With the world shut out (except that part of it which would

be shut in); with its troubles and disturbances only known to them by

hearsay, as they would be described by the pilgrims tarrying with them

on their way to the Insolvent Shrine; with the Arbour above, and the

Lodge below; they would glide down the stream of time, in pastoral

domestic happiness. Young John drew tears from his eyes by finishing the

picture with a tombstone in the adjoining churchyard, close against the

prison wall, bearing the following touching inscription:

'Sacred to the Memory Of JOHN CHIVERY, Sixty years Turnkey, and fifty years

Head Turnkey, Of the neighbouring Marshalsea, Who departed this life,

universally respected, on the thirty-first of December, One thousand

eight hundred and eighty-six, Aged eighty-three years. Also of his truly

beloved and truly loving wife, AMY, whose maiden name was DORRIT, Who

survived his loss not quite forty-eight hours, And who breathed her last

in the Marshalsea aforesaid. There she was born, There she lived, There

she died.'

The Chivery parents were not ignorant of their son's attachment--indeed

it had, on some exceptional occasions, thrown him into a state of mind

that had impelled him to conduct himself with irascibility towards the

customers, and damage the business--but they, in their turns, had worked

it out to desirable conclusions. Mrs Chivery, a prudent woman, had

desired her husband to take notice that their john's prospects of the

Lock would certainly be strengthened by an alliance with Miss Dorrit,

who had herself a kind of claim upon the College and was much respected

there.

Mrs Chivery had desired her husband to take notice that if, on

the one hand, their John had means and a post of trust, on the other

hand, Miss Dorrit had family; and that her (Mrs Chivery's) sentiment

was, that two halves made a whole. Mrs Chivery, speaking as a mother and

not as a diplomatist, had then, from a different point of view, desired

her husband to recollect that their John had never been strong, and

that his love had fretted and worrited him enough as it was, without

his being driven to do himself a mischief, as nobody couldn't say

he wouldn't be if he was crossed. These arguments had so powerfully

influenced the mind of Mr Chivery, who was a man of few words, that he

had on sundry Sunday mornings, given his boy what he termed 'a lucky

touch,' signifying that he considered such commendation of him to Good

Fortune, preparatory to his that day declaring his passion and

becoming triumphant.

But Young John had never taken courage to make

the declaration; and it was principally on these occasions that he had

returned excited to the tobacco shop, and flown at the customers. In

this affair, as in every other, Little Dorrit herself was the last

person considered.




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