesn't mind sniffing around new money for an hour or two." "Champagne tastes the same whoever's buying." "Mortimer Lightwood!" "You wretch!" "Why have you not come to see me?" "My dear Lady Tippins, I cannot bear to force my way through the crowds of your other admirers." "A man must have hope." "Well, the Veneerings have certainly done their young friends proud." "Dear best friends of the groom and obviously of the bride." "Anyone know anything about the bride?" "Hm?" "(TIPPINS) I've never seen him before." "Or her!" "Does anyone know anything about them?" "(WOMAN) She's a lady of property." "(MAN 1) He has shares." "Profits and shares." "(MAN 2) How many shares?" "(MAN 2) What is her character?" "(MAN 1) She has property, a fortune." "(MAN 2) How many acres exactly?" "(MAN 1) Quite a few." "Mortimer Lightwood, I insist upon you telling me all about the Harmon fortune." "Harmon...?" "Old Harmon's been dead for weeks and we don't know what is to become of his fortune." "Society becomes restless when it smells a great fortune left unclaimed." "I find it immensely embarrassing having the eyes of society on me to this extent." "Well..." "Old Harmon, as you know, was a tremendous old rascal who made his money in dust." "Scandal!" "A fortune to be made in rubbish!" "And this old rascal Harmon actually lived among the dust heaps?" "Yes, like a veritable mountain range about him." "The fellow had the miserable inclination to make enemies of his family, all turned out of the house." "Even the son." "Now, keep your eyes fixed upon the son because this is where I come in." "He grew up abroad." " In the Cape?" " In the Cape, where I discovered he was living the other day having been abroad for fourteen years." "The whole range of dust mountains is left to young Harmon." "And he has set sail home to claim it." "He is due to land in England even as we speak." "So old Harmon wasn't such an unnatural monster after all." "Fortune will go to the son, as it should." "Ah, but he did leave a sting in the tail of his will." "The son's inheritance is conditional on his marrying a girl he has never met." "(MORTIMER) One Bella Wilfer." "(TIPPINS) Bella Wilfer...?" "Never heard of her." "Has anyone any knowledge of any Bella Wilfer?" "Is she out?" "What if he does not care for the bride his perverse father has chosen?" " Not care for her?" "!" " Rescind the will and fortune?" "!" "Cast off the dust mountains?" "!" "Not care for a marriageable woman called Bella?" "And throw away a fortune?" "Really, Eugene!" "(BUTLER) A note has arrived for you, sir." "This note arrives in a most...opportune manner." "I fear it is the conclusion of John Harmon's story." " There!" "The fellow's married already!" " Refuses to marry Bella Wilfer!" "Surely not?" "No..." "No, you're all wrong." "John Harmon is drowned." "(GUESTS GOSSIP AMONGST THEMSELVES)" "Did you write this?" "I did." " Did you find the body?" " My father, Jesse Hexam, found the body." "What's his position?" "He gets his living along shore." "Why did your father, Jesse Hexam, not write the note himself?" " Is the body...far?" " It's a goodish stretch." "I came up in a cab and the cab's waiting to be paid." "(BOY) We could go back in it before you pay, if you like." "John Harmon...was discovered...dead?" "Dead as the Pharaoh's multitude drowned under the Red Sea." "(CHARLEY) If Lazarus was half as far gone, that was the greatest of miracles." "You seem to be at home in the Red Sea." "Read of it with a teacher at school." "But don't you tell my father." "It's my sister's contriving." "You have a good sister." "She ain't bad." "But if she even knows half her letters it's because I learned her." "I'll go with you if I may." "(COACHMAN) Come on!" " Do you mean to tell me...?" " Do YOU mean to tell me?" "!" "Do you?" "(SOPHRONIA) Are you a man of fortune?" "No!" "Then you have married me under false pretences." "So be it!" "Now you." "Are you a woman of property?" " No." " Then you married me under false pretences." " I asked Veneering." "He told me you were rich." " Veneering?" "What does he know about me?" "Well, congratulations!" "You obviously made a good job of deceiving him!" "And, Mrs Lammle, what made you suppose me to be a man of fortune?" "I asked..." "Veneering." "And he knows of me as much as he knows of you!" "I will NEVER forgive Veneering for being so..." "Gullible?" "(GUESTS APPLAUD ) Bravo!" "Bravo!" "(MAN) Bravo!" "Let me see, Eugene." "I've been on the Honourable Roll of Solicitors of the High Court for five years now." "Except for taking instructions on average once a fortnight for the will of Lady Tippins - who, by the way, has nothing to leave " "I have no scrap of business except for this Harmon romance." "I have been called to the bar for ages and have had...no business at all, which my father uses as an excuse to keep me poor." "Yes, he keeps me bound to him with the merest trickle of an income to relieve his disappointment." "What's more, he continually berates me for my lack of energy." "But give me something to be energetic about, by God, I'll show him energy!" "He's an amusing fellow, my father." "I should like to please him if I could." "We must be drawing near to the river." "(CHILDREN CRYING)" "We shall fall over the edge of the world if we don't stop soon." "Hello, there!" "Surely we're nearly there?" "You must walk the rest." "It's not many yards." "(GANG OF URCHINS) Please, sir!" "Please, sir!" "(DOOR SLAMS)" "(CHARLEY) The gentlemen, Father." "You are Mortimer Lightwood, Esquire?" "Are you, sir?" "Mortimer Lightwood is my name, sir." "What you found last night," " it is not here?" " It's close by." "I do everything regular." "I've given notice of the circumstances to the police and the police have taken possession of it." "The police have put into print already and here's what the print says..." "(MORTIMER) Only papers found on the unfortunate man, I see." "Only papers." "No money?" "But threepence." "Only threepence?" "In one of the shirt pockets." "Three... ..penny... ..pieces." "The trouser pockets empty and turned inside out?" "(GAFFER) That's common." "(GAFFER) Whether it's the wash of the tide or no, I can't say." "(GAFFER) This one, here..." "His pockets was found empty and turned inside out." "I can't read." "Nor do I want to." "I know 'em all by their places on the wall." "This one, this was a sailor with two anchors, a flag and the letters GFT tattooed on his arm." "(GAFFER) See if he wasn't." "This was the woman in grey boots with her linen marked with a cross." "And these, two young children what had tied themselves together with a handkerchief." "Poor souls..." "Every one." "(GAFFER) This, an old gent with a cut over his left eye, a pink nightcap and drunk as a lord!" "You did not find all of these yourself?" "And what your name be, now?" "This is my friend, Mr Eugene Wrayburn." "Do you suppose there's been much violence and robbery, beforehand, in these cases?" "(GAFFER) I ain't one of the supposing sorts." "If you had your living to haul out of the river every day of your life, you mightn't be much given to supposing." "(GAFFER) Are you looking for a body?" "Or have you found one?" "Which is it?" "I'm lost." "And I'm a stranger." "And I...must..." "I have to get to the place where I can see...the body." "(MAN) It is possible I may know..." "(MORTIMER) Are you seeking a Mr Harmon?" "No." "(MORTIMER) I think I can assure you that you will not find what you fear." "I must see the body." "(BEGGAR) Please, sir!" "Please, sir!" "(WOMAN SCREAMS)" "(INSPECTOR) No clues as to how the body came to be in the river." "Very often there is no clue, as there often isn't for ascertaining whether the injuries occurred before or after death." "(INSPECTOR) The steward of the ship identified John Harmon, along with the clothes and papers, also sworn as those of John Harmon." "And as to what exactly happened?" "Totally disappeared on leaving ship till found in river." "(INSPECTOR) He'd probably been on some little game, and thought it a harmless game, no doubt, and it turned out to be a fatal game." "(INSPECTOR) Inquest tomorrow." "An open verdict, no doubt." "It appears to have knocked your friend off his legs!" "This gentleman is no friend of mine, sir." "It's a horrible sight." "You expected to identify...?" "(MAN) Yes." "And...?" "No." "No, I did not." "I must go now." "You're after identifying someone or you wouldn't have come here." "Can we not ask who?" "You must excuse me for not telling you." "You must know that sometimes there are..." "disagreements in families, personal tragedies, that they would rather not have generally discussed." "At least you will not object to leaving me your card?" "I would not if I had one, but I do not." "At least you will write down your name and address." "(INSPECTOR) Mr Julius Handford." "Exchequer Coffee House." "Palace Yard." "Westminster." "Consequently from out of town?" "Yes..." "Out of town." "You could say that." "Keep him in sight without giving offence." "Make sure he's staying where he says he is and find everything you can about him." "Inspector..." "I have to ask you..." "Do you think there is anything untoward in John Harmon's death?" "If it was murder, anyone might have done it." "Burglary or pick-pocketing, that needs an apprenticeship." "Not so murder." "We're all of us up to that." "Pity it's not true, that old superstition, about corpses bleeding, when touched by the hand of those responsible for their undoing." "(WOMAN SCREAMS)" "You get row enough out of her, but you get nothing out of bodies." "The entire fortune to go to a dustman?" "!" "It's unbelievable." "It is true." "As Harmon's only son is dead, the entire dustyard and fortune goes to a Mr Boffin." "It's unnatural." " He was a good and faithful servant." " How will he know what to do with such wealth?" "That's for Mr Boffin and his wife to decide when I have explained the full extent of their fortune." "So, the entire Harmon fortune - that is the complete range of dust-heaps, including the little one - is entailed to Mr Nicodemus Boffin." "Though I hate to disagree with you on your very first instruction, Mr Boffin, as your lawyer I must tell you that œ10,000 is too much." "The old lady thinks it's the right figure." "So do I." "œ10,000 reward to find the villain who murdered our John." "(CORONER) We can only imagine John Harmon's feelings, as he travelled homewards after so many years abroad, towards his future and the bride that his father had chosen for him." "And we can only imagine how the poor girl feels, her hopes so cruelly dashed." "We have heard the circumstances of Mr Harmon's return to this country." "And we have heard compelling evidence that the deceased carried with him a large sum of money from the forced sale of his foreign property." "No doubt to facilitate the early marriage to the woman who waited for him, patiently and silently." "How long must I wear this insufferable dress?" "This case is made further interesting by the remarkable experience of Jesse - known as "Gaffer"" " Hexam, having rescued from the Thames so many dead bodies." "(CORONER) The jury has found that Mr Harmon was discovered floating in the Thames, in some state of decay and much injured." "And that the said John Harmon came by his death under highly suspicious circumstances." "Though by whose act and in what precise manner, there is no evidence before this jury to show." "I will therefore this day make a recommendation that there should be a police investigation into this mysterious death." "And I have noticed that interested parties have come forward with a substantial reward." "Mr Boffin has provided an excessively generous amount... ..of ten thousand pounds." "(CROWD GASPS IN SURPRISE)" "Ten...thousand...pounds?" "!" "I told you the man would be a fool with money!" "What a glimpse of wealth I had.!" "Now it's melted away." "And I'm here in mourning, a kind of widow who has never married." "(BELLA) I shouldn't care so much if it wasn't so ridiculous." "To think, what an embarrassed first meeting it should have been." "We never could have pretended to harbour any true affection." "I was hardly likely to even like this John Harmon." "How could I?" "I'm sure I'm the poorer." "For I have to wait until Bella finds herself another husband." "If the truth were known, this embarrassment might have been smoothed away by the money." "For I love money." "I want money." "I want it dreadfully." "I hate to be poor, and we are degradingly poor." "0h, offensively poor.!" "Left to him in a will!" "Like a dozen spoons!" "(KNOCK AT DOOR) And all this for a man I never saw..." "Enter!" "..and should have hated if I had!" "(MRS WILFER) Ah, RW, this is the gentleman who has taken our first floor." "He was so good as to make an appointment for this morning when you'd be at home." "This is my husband, RW, the undisputed master of the house." "Seeing that I am quite satisfied, Mr Wilfer - with the rooms, that is, and their price " "I hope that a memorandum between us, some two or three lines perhaps, might bind the bargain." "(MRS WILFER) The gentleman proposes to take your apartments by the quarter." "If I might mention a referee?" "No!" "I think that a referee is not necessary." "Neither is it convenient." "I'm a stranger in London." "You see, I require no reference from you." "I shall pay whatever you please in advance." "And I will leave my furniture here." "Whereas if you, sir, were in...embarrassed circumstances..." "This is a supposition, of course, but as you see..." "We see perfectly." "Well, money and goods are of course certainly the best references." " Do you really think so, Pa?" " Among the best." "I should have thought myself it would be so easy to provide the usual kind." "My dear, will you be the witness?" "Where am I to go, Pa?" "Here in the corner?" "(HANDFORTH) I am much obliged, Miss Wilfer." "Obliged?" "And why should Mr..." " .." "John Rokesmith be obliged to me?" " I've given you so much trouble." "By signing my name?" "I am your landlord's daughter, after all." "I'll send my furniture tomorrow." "I'll follow shortly behind." "(BELLA) Pa?" "We have ourselves a murderer for a tenant!" "(SISTER) A robber, at least, living upstairs." "(MRS WILFER) On the first floor." "I've never seen such an exhibition." "Unable to look a person in the eye." "Mark my words, between Mr Rokesmith and myself there is antipathy and deep distrust." " I don't know what will come of it." " Well, my dear, between Mr Rokesmith and myself there is the matter of eight gold sovereigns, and supper shall certainly come of it!" "# Be gone, dull care" "# You and I shall never agree" "# Long time hast thou been tarrying here" "# And fain thou wouldst me kill... #" "Morning, sir!" "Good morning to you, sir!" " Have you ever heard of the name of Boffin?" " No, I never did." " Do you like it?" " Can't say I do." "I'll tell you something that'll make you sorry for that." "My name's Boffin!" "I can't help that." "Do you like the name Nicodemus?" "Nick or..." "Noddy?" "It's not a name I could wish for someone I had respect for." "Noddy Boffin, that's my name." "What's yours?" "Silas Wegg." "I don't know why Silas and I don't know why Wegg!" "Now, Wegg, I want to make an offer to you." "I've been listening to your singing with great admiration." "Well..." "I'll wager you know them songs by words and tune." "So!" "Here we have a literary man with a wooden leg, and all print is open to him." "And yet... here I am, a man without a wooden leg, and yet all print is shut to me." " Indeed, sir." "Education neglected?" " Neglected." "Though I could recognise "B" if you showed me." ""B" for Boffin." "That's something." "That's something." "Not as much as could be wished of by an enquiring mind." "But something, to be sure." "Now, I've retired from business and come into some little money." "It's too late for me to be shovelling at alphabets and grammar books." "I'm getting to be an old bird." "But I find I want some reading." "Now, how can I get that reading, Wegg?" "By paying a man, truly qualified to do it, so much an hour to do it for me." "Flattered, I'm sure." "So what is your proposition?" "Let's say...er...twopence halfpenny an hour?" "That's...er...five, six nights." "Half a crown, sir!" "Half a crown?" "Ain't much, sir, half a crown." "Particularly if, in the course of an evening's reading, you was wanting to perhaps... ..drop into poetry?" "Mr Boffin, I never bargain." "You have the needful implement?" "A book!" "Oh..." "Well, no." "Consequently, done." "For double the money!" "(INAUDIBLE CONVERSATION)" "(BELLA JINGLES COINS)" "Just in time for the landlord, my dear." "I hate all this money going to the landlord when we all want... ..everything." "Pa?" "Why do you suppose old Mr Harmon took it in his head to make such a fool out of me?" "I've told you often, my dear, I hardly spoke a hundred words to the gentleman." "You were sitting on my lap on a bench in the park, rather as we are now," " when you suddenly took it into your head to..." " To make a scene, Pa?" "(MRS WILFER) Never let it be said that I ever condoned infant misbehaviour, RW!" "And then I screamed and hit you about the head, didn't I, Pa?" "And the old gentleman said," ""That's a nice girl." ""That's a promising girl."" "(MRS WILFER) Never let it be said I condoned talking to strangers in the park!" "And then he asked for our name and address." "And he kept saying," ""That's a promising girl." ""A most promising girl!"" "And so I was." "So you were, my dear." "So you were." "(SHOP DOOR OPENS)" "How do you do?" "Wegg, you know?" "To be sure." "Hospital amputation, wasn't it?" "I remember you now." "(WEGG) Just so." "Come and sit by the fire and warm your..." "Warm your other one." "My tea is drawing, Mr Wegg." "Will you partake?" "So, how have I been going on this long time, Mr Venus?" "I don't know." "Do what I will with your old leg, it won't fit in anywhere." "Hang it, Venus!" "It can't be peculiar to me." "It must often happen with your miscellaneous ones." "With ribs, I grant you, always." "Every man has his own ribs and no others will go with them but..." "Legs..." "I can't find another one to match." "Now, look 'ere!" "I want to buy my leg back." "How much do you want for it?" "Well, you were one of a various lot." "Come!" "On your account I'm not worth much." "Not for miscellaneous working, Mr Wegg." "It may yet turn out to be valuable as a... ..monstrosity... if you'll excuse me?" "I've a prospect of getting on in life." "I tell you, I should not like to be dispersed - part of me here, part of me there - but should wish to collect myself together, like a genteel person." "You seem very low, Mr Venus." " Is business bad?" " Never was so good, Mr Wegg." "I'm not only first in the trade." "I am the trade." "You may buy a skeleton in the West End, if you like." "Pay West End sort of prices for it, but