Mrs. Clennam at last decided2 to burn the part of the will she had hidden, so that her share in the wicked plan could never be found out. Flintwinch,[Pg 285] however, wishing for his own purposes to keep her in his power, deceived her. He cunningly put in its place a worthless piece of paper, and this Mrs. Clennam burned instead. Flintwinch then locked up the real piece in an iron box, with a lot of private letters that had been written by the poor crazed singer to Mrs. Clennam, begging her forgiveness. The box he gave to his brother, who took it to Holland with him for safe-keeping.
But Flintwinch, in this deception3, overreached himself.
There was an adventurer in Holland named Rigaud, who used to drink and smoke with this brother. He was an oily villain4, who had been in jail in France on suspicion of having murdered his wife. He had shaggy dry hair streaked5 with red, and a thick mustache, and when he smiled his eyes went close together, his mustache went up under his hooked nose, and his nose came down over his mustache. Rigaud saw the box, concluded it contained something valuable, and made up his mind to get it. His chance came when the brother of Flintwinch died suddenly one day, and he lost no time in making away with the iron box.
By means of the letters it contained, he soon guessed the secret which Mrs. Clennam had been for so many years at such pains to conceal6, and, deciding that by this knowledge he could squeeze money out of her, he came to London to find and threaten her.[Pg 286]
But she, believing she had burned the part of the will which Rigaud claimed to possess, refused to listen to him, until at last, maddened by her refusals, he searched out the Dorrits.
He soon discovered that the man who had educated the singer (Arthur's real mother) was Frederick Dorrit, Little Dorrit's dead uncle, and that it was Little Dorrit herself, since she was his youngest niece, from whom the money was now being unjustly kept.
Rigaud easily found Little Dorrit, for she was now in the Marshalsea nursing Arthur, where he lay sick, and to her the cunning adventurer sent a copy of the paper in a sealed packet, asking her, if it was not reclaimed7 before the prison closed that same night, to open and read it herself.
He then went to the Clennam house, told Mrs. Clennam and Flintwinch what he had done and demanded money at once as the price of his reclaiming8 the packet before Little Dorrit should learn the secret it held.
At this Flintwinch had to confess what he had done, and Mrs. Clennam knew that the fatal paper had not been burned, after all.
The wretched woman, seeing this sharp end to all her scheming, was almost distracted. She had not walked a step for twelve years, but now her excitement and frenzy9 gave her unnatural10 strength. She rose from her invalid11 chair and ran with all her speed from the house. Old Affery, the servant,[Pg 287] followed her mistress, wringing12 her hands as she tried vainly to overtake her.
Mrs. Clennam did not pause till she had reached the prison and found Little Dorrit. She told her to open the packet at once and to read what it contained, and then, kneeling at her feet, she promised to restore to her all she had withheld13, and begged her to forgive and to come back with her to tell Rigaud that she already knew the secret and that he might do his worst.
Little Dorrit was greatly moved to see the stern, gray-haired woman at her feet. She raised and comforted her, assuring her that, come what would, Arthur should never learn the truth from her lips. This return of good for evil from the one she had most injured brought the tears to the hard woman's eyes. "God bless you," she said in a broken voice.
Side by side they hastened back to the Clennam house, but as they reached the entrance of its dark courtyard there came a sudden noise like thunder. For one instant they saw the building, with the insolent14 Rigaud waiting smoking in the window; then the walls heaved, surged outward, opened and fell into pieces. Its great pile of chimneys rocked, broke and tumbled on the fragments, and only a huge mass of timbers and stone, with a cloud of dust hovering15 over it, marked the spot where it had stood.
The rotten old building, propped16 up so long,[Pg 288] had fallen at last. For years old Affery had insisted that the house was haunted. She had often heard mysterious rustlings and noises, and in the mornings sometimes she would find little heaps of dust on the floors. Curious, crooked17 cracks would appear, too, in the walls, and the doors would stick with no apparent reason. These things, of course, had been caused by the gradual settling of the crazy walls and timbers, which now finally had collapsed18 all at once.
Frightened, they ran back to the street and there Mrs. Clennam's strange strength left her, and she fell in a heap upon the pavement.
She never from that hour was able to speak a word or move a finger. She lived for three years in a wheel-chair, but she lived—and died—like a statue.
For two days workmen dug industriously19 in the ruins before they found the body of Rigaud, with his head smashed to atoms beneath a huge beam.
