Chapter XI: Effect is given to the Dolls’ Dressmaker’s Discovery

Mrs. JOHN ROKESMITH sat at needlework in her neat little room, beside a basket of neat little articles of clothing, which presented so much of the appearance of being in the dolls’ dressmaker’s way of business, that one might have supposed she was going...

Chapter XII: Meaning Mischief

Up came the sun, streaming all over London, and in its glorious impartiality even condescending to make prismatic sparkles in the whiskers of Mr. Alfred Lammle as he sat at breakfast. In need of some brightening from without was Mr. Alfred Lammle, for he...

Chapter XI: In the Dark

There was no sleep for Bradley Headstone on that night when Eugene Wrayburn turned so easily in his bed; there was no sleep for little Miss Peecher. Bradley consumed the lonely hours, and consumed himself, in haunting the spot where his careless rival lay...

Chapter X: Scouts Out

‘And so, Miss Wren,’ said Mr. Eugene Wrayburn, ‘I cannot persuade you to dress me a doll?’ ‘No,’ replied Miss Wren, snappishly; ‘if you want one, go and buy one at the shop.’ ‘And my charming young goddaughter,’ said Mr. Wrayburn, plaintively, ‘down in...

Chapter VII: The Friendly Move Takes up a Strong Position

The friendly movers sat upright on the floor, panting and eyeing one another, after Mr. Boffin had slammed the gate and gone away. In the weak eyes of Venus, and in every reddish dust-coloured hair in his shock of hair, there was a marked...

Chapter XV: The whole Case so Far

Bradley HEADSTONE held fast by that other interview he was to have with Lizzie Hexam. In stipulating for it, he had been impelled by a feeling little short of desperation, and the feeling abided by him. It was very soon after his interview with...

Chapter XIII: A Solo and a Duett

The wind was blowing so hard when the visitor came out at the shop-door into the darkness and dirt of Limehouse Hole, that it almost blew him in again. Doors were slamming violently, lamps were flickering or blown out, signs were rocking in their...

Chapter XII: More Birds of Prey

Rogue RIDERHOOD dwelt deep and dark in Lime-house Hole, among the riggers, and the mast, oar, and block makers, and the boat-builders, and the sail-lofts, as in a kind of ship’s hold stored full of waterside characters, some no better than himself, some very...

Chapter III: A Piece of Work

Britannia, sitting meditating one fine day (perhaps in the attitude in which she is represented on the copper coinage), discovers all of a sudden that she wants Veneering in Parliament. It occurs to her that Veneering is a ‘representative man’—which cannot in these times...

Chapter XV: Two New Servants

Mr. and Mrs. Boffin sat after breakfast, in the Bower, a prey to prosperity. Mr. Boffin’s face denoted Care and Complication. Many disordered papers were before him, and he looked at them about as hopefully as an innocent civilian might look at a crowd...