‘You surprise me. Why?’

‘I think uncle wants a companion, father. He should be attended to, and looked after.’

#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

he had been a fixture there a long time when she took her poor station in it; and he accepted the task of serving as her escort and guardian, just as he would have accepted an illness, a legacy, a feast, starvation—anything but soap.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

Naturally a retired and simple man, he had shown no particular sense of being ruined at the time when that calamity fell upon him, further than that he left off washing himself when the shock was announced, and never took to that luxury any more.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

So, over and above other daily cares, the Child of the Marshalsea had always upon her the care of preserving the genteel fiction that they were all idle beggars together.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

With the same hand that he pocketed a collegian’s half-crown half an hour ago, he would wipe away the tears that streamed over his cheeks if any reference were made to his daughters’ earning their bread.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

The milliner—who was not morose or hard-hearted, only newly insolvent—was touched, took her in hand with goodwill, found her the most patient and earnest of pupils, and made her a cunning work-woman in course of time.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

‘Nothing—whatever it is—seems to have done anybody much good who comes here,’ she returned in all simplicity; ‘but I want to learn just the same.’
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

Everybody seemed to hear of her as soon as they arrived; for the milliner sat up in bed, drying her eyes, and said, just as the dancing-master had said:
‘Oh! You are the child, are you?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

In the fulness of time a milliner came in, and to her she repaired on her own behalf.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

in which so much ground was covered, and the steps were so conscientiously executed, that the dancing-master, having to play the kit besides, was thoroughly blown.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

(for it took him a matter of ten weeks to set to his creditors, lead off, turn the Commissioners, and right and left back to his professional pursuits), that wonderful progress was made.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

‘Nothing for me, sir, thank you,’ anxiously undrawing the strings of the little bag; ‘but if, while you stay here, you could be so kind as to teach my sister cheap—’
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

At thirteen years old, the Child of the Marshalsea presented herself to the dancing-master, with a little bag in her hand, and preferred her humble petition.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

There was no instruction for any of them at home; but she knew well—no one better—that a man so broken as to be the Father of the Marshalsea, could be no father to his own children.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

was the head of the fallen family; and bore, in her own heart, its anxieties and shames.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

the Child of the Marshalsea began her womanly life.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

Yes. Shall we speak of the inspiration of a poet or a priest, and not of the heart impelled by love and self-devotion to the lowliest work in the lowliest way of life!
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

It is enough that she was inspired to be something which was not what the rest were, and to be that something, different and laborious, for the sake of the rest. Inspired?
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

and began to be sensible of missing her when she was not there. Through this little gate, she passed out of childhood into the care-laden world.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit

From that time the protection that her wondering eyes had expressed towards him, became embodied in action, and the Child of the Marshalsea took upon herself a new relation towards the Father.
#CharlesDickens
#LittleDorrit