They dug longer than that for the body of Flintwinch, and stopped at last when they came to the conclusion that he was not there. By that time, however, he had had a chance to get together all of the firm's money he could lay his hands on and to decamp. He was never seen again in England, but travelers claimed to have seen him in Holland, where he lived comfortably under the name of "Mynheer Von Flyntevynge"—which is, after all,[Pg 289] about as near as one can come to saying "Flintwinch" in Dutch.
No one grieved greatly over his loss. It was long before Arthur knew of these events, and Little Dorrit was too happy in nursing him back to health to think much about it.
She was not content with this, either, but wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Meagles, who were abroad, of the sick man's misfortune. The former went at once in search of Doyce and brought him back to London, where together they set the firm of "Doyce and Clennam" on its feet again and arranged to buy Arthur's liberty. They did not tell Arthur anything of this, however, in order that they might surprise him.
Mr. Meagles, for Little Dorrit's sake, tried hard to find the fragment of the will which Rigaud had kept in the iron box. But it was Tattycoram, the little maid with the bad temper, who finally found it in a lodging20 Rigaud had occupied, and brought it to Mr. Meagles, praying on her knees that he take her back into his service, which, to be sure, he was very glad to do.
Arthur, while he was slowly growing better, had thought much of his condition. Though Little Dorrit had begged him again and again to take her money and use it as his own, he had refused, telling her as gently as he could that now that she was rich and he a ruined man, this could never be, and that, as the time had long gone by when she[Pg 290] and the Marshalsea had anything in common, they two must soon part.
One day, however, when he was well enough to sit up, Little Dorrit came to his room in the prison and told him she had received a very great fortune and asked him again if he would not take it.
"Never," he told her.
"You will not take even half of it?" she asked pleadingly.
"Never, dear Little Dorrit!" he said emphatically.
Then, at last, she laid her face on his breast crying:
"I have nothing in the world. I am as poor as when I lived here in the Marshalsea. I have just found that papa gave all we had to Mr. Merdle and it is swept away with the rest. My great fortune now is poverty, because it is all you will take. Oh, my dearest and best, are you quite sure you will not share my fortune with me now?"
He had locked her in his arms, and his tears were falling on her cheek as she said joyfully21:
"I never was rich before, or proud, or happy. I would rather pass my life here in prison with you, and work daily for my bread, than to have the greatest fortune that ever was told and be the greatest lady that ever was honored!"
But Arthur's prison life was to be short. For Mr. Meagles and Doyce burst upon them with all[Pg 291] the other good news at once. Arthur was free, the firm had been re?stablished with him at its head, and to-morrow the debtors22' prison would be only a memory.
Next morning, before they left the Marshalsea for ever, Little Dorrit handed Arthur a folded paper, and asked him to please her by putting it into the fire with his own hand.
"Is it a charm?" he asked.
"It is anything you like best," she answered, standing23 on tiptoe to kiss him. "Only say 'I love you' as you do it!"
He said it, and the paper burned away. And so the will that had been the cause of so much pain and wrong was turned to ashes. Little Dorrit kept the promise she had made, and Arthur never learned of the sin of which the woman he had always called his mother had been guilty.
Then, when all good-bys had been said, they walked together to the very same church where Little Dorrit had slept on the cushions the night she had been locked out of the Marshalsea, and there she and Arthur were married. Doyce gave the bride away.
And among the many who came to witness the wedding were not only Pancks, and Maggie, the half-witted woman, but even a group of Little Dorrit's old turnkey friends from the prison—among whom was the disconsolate24 Chivery, who had so long solaced25 himself by composing epitaphs[Pg 292] for his own tombstone, and who went home to meditate26 over his last inscription27:
STRANGER! Respect the Tomb of
JOHN CHIVERY, JUNIOR
Who Died at an Advanced Age not Necessary to
Mention. He Encountered His Rival and
Felt Inclined
To Have a Round with Him;
But, for the Sake of the Loved One, Conquered
Those Feelings of Bitterness and Became
MAGNANIMOUS
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1
partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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3
deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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reclaimed
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| adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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8
reclaiming
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| v.开拓( reclaim的现在分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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9
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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10
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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11
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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12
wringing
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| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
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13
withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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14
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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15
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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18
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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industriously
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20
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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22
debtors
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| n.债务人，借方( debtor的名词复数 ) | |
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23
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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24
disconsolate
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| adj.忧郁的，不快的 | |
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solaced
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| v.安慰，慰藉( solace的过去分词 ) | |
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meditate
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| v.想，考虑，（尤指宗教上的）沉思，冥想 | |
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inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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