it'd be my work and putting together." "Mr Wegg, if you was brought here loose, in a bag, to be articulated," "I could name your smallest bones blindfolded, and sort 'em all in a manner that would surprise and charm you." "Now, that ain't a state to be brought low about." "It's the heart that's brought me low." "I'm a bachelor..." "I'm 38..." "But I love her, Mr Wegg." "But the lady objects to the business?" "Does she know the profits of it?" "She knows the profits of it." "She doesn't appreciate the art of it." "So..." "A man climbs to the top of the tree, Mr Wegg, only to see there's no look-out when he's got there." "I sit here... of a night, surrounded by the finest trophies of my art." "And what have they done for me?" "Ruined me!" "It's time I was at Harmon's." "Harmon's up the Battle Bridge way?" "You ought to be in for a good thing." "A lot of money going there." "Old Harmon wanted to know the worth of everything." "Many's the bone and feather he brought to me." "Really, now?" "The old gentleman was well known." "There were stories about him hiding all sorts of property in them dust mounds." "I suppose there's something in 'em." "Probably you know that, Mr Wegg." "(DOG BARKS OUTSIDE)" "(BELLA RECOILS IN SHOCK)" "(BOFFIN SLURPS HIS TEA)" "(MRS WILFER) And now, to what am I indebted to this honour?" "A Sunday visit from Mr and Mrs Boffin, who must be so busy," "I can hardly imagine why they should honour us at our humble abode." "Perhaps, Mrs Wilfer, you're acquainted with the Boffin name, as having come into a certain prosperity." "I've heard a little, madam, of your good fortune." "I dare say you will not be inclined to think kindly of us." "Mrs Boffin and me are plain people." "We don't pretend to anything." "We don't go round and round at anything." "Consequently..." "We made this call to say how glad we shall be to have the honour and pleasure of your daughter's acquaintance." "We shall be rejoiced if your daughter can come to consider... our house - our new house, that is - her house!" "We are considering, in the light of our changed circumstances..." "To go in for fashion!" "And society!" "We are to give up the dusty bower, though we do love it, for a nice new house in a nice new neighbourhood." "I'm thinking of a pale yellow chariot with a fine pair of horses and silver boxes to the wheels!" "For we've been thinking of your poor girl." "Cruelly disappointed she was of her husband and his riches." "(MR BOFFIN) In short, we want to cheer your daughter and give her an opportunity to share such pleasures that we shall partake." "Yes!" "We want to brisk her up and about!" "I..." "I...am much obliged to you both, I'm sure." "But I doubt if I have the inclination to go out at all." "Bella!" "Bella, my child, you must try to conquer these delicate feelings." "Well, have a little think about it." "You take my advice..." "Do what yer ma says and conquer it, my dear." "We're going to go everywhere, see everything!" "(MRS BOFFIN) If your sister would like to come, we'd welcome her gladly!" "I'm sure I know my duty and will stay at home with Ma and Pa." "You mustn't feel a dislike for us, for we couldn't help the inheritance and did nothing to further it." "(MR BOFFIN) Come!" "Come, old lady!" "We'll outstay our welcome." "(LAVINIA) Bella's got what she wants from her Boffins." "She'll be rich enough at her Boffins'." "She'll have as many lobsters as she likes at her Boffins'!" "Well, you won't take me to your Boffins'!" "We seem to have a mutual friend." "You are acquainted with our new lodger, Mr Boffin?" "Bit of a mystery man, my dear." "(INSPECTOR) You'd think, wouldn't you, Miss Abby, with the general interest the Harmon case has aroused, not least the...er... substantial reward offered, that some clue to the murderer might have arisen?" "There's been a notice in the Times every day in search of the stranger, Handford, our mysterious friend from the mortuary." "Though maybe none of your regulars, those that can read, peruse that journal." "I can read." "I think that most know the meaning of the figures œ10,000, whether they can sign their names or not." "This house is a respecter of the river and an especial respecter of its dead." "I think that you also know that this house is a respecter of the law." "The Harmon poster is peeling on my walls." "Not one of my trusted regulars has remarked on it." "Get away, Riderhood." "I've told you, you're not welcome here!" "But I haven't done nothing." "You can't refuse to serve me." "I can do what I like in my own house!" "Now get away with yer!" "You will not drink in 'ere again!" "(THE INN FALLS SILENT)" "And what of Jesse Hexam, Riderhood's partner?" "Is he allowed to drink alongside you at the counter, Miss Abby?" "No, but I can name you twenty others also denied the pleasure." "D'you think they all had a hand in the Harmon crime?" "(DOOR OPENS)" "(WEGG) "It is our desire to describe the prosperous condition of the Empire," ""and afterwards," ""from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances" ""of its decline and fall." ""A revolution which will ever be remembered" ""and is still felt by all the nations of the earth..."" "We're on our way, old lady!" "On our way!" "With old Marcus Antonionus alongside of us, eh?" "Bring us over a drink, Lizzie, and come and sit with me." "Now, Lizzie, dear." " I'm very put out." " I'm very sorry to hear it, Miss Abby." "Then, why do you do it?" "I do what, Miss?" "I'm sorry." "But, Lizzie, why won't you take up my offer to get clear of your father?" "I'm very grateful for it." "Truly I am." "Obstinate, more like!" "D'you know the worst of your father, child?" "The suspicions that are laid against him." "This is not easy to say but I must do it." "Some think that your father helps to their death some of those that he finds dead." "You do not know my father." "Indeed, you don't." "Leave your father." "Lizzie, let me help you." "You must leave him." "Thank you..." "Miss Abby, but I can't." "The more my father is accused, the more he needs me to lean on." "(KNOCK AT DOOR) Come!" "The florist begs leave to remind Mr Lammle of the bill of payments, sir." "I would have thought it imprudent, even for you, to continue to buy goods you cannot afford." "More fool you, not to notice my financial deficit before we became jointly responsible for it!" "I was deceived!" "I cannot get rid of you and you cannot get rid of me." "I suggest we reach a mutual understanding which might carry us through." "An understanding?" "With a little encouragement from our friends, we deceived each other into wedlock." "I suggest we keep these mortifying facts to ourselves." "Agreed?" "That is not an expense." "It is an investment." "I have been looking to the future and you can be sure I'm not alone." "When a great fortune appears from nowhere, it is the duty of all beggars, especially the deserving gentry, to beat a path to its door." "We must be amongst them, but we will be in disguise." ""Mr and Mrs Alfred Lammle to Mr and Mrs Nicodemus Boffin, Esquire." ""Offering their most hearty felicitations on their good fortune," ""hoping they may accept this small gift, begging leave to call on..."" "All right, old lady?" "(MRS BOFFIN) Where we going to put them all?" "(BOFFIN) Papers buzzing about me ears!" "Apple pie order!" "So, if you would try me as your secretary for a trial period only." "Naturally I would keep exact accounts of all the expenditure that you've sanctioned, and write letters..." "under your strict direction, of course." "And I would transact business with the people under your employment." "Well, listen," "I already have in my employment a literary man with a wooden leg." "And this rounding-up of papers?" "It would be continuous, of course." "Now, let's try a letter next." "To whom should it be addressed?" "Well, anyone!" "Try yourself." ""Mr Boffin presents his compliments to Mr John Rokesmith," ""and begs to say that he is decided on giving Mr John Rokesmith" ""a trial in the capacity that he desires to fill." "It is quite understood..." ""that Mr Boffin is in no way committed to a salary," ""which will be postponed for some indefinite period." ""And Mr Boffin relies on Mr John Rokesmith's assurance" ""that he will be both faithful and serviceable," ""and enter upon his duties immediately."" "That's the fairest set-down letter I've ever heard." "Let's shake on it." "Now," "I may not have mentioned to you that it is Mrs Boffin's inclination... to go in the way of fashion." "I rather inferred that from the scale in which your new establishment is to be maintained." "Yes, it's gonna be a spanker!" "Old Harmon was not much loved." "He was a harsh man." "He preferred me... ..to his child." "When the son was a little boy, he came up and down these stairs to see his father." "He often cried on these stairs, poor little thing." "Starved of love, that's what he was." "My old lady here did her best to give it to him." "Here..." "This is where the boy wrote his name several times." "And he measured himself here on this sunny patch." "Let's take care of these names, old lady." "They must never be rubbed out in our lifetime." "Nor ever if we can help it." " Will you sell the house, Mr Boffin?" " Certainly not!" "In memory of our master and the dear child, I mean to keep it." "I've got a plan." "I'll tell you about it soon enough." "(MAN WHEEZES HEAVILY)" "Oh, they're a different matter." "That was my first mound." "It would have been enough for us, if it had pleased God, to spare the little one." "I ain't a scholar in much, Mr Rokesmith." "I'm a pretty fair scholar in dust." "I can price these mountains to a fraction." "You don't find the air a little overpowering, Mr Rokesmith?" "Excuse me?" "It's just that strangers can often find the smell of the dustyard faintly pungent on first encounter." "No, I do not find it in the least offensive." " It is the smell of good honest work." " Indeed." "My Noddy has everything accounted for, down to the last farthing, proper and right." "A man such as I was had no use of lettering." "But numbers - you'll find I'm a master of those!" "(MRS BOFFIN) Where d'you come from, Mr Rokesmith?" "I've been in many places." "What d'you do for a living?" "I've had some aspirations..." "but I've been disappointed." "I have to begin my life once more." "(DOOR OPENS)" "(CHARLEY) Hello, Lizzie." "Supper ready?" " That's early." " Sit and eat, Charley." " You must be gone before father gets home." " Gone?" "(SHE DROPS COINS ON THE TABLE)" "What's all this, Liz?" "I've made up my mind up that it's time for you to go away from us." "You'll do much better and be much happier." " How do you know that?" " I do know." "I do." "You leave the river and father to me." "But you must go." "No, I think you decided that there's three of us!" "There's not enough for all of us, so you want to get rid of me!" "Yes..." "Yes, that's right." "I'm a selfish sister." "There's not enough room for three of us and I want to get rid of you." "Don't cry, Liz!" "Don't cry." "I will go if you say." " I know you think only of my own good." " Oh, Charley!" "Heaven knows I do!" "Now..." "Listen." "You get straight to school at once." "Father will never bother you." "He won't ever have you back, either." "You're a credit to your school." "They'll help you find a living." "Now, you show them your money." "Tell them I'll send you more." "I don't know where from, but I'll send it." "Now, you must hurry." "Remember, Charley..." "Always speak well of Father." "Even if you hear the worst that could be heard about Father, it'll not be true." "You be good." "Get learning." "And only remember your life here as if you dreamt of it in your sleep." "(BELLS TOLL)" "(MRS BOFFIN HUMS AS SHE WORKS)" "(WEGG) So, sir..." "I don't suppose we'll be doing much more "declining and falling"." "Wegg..." "I've got an offer to make you." "You'll not want my services now you've got your brand-new house and secretary." "Steady, Wegg." "It's my idea... ..that you should stay here in the barn and keep it for us." "This is a pleasant spot." "A man with coal, candles, a pound a week." "I might be in clover here." "You still want reading?" "Yes!" "And at no extra for what you was thinking of offering for the overlooking of this..." "fearsome place?" "Of course, you will be extra compensated for your trouble." "Mr Boffin, consider it done." "(MRS BOFFIN SCREAMS)" "What is it, dear?" "Why, are you frightened?" "You?" "Frightened?" " Oh, Noddy, it is so strange!" " What is, my dear?" "(MRS BOFFIN) The faces of the old man and the little one." "They're all over the house tonight." "I know it must sound foolish, but...it is so!" " Where did you see them?" " Everywhere!" "I was tidying the linen, singing to myself, not thinking anything particular, when suddenly... ..the old man's face." " And then it was gone?" " Yes." "I-I came in here t-to get rid of it, tell myself what a silly foolish old woman I was." "But then..." "The old man's face again!" "And the little boy." "In the shadows looking at me through the window." "Oh, my Noddy." "Why have they come to haunt us?" "What have we done?" "There's nothing in the world to you but goodness, little lady." "Don't trouble yourself on that account." "Now..." "I'll tell you what I'll do." "I'll get rid of Wegg, and we'll go for a walk together round the park." "We'll shine a light in every dark corner, see if we can't shake these cobwebs away." "No, Noddy." "I'm not nervous of this house." "It's just..." "When I shut my eyes..." "Here they come!" "The old man's face, it gets younger." "And the little boy's, it gets...older." "They merge." "Are they angry?" "No." "They're just there." "And here's my husband's face to cheer me." "And that is the best face in all the world." "(DOOR OPENS)" " You must be frozen, Father dear." " I ain't aglow, that's certain." "Where's that boy?" "If the river were to freeze, there'd be a deal of distress." "There's always enough of that." "Distress is forever going about, like soot in the air." "Where is that boy, hm?" "Sit and eat, Father, and we'll talk." "Now, Lizzie..." "Where's that boy at?" "Well..." "It would seem, Father, that Charley has a gift for learning." "Unnatural boy!" "And so, not wanting to be a burden to you, he made up his mind to seek his fortune from learning." "He went away, Father." "He cried very much, and he hopes very much that you can forgive him." "My forgiveness..." "I'll never set eyes on that boy again." "He's disowned his own father." "Unnatural boy!" "Now I know why those men turned away from me just now." "'Cause here's a man what ain't good enough for his own son!" "Please, Father." "Put the knife down." "What's the matter, Liz?" "You'd never think I'd hurt you, Liz?" "(LIZ SOBS NERVOUSLY)" "Lizzie, come on." "Lizzie, my girl." "Lizzie." "My love." "(CHURCH BELLS TOLL)" "Were you watching me, Mr Rokesmith?" "No." "Indeed, Miss Wilfer, I am charged with a message for you." "I find that most unlikely." "From Mrs Boffin." "She will have the pleasure of receiving you soon at the new house." "I find that I am to become Mr Boffin's secretary." "And will you always be there, Mr Rokesmith?" "At the new house?" "Always, no." "Very much there, yes." "Have no fear, you need pay me little attention." "I will transact the business and you the pleasure." "You will have nothing to do but enjoy...and attract." "Attract?" "The loss of your fianc‚... ..John Harmon, may one day be repaired." "Of course, I speak merely of wealth." "The loss of a perfect stranger, whose worth you could not estimate beyond the inconvenience of their death, is another matter." "It's growing dark around us." "You must have been absorbed by your book." "Is it a..." "love story?" "Certainly not!" "It's more about money than anything." "Does it say that money is better than anything?" "I really cannot tell you." "Find out for yourself, for all I care!" "How the wind sounds up here!" "As if we were keeping a lighthouse." "I wish we were." "Don't you think it would bore us?" "No more than any other place." "And we would be blessedly free, both of society in general and in particular of my father." "Speaking of which, shall we touch upon the eligible lady your respected father has found for you?" "I assure you my intentions are opposed to touching the lady!" "How could I possibly undertake matrimony?" "I, so easily bored." "So constantly." "So totally." "(DOOR OPENS) Who the devil are you?" "Where the devil have you come from?" "I beg yer pardons, guv'nors, but might either of you be Lawyer Lightwood?" "I am Lightwood." "Who are you, fellow?" "I'm a man what gets me living by the sweat of me brow, guv'nors." "Not wanting to risk losing the sweat of me brow," "I should wish, before going further, to be sworn in." "You're out of luck, for I am not a swearer-in of people." "Alfred David." "Alfred David?" "Is that your name?" "No." "I wanna set down an "Alfred David"." "I think you mean "Affidavit"." "I'm afraid you're out of luck, as my friend doesn't do affidavits either." "I must be took down." "What is your business?" "It's about money." "It's about a œ10,000 reward, that's what it's about." "It's about murder." "Now..." "What is your full name?" "Roger..." "Riderhood." "Some call me "Rogue", but as a friendly name, by those that don't know me." "Dwelling place?" "Limehouse Hole." "Calling?" "Or occupation?" "Waterside character." "(EUGENE) Anything against you?" "Ever in trouble?" "Once." "Picking a seaman's pocket, though I was innocent." "Naturally!" "I give information that the man that done the Harmon murder is one Jesse, known as "Gaffer", Hexam." "The very same that found the body." "His hand and his alone did the bloody deed." "On what grounds do you base these suspicions?" "He cannot be convicted on suspicion alone." "He told me with his own lips he done it." "When did he tell you?" "The very night he picked up the body." "We had words on the river that night." "His daughter will not deny that." "Did you ask him how he did it?" "Where he did it?" "When he did it?" "He tells me, Gaffer does, he tells me, "I done it for his money." ""Don't betray me."" "And long have I been troubled in my mind ever since." "You've been troubled in your mind for a long time." "(EUGENE) Mr Riderhood might have thought another witness would come forward." "Maybe he wasn't keen on anyone asking what he was doing there that night." "I tell you, I'm giving Jesse Hexam up to you tonight and I want him took!" "I want him took this night!" "(RIDERHOOD ) Gaffer's out." "His boat's out." "His daughter's home." "Supper's ready, so he was expected last high water." "He must have missed it for some reason." "(POLICEMAN) Then, we must watch and wait." "Shelter and wait over there." "(WRAYBURN) If we take the father, she will be left alone." "(LIZZIE) Father!" "Father, is that you?" "Don't you feel like a dark combination of a