Vol.1 f.067 recto

[?????] him on the shoulder. The old man looked ?? stopped and looked round, with the [??????] expression
in his [?????] weak grey eyes of one whose thoughts had been far [???????] off, and who was a little dull of hearing too .

“Pray, sir,” said Arthur Arthur, repeating his question, “what is this place?”

“Ah! This place?” said returned the old man, [with his forefinger ????, and his pinch of] staying his pinch of snuff on its road, and pointing at
the [??????] place place [?with his forefinger?] without looking at it. “This is the Marshalsea, sir.”

“[?The?] The debtors” prison? [?????]”

“Sir,” said the old man, with an the air of thinking deeming it not quite necessary to insist upon that name , “the
debtors” prison.”

He [?????] and turned himself about, and went on.

“I beg your pardon,” said Arthur, stopping him once more, “but will you allow me to speak ask
you another question? Can any one go in here?”

“Any one can go in,” said the replied the old man; plainly adding [??] by the significance of his
emphasis, “but but it is not every body one who can go out.”

“Pardon me once more. Are you familiar with the place?”

“Sir,” returned the old man, [?tightly?] squeezing his little packet of snuff in his hand, [as if he had ????] and turning upon
his interrogator as if such questions [g??????ed] hurt him. “I am.”

“I beg you to excuse me. I am not impertinently curious, but have a good good object. Do you know
the name of Dorrit here?”

“My name, sir,” replied the old man most unexpectedly [???????? ??????] [????????? ?????], “is Dorrit.”

Arthur lifted off his hat to him. “Grant me the favour of a very few half-a-dozen words. I was wholly unprepared for your announcement, and
hope that assurance is my sufficient apology for having taken the liberty of addressing you. I have
recently come home to England after a long absence. I have seen at my mother’s—Mrs Clennam in the city—a young woman working at her needle, whom I [??? know as Dorrit?] have only
heard addressed or spoken of as Little Dorrit. I [?am sincerely?] [?felt sincerely?] have felt sincerely interested in her, and have had a great desire to know something
more about her. [?Finding it ????????? ?????? ?????? ??????????] I saw her, [? ??? ????] not a minute before you came up, pass in at that door.”

The old man looked at him with great attention attentively ???????. “Are you a sailor, sir?” he asked. He seemed a little disappointed by the shake of the head that replied to him. “Not a sailor? I
judged from your [???????? of?] sunburnt face that you might be. Are you [?? you?] are you in earnest, sir?”

“I do assure you that I am, and do entreat you to believe that I am, [??? ?????? earnest?] [?? ??????? earnest?] in plain earnest.”

“I know very little of the world, sir,” returned the other, who had a weak and trembling voice. “I am [????????? in the ??????] passing merely [?passing?] passing on, like the
[????? ????] shadow over the face of the sun-dial. It would be worth no man’s while to [?deceive?] mislead me; it
would [?? ??????? ???????? ?? ????] really be too easy—too poor a thing , to yield any satisfaction. The young woman whom you saw go in here is my brother’s child.
My brother is William Dorrit; I am ?Harry? Frederick. You have You say you have seen her at your mother’s (I know your mother befriends her), you have felt an interest [????] in her, and you wish
to know what she does here. Come and see.”

He went on again, and Arthur accompanied him.

“My brother,” said the old man, pausing on the step and slowly facing round again, “has been here many years; and [?is kept?]
[?ignorant of ?] much that happens even among ourselves, out of doors, is kept from him for reasons
that I needn’t go into now. Be so good as to say nothing [to ??? ???????] to say nothing of my niece’s working at her needle. Be so
good as to say [???????] nothing that goes beyond what is said among us. If you keep
within our bounds, you cannot well be wrong. [??? you go beyond them, ???? ????? ???? ??? ?????] Now! Come and see.”

Arthur followed him down a [?long?] narrow entry, at the end of which a key was turned , and a