She then got on her bonnet and went out, having been anxious to get out

much sooner. There was, as usual, a cessation of the small-talk in

the Lodge as she passed through it; and a Collegian who had come in

on Saturday night, received the intimation from the elbow of a more

seasoned Collegian, 'Look out. Here she is!' She wanted to see her

sister, but when she got round to Mr Cripples's, she found that both her

sister and her uncle had gone to the theatre where they were engaged.

Having taken thought of this probability by the way, and having settled

that in such case she would follow them, she set off afresh for the

theatre, which was on that side of the river, and not very far away.

Little Dorrit was almost as ignorant of the ways of theatres as of the

ways of gold mines, and when she was directed to a furtive sort of door,

with a curious up-all-night air about it, that appeared to be ashamed of

itself and to be hiding in an alley, she hesitated to approach it; being

further deterred by the sight of some half-dozen close-shaved gentlemen

with their hats very strangely on, who were lounging about the door,

looking not at all unlike Collegians. On her applying to them, reassured

by this resemblance, for a direction to Miss Dorrit, they made way for

her to enter a dark hall--it was more like a great grim lamp gone out

than anything else--where she could hear the distant playing of music

and the sound of dancing feet. A man so much in want of airing that he

had a blue mould upon him, sat watching this dark place from a hole in

a corner, like a spider; and he told her that he would send a message

up to Miss Dorrit by the first lady or gentleman who went through. The

first lady who went through had a roll of music, half in her muff and

half out of it, and was in such a tumbled condition altogether, that it

seemed as if it would be an act of kindness to iron her. But as she was

very good-natured, and said, 'Come with me; I'll soon find Miss Dorrit

for you,' Miss Dorrit's sister went with her, drawing nearer and nearer

at every step she took in the darkness to the sound of music and the

sound of dancing feet.

At last they came into a maze of dust, where a quantity of people were

tumbling over one another, and where there was such a confusion of

unaccountable shapes of beams, bulkheads, brick walls, ropes, and

rollers, and such a mixing of gaslight and daylight, that they seemed

to have got on the wrong side of the pattern of the universe. Little

Dorrit, left to herself, and knocked against by somebody every moment,

was quite bewildered, when she heard her sister's voice. 'Why, good gracious, Amy, what ever brought you here?' 'I wanted to see you, Fanny dear; and as I am going out all day

to-morrow, and knew you might be engaged all day to-day, I thought--'




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