traitor and a pickpocket when you think about that girl, Mortimer?" "(RIDERHOOD ) He's gonna cheat me." "He's looking to cheat an honest man." "Where are you hiding?" "He could not have slipped past us." "It'll be morning soon and we'll be seen." "(APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS)" "Suppose I put out in my boat?" "Take a look in his favourite haunts?" "(RIDERHOOD ) Found it!" "Gaffer's boat!" "He's in luck, I knew it!" "He's in luck!" "He's found Hexam's boat." "But where's Hexam?" "(RIDERHOOD ) I told yer!" "He got lucky..." "He's been fishing." "Oh, God!" "Let it go." "Let it go." "(RIDERHOOD ) Drowned by his own tow-rope." "He went out in search for the dead." "Death found him first." "He's escaped me." "He's...dead before I can profit." "He's done me again." ""People came from many different towns to meet the procession."" ""Etiam quorum diursa opida... "" ""..." "Offering sacrifices, raising altars to the souls of the deceased" ""and weeping and wailing in displays of grief. "" ""..tamen obuii et uictimas atque ara dis Manibus" ""statuentes lacrimis et conclamationibus dolorem testabantur. "" "Very good, Hexam." "So..." "You've asked for permission to see your sister." "I've half a mind to go with you." "I'd rather you didn't see her before she was settled, sir." "Look here, Hexam, I hope your sister may be good company for you." "Do you doubt it, sir?" "I do not know." "I put it to you to consider." "My sister keeps me here through her hard work." "And your sister has reconciled herself to your separation so as not to impede your progress." "And you do... make good progress." "In time you'll pass an examination and become a teacher yourself." "But it will take many hours of hard work." "Hour upon hour." "As it did me." "If you were to see my sister, sir, I know that you would judge her wise." "He's an invaluable man, Rokesmith." "He works at my affairs like fifty men, but he won't meet any of our visitors." "Perhaps he considers himself above it." "No, dear, it isn't that." "He has a very kept down air." "I wish you could persuade him to come out into society with us." "Perhaps he considers himself beneath it." "Allow me to introduce myself, I am second cousin to..." "She is so trivial." "So capricious, so mercenary." "And yet she is so beautiful." "His attentions were fitting - amusing even - in Holloway." "But here, they are hardly appropriate." "And so my dilemma." "I have worked my way into a position of power in this house so that I might watch her every move, follow her every step." "And yet she barely notices me." "There is something strange about Mr Rokesmith." "He shadows me day and night." "What a strange sensation." "I do not belong among the living, any more than these poor souls." "For I lie buried somewhere else." "I was saying..." "I think it very bad manners for a man to pretend to be what he is not." "Don't you think?" "I hope I do not pretend to be what I am not." "Come, Mr Rokesmith, surely you can cast off your mysterious disguise and join us?" "No, I don't like the river." "It makes me sick." "So you have never been to sea, Mr Rokesmith?" "Why do you ask?" "You'll miss the boat, Miss Wilfer." "I cannot keep my secret any longer." "I must tell her my story." "I must confess." "Ill tell them when they return." "I must confront it now." "I came back to England shrinking from my fathers memory, from my fathers money and from my father"s choice of bride, mistrustful of everyone and everything." "I became aware during the course of the voyage that a third mate, one George Radfoot, bore a similarity to myself that occasioned me to be mistaken for him." "We gradually formed an acquaintance, and - it being known by rumour that I was going to claim my inheritance - he, by degrees, came to know of my sad history and my uneasiness of mind as to my future" "and, in particular, my future wife." "So we hatched a plot that on landing we would change identities, to buy me a little more time before reporting to Mr Lightwood." "We would watch Miss Bella Wilfer, as she accuses me of watching her now." "As part of our plan, I left the ship alone." "When we stopped at Riderhoods, I was still not suspicious, although I remember him taking a twist of paper from one pocket to another before we set out for our lodging house." "We cannot have gone a mile from that shop before we came to the house." "It was a terrible, windy night." "Ill never forget that roaring." "Why don't we exchange our disguises now?" "He was full of helpful suggestions." "We celebrated the start of our plan with a drink." "The drug must have been powerful, for it took effect immediately." "The next thing I knew, I was looking at myself as if I was a spirit hovering outside my own body." "Radfoot took my identity and the sum of money he had betrayed me for." "Suddenly, there was the sound of an axe, a wood-cutter felling trees, a crashing of wood." "They were attacking my attacker." "My double-crosser was being double-crossed." "The irony was that their blows did not rain so hard on me." "This is john Harmon drowning." "john Harmon is drowningI" "I do not know how long I was in the water." "I do not know which side the river spat me out of or how long I lay there." "I do know I was choked to the heart." "With the little money I had somehow concealed from the murderers," "I wandered the city." "The police poster described myself, john Harmon, being found dead and mutilated in the river, described my dress and the papers in my pocket, and stated where I was lying, waiting to be identified." "A brush with death has a profound effect." "The heart is terrified and the mind has cold reason." "I decided to stay in this half-death limbo." "Why shouldn't I try my plan after all?" "Having mysteriously disappeared, I could still test Bella." "It seemed, to my frozen mind, an excellent plan." "The inquest pronounced me dead." "john Harmon died." "julius Handford disappeared." "And john Rokesmith was born." "I remember that." "Dandy, dandy." " Very pleasurable." " It was lovely." "So, consider." "What will happen if I come back to life?" "My dear friends, good old faithful servants, they deserve my fortune." "I know they plan to spend it wisely." "If I were to come back to life, I will inherit that fortune, and with it sordidly buy a beautiful creature who has little regard for me." "I would buy her and debase her in her own eyes as well as mine." "It is a dilemma of my own making." "But I cannot keep silent." "I cannot stay stranded in this limbo between life and death." " Come in, my dear!" " Here, come in, join us." "I'm sorry, I had something to tell you." "It can wait." "It can wait until tomorrow." "If you're sure?" "Come and join us anyway." "No, I'll say goodnight." "She has me under her spell." "She has made me powerless." "I am nobody." "If I tell her my secret now, I may lose everything." "I will continue to watch her... for a little while longer." "There goes Mr Headstone and Charley Hexam, Miss." "Charley Hexam goes to see his sister." "Mr Headstone is going to examine the sister." "They say the sister's very fair." "I can't get up because my back's bad and my legs are queer." "I'm the person of the house." "I was looking for my sister." "We're very fond of his sister, aren't we?" "She's our particular friend." "And who's the other gentleman?" "This is Mr Headstone, my schoolmaster." "I suppose we must let them sit." "We must work hard, mustn't we?" "I had a doll married last week." "Charley!" "There, there, Liz." "See, here's Mr Headstone to see you." "How well you look, Liz." "Don't she look well!" "Everyone thinks so, don't they, Lizzie?" "Does Charley do well, Mr Headstone?" "Yes, he could not do better." "Well done, Charley." "I hope I don't take up too much time from your studies." "It is best that I do not come between him and his prospects, don't you think, Mr Headstone?" "Yes, your brother has to work hard." "But once he has established himself, that will be another thing." "When are you going to settle yourself in some Christian place, Lizzie?" "I'm ashamed to have brought Mr Headstone with me." "How can you keep company with that little witch?" "I met her by chance, Charley, and she was a good friend when Father died." "But guess who she is?" "Remember the police notices on our wall?" "I want to forget police notices." "So should you." "The drunken old man, with the pink slippers and the nightcap, she's his granddaughter." "Her father's like that as well." "This poor ailing creature, surrounded by drunk people from the cradle." "She has such courage, but I fear she is in such pain." "I don't see what it's got to do with you." "Don't you?" "Don't you think we owe some compensation for the life we led?" " For the profit Father made?" " Don't talk nonsense!" "I've left the river far behind and so will you." "I will not have you draw me back." "I mean it, Liz!" "Now, let's not fight." "I mean to be a good brother to you." "Bye." "But surely, um... ..we can go your sister's way?" "I'll not go back just yet." "And you have a long walk." "You'll go much faster without me." "Please be careful on the east bank at Blackfriars at tide turn, Father." "What would you know?" "What's this?" "You want to see me off?" "Over the side and into the mud?" "And what are YOU looking for?" "I believe it was you that first sought out a lawyer?" "Gaffer's dead now." "But my investigation is not." "(HEADSATONE) Who is that you stare after?" "(CHARLEY) Yes, it is him." "It is that Wrayburn." "I don't like him." "Does he know your sister, this Wrayburn?" "Yes, sir." "He's met her." "Going to see her, then, I dare say." "He doesn't know her well enough." "I'd like to see him try." "D'you think the little orphan will like me?" "He cannot fail to." "My Lord!" "Isn't this my angel?" " So, this is the dear child?" " Yes, ma'am." "He's my dear, darling boy." "He is the child of my last daughter's daughter." "She's gone the way of the rest." "These are the children I mind." "And this is Sloppy, he turns my mangle for me." "A love child, found in the street." "He was brought up in the house." " The poor-house?" " Kill me sooner than take me there." "Throw this pretty child under carthorse's feet, than take him there." "I'll be honest, the poor are driven from pillar to post." "They are put off and put off." "They're begrudged the shelter, the doctor, the bit of bread." "I hope I can die as well as another, but I'll die without that disgrace." "And does he live here and work for you?" "Yes, bless him!" "And he reads the newspaper to me." "You might not think it, but Sloppy's a beautiful reader of a newspaper." "Now, concerning johnny..." "If you trust the dear child to me, he will have the best of homes, the best of care, the best of education and the best of friends." "It did not please Our Lord to send me any children." "Instead, he sent us a fortune in john Harmon's name." "And my thinking is, I mean to share it with a child that needs it." "God willing, I will be a true mother to him." "I'm thankful to you, ma'am." "You'll be the making of his future." "He'll be a gentleman when I'm gone." "There's no hurry, my dear." "You take some time and think on it." "No, my mind is made up." "Well then, let the child get used to the idea." "We want everyone to be happy, not dismal." "Perhaps you could let me know how used to it you begin to get." "I'll send Sloppy." "Mr Sloppy, whenever you come to my house, make sure you don't leave without a good dinner." " Ooh!" " Meat, beer, vegetables and pudding." "Meat, one, beer, two, vegetables, three, and along comes four, that's pudding." "Heh!" "Ooh!" "If I could have kept this dear child without the dread of the fate I've spoken of," "I could never have let him go." "But..." "Take him as a gift, for I love him." "Love him, love him." "I love my husband, long dead and gone, in him." "I love my children, dead and gone, in him." "Take him as a gift, for I couldn't ever sell that love and look you in your bright, kind face." "I suppose your sister has received little teaching, Hexam." "Yet she hardly seems an ignorant person." "Lizzie has as much thought as the best, Mr Headstone." "Too much, perhaps." "She used to look at the river and have strange fancies." "I don't like that." "It's a painful thought, but if I do as well as you hope," "I shall be - I won't say disgraced as such - but rather put to the blush by a sister who has been very good to me." "There is another possibility." "Some man might come to admire your sister." "It would be a sad drawback for him, this inequality of education." " That's my drift, sir." " Yes, well, you speak as a brother." "For...an admirer..." "Mr Headstone has arrived back, Miss Peecher." "Hexam also missed the last bell." "A brother, you see, cannot help the connection." "Whereas a husband would..." "Lizzie could learn quickly." "Enough to pass muster." "Certainly, if given a little education." "Yes, well, I'll think about it, Hexam." "I'll think about it maturely." "Mr Eugene Wrayburn, is it?" "So I am told." " You may come in, if you're good." " I am not good, but I will come in." "Forgive the unexpected intrusion, but I happened to be nearby." "Lost, I shouldn't wonder." "I'm afraid I have nothing to report concerning Mr Riderhood, but you may always be assured of my best help, and that of my friend Lightwood's, in your efforts to clear your father." "I'm thinking of setting up a doll, Miss jenny." "You're sure to break it." "All you children do." "Surely that's good for trade." "If we were all as industrious as you, little Busybody, we should begin to work as soon as we could crawl, and that would be a terrible thing." "What d'you mean?" "Bad for your backs and your legs?" "No, I...bad for business." "I meant bad for your dolls' dressmaking business." "Have you considered my suggestion, Lizzie?" "I have thought of it, but I cannot make up my mind to accept it." "False pride." "Oh, no, Mr Wrayburn." "Well, I hope not." "What else can it be?" "I propose to be of use to someone, which I never was in this world, nor ever will be again, by paying a qualified person of impeccable character and reputation, one Mr Riah, to come here several nights a week and give you some teaching," "which you would not want, had you not been a self-denying daughter and sister." "This false pride does wrong both to you and your dead father." "How to my father, Mr Wrayburn?" "By perpetuating his ignorance and his blind obstinacy;" "by resolving not to set right the wrong he has done you." "Please don't be distressed." "I am afraid I am a little disappointed." "It shall not break my heart, but I am genuinely disappointed." "I'd rather set my heart on doing this little thing for you and Miss jenny." "So be it." "I meant well, both honestly and simply." "Well..." "I never doubted that." "And I intend to go back to my old ways immediately, never to put myself of use to anyone or thing, for it will always be a doomed endeavour." "And always mistaken for my own selfishness." "Well!" "I think I've hesitated long enough, Mr Wrayburn, and I hope you won't think the worst of me for my having hesitated at all." "For myself and for jenny..." "For myself and for jenny, I thankfully accept your offer." "Agreed." "Dismissed!" "Let's hope we never make so much of so little again." "Yes, I'm still thinking of setting up a doll." "Let's hope you're prevented, Master Eugene." "We won't detain you, Mr Wrayburn." "Meaning you wish me to go?" "Well, my child will need attending to soon, and my child's a troublesome, bad child and costs me a world of scolding." "I would rather you didn't see my child." "Then, I shall not detain a moment longer." "Miss Wren." "Goodbye, Lizzie." "(JENNY) Oh, you disgraceful thing, you bad old boy!" "You naughty, wicked creature!" "Where's your money, where's it all gone?" "I know your tricks and manners!" "Get along to bed!" "Don't speak to me, I won't forgive you." "Go to your corner immediately." " Subtítulo no traducido " "Excuse me, Miss Wilfer." "I didn't mean to surprise you." "There's no reason to hide it." "You are entitled to read it." "As you do, time and time again, I'm sure." "You wanted to see me?" "Ah, yes!" "Your weekly allowance." "We can't forget that, can we?" "You even play the mysterious stranger in private, Mr Rokesmith." "No family likenesses or personal possessions." "It's a very good pretence." "Speaking of family, Miss Wilfer, you do not charge me with any commissions for home." "I should be happy to execute any commands you may have in that direction." "What do you mean, Mr Rokesmith?" "By home?" "I mean your father's house in Holloway." "No, what "commissions" did you mean, sir?" "Only such words of greeting as I assume you already send, somehow or other." "I should be happy to be the bearer of them." "As you know, I go between the two every day." "They don't send many commissions to me." "Well, they frequently ask me about you, and I give them such slight intelligence as I can." "I hope it's truly given!" "No, I do not doubt it." "I beg your pardon, Mr Rokesmith, that was unfair of me." "I am going to visit my family soon, as it happens." "Though what business it may be of yours, I really cannot imagine." "Uhh!" "Good morning, Mr Sloppy." "I hope all is well?" "No, it ain't." "No, sir, it ain't well at all." "(DOCTOR) There's nothing to be done for the boy, I'm afraid." "There, now." "(HER VOICE) "Dear Mr Venus, I am sorry to inform you," ""one more time," ""that, although acquainted with the profits of your business," ""I must once more decline your offer of marriage." ""And I report I do not wish to regard myself, nor yet to be regarded," ""in that bony light." "(HIS VOICE) "Yours, with sincerity, Pleasant Riderhood. "" "So, Mr Wegg... you mentioned some further business?" "We were talking... ..of old Mr Harmon... as being a friend of yours." "Not friend, exactly." "He was a very inquisitive spirit." "And would you say secretive?" "About what was found in the dust, for instance?" "Did old Harmon ever mention... how he found things;" "whether he started at the top of the mounds... or at the bottom?" "Whether he... prodded or... scooped?" "And might you have scooped a little by yourself and found your...have found physical difficulties to overcome?" " Now, Venus." " Uh?" "Here is my friendly proposal." "If there is anything to be found on these premises, be it money or jewels or papers, let us find it together." "We agree to share profits, we agree to further the cause of right." "Oh, yes?" "You've found nothing yet?" "I've only skimmed it." "Skimmed." "I scarcely know what to say to your proposal, Mr Wegg." "Say yes." "If I wasn't so soured in matters of romance..." "I told you of the lady?" "But, being soured... and driven to reckless madness and desperation..." "I suppose it's yes." "Hello, Pa." "My dear!" "Thank you so much." " Thank you, sir." "Thank you, my dear." "To have a new jacket and hat, at the same time..." "No!" "Now you're going to treat your lovely young woman to dinner." " Where shall we go, my dear?" " Greenwich." "And make sure you treat me to everything of the very best." ""My love is more than his, my fortune..."" "What about that one, my dear?" "That one belongs to a merchant of immense wealth, who has married a very lovely young woman, and who is so rich that he actually owns all the boats on the river that you see before you." "I suppose we may come to the conclusion at home, my dear, that we have lost you for good." "No, you cannot conclude that, Pa." "But the Boffins have supplied your lovely young woman with everything she needs in a most handsome way." "And they are such very good people, Pa." "Pa, I have a confession to make." "I am the most mercenary wretch that ever lived." "I should hardly have thought that of you, my dear." "It's not that I care for money to keep as money, but I do care so very much for what it will buy." "I think most of us do." " When did you feel this coming on?" " That's the terrible part of it." "When I was at home and only knew what it was to be poor, I grumbled but didn't mind so much." "But when I was disappointed of my splendid fortune and now see it daily in others' hands and see what it can really do," "I am now always avariciously scheming." "I have made up my mind that I must have money." "And, as I can't beg, borrow or steal it, I must marry it." " This is most alarming at your age." " Isn't it shocking?" " It would be if you meant it." " But I DO, Pa." "Talk to me of love and..." "But talk to me of poverty and wealth, and there we touch upon the realities of life." "But, Bella, your happiness?" "Tell me, Pa, did you marry money?" "You know I didn't, my dear." "And are you happy?" "Forgive me." "Don't be frightened, Sloppy." "Have you had your dinner?" "Meat, one!" "Beer, two!" "Vegetables, three!" "Ooh, er...what was four ?" "Oh, yeah!" "Pudding!" "Now, Sloppy, how would you like to dine here every day?" "Ooh, yes, ma'am!" "How would you like to live here and be taken care of?" "Ooh, yes!" "Now that little johnny's gone," "I think I would rather share john Harmon's fortune with someone who deserves it." "Whether he be an orphan, a baby or be pretty." "Once the old lady gets an idea in her head, she's a regular steam engine in her thinking." "But what of Mrs Higden?" "She goes before all, she must be mangled for!" "Don't worry, Mrs Higden will be taken care of, and everyone will be comfortable." "Ah, yes." "There's a B!" "For Burton Square." "Along of B for Boffin!" "I'm getting the hang of this!" "I trust you had a satisfactory morning's shopping, Miss Wilfer?" "Are you not well, Miss Wilfer?" "I am quite well, thank you." "Well, perhaps you had better stay indoors tonight." "I simply meant that perhaps an evening of dancing and socialising would not be wise if you are out of sorts." "I am not a child!" "I think an evening's marauding and attracting is just the thing to raise my spirits." "Eugene?" "If I could find you in a serious mood for once, I'd like an earnest word." "An earnest word?" "For some time now, you've been withholding something from me." "I don't ask what it is if you have not chosen to confide in me." "But there is something, isn't there?" "I give you my word of honour, Mortimer," "I don't know." "You have some...design, maybe?" "Or some new interest?" "Mortimer, you know how susceptible I am to boredom." "Well, I hope it may not get you into any trouble." "Trouble?" "That sounds interesting." "Or anyone else." "You recollect this young fellow, Eugene?" "Let me look at him." "Says he has something to say to you." "Yes." "I do say so." "I mean to say what I want, Eugene Wrayburn." "And who may this other fellow be?" "I am Charles Hexam's schoolmaster." "You should teach your pupils better manners, Mr...?" "My name does not concern you." "True." "It does not concern me at all." "I shall call you Schoolmaster, which is a respectable title." "Mr Eugene Wrayburn, I want a word with you!" "I am glad to speak in the presence of Mr Lightwood, because it was through him that you ever saw my sister." "Since then, Eugene Wrayburn, you have seen my sister often." "You've seen her oftener and oftener." "Was this worthwhile, Schoolmaster?" "So much trouble for nothing." "I don't know why you address me." "Don't you?" "Then I won't." "Mr Headstone and I had a plan for my sister's education." "He's a far more competent authority than you." "And what do we find?" "Why, she's already being taught!" "Without our knowledge." "We find, Mr Lightwood, that your friend, this Eugene Wrayburn, pays." "I ask him what right he has to do this and how he comes to be taking such a liberty without my consent." "I will not have any darkness cast upon my prospects, or any slur upon my respectability through my sister..." "I am telling Eugene Wrayburn I object to his acquaintance with my sister, and I request him to drop it altogether." "As I raise myself, I intend to raise her." "My sister is an excellent girl, but has romantic notions about my father's death and other matters." "Mr Wrayburn encourages those actions to make himself important so she feels grateful to him." "I don't choose her to be grateful to anybody but me and Mr Headstone." "If Eugene Wrayburn doesn't heed what I say, it will be the worse for her." "May I suggest, Schoolmaster, that you take your pupil away?" "Mr Lightwood, you've witnessed what I have said and I think your friend has heard me." "Now, Mr Headstone, as I have said all I wanted to say, and we have done all we wanted to do, we may go." "Go downstairs and leave us a moment." "You think no more of me than the dirt under your feet." "I assure you, Schoolmaster, I don't think about you." "That boy could put you to shame in half a dozen branches of knowledge, yet you cast him aside like an inferior." "But I am more than a boy and I will be heard." "judging from what I see, you seem to be rather too passionate for a schoolteacher." " Sir, my name is Bradley Headstone." " Your name does not concern me." "Come, come, Schoolmaster, speak up!" "Uhh!" "I say that what you are doing injures the boy and his sister." "Are you her schoolmaster as well as her brother's?" "Or perhaps you would like to be?" "What do you mean?" "I mean, she is so different from the low and obscure people around here that..." "Do you cast my background at me now?" "I know and care for nothing about you, Schoolmaster." "I have worked my way upwards and have a right to be considered a better man than you!" "I have no knowledge of, nor interest in, your background." "I have only just learned your name." "Now, is that all?" "No, sir, if you imagine that boy..." "Who really will be tired of waiting." "If you imagine that boy to be friendless, you are mistaken." "And I promise you... ..you will find me bitterly in earnest against you." "Eugene?" "Eugene?" "Eugene, to think I have been so blind." "How blind, my dear fellow?" "Eugene, the boy's sister..." "There is no better woman in London than Lizzie Hexam." "No better among my people at home, among your people." "Granted." "So what now?" "Are you in communication with this girl?" "Is what these people say true?" "Yes to both counts, my learned friend." "Then what is to come of it?" "Eugene, are you planning to seduce then desert this girl?" "No." "Mortimer, no." " Do you plan to marry her?" " Of course not!" " Do you plan...?" " I don't plan anything." "I am incapable of anything so energetic." " Eugene, Eugene..." " Stop this mournful catechism, it won't do." "What is to come of this, Eugene?" "Where is all this going?" "My dear Mortimer, I haven't the faintest idea." "(BOFFIN) First, there is the fine dust from which the bricks are made." "Secondly, there are the cinders which are used to burn the bricks into shape." "What a complicated business." "Then we have the rags and bones which are sold on to marine store dealers." "So much money to be made from rubbish!" "Old boots, sold to Prussian shoe manufacturers." "And lastly, though not leastly, any jewellery which might be found nestling in the ashes." "So, there is your "Boffin", Mortimer." "Your golden dustman." "Really!" "The Veneerings would invite anyone." "Anyone with over 12,000 a year." "The Boffins are very good people." "They aim to make much good use of their money and enjoy themselves at the same time." "Your health!" "I hope I would have the good-hearted grace to do likewise." "Really, Mortimer, I think you're in love with these Boffins." "What does Eugene think?" "Where is Eugene?" "He'll be skulking in some corner somewhere." "Don't be frightened of me, Miss Hexam." "Mr Headstone!" "Is Charley well?" "Your brother has confronted Mr Eugene Wrayburn." "This very evening, quite... ..ineffectually." "So I came here to ask you to think again." "Do not take help from a mere stranger, but rather your brother and, um... ..your brother's friend." "I am a man of strong feelings, Miss Hexam." "I don't show what I feel." "Some of us are obliged to keep things down." "The help Charley objects to was considerately and delicately offered, Mr Headstone." "jenny and I find our teacher very able and patient... and we are making good progress." "I wish that I had..." "Have I said these words?" "I wish that I had had the opportunity of devoting my... ..poor experience to your service." "But I fear I would not have found much favour with you." "I-I only have one more thing to say, but it is the most important." "There is a personal... ..concern in this matter which might make you feel differently." "To proceed under the present circumstances is out of the question." "Will you please accept that there will be another interview on the subject?" " Mr Headstone, I don't..." " There will be another interview!" "God, there is a spell on me!" "Goodbye." " Light, sir?" " Thank you." "You seem to attract the attention of all the young men, my dear." "Surely someone like..." "Mr Lightwood?" "Dear me, Mr Lightwood is pleasant enough, but..." "His fortune is not sufficient?" "You misunderstand me." "I only meant that I shall choose my husband carefully." "I am prepared to wait, as you have, to find an equal match." "Oh, yes, you can be sure Alfred loves me every bit as much as I do him." "You need another glass of wine, my dear." "So, the beautiful Miss Bella Wilfer, our dustman's ward." "What did you find out?" "She'll be more than a match for their fortune." "For a stupid young girl, she has uncommon..." "Good sense?" "There we are!" " Thank you..." "Ooops!" " 'Ere y'are, Bella." " Thank you!" " There you are, my dear." "Come on, old girl, come on." "No need to ask if you had a successful evening." "Very successful, thank you." "I'm engaged five times over." "Rokesmith, I would speak to you inside." "Mr Rokesmith, you provoke me to speak to you." "Miss Wilfer?" "I've been meaning to speak to you for some time." "You must stop watching me." "Stop judging me." "I admit... ..I do watch you, Miss Wilfer." "You must forgive me." "Miss Wilfer, I..." "I think I must tell you..." "I think I am becoming..." "That is, I fear... that I'm becoming profoundly interested in you." "You know how I am situated here, sir." "It is not generous or honourable to conduct yourself towards me as you do." "It is dishonourable to be interested in you?" "Or even fascinated by you?" "Mr Rokesmith!" "I hope, Miss Wilfer, that it is pardonable, even for a mere secretary, to declare an honestly felt opinion of you." "A truly felt devotion." "Forgive me." "But I cannot, I will not retract my feelings." "I reject them, sir!" "I should be blind and deaf were I not prepared for the reply." "I beg you may understand, Mr Rokesmith, you must put an end to this, now and forever." "Now and forever?" "Have no fear for the future." "It is over." "I am relieved to hear it." "I have plans for my life." "Why should you waste yours?" "Waste my life?" "Miss Wilfer, you have used some harsh words." "I have been ungenerous, dishonourable?" "In what?" "You know every line of the Harmon will." "Was it not enough that I was willed away like a horse or a dog or a package?" "Now, knowing every penny of my worth, you feel bold enough to speculate on me?" "Am I to be forever the property of strangers?" "You are wonderfully mistaken!" "Good night, Miss Wilfer." "Of course, I shall conceal all traces of this interview from Mr and Mrs Boffin." "Trust me, it is at an end forever." "Mr Rokesmith!" "I am glad I have spoken." "You may not believe me, but it has been painful and difficult." "If I have hurt you..." "I hope you will forgive me." "I really am not as bad as I dare say I appear." "Or you think me." "Ah, well, john Harmon." "You would find out." "And now you know it absolutely." "She has consigned you to the grave once more." "And now you'll stay buried forever." "For you have no chance of happiness in this life." "He is a very strange man." "I wish he was so very strange a man as to be a total stranger." "Now, Lizzie, dear," "I've been thinking what a thing it would be if I should have your company till I'm married." "Not that I know who my beau may be." "I shall make him do some of the things you do for me." "Brush my hair, help me up and down the stairs." "Whoever he is, I know his tricks and I give him warning to look out!" "You're very hard on him, whoever he may be." "Don't worry, jenny, I have no intention of parting company." "Well, it won't be your brother, that's for sure." "Don't like the boy, nor his friends." "And now, let us have a talk about Mr Eugene Wrayburn." "Why Mr Wrayburn?" "Because I am of a humour to talk about Mr Wrayburn." "I wonder whether he's rich?" "No, he's not rich." "Well, for a gentleman, he's not rich." "What would you think of him?" "If you were to be taken with him." "If you were a lady, of course!" "I, a lady?" "A poor girl who used to row Father on the river." "I was so shy that first night I saw him, I wished I could disappear." "But if you were to meet him on equal terms, what would you think of him?" "Well, he has his failings." "But I think it's for the want of something to trust in." "And if I were a lady, which I'll never be..." "I would hope that maybe I could help him become more..." "Even though I am so far beneath him as to be at all worth the thinking of beside him." "Does your leg hurt so much tonight, jenny, dear?" "Oh, yes." "But it's not the old pain." "Rock me to sleep." "I hope you're well?" "What can I do for you?" "It's concerning Sloppy, sir." "Not wishing him to know what I am playing," "I got up early and walked up here." "You have wonderful energy!" "And what exactly are you planning?" " I'm going to run away from Sloppy." " Run away?" "He won't leave working the mangle for me to benefit from your good lady's offer." " I respect him for it." " Yes, but that don't make it right." "He won't give me up, so I shall have to give him up." "Now, come, come, Betty." "We must think about this with care." " Consider the consequences." " Now, my dear, listen." "Now that I'm on my own, with my dear johnny gone, I'd sooner be on my feet." "It's a kind of deadness steals over me sometimes." "I seem to have my johnny in my arms." "Then his mother, then his mother's mother..." "I can still walk twenty miles if I have to." "I'm a good knitter, and I can make little things to sell." "Now, if your good lady and gentleman would loan me twenty shillings to fit out a basket, it should be a fortune for me!" "Trudging round the countryside, wearing myself out, it would keep the deadness off." "We must not lose sight of you, Betty." "Now..." "You'll keep a note in your pocket with Mr and Mrs Boffin's name, stating that they are your friends." " Ooh!" " No charity!" "Never that." "They are friends." "Don't you worry about me." "To earn my own bread, by my own labours, and keep the deadness off." "What more could I want?" "Thank you for your kindness." "And you, sir." "Bye, Betty." "Mr Headstone, be calm, sir." "We have everything on our side." "Hello, Liz." "Lizzie, Mr Headstone has something to say to you." "I'll go for a stroll and I'll be back in a while." "I know what Mr Headstone means to say and I very highly approve of it." "Now, Liz, be a rational girl and a good sister." "I said, um..." "When I saw you last, I..." "I said there was something left unexplained." "I hope you will not judge me by my hesitating manner." "Most unfortunate for me that I wish you to see me at my best, and know you see me at my worst." "It is my destiny." "You are the ruin of me!" "No, you are the ruin of me..." "I have..." "I have no confidence in myself, no control over myself when you are near or in my thoughts, and you are." "You're always in my thoughts now." "Since first I saw you..." "God, that was a wretched, miserable day!" "Mr Headstone, I am grieved to have done you any harm, but I never meant to." "I..." "There!" "Now I seem to have reproached you." "There are people who think highly of me." "There is one, a schoolmistress, who thinks particularly highly of me." "I have won a station in life which is considered worth winning." "Surely, Mr Headstone, I do believe it." "And I believe that if I was to offer her..." "Mr Headstone, I think I have heard enough." "Let me stop you there and go and find my brother." "I can restrain myself, I can restrain myself." "There." "Please, let us walk a while." "Please?" "Now, you know what I'm going to say." "I love you." "What other men might mean when they use that expression, I cannot tell." "What I mean is that I am under the influence of a tremendous attraction that I resist in vain." "You could draw me to fire." "You could draw me to the gallows." "You could draw me to any disgrace." "This confusion in my thoughts is what I mean by you being the ruin of me." "But if you were to look favourably on my offer of marriage, you could draw me to any good, every good, with equal force." "My circumstances are quite easy." "You would want for nothing." "Mr Headstone..." "I am in thorough, dreadful earnest." "Now, please, please... don't answer me yet." "Is it yes or no?" "Mr Headstone, I am... grateful and..." "I hope you may find a worthy wife before long, and...be very happy." "But, it...it is no." "And are you quite decided and is there no chance of change in my favour?" "I am quite decided, Mr Headstone." "Then I hope I may never kill him!" "Mr Headstone!" "Please let me go!" "I must call for help!" "This time, I will leave nothing left unsaid!" "Mr Eugene Wrayburn." "Was it him of whom you spoke with your murderous rage?" "Was it Mr Wrayburn that you threatened?" "I threatened no one." "Mr Eugene Wrayburn." "He haunts you." " Mr Eugene Wrayburn." " He is nothing to you, I think." "Oh, yes, he is." "He is much to me." "Mr Headstone, it is cowardly of you to talk to me in this way." "But it means that I can tell you," "I don't like you," "I never have liked you, and that no other living creature has anything to do with the effect that you, yourself, have produced on me." "Of course, I knew all about this Eugene Wrayburn," " all the time you were drawing me to you." " I did no such thing!" "With him in my mind I went on, and with him in my mind I have been set aside." "I am not complaining." "I'm just stating the case." "You may imagine how low my self-respect lies now." "It lies under his feet and he treads upon it and exults in it." "He does not." "We have stood face to face, and he has crushed me with his contempt." "You talk wildly!" "Quite collectedly." "I am quite calm." "And I made no threat, remember." "Hexam!" "I am going home." "I shall walk by myself." "I shall be at my work in the morning, just as usual." "After all my endeavours to cancel the past and to raise myself in the world, and to raise you with me..." "Come, Liz." "Let's not quarrel." "Let's be reasonable and talk this over like brother and sister." "Don't cry." "As Mr Headstone's wife, you'd occupy a far better place in society than you hold now." "You can leave the riverside far behind you." "Your ridiculous dolls' dressmakers and their drunken fathers..." "Now, we can set this straight." "I'll tell Mr Headstone this is not final..." "I cannot let you say any such thing to Mr Headstone." "You shall not bring me down!" " Charley, how can you say these words?" " I'll not unsay them." "You're a bad girl and a false sister and I have done with you." "I have done with you forever!" "Lizzie!" "What's the matter?" "Mr Wrayburn, please leave me alone." "Lizzie, you know I have come expressly to see you." "Mr Wrayburn, leave me." "And pray be careful of yourself." "Lizzie, what is the matter?" " My brother." " He is not worth a thought, far less a tear." "Mr Wrayburn, I have had a bitter trial tonight." "I hope you do not find me ungrateful, or mysterious, or changeable." "I am wretched." "Remember what I said to you." "Take care!" "Of what?" "Of whom, Lizzie?" "You will not tell me to go away, will you?" "Lizzie?" "You will not send me away from you?" "She did not insist upon my leaving." "She would not send me away." "Eugene, Eugene, Eugene..." "What a businessI" "Something's gone down in the fog, Miss Abby!" "See that the boiler's full." "Hang some blankets to the fire." "Come on." "Have your senses about you." "Anyone know what happened?" "(MAN 1) It's a steamboat." "(MAN 2) It's always a steamboat." "(MAN 2) It's a local craft, Miss Abby, run down by a foreign steamboat." "(ABBY) How many in the craft?" "(MAN 1) One man, Miss Abby." "(ABBY) Good God, it's Rogue Riderhood!" "Oh, God..." "Father!" "Poor Father!" "(BELLA) What a change there is in him." "To think that I once wished him to be more at ease in this company." "Money has made him comfortable." "Father, you were run down on the river but you're safe now." "Your friends have given you shelter." " A steamboat, was it?" " Yes, Father." "(ROGUE) Damn them to hell." "I'll have the law onto her... ..and them that runs her!" "You seem a little pensive tonight, my dear." "H'm." "My dear, I believe..." "No, I will not." "If you believe me to be in love, you are mistaken." "No, indeed." "It cannot be so very easy to find a man worthy of your attractions." "The question is not to find a man, but an establishment." "My love, your prudence amazes me." "Where did you learn to study life so well?" "You're right, of course." "You must..." " I don't mind telling you, Mrs Lammle..." " Sophronia, my dear." "I don't mind telling you, Sophronia... ..that I am convinced I have no heart." "And as for seeking to please myself, well, I don't." "But you can't help pleasing, Bella dear." "You'll have many admirers to shun, don't worry." "Ah, my dear." "You must tell." " You do not mean Mr Lightwood has proposed?" " No, indeed not." "In terms of establishments, there are others... even less worthy than Mr Lightwood." " I cannot believe you!" " What would you say to our secretary?" "My dear, the hermit secretary who creeps up and down the back stairs?" "The man must be mad!" "He appeared to be in his full senses." "I told him my opinion of his declaration and dismissed it." "Of course it was very inconvenient and disagreeable." "It's remained a secret, however, and I hope I can count on you never mentioning the matter." "You may count on me." "Absolutely." "Of course you remember, Mortimer." "It was in this very room that you told us the romantic story of John Harmon." "And over there, sitting very comfortably, are your golden dustmen." "And what is that the golden dustmen have told me?" "There is another disappearance." "Tell it, Mortimer, or they're sure to make you." "The reference is to the following." "The young woman Lizzie Hexam, daughter of the late Jesse - otherwise Gaffer - who you will remember was accused of the murder of John Harmon." "Mr Boffin, my client, was, of course, anxious to be in communication with Lizzie Hexam, as she lives alone and may need assistance." "He referred the task to me, and I have tried my hardest to find Miss Hexam." "I even have some special means." "But I have failed because she has vanished." "Vanished?" "You mean kidnapped?" "Oh, not murdered?" "No, he does not mean that." "He..." "What he means is she has vanished voluntarily, but she HAS vanished." "Completely." "I trust you had a satisfactory morning shopping?" "Ah, more "Lives of Misers", I see." "That's all right with you, is it?" "For those that have, this is the required reading." "For those with a fortune to protect." " Will you be joining us this afternoon...?" " Join us?" "Join us!" "Rokesmith has my business to attend to." "Come." "Come, Bella." "Oh, you cheeky scamp, go on!" "Go!" "They're all the same." "Now..." "Johnny..." "Johnny..." "Johnny, my dear." "Are you better now, Mother?" " Have I been ill, then?" " You've been a little faint." "Oh." "Yes, it's the numbness." "It comes over me sometimes." "It's gone now." " Are there any folks nearby belonging to you?" " Oh, yes, to be sure." "Don't you worry about me, my dears." "Send for a doctor to look after her." "No, I do not need help!" "I have enough!" "I have friends in London." "(BOFFIN) Now, Rokesmith." "Where were we?" "Sir, you considered the time had come for fixing my salary." "Oh, don't be above calling it wages, man." "I never talked of salary when I was in service." "(ROKESMITH) My wages." "Now, regarding these wages, I have looked into the matter, and I say 200 a year." " What do you think?" " Thank you, sir." "It's a fair proposal." "You see, Rokesmith, a man like me has to consider the market price." "I've got acquainted with the duties of property." "A sheep is worth so much in the market, and I ought to give it that price and no more." "Likewise, a secretary." "You are too kind, Mr Boffin." "I want to keep you in attendance." "I want you ready at all times." "I'll have a bell hung from this room to yours." "When I want you, I'll...touch it." "I don't call to mind that I have anything more to say to you." " Noddy, dear?" " Yes, my dear?" "Excuse me putting it to you, but don't you think you've been a little strict with Mr Rokesmith?" "Don't you think you've been a little bit..." "not quite your old self?" "Why, old lady, it's the same with Rokesmith as with the footmen." "You must either scrunch them, or they'll scrunch you!" "Now, this isn't entertaining, Miss Bella, now, is it?" "Now, Bella, for her age, is remarkably well up on what to go in for." "You're right, my love." "Go in for money." "Make a profit from good looks and from the money me and Mrs Boffin will have the pleasure of settling on you, for we are very fond of you." "A golden ball of opportunity lies at your feet, Bella, my dear!" "(WEGG) He's looking for something." "(WEGG) What's he doing?" "(VENUS) He's got a shovel." "(VENUS) He knows how to use it." "(VENUS) He knows these mounds like his own garden." "He could bury us up here without a trace, if we give him reason." "Come." "(BOFFIN) What's the matter, Wegg?" "You're pale as a candle." "Physic yourself...to be in order for tomorrow's reading of "The Misers"." ""Merryweather's Comprehensive Guide to the Misers"." "A lot to be learnt." "(WEGG) This is a friend." "Mr Venus." "Of Clerkenwell?" "I've heard of you." "You knew the old man." "Did he tell you of any hoardings of monies or... ..even better?" "Oh, by the by," "I've decided to sell off the mounds, Wegg." " What?" " Got to lose the mounds." "They are to be carted off and that's the end of it." "Good night." "No." "I know the way out." "Did you hear him?" "!" "He's going to cheat me!" "Cheat us!" "Before we can find anything!" "Let me get at him!" "(LIZZIE) May I lift you and wet your lips a little?" "(BETTY) Have I been long dead?" "(LIZZIE) I don't understand you." "May I wet your lips a little?" "Am I not dead, then?" "I was returning home from work when I found you lying here." " What work?" " I work at the paper mill nearby." "Dare I lift you a little?" "This paper, am I to read it?" "I know these names." "Do you want me to return this to the writer?" "Is that your wish?" "Bless you." "You will not give it up to anyone but them." "Not to the parish." " Most solemnly." " Don't let the parish even touch or look at me." "No." "Faithfully." "What is your name?" "My name is Lizzie Hexam." "Are you afraid to kiss me?" "Bless you." "Now lift me, my dear." "Been walking and lost my way." "Been looking out for someone I used to know." " I feel she may have passed this spot." " She?" "The lady travels alone?" "Yes." "At least, I believe so." "You've not seen a man, have you?" "A city man?" "A man of law?" " His name is Wrayburn." " Wrayburn." "Oh, I'd know him if I saw him." " You are acquainted with this man?" " I am indeed." "Along with that Lightwood fellow." "When I was cheated at the time of Hexam's death." "You are Riderhood." "What's it to you?" "This river's drowned me once." "I mean to get the better of it." "I'm thinking of taking a job upriver, more respectable." "What do you think?" " You know Hexam's daughter?" " None better." "Have you seen her?" "Not since the day of Gaffer's death." "And him." "Wrayburn." "Did you..." "Did you ever see them together?" "Certainly I have." "And did he make a show of being kind to her?" "Oh, yeah." "That was very definite." "Suppose I was to offer you five shillings?" "Well, I'd take it." " What's this for?" " I don't know." "I don't know..." " Look, do you know where she is?" " No, I don't." "If you have any intelligence of her, or of him, would you be willing to part with it?" "Look, you can trust me." "I'm a schoolteacher." " I don't know where to find you." " I know where to find YOU." "Oh..." "The five shillings, I don't know what I want for it, remember?" "No, I don't know..." "If anything." "Miss Wren, can I persuade you to dress me up a doll?" "No." "If you want one, go and buy one at the shop!" "So my poor little goddaughter in Hertfordshire will not profit from my private acquaintance with the superior dolls' dressmaker." "Here..." "little Jenny." "Jenny..." "Please give me five shillings for your old man." "Oh, you disgraceful thing!" "Pay five shillings for you (?" ") Indeed!" "Do you know how long it takes me to earn five shillings?" "Don't carry on like that, or I'll give the dustman five shillings to carry you off in his dust cart!" "He's enough to break his mother's heart, is this boy." "A muddling and a swipey old child." "Don't!" "Don't!" "I can't bear to look at you!" "Go and get my bonnet and coat." "Make yourself useful!" "Now, I'm off to the Italian opera to sketch the ladies, and I'll see you gone, Mr Wrayburn." "Let me tell you once and for all." "It's no use you should pay me these visits." "You won't get what you want from me." "So obstinate for a doll's dress for my goddaughter?" "You don't want a dress." "You want an address." "Get back to your corner this minute!" " I'll see you out, Mr Wrayburn." " No, no, please." "(JENNY) You bad old boy!" "Get back to your corner, you useless old thing!" "Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts." "Shut not Thy merciful ears to our prayer, but spare us, Lord most holy, God most mighty." "O holy and merciful Saviour, Thou most worthy judge eternal, suffer us not at our last hour for any pains of death, to fall from Thee." "I've took it into my head that I sometimes could have turned the mangle a little harder for her, and it cuts me deep to think of it now." "We all feel we could have done a little better." "Not her!" "She went through every duty she had to do." "Oh, Mrs Higden, you was a woman and a mother and a mangler in a million million..." "God will understand, my son." "It's not a poor grave with that good fellow beside it." "I have to get back to work now, but I can meet you later if you could stay a few hours." "You think well of her, Mr Rokesmith?" " I think highly of her." " I'm so glad of that." "There is something refined in her beauty, is there not?" "She is very striking." "Yet there is a shade of sadness upon her." "I'm not setting up my own opinion here." "Mr Rokesmith..." "I'm asking your opinion." "I noticed that sadness." "I hope it may not be as a result of the false accusation against her father." "Oh, Mr Rokesmith!" "Please don't be so hard on me." "Don't be so stern." "I wish to talk to you on equal terms." "I was forcing myself to be constrained as required by our agreement." "But there." "It's gone." "Thank you." "In her letter to Mrs Boffin, Lizzie stated her name and residence must be kept strictly secret." "I was hoping you might be able to try and find out why." "Of course." "I'd be glad to help if I can." "Mr Rokesmith, it seems so long since we've spoken to each other naturally," "I'm embarrassed to bring up another subject." "Ahem." "It's Mr Boffin." "You know that I'm not only grateful to him, but I have a true respect for him." "Unquestionably." "And that you are his favourite companion." "That makes it difficult." "Mr Rokesmith, do you think he treats you well?" " You see how he treats me." " Yes, I see it clearly." "You see, I've been watching Mr Boffin these past few weeks." "You?" "Watching?" "Surely not (!" ")" "I have to admit I've been watching him." "And though, at my first meeting with Mr Boffin, I found him gruff and dark and somewhat dirty" " I'm ashamed to confess " "I've grown to find him kindly and unspoilt by his good fortune." "Now..." "Now?" "Now I have to admit, reluctantly, that fortune IS spoiling Mr Boffin." "And I've seen the way he treats you and it gives me pain, because I cannot bear it to be thought that I approve of it." "Miss Wilfer, if you could know with what delight I see that fortune is not spoiling you." "This treatment..." "Well, I sometimes think that it must lower you in your own estimation." "I have very strong reason for bearing with the drawbacks of my current position." "Well, I sometimes think you... ..repress yourself." "You force yourself to act passively." "You're right." "I force myself to act a certain part to... appear to be something else to those who might be watching." " But I have a settled purpose." " And a good one, I hope." "And a good one, I hope." "It's new to me to be visited by a lady so near my own age, and one so pretty as you." "It's a pleasure for me to look at you." "You were asking whether the accusations against my father in the John Harmon murder had anything to do with my wish to remain quite secret here." " No." " You live much alone." "I spent many hours alone even when my father was alive." "I have a brother, but he's not friendly with me." "I wish you could make a friend of me, Lizzie." "I have no more character than a canary bird, but I know I'm trustworthy." "So, tell me." "Why do you live like this?" " You must have many lovers." " Me?" "No, not one." "Not one?" "Well, perhaps one." "I did have one." "Perhaps half of one." "There is a certain man, a passionate and angry man, who says he loves me, and I must believe does love me." "He's a friend of my brother." "Are you hiding here because you are afraid of him?" "I'm not timid generally, but I'm always afraid of him." "Afraid to read the newspaper or hear of events in London in case he's done some violence." "But you're not afraid of him for yourself?" "Then, you must excuse me but... ..it must be that there is someone else?" "His words are always in my ears, and the blow he struck when he said them is always in my mind." " "I hope I may never kill him."" " Kill him!" "Is this man so jealous?" "Of another - of a gentleman." "I hardly know how to tell you." "Of a gentleman so far above me and my way of life." "He has shown an interest in me since my father's death." "Does he love you?" "Does he admire you?" " Is it through his influence you're here?" " No." "He must NOT know where to find me!" "I see." "Of course I see." "I live here peacefully and among friends." "And I hope you may forget both these men, the violent one and the one not worthy of you." "Oh, no, I do not want to forget about him." "But wouldn't it be better not to live in hiding?" "Where's the gain, my dear?" "Does a woman's heart seek to gain anything?" "If I were to forget him, I should lose... ..lose my belief that if I had been his equal and he had loved me, then I would have tried with everything I have to make him better and happier." "I should lose the value I put upon the little learning I have, which is all owing to him." "I have no more dreamt of the possibility of my being his wife than he ever has." "And yet I love him." "I love him so much and so dearly." "When I think my life may be weary, I am proud of it and glad of it to suffer something for him." "I may never see him again." "His eyes may never look at me again but... ..I would not have the light of them taken out of my life for anything my life can give me." "There." "I've told you everything." "I didn't mean to but... ..I don't believe anyone could refuse you any confidence if you were of a mind to ask for it." "I only wish I deserved it more." "We will meet the train if we walk swiftly." "You look rather serious, Miss Wilfer." "I feel rather serious." "Would you believe, Mr Rokesmith, I feel that... ..that I've passed whole years today." " You are overtired." " No." "I'm not at all tired." "I feel that much has happened to myself, you know?" "For the good, I hope?" "You're cold." "You're trembling." "What a beautiful sky." "(GIGGLES) What a glorious evening!" "My dear Mortimer, you are the express picture of contented industry, reposing after the virtues of the day." "You, my dear Eugene, are the express picture of discontented idleness." "Where have you been?" "I've been about town." "And now I am about consulting my eminently respected solicitor about the state of my affairs." "Your highly intelligent and respected solicitor is of the opinion that your affairs are in a bad way, Eugene." "How could they be other when you spend your entire day wandering the streets in search of...?" "But you can say, at least, that I don't gamble or party or speculate or invest." "Or any other greedy activity that may eat up my non-existent income." "Eugene." "You know you do not really care for her." "I don't know that." "I must ask you not to say that, as if we both took it for granted." "But if you DO care for her, you should leave her alone." "I don't know that, either." "But, tell me, did you ever see me take so much trouble about anything?" "My dear Eugene, I wish I had." "If my taking so much trouble to recover her does not mean I cared for her, what does it mean?" " You must consider the consequences." " Huh (!" ")" "You know I am incapable of that." "I'm on duty tonight." "Now, this interesting gentleman is the son of an acquaintance of mine." "Mortimer, may I present Mr Dolls?" "I believe Mr Dolls endeavours to make a communication to me, but it may be necessary to wind him up before any sense may be got out of him." " Brandy, Mr Dolls?" " Three penn'orth of rum." "Mr Dolls' nerves are considerably unstrung." "And I think it, on the whole, expedient to fumigate Mr Dolls." "Bless my soul, Eugene." "What a mad fellow you are!" "Why is this creature here?" " Mr Wrayburn." "This Mr Wrayburn?" " Of course it is." "What do you want?" "Three penn'orth of rum." "Would you do me the favour, my dear Mortimer?" "Wind him up." "I'm occupied." "You want directions, don't you?" " You want to know where SHE is." " I do." " I'm your man." " Have you got the address?" " Three penn'orth of rum." " Wind him up, Mortimer." " Wind him up." " Eugene..." "Eugene, you cannot stoop to this." "I said I would find her by any means, fair or foul." "These are foul, I will take them." "Can you get the direction?" "If that's why you've come, tell me what you want!" " Ten shillings, three penn'orth of rum." " You shall have it." "15 shillings, three penn'orth of rum?" "She treats me as a mere child, sir." "I'm not!" "Letters pass betwixt." "Postman's letters." "Easy to get direction." "Get it." "Bring it to me." "And you shall have all the three penn'orths of rum you can drink." "Drink yourself to death, for all I care." "It seems to me that you have had no money at all since we've been married." "What seems to you to be the case may possibly be the case." "In any case, we're soon to be bankrupt if we do nothing about the case." "(We find ourselves in a corner." "What do we do?" ")" " There's nothing to sell?" " Nothing." "So we must borrow." "Then I suppose it is natural to think, in an emergency, of the richest people we know, and the simplest." "The Boffins?" "They are too well guarded." "Supposing... ..if we could be of inestimable service to Mr Boffin." "He has grown very suspicious of late, remember?" "And simultaneously rid him of his secretary." "(EUGENE) Think about it this way." "I give our Mr Dolls useful employment, keep him off the streets, pay him exorbitantly..." "You can make almost anything amusing, Eugene, but not this." "Yes, I am rather ashamed of it myself, so let's change the subject." "It's so deplorably underhand of you, so unworthy, setting up this PATHETIC spy!" "Ah." "Now you have suggested a new subject." "(EUGENE) Isn't it amusing" "I never can go out after dark but I find myself attended... always by one spy, sometimes by two?" "Are you sure?" "Eugene, have you some debt I don't know about?" "Observe the legal mind!" "Respected solicitor, it's not that." "The schoolmaster's abroad." " The schoolmaster?" " Yes." "Sometimes the schoolmaster and the pupil are both abroad." "Don't you believe me?" "A fine night for the chase." "Which way for the scent?" "East or west?" "East." "When we get to St. Paul's churchyard, we shall loiter heartfully, and I shall point out our prey." "Get your wind, for we'll be crossing the city tonight!" " Eugene, how long has this been going on?" " Oh, ever since a certain person went off." "Watch him, Mortimer." "Watch him." "See how I reduce him." "I lead him." "I grind him." "I expose him as a figure of fun." "(BEGGAR) Thank you, sir." "(EUGENE) This is what happens, night after night." "I tempt him all over the city." "One night westward, another north." "Sometimes walking, sometimes riding." "I plan my routes during the day and execute them at night." "I pass him by and refuse to even acknowledge his existence." "As you see, he's undergoing grinding torments." "I goad him into madness." "Eugene..." " Don't you think you're...?" " Mortimer, listen." "Listen." "Lizzie's gone." "She's gone!" "And these night chases are my only solace." "They give me an expressful pleasure." "What's the matter, Mortimer?" "Nothing." "What the devil are you doing sleepwalking, then?" "I'm horribly awake." "Eugene, I cannot lose sight of that fellow's face." "Which fellow?" "Mr Boffin?" "Oh, good morning, Mrs Lammle." "I hope you are well." "Not so well, dear Mr Boffin." "I'm uneasy and anxious." "I've been waiting for you for some time." "May I speak with you?" "Of course." "Join me in my home where I can offer you refreshments." "I'd rather not, Mr Boffin." "The matter I have to speak to you of is..." "It's very delicate." " Do you think this strange?" " No, madam, of course not." "It is difficult to speak but...it is my duty." "Would you mind stepping into the carriage?" "Damn!" "(BOFFIN) Now!" "We are all here." "Come in, Bella, my dear." "Do not be alarmed, Bella, my dear." "We are here to see you righted." "See me righted?" "Sir?" " Now, sir." "Consider this young lady." " I do so." "How dare you tamper with this young lady?" "!" "How dare you come out of your station to pester this young lady with your impudent proposals?" "This lady was far above you." "This young woman was looking about the market for a good bid!" "She wasn't about to be snapped up by fellows that had no money to buy with." " Mrs Boffin?" " My dear, I can't let..." "Old lady, you hold your tongue!" "Now, Bella, don't you be put out." " I'll right you." " But you don't right me, you wrong me!" "This lady did herself tell you of your presumption, did she not?" "!" " Did I, Mr Rokesmith?" "Did I?" " Do not be distressed, Miss Wilfer." "But I've asked him to forgive me since and would again now if it would spare him!" " Oh...!" " Old lady, stop that noise!" "Now, what have you got to say for yourself?" "My interest in Miss Wilfer began the moment I saw her, even before." "H'm, this is a longer scheme than I thought." "He gets to know about me and my property and about Bella and the part she played in poor John Harmon's story, and he says to himself," ""I'll get in with Boffin and my ship will come well and truly in."" "But he didn't know who he was dealing with, did he, Bella, my dear?" "He thought to squeeze money out of us." "And he's DONE for himself instead!" "I have borne my position here that I might not be separated from Miss Wilfer." "And since she rejected me, I have not urged my suit with one syllable or look." "But my devotion to her has not changed, except that now it is deeper and better founded." "My feeling for Miss Wilfer is not one to be ashamed of." "I love her." "And when I leave her and this house, I go into a blank life." "(BOFFIN) Let me assist you to that blank life!" "I dare say you can stoop to pick it up after what you've stooped to here!" "I have stooped for nothing but this!" "And it is mine, for I have earned it by the hardest of labours!" " You're a pretty quick packer, I hope." " You shall have no fear of my lingering." "One thing before you go!" "You pretend to have a mighty affection for this young lady, but what is due to this young lady is money and she knows that very well!" "Why, for you to say to this young lady that she should consider you!" "Why, I say it is as if, "Miaow," says the cat, "Quack," says the duck," ""BOW WOW WOW," says the dog!" "GRRR!" "This young lady only wants money, and that's the end of it!" " You slander the young lady!" " YOU slander her!" "It's money she makes a bid for." "Money, money, money!" "(ROKESMITH) Mrs Boffin, for your delicate and unwavering kindness, I thank you." "Miss Wilfer, goodbye." "Oh, God, make me poor again!" "Someone, I beg, or my heart will break!" "Don't give me money, Mr Boffin." "I don't want money!" " Oh, God help me!" " There, there, my dear." "You're righted now, so it's all right." " I hate you!" " Hello?" "I've heard you with shame for myself and for you." "I am afraid that you have become a monster!" "Mr Rokesmith, I'm deeply sorry for the reproaches you've borne on my account." "I earnestly and truly beg your pardon." "The only fault you should admit to is that you laid yourself open to be slighted by a worldly, shallow girl whose head was turned... and was quite unable to rise to what you offered." "(BELLA) Oh, Mrs Boffin!" "Oh, there, there, there." "Shh." " You vicious old thing!" " Don't be rash." "Think well what you do." " Yes, you think well of it." " Your money has turned you to marble." "You are a hard-hearted miser, wholly undeserving the man you have just lost." "What?" "You'd set Rokesmith against me?" "He is worth a million of you!" "Ah, yes, I'm sure." "Now, listen, I'm not angry..." " No!" "I must go home for good!" " ¡No!" "Now, don't do what you can't undo." "Stay where you are, and all's well." "Go away, and you can never come back." "If you leave us like this, you can't expect me to settle any money on you." "Be careful, Bella." "Not one brass farthing!" "Of course you may have your own room back, my dear." "I'm sure your sister will make way." "My dear girl!" "My gallant, courageous and noble Bella." "You are my love." "I suppose I am, if you think me worth taking." "Mr Wrayburn, sir?" "15 shillings." "Should you need any further assistance...?" "To lose the ward and the secretary in one afternoon, that is extremely imprudent of Mr Boffin." "What is worse, Miss Bella Wilfer and the Rokesmith fellow have run off together!" "Oh, really, Mortimer, when you know the man needs counsel!" "I hardly see how I can be to blame." "When two people are inclined to run off together, a lawyer is the last person to prevent it." "I said no good would come of settling so much money on a dustman." "How will he protect himself from the jackals now?" "The man is a mere novice in the ways of the world." "So... have you found anything?" "Do not attempt to conceal anything from me." "Well, man and brother and partner in feelings, equally with undertakings and actions," "I have found a cash box on the dust heap." "On the outside was a parchment label saying," ""My will, John Harmon, temporarily deposited here."" "We must know its contents." "That was my feeling exactly, comrade, so I broke the box open." " Without coming to see me first?" " Exactly so." "I was bent on surprising you, sir, before we were surprised by that rogue Boffin." "I examined the document, regularly executed, regularly witnessed." "In short, he, John Harmon, leaves to Nicodemus Boffin the LITTLE mound - which is quite enough for him - and he leaves the whole rest and residue of his property to the Crown!" "The date of the will must be proved." "It may be later than the one generally accepted." "Exactly my thinking, comrade." "I paid a shilling - mind, I did not ask you for sixpence - to look up that will." "It is dated MONTHS after the generally accepted one." "I would have thought you would have consulted your partner earlier as to a course of action." "But, sir, think of the surprise!" "Let's see this document, at last." "Am I correct in its content, partner?" "Partner, you are." "We'll extract a hefty payment from Boffin to keep this secret." "What if he's honest and gives up all, according to what is written legally?" "Him?" "Prove honest?" "He's grown too fond of money for that." "The question is, who is going to take care of this will?" " Do you know who is going to take care of it?" " I am." "Oh, dear, no." "That's a mistake." "I am." "Now, I don't want to have any words with you, and still less do I want to have any anatomical pursuits with you." " What do you mean?" " What I mean is I'm on my own ground." "And I'm surrounded by the trophies of my art, and my tools is very handy." "I presume, having had the advantage of time, you have formed a view of how we should proceed?" "Yes, comrade." "I propose that we wait while Boffin clears the mounds to see if we can profit equally." "And then we can use this to make him pay in money and in humiliation." "(MAN) Lock ho!" "(TO HIMSELF) Mr Eugene Wrayburn." "T'other governor." "What exercises you on the river today?" "Oh, it's you, is it?" "Honest friend." "Yes, I'm the keeper here." "No thanks to you for it or Lawyer Lightwood." "We shall save our recommendation for the next candidate, the one who offers himself when you are transported or hanged." "Don't be long about disappointing him, will you?" "(RIDERHOOD ) Oyez!" "Lock ho!" "Mr Schoolteacher, if I'm not mistaken." "Lock ho!" "Well, bless me, t'otherest, if you haven't taken to imitating me." "Never thought myself so good-looking before." "These are my holidays." "Your working days must be stiff 'uns if these is your holidays." "Don't worry." "He takes it easy, that one." "But you know you could have out-walked him." " Would you say I'm following him?" " I know you're following him." "Yes, well, I am." " He may land..." " Be easy." "He'll leave his boat behind as a marker, won't he?" "He can't carry it ashore under his arm." " What did he say to you?" " Cheek." "Spite." " Affronts." "Said I'd be better hanged." " Damn him!" "Let him get ready for his fate when that comes about." "Oh, then, I make out, t'otherest, that he is going to see her." "He left London yesterday." "I have little doubt he's going to see her." " You're that sure?" " As sure as if it were written here!" "But you have been disappointed before." "It has told upon you." "I have followed him day and night now, through the summer holidays." "And I won't leave him until I've seen him with her." "And then?" "I'll come back to you." "Now I..." "I must go." "Though he'd have to make himself invisible before he could shake me off." "You'll put up at the lock on your way back?" "Now, why did you copy my clothes, schoolmaster?" "What is your plan?" "Now..." "If I see him in a similar," "I'll know it's not by accident." "He's put up for the night." "He goes on early in the morning." "I'm back for a few hours." " You need them." " I don't want them." "But if he won't lead, I can't follow." "This would be a bad pit for a man to be flung into with his hands tied." "The gates would suck him down afore he'd have a chance of climbing out." "Yet you run about over six inches of rotten wood." "No wonder you don't fear being drowned." "I used to, but I can't be drowned now." " You can't be drowned?" " Nah." "It's well known." "I've been brought back out of drowning, and I can't be drowned again." "You should better come along and take your rest." "Honest, he's grown too fond of money for that." "What wouldn't you give me for my box?" "Look out for a fall, my lady dustwoman." "I'm gonna have your Boffin." "I'm gonna turn him upside down and grind him...down." "Hello, Lizzie." "What a pleasant surprise." "I was out for a day on the river." "Actually, I was on business and who should I find?" "Mr Wrayburn, you must leave this place instantly." "I will." "If you will grant me an interview, a private interview." "Then I will leave." "I promise." "I give you my word." " You've seen him?" "With her?" " I have." " Where?" " Upstream." "His journey's end." "I saw him wait for her and meet her!" "What did you do?" " Nothing." " What are you going to do?" "I don't know how this happens." "I can't keep it back." "I taste, I smell it, I see it and then it chokes me." "You're like a ghost." "You asked me... what I would do." "I don't know!" "What can a man do in this state?" "!" "(RIDERHOOD ) Here." "Sleep now." "Sleep." "Smooth and round." "And when you wake, you'll know what you have to do." "Yes, you're stupid enough, I suppose." "But if you're clever enough to get through life tolerably, then you have the better of me." "I was saying to myself you were sure to come - even though late - as you always keep your word." "I had to linger through the village, Mr Wrayburn." "Are the villagers such scandalmongers?" " Will you walk beside me and not touch me?" " I'll try." "Lizzie, don't be unhappy." "Don't be reproachful." " Mr Wrayburn, you must leave this place." " Lizzie, you know I can't go away." " Why not?" " Because you won't let me." "I don't mean you design to keep me here, but you do it." "You do." "Mr Wrayburn, will you listen to me while I speak to you very seriously?" "When you said you were much surprised to see me, was it true?" "It was not in the least true." "I came here to find you." "Can you imagine why I left London, Mr Wrayburn?" "I'm afraid you left to get rid of me." "Not very flattering, but I'm afraid you did." "I did." "How could you be so cruel?" "Is there no cruelty in your being here now?" " Don't be distressed." " What else am I to be?" "You put me to shame!" "Oh, Lizzie..." "I never thought there was a woman in the world who could affect me so much." "You don't know how you haunt me, you bewilder me." "You don't know how the carelessness that helps me at every other stage of my life cannot help me now." "You've struck it dead!" "Sometimes I wish you'd struck ME dead with it." "But you must think of what you're doing." " What am I to think of?" " Think of me!" "Tell me how NOT to think of you and you'll change me altogether." "Think of me as belonging to another world from you." "I have no protector, except in yourself." "Respect my good name." "If you have feeling for me as if I were a lady, then give me the full respect of a lady." "I'm a working girl." "If you were a true gentleman..." "Have I injured you so much?" "If you don't leave me alone, consider what you'll drive me to." "What shall I drive you to?" "I live here peacefully and respected and well employed." "You'll force me to leave here as I left London, and by following me you'll force me onwards." "Are you so determined to run away from me?" "Answer me this." "If we had been on equal terms, would you make me leave?" "I don't know." "Please let me go." "I swear, you will go directly." "I will not follow you, but answer me." "Would you still have hated me?" "You know me better than that." "How can I think of you as being on equal terms?" "That first night I met you, when you looked at me so attentively, I had to draw away." "Having so looked up to you and wondered at you since that night, and at first thought you to be so good as to be at all mindful of me..." "At first "so good"?" "But now "so bad"?" "Still so good." "So good!" "If you do feel for me the way you have said this evening, then there's nothing for us in this life but separation." "Heaven help you, and Heaven bless you!" "I promised I'd not follow you but... shall I keep you in view, at least?" "It grows dark." "I am...used to being alone at this hour." "Please do not." "I promise." "Lizzie, I can promise you no more tonight except..." "I will try to do as you wish." "You will spare yourself and me if you leave this place tomorrow morning." "I will... ..try." "Oh, Mortimer..." "Who could believe this ridiculous position?" "And yet..." "I've gained a wonderful power over her." "She loves me." "She is so earnest, she will be earnest in that passion." "(EUGENE) We must both follow our natures." "And we must both pay for them." "Now, suppose I married her...?" "Impossible." "And yet I should like to meet the fellow who could tell me I do not love her for her true beauty and warmth, and that, in spite of myself, I'd not be true to her." "Oh..." "I can hear you, Mortimer, your sorrowful "Eugene, Eugene, this is a bad business!"" "Yet I'd like to hear any fellow say a word against her." "Yet she begs me to go away." "I'll not go away." "I will try her again." "She will not RESIST me." ""Eugene, Eugene, this is a bad business!"" "Hello there, friend." "Are you blind (?" ")" "Out of the question to leave her." "Out of the question to marry her." "Oh, Mortimer, we've reached the crisis..." "Father." "Father, help me now." "Father, help me make amends." "Help me restore this poor soul to someone who holds him dear!" "Eugene?" "You naughty boy!" "Where are you?" "Playing out all night indeed!" "You can't hide from me, you bad, bad boy!" "Clear the mounds, clear off the evidence!" "It won't make any difference!" "I'll have you, Boffin!" "Your destiny is downfall and I'M the one who's destined to bring you down!" " Noddy, my dear." " Yes, my dear?" "Do you not think that maybe..." "we have taken the wrong path?" "Don't you worry, old lady." "It is a very large house, Noddy dear." "I am a little lonely in it." "We decided the way of our travels, old girl." "Don't you worry yourself." "We'll make new friends and all will end comfortably - you'll see." "He's been hung onto pretty tight." "He's been in the grass..." "and he's been in the water and he's spotted and I know with what and I know with whose." " Who brought him in?" " I did, sir." "You, my dear?" "You could not lift, far less carry, his weight." "I think I could not, sir..." "but I'm sure that I did." "Attend to the girl." "She must be amazingly strong at heart, but I fear that she's set her heart upon the dead." "Is there something wrong, my love?" "No, nothing." " I was wondering..." " Yes?" "Well, if one day..." "I might go with you to the China House." "I'm afraid you would find my office life in the city very boring." "No..." "It's just..." "I watch you pick up your briefcase in the mornings." "I do not know where you go or what you do with whatever is in that case." " Are you bored, Bella?" " Of course I'm not!" "Our own dear house." "There's so much to do, how could I be?" "You are not regretting it?" "Hmm?" "Having married no money at all?" "Absolutely no future whatsoever!" "You must not tease me!" "It's clear I'm being tested in some way, but you will not break me!" "No, you won't." "Morning." "Why, T'otherest, I thought you'd been and gone and lost yourself." "Two nights away." "I almost believed you'd given me the slip." "'Cept I knows you's an honest man and a respectable schoolmaster." "Eat." "You must be starved after..." "all your travelling." "I'm not hungry." "Watch out, T'otherest, you'll cut your hand." "Well, T'otherest, news has gone downriver before you." "What news?" "Who do you think picked up the body?" "Guess." "I'm not good at guessing anything." "SHE did." "You did well there, sir." "SHE picked him up." "She used her skills to recover the body." "I intend to leave as the sun goes down." "Perhaps it is fitting." "If my poor boy had been brought up better, he might have done better." "You have no reason..." "to reproach yourself." "It's so hard to bring a child up well when you work, work, work all day." "I called him a quantity of names." "I did it for his own good." "I was obliged to let him go in the streets." "He never did do well out of doors." "You have been very patient, Jenny." "If I had been patient, I never would have called him names." "Well..." "I lost no time." "I know an urgent summons when I sees it." "Before starting," "I have to ask we be in confidence." "I suppose that sounds fair." "I have your word and honour, sir?" "Good fellow, you have my word." "How you can have that without any honour, I don't know." "I've sorted a lot of dust in my time." "I never knew the two things go into separate heaps." "Very true, sir...very true." "Mr Boffin...ahem... ..I have to confess... ..I fell into a proposal of which YOU were the object and oughtn't to have been." "Please remember I was in a crushed state at the time." "Quite so, Venus." "That proposal was a conspiracy against you, sir." "I ought at once to have made it known to you, but I didn't, Mr Boffin, and I fell into it." "Not that I was ever hearty in it and I viewed myself with reproach for having turned out of the paths of science and into the paths of..." "Weggery." "Not a-killing of yourself, schoolmaster." "Not afore I've squeezed the last penny out of yer!" "I see what you're doin'." "Trying to throw your crime on me." "Now, look here, Venus." "If I have to buy Wegg out," "I shan't buy him any cheaper for your being out of it." "Might you...pretend to be in it till Wegg was bought up, then hand over to me what you'd been supposed to have pocketed?" " No, no, I don't think so, sir." " Not to make amends?" "Well, it seems to me the best amends for having got out of the square is to get back into the square." "And by the square, you mean...?" "I mean...the right, sir." "How am I to live if I have to buy up fellows out of the little I've got?" "I s'pose there's no doubt as to the genuineness and date of this will?" " None whatsoever." " And where might it be deposited?" "It's in my possession, sir." "Is it?" "Now, for any liberal sum of money that could be agreed, Venus, would you put it in the fire?" "No, sir, I would not." "Or give it to me?" "That would be the same thing." "No, sir." "Hush!" "Here comes Wegg." "Hide behind the young alligator in the corner and judge him for yourself." "Get your head well behind his smile." "He's a little dusty, but he's very like you in tone." "Partner, how's our stock in trade?" "Still safe, partner?" "With all your "friends" a-watching over it?" "Nothing new, Mr Wegg?" "Yes, there is." "That foxy old grasper and griper!" " Mr Boffin?" " Mister be blowed!" "Dusty Boffin sends his dust carts at dawn to wake me up!" "He's clearing those mounds to get the better of me." "When I see him put his hand in his pockets," "I see him taking liberties with MY money!" "Flesh and blood can't bear it!" "No, I'll go further!" "A wooden leg can't bear it!" "His nose shall be put to the grindstone for it!" "How shall you do that, Mr Wegg?" "I propose to insult him openly!" "Then if he offers a word in return," "I'll say "Add another one to that, you dusty old dog," ""and you're a beggar!"" "I'll break him!" "I'll drive him!" "Put him in harness - bear him up tight!" "The harder he's driven, the higher he'll pay!" "And I intend to be paid highly, Mr Venus, I promise you!" "You speak quite revengefully, Mr Wegg." "Perhaps I've allowed myself to brood too much." "Be gone, dull care!" "I'll be seeing you afore long." "But let it be fully understood that I shall not neglect bringing the grindstone to bear and putting Boffin's nose upon it" "until the sparks fly off in showers!" "If I had hit him more from behind, he would not have seen me." "If I had finished the job before throwing him in the river, he would not hover between life and death as he does now." "Even now, he grinds me down." "Sir?" "Sir?" " Dear child, will you never rest?" " It's not work." "I want to fix this young clergyman's surplice while it is in my mind." "My poor boy's funeral might've been of some service to me." "It's not to be a funeral doll to be sure, for people do not like to be made melancholy, but a glossy-haired clergyman." "We'll see him go well in Bond Street, I'll wager." "Pardon me." "You are the dolls' dressmaker?" " Lizzie Hexam's friend." " Yes." "Lizzie Hexam's true friend." "My name is Mortimer Lightwood." "You must believe me when I say that this note is from Lizzie." "She wishes you to read it." "It is very short." "There was no time to make it longer." "My dear friend Eugene Wrayburn is dying." "He is dying at some distance from here from injuries received at the hands of a villain who attacked him." "She is with him?" "Yes." "Yes, she's there." "I've come straight from his bedside." "He..." "He managed to ask for you, Jenny." "Lizzie and I are both sure he asked for you." "Poor Lizzie." "Oh, my poor Lizzie!" "Please come." "He asked me to fetch you." "We have long been..." "much more than brothers." "If we delay...he will die with his last wish...unfulfilled." "He's still alive." "(MORTIMER) If he were gone, she would still be sitting by him." "Come in, Hexam, come in." "Well...how is your new position?" "Mr Headstone..." "haven't you heard the news?" "What news?" "The news about that fellow - Eugene Wrayburn." "That he is killed." "He's dead, then." "I mean I'd heard about the outrage, but I had not heard the end of it." "Where were you when it was done?" "No, stop!" "Don't answer!" "Don't tell me!" "If you force your confidence upon me, I'll give you up." "I will." "I'll have nothing to do with you!" "If your selfishness - passionate and ungovernable selfishness - had any part in this, you've done me an injury never to be forgiven!" "By pursuing the ends of your temper, you've laid me open to suspicion." "Is that your gratitude to me?" "You've no idea how long it's taken me to reach this position." "I did not have your natural abilities." " Your sister..." " I've done with my sister!" "And I've done with YOU!" "My prospects are very good." "I intend to follow them alone." "Whatever happens, I hope you'll see the justice of keeping clear of me!" "You might think how respectable you might've been yourself." "I will contemplate your slighted existence!" "Mortimer... ..I must..." "Lizzie?" " I'll fetch her." "She's nearby." " No..." "She..." "This...attack... ..Mortimer...this murder." "You and I both suspect someone." "(EUGENE) He must never be brought to justice!" "Eugene..." "SHE would be punished." "Her innocent reputation." "I've injured her enough." "I would've injured her more, believe me." "You...must...not...avenge me at her expense." "Listen to me!" "It was NOT...the schoolmaster Bradley Headstone." "Promise me!" "It is true that both my secretary and my ward proved ungrateful enough to leave me and Mrs Boffin stranded here in this grand house all alone." "Noddy, dear..." "I'm afraid the old lady is uncomfortable." "No, no, no." "Y-Y-You see, it really won't do." "She doesn't care to lead you on." "Either of you." "And I suppose it's safe for me to assume that you was hoping to...er...fill these vacancies in our household?" "You and your wife have done me and the old lady a great service." "We mean to reward you." "We think..." "a hundred guineas should do it." "Now... ..as for your filling any position in the house... ..I'm afraid it won't do." " But, Mr Boffin..." " No, it really won't do at all." "Let the old fool fend for himself." "There'll be plenty more jackals sniffing round here tonight." "How long will this last, Mortimer?" "You're no worse than you were." "I pray... ..I shall last long enough... ..for you to do me one last service." "Tell me what it is you want me to do, Eugene." "Try to be calm." "You may leave me with Jenny..." "while you're gone." "Leave me here with Jenny while you ask her..." "What is it you want me to do, Eugene?" "Eugene..." "listen to me." "Were you about to ask me..." "if I would speak to Lizzie?" "Were you about to ask me if I would entreat her to be your wife?" "God bless you, Mortimer!" "Trust it to me, Eugene." "I have to go for a while." "I'll leave you with Jenny." "Was that a kiss, Jenny?" "Take care, sir, or you will not merit another." "Mr Lightwood." "Forgive the hour, Mrs Rokesmith, but I have come from Lizzie Hexam with the hope that you'll come back with me to see her marry." "Then Mr Wrayburn is recovering!" "No." "No, he's dying." "Time is of the essence, Mrs Rokesmith." "There is my husband." "Take some refreshment, Mr Lightwood, and then we'll all go down together." "We have a surprise visitor, my love." "I fear Mr Lightwood is much fatigued." "Mr Lightwood?" "John dear... ..you will come with me to see Lizzie Hexam married?" "No, I cannot." " Am I to go alone?" " No, you will go with Mr Lightwood." "You must go, but I must ask you to excuse me to him altogether." "He knows you're home." "I've told him so." "That's a little unfortunate, my dear, but I'm afraid I cannot see him." "John, don't be so mysterious." "What harm do you know of Mr Lightwood?" "None, my love." "Forgive me." "Bella... ..my life!" "Do you remember telling me you felt you were being tested in some way?" "Well, I think the time may be coming when you will be tested." "But for now...trust me, please." "It is curious that I've never seen Mr Rokesmith, although we've often been engaged on the same business." "I begin to think I shall never see him." "That IS curious, Mr Lightwood." "There...we're ready." "(PRIEST) Inluminet vultum suum super nos et misereatur nostri, ut cognoscamus in terra viam tuam, in omnibus gentibus salutare tuum." "Confiteantur tibi populi, Deus, confiteantur tibi populi omnes." "Laetentur et exultent gentes, quoniam iudicas populos in aequitate et gentes in terra diriges." "Confiteantur tibi populi Deus, confiteantur tibi populi omnes." "Terra dedit fructum suum benedicat nos Deus Deus noster." "Benedicat nos Deus et metuant eum omnes fines terrae." "I bless the day." "I bless the day." "You have made a poor marriage, Lizzie." "A shattered, graceless fellow... ..and next to nothing to leave you when you're a young widow." "I have made the marriage I would've given all the world for." "You have thrown your heart away." "No..." "I have given it to you most freely...most happily." "If..." "If you should see me wandering, Lizzie... ..call my name... ..and I think I shall come back." "How can I repay...all that I owe..." "Don't be ashamed of me..." "and you will repay all..." "Eugene, not so soon!" "Come back!" "You see...you call me back from the dead." "Live for me, Eugene." "Live to see how hard I will try to improve myself." "You cannot be improved upon, my darling." "Impossible." "On the contrary... ..I was thinking... ..dying is about the best thing I could do." "And leave me with a broken heart?" "You seem to think quite well of me." "Heaven knows, I love you dearly." "Heaven knows, I prize it." "If I were to live... ..you might find me out." "I should find that my husband has a mine of purpose and energy which I know he will put to the best account." "I wish I could think so." "But how can I look at such a wasted youth as mine and believe it?" "I'm afraid, if I were to live, I should...disappoint you." "Thank you for coming, Mrs Rokesmith." "How could I not?" "Mr Wrayburn seemed a little better this morning." "We may hope." "Goodbye." "And how was Lizzie, my love?" "Suffering an almost unbearable happiness." "You forgot these..." "Mr Lightwood and I have met before, my dear." "When Mr Lightwood saw me... ..my name was Julius Handford." "Julius Handford?" "Surely not." "It was at the time of John Harmon's drowning." "I took great pains to seek him out." "Quite true, but it was not my object or interest to be found out." "My..." "My position is a painful one." "I hope that no complicity in this very dark matter may be attached to you, but you must know that your extraordinary conduct has laid you open to the deepest suspicion." "Mr Lightwood, you know where I live." "I know that you have urgent demands on your time." "You have my word I will not disappear again." "I hope hereafter we'll be better acquainted." "Good day." "John Harmon is dead!" "What is it, my dear?" "John Harmon is drowned." "You don't ask me, my dear, why I...took a false name." "No, John love." "I should dearly like to know, of course." "I should not like you to think that I'm not interested." "My darling, I stand in no danger." "Are you sure of that, John?" "Moreover, I've done no wrong or injured no man." " Shall I swear it?" " No." "No, never to me." "You realise...the dark matter that Mr Lightwood spoke of..." " You realise..." " No." "I don't want to hear." "Besides, I have...um..." "I have something to tell you." "You are not the only one with a secret." "Only I'm ready to tell you mine." "Do you think Wegg's likely to drop down on me today, Venus?" "I think it very likely, sir." "Boffin...you're quite a stranger." " Nothing wrong, Wegg?" " No, nothing wrong." "Quite the contrary." "So... ..my friend and partner, Mr Venus, gives me to understand that you are aware of our power over you." "First of all..." "I'm calling you Boffin." "No "mister" and definitely no "sir"." "Since you say it is to be so..." "I suppose it must be." "I suppose it must be." "You are aware that you are in possession of property to which you have no right?" "Yes." "You are desirous of coming to terms?" "You'll throw in your mound with a generous stake and divide the lot into three!" " I shall be ruined." " You'll leave me in sole custody." "When the mounds are cleared away, that's when the final division will be made." "I must keep this from the old lady." "She must not know." "Why should she not know?" "!" "She's a dustman's wife once!" "She can become one again!" " Eh?" "!" " Nose to the grindstone, Boffin!" "Get to it!" "Get to it!" "(GUARD ) Boat train to Paris, France!" "(GUARD ) Boat train to Paris, France!" "(LADY TIPPINS) The boat train?" "!" "The Lammles have been exiled to Europe to live like leeches off the scraps of continental society!" "(MRS VENEERING) What a disgrace!" "(MR VENEERING) They deserve it - for trying to live beyond their means." "What do YOU think, Mr Tremlow?" " No, a gentleman does not need..." " Don't ask Mr Tremlow!" "He will never say a word on the misfortunes of others whatever the scandal!" "(MR VENEERING) Outrageous scandal!" "I never heard anything more disgraceful!" "I have something worse to tell you and Mr Tremlow will not say anything to us about this either!" "Eugene Wrayburn has disgraced his family by marrying a female boat person!" " A woman of lower class?" "!" " A scandal!" "(LADY TIPPINS) His father has cut him off without a penny!" "This social experiment is doomed to failure!" "(MRS LAMMLE) Do you smell a little money, Alfred?" " Mr and Mrs Lammle." "My husband." " How do you do?" " Are you going to Marseilles?" " Yes, we are." "Mr Lightwood, you say you have some information concerning the murder of Mr John Harmon." "But now the mystery is you seem reluctant to divulge it." "It is concerning Mr Julius Handford." "Oh, yes..." "Mr Julius Handford was followed from this very police station to his lodgings at Westminster where he seems to have evaded my man and disappeared." "Have you caught sight of him, Mr Lightwood?" "I fear so." "Do you recognise me?" "I recognise you most certainly, Mr Julius Handford." "John, what's happening?" "Nothing can harm us, remember." "Can I have a private word with you, Mr Handford?" "Mrs Rokesmith knows she can have no reason for being alarmed." "Really?" "Is that so?" "Are you going to charge me with a crime?" "I charge you with being connected with the murder of John Harmon." "No, sir, you cannot!" " I'll come with you." " No, John, you don't have to go!" "No..." "I choose to go." "Don't distress yourself." "I'll be back by morning." "Why, it smells rather comfortable here." "I am rather comfortable, sir." "You don't use lemons in your business, do you?" "No." "Will you partake, sir?" "Will I partake?" "Of course I'll partake." "Will a man partake who's been tormented by dust carts... ..heaving to and fro 24 hours a day?" "Don't let it put you out, Wegg." "You don't seem in your usual spirits." "If it comes to that, you don't seem in YOUR usual spirits." "You seem getting on for lively and you've had your hair cut and you've fattened up." "Well, Mr Wegg, I can see YOU'RE being whittled very low." "One might fancy you've come to see the French gentleman rather than me!" "Why, you've had the place cleaned up." "Yes...by the hand of an adorable woman." "I presume the next thing you're gonna do is get married." "To the old party?" "The lady in question is NOT an old party." "(Then the lady's objections have been met?" ")" "The objections HAVE been met by the kind interference of a new friend of mine." "He waited on the lady and made the point that if I would, after marriage, confine myself to the articulation of men, children and the lower animals only, it might help relieve the lady's mind of her feeling respecting being regarded in a bony light." "It was a happy thought, sir, which took root." "You seem flush with friends at the moment, Venus." "Still...you may spend your fortune how you wish." "I mean to travel." "The tough job is ended, the mounds laid low." "The hour is come for Boffin to stump up." "You'll be late for the China House if you're not careful." "The fact is, my dear," "I have left the China House and I'm in another way of business." "And I-I must ask you this, Bella." "You've become fond of this cottage." "Well, of course I have." "It's our life together." "I'm afraid we have to leave, my dear." "My new position has a dwelling house attached rent-free." "John..." "Do you consider this a gain, my dear?" "Yes, I do." "And what about the baby?" "Will there be room in the house for the baby?" "There will, I'm sure, be room for us all." "But why should you take this on trust?" "We will go and look at it this morning." "John, what does this mean?" "(BOFFIN) There, there, my dear." "Let's lift you up." "There." "Old lady, if you don't begin a-telling of the tale, someone else will!" "I'm gonna begin, Noddy dear." "It isn't easy to know where to begin when a person's in this state of happiness!" "Bella, my dear, tell me who this is." " Why, my husband, of course." " Oh, my!" "His name, dearie." " Rokesmith." " No, it ain't." "Not a bit of it." " Well, Handford, then." " No, it ain't." "Not a bit of it." "His name IS John?" "I should hope so, dearie!" "Many's the time I'VE called him John!" "Guess, my pretty." " I can't guess!" " I could." "I found him out one night in a flash, didn't I?" "It was on a night when he'd had a disappointment about a certain young lady." "Too many's the time I'd seen him sitting so lonely like that as a child." "I just cried out, '"John...it's you!"" "And he catches me as I falls down in his arms." "John Harmon?" "But that's not possible." "He..." "He is drowned!" "Now, my dear, let me finish telling." "So I says to Noddy... .."Lord be thankful!" ""Here is our little John Harmon come home again to us!"" "And we both fall down crying for joy!" "Do you see, my darling?" "Can you understand?" "These two, who I came to life to dispossess and disappoint, they cried for joy!" "Oh, don't you mind him." "So John tells us about his disappointment with a certain...young person and how he's gonna leave London and let us keep our wrongful inheritance." "And my Noddy, well, you should've seen him." "To think that he'd come to the property wrongfully turned him whiter than chalk." "So we came to our confabulation about a certain young lady." "Noddy says, "She's a little spoilt, but that's only on the surface." ""She true golden at heart."" "And then John says, "Oh, if I could but prove so."" "And then we says, "What would content you?"" ""If she was to stand up for you when you were slighted?" ""If she was to be true to you" ""when you were poorest and friendless?" ""And all this against any interest." "How would that do?" "Do?" he says." ""It would raise me to the skies!"" "We says "Make your preparations" ""for it is our firm belief that up will you go!"" "Noddy says, "Bella was a little frightened of me at first." ""She thought me a dusty and a brown old bear!"" " Well, I..." " You did, my dear." "He says, "What if I was to BECOME that old bear" ""she thought me once?"" "'"John, " he says, "prepare to be slighted and oppressed!"" "And he began." "Lord, how he began!" "And you...proved yourself true as we knew you would." "John wouldn't let us tell you." "He says "She's so selfless and contented." ""I can't afford to be rich yet!"" "And so we go on." "Now the baby's on the way." "He says, "I can't tell her now!"" "And I said, "If you don't tell her as soon as you can" ""so she can come into her rightful home, then I will!"" "Come on, admit it!" "You're a bad old bear!" "Well, I did hope it might hint at caution, my dear." "And I assure you that on that celebrated day when I made, which has since been agreed upon, my greatest demonstration " "I allude to "miaow" says the cat, "quack" says the duck," ""bow wow wow" says the dog and John stares at me as if I've gone a little strange - them flinty words hit my old lady so hard on my account," "I had to hold her hard to stop her from running after you and telling you I was playing a part!" "Forgive me, my darling." "I was drowned... ..or as good as." "And as I lay by that river gasping for air," "I thought I might as well be." "I had nothing left to live for." "And when you have nothing..." "you are very bold." "I had nothing to lose by..." "trying you out." "And when I did, I found I had the best of friends and the most worthy of wives." "And then this...new life growing within you." "So when I did miraculously have everything," "I was afraid to lose it and determined to hold fast to it." "I couldn't risk telling you until I had one more signal of your love and then yet more and more." "Can you forgive me?" "We might still be in Blackheath had it not been for Mrs Boffin and our friend, the Inspector." "(BELLA) I hope we do not have to part with them again." "Mr Boffin..." "I thought you said you'd dismissed this fellow." "No fellows here or I'll throw you out of the window, you wretch!" "Boffin, let's get down to business." "I want the room cleared of this scum." "That's not going to be done, Wegg." "Mr Venus, will you be so good as to hand me over that document?" "And now, sir, having parted with it," "I wish to make one small observation." "Not that it's necessary, but it is a comfort to my mind." "Silas Wegg..." "you are a precious old rascal." "Silas Wegg..." "know that I took the liberty of telling Mr Boffin about our enterprise at quite an early stage." "Though my hands were not, for a few hours, quite as clean as I could wish," "I hope I have made full amends." " Certainly, Venus, certainly." " Thank you, sir." "I'm much obliged for your good opinion and for the influence so kindly brought to bear on a certain lady both by yourself and Mr John Harmon." "Everything else between you and me is now at an end, but I beg leave to repeat... ..you are a precious...old..." "RASCAL!" "You're a fool." "You may go... ..and welcome." "Now, Boffin, I'm 'ere to be bought off!" "Now, buy me or leave me." "I think I'll have to leave you, Wegg." "I see how this goes." "You can afford to be so bold now you have so much less to lose!" "But Mr Harmon here - ask him if he knows what this piece of paper is." "It is a will of my father's of a later date than the one leaving the estate to the Crown." "Right you are!" "So...what is it worth to yer?" "Absolutely nothing." " You scoundrel!" " You're knocking my 'ead!" "I mean to!" "I'd give $1,000 to be able to smash your brains out!" "Let me show you something." "This is the last will of many made by my unhappy father and it leaves the entire estate to Mr Boffin excluding me altogether." "Mr Boffin found it and it disturbed him beyond measure so he buried it in the mound." "His intention being that it should never come to light." "When he told me of this..." "I urged him to recover it and have it legally established." "So now you see that this pathetic piece of paper has no value whatsoever." "Now, you will listen to me!" "We knew enough to persuade Mr Boffin to lead you on to the last moment so your disappointment might be the heaviest possible!" "Believe this," "I only possess my inheritance through Mr Boffin, who insisted that I should have my fortune and HE his small inheritance and no more." "I owe everything I possess to the kindness and tenderness of Mr and Mrs Boffin and when I see a roundworm like you presume to rise up against these noble souls, the wonder is I don't twist your head off" "and throw it out of the window!" "I'm...sorry, Wegg, that... ..me and Mrs Boffin can't have a higher opinion of you, but..." "I shouldn't like to leave you worse off in life than I found you so...what'll it cost to set you up in another stall?" "Well, sir, when I first made your acquaintance," "I had got together a collection of ballads which was, I may say, above price." "Well, then, they can't be paid for and you'd better not try!" "There was...a pair of trestles... ..umbrella...clothes horse..." "I'll leave the sum to you, sir." "Come...here's a couple of pound." "Ahh, come on, Prince!" "Giddy-up, boy!" "Don't let him get over-excited, Mortimer." "Visitors bring up his spirits." "My father paid us a visit up here - up the river." "Objected to his hotel, of course!" "As you know, he's a younger cavalier than me and an admirer of beauty!" "He was so affable as to suggest that Lizzie should have a portrait done, which for him is like a paternal benediction with gushing tears!" "Our marriage being so solemnly recognised," "I have no fear on that score." "And you are handling my puny financial affairs so adeptly that what little I have to call my own will be more than I ever had." "Eugene... ..the schoolmaster." " He's not suspected?" " No." "Rest easy." "I have made sure the police have lost scent of him." "I promise, Eugene." "But he still lives and he did you dreadful injury and I cannot help but feel he should be punished." "No, Mortimer." "He does not live... ..and he did me a favour." " A favour?" " Yes." "Oh, yes." "Consider this." "Had he not attacked me, I don't know what I would've done, how I would've injured her in my reckless passion." "Mortimer, listen, listen." "I would have lost her respect." "Any possibility of our love would've gone for ever." "Consider that." "And consider what I have now." "And then tell me whether the schoolmaster lives if not as some...ghost between here and hell, knowing as he does that he brought us together." "You think he does not have punishment enough?" "Begging your pardon, sir, but where might I be?" "Why, this is a school, sir." "Ah." "And...who might teach at this school?" "I do." "What, you're the master?" "Yes, I am the master, yes." "And a lovely thing it must be - to teach young children like these what's right and to know that they learned what's right by YOUR example." "Might I ask a question of these lambs of yours?" "If it is educational, yes." "Oh, it is that." "Tell me, young sirs, what sorts of water do we find on land?" "(BOYS) Seas... ..rivers..." "lakes...ponds." "And, my lambs, what is it that they catch in these lakes and rivers and ponds?" " Fish." " Yes." "But what else?" " Weeds?" " Ye-es." "But I'll have to tell you what else." "I bet you won't guess." "It's a bundle of clothes!" "Bless me if I didn't catch this one in a river by me." "You see, it had been sunk there by a man who wore..." "How do you know that?" "!" "Because I was watching him and I saw him." "And, do you know... ..for some reason... ..I think that man fetched up in this school." "Yes, I believe I know him." "Beg that you may tell that man that I wish to see him at my lock upriver." "Yes, I'll tell him." "Do you think he'll come?" "I'm sure he'll come." "Come in, sir." "And who may you be?" "I've come from the Harmon household for the nursery dolls." " My name is Sloppy." " Indeed?" "I've been looking forward to meeting you." "I've heard of your distinguishing yourself." "Pretending to be a phantom!" "Pitching somebody into scavenger carts!" "Oh, yes, Miss!" "I was that frightening!" "What do you think of me?" "Out with it!" "Don't you think me a little comical?" "Oh!" "What a lot!" "And what a colour!" "Enough to make wigs for all the dolls in the world!" "You must've been taught for a long time." "You work so neatly and with such...taste." "I never was taught a stitch, young man!" "No?" "Here's me been learning and learning at my cabinet-making with Mrs Boffin paying for so long!" "I could make you something if you like." "Much obliged...but what?" "I could make you a handy set of nests to lay the dolls in or a set of drawers for your silks and threads." "Or I can make you a rare handle for your father's stick." "It belongs to me." "I'm lame." "I'm glad it's yours." "I'd rather ornament it for you than anyone else." "You'd better see me use it." "It seems you hardly need it at all." "What a volume... ..and such a tone!" "So I'm here." "Who's to begin?" "Well, where's your watch?" "I left it behind." "I want it." "I mean to have it." "Is that what you want from me?" "Look here, schoolmaster, you could've dealt with Wrayburn without my care having a curse." "But when you copy my clothes... ..my neckerchief, shake blood on me, you make as if to throw the whole crime on me." "You'll pay me and you'll pay me heavy, you sly devil!" "I was playing your game long ago before you tried your clumsy hand in it." "When you stole away, I steals after you and I sees you throw these bloody clothes away and here, then, is proof." "I'll be paid for it till I've drained you dry!" "You can't get out of me what is not in me." "You've had more than two guineas off me already." "Do you know how long it takes me to earn such a sum?" "I don't know and I don't care." "You'll have to pawn every stick you own, beg and borrow every penny you can." "I'll keep you company wherever you go till I'm satisfied!" "This is all the money I have." "Say I give you this and my watch and, when I draw my salary, I give you a portion and..." "You got away from me once." "I won't take a chance again." "I'm a man with absolutely no resources but myself." "I have absolutely no friends." "Come, come, master, you can't be rid of ME." "I'm a-going along with you wherever you go." "It's no use, schoolmaster, you'll never be free of me." "Let go!" "I'll get my knife!" "It's no use!" "You can't drown me!" "A man that's been brought back out of drowning cannot be drowned again!" "Well, I can be!" "And I'm resolved to be!" "And I'll hold you living and I'll hold you dead!" "AHHHHHH!" "Put 'em down here." "That's it." "Now that I have the energy, Mortimer," "I've been thinking about the future." "I've had the idea of taking Lizzie to one of the colonies - working at my vocation there." "I shall be lost without you." " Maybe you're right." " No, I would not be right." "Makes me angry to think I could turn coward on Lizzie - sneak away with her as if I were ashamed of her." "(MORTIMER) That's well said, of course, Eugene, but ...are you sure that you might not feel some slight...coldness towards her...on the part of..." "..well...society?" "Yes, you may well stumble on that word, Mortimer!" "Now, listen to me, Mortimer." "My wife is somewhat nearer to my heart than society is." "So if I should ever think to hide her away, then YOU, who I love next best in all the world will tell me she would've done better that night I lay bleeding to death to turn me over with her foot and spit in my face." "Go and find out what society thinks of me, my dear fellow, if it will make you feel any better." "As for myself... ..I really couldn't care less." "Really, Mortimer, as you refuse to join our debate, we've had to bring it to you!" "A debate..." "on such a pleasant evening." "Our debating question was, does a young man of very fair family, good appearance and some talent make a fool or a wise man of himself by marrying a...female waterman turned factory girl?" "That is hardly...the question." "Which is, I believe, whether the man who you describe does right or wrong in marrying a brave woman?" "I say nothing of her beauty." "Excuse me." "Was this young woman ever a...a female waterman?" "Never, but she might sometimes have rowed in a boat with her father." "Has the young woman got any money?" "No...absolutely nothing!" "Well, then my gorge rises against such a marriage!" "It offends and disgusts me!" "It makes me sick!" "(MRS VENEERING) There must be equality in station." "A man accustomed to society must look out for a woman accustomed to society." "And what if the man does not care for society?" "Mr Tremlow, you are so small, I had forgotten you." "You never say a word, always silent as a mouse." "Come now, speak up and tell us what you think!" "I am disposed to think that this is a question of the feelings of a gentleman." "A gentleman who contracts such a marriage has no feelings!" "Pardon me, sir, but I don't agree." "If this gentleman's feelings of gratitude, of respect, of admiration, of affection, induce him to marry this lady..." " Lady?" "!" " Why, yes, sir." "What else would you call her if the gentleman were present?" "I say again, if this gentleman's feelings induced him to marry her, then...he is the greater gentleman for the action..." "..and she is the greater lady." "Time for one more..." "before we go back?"