Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit



Year:
2008
1,364 Views

John Chivery:
[Knocks. Comes in and sets down writing desk and box]

Arthur Clennam:
Ahh, thank you, John. I'm sorry to have given you any trouble. [Silence. Sighs] Are you angry with me, John?

John Chivery:
Tell you what, Mr. Clennam. If you weren't under a cloud, which you are, and if it wasn't against all the rules of the Marselsea, which it is, I'd sooner be having a ram with you than shaking your hand! Beg your pardon.

Arthur Clennam:
Freely granted. But, ah, what is it, John?

John Chivery:
Don't mind my sayin' so, sir, you don't look very well to me. How long since you've eaten anythin'?

Arthur Clennam:
Oh, I don't have any appetite. I don't think I could eat.

John Chivery:
Do you not think that even if it's not worthwhile to take care of yourself for your own sake, it's worth doin' for somebody else's?

Arthur Clennam:
Truly, I don't know for whose.

John Chivery:
You don't know whose? You can say that to me?

Arthur Clennam:
I don't understand, John. I don't mean to offend you.

John Chivery:
I had got over it. I had! I might never thought of it again. I may not be a gentleman, but I am a man. Why do you think I found this room for you that you'd like and carried up the things for you when I really felt like knockin' you down? Do you think I did it for your own sake? I didn't do it for you! I did it for her!

Arthur Clennam:
For who?

John Chivery:
For Amy! Because she loves you!

Arthur Clennam:
[Shocked] What?

John Chivery:
Oh, oh! How can you say you don't know it? Anyone with eyes could see it! These walls know it! You're so lofty, so far above the rest of us, you don't even notice it. All the time I was breakin' my heart over her, she was breakin' her's over you! [Sobs] Well, s'all do now. So if you, uh, won't take anythin' else, I'll say goodnight, Sir.

Arthur Clennam:
Goodnight, John.

John Chivery:
[Holds out hand]

Arthur Clennam:
[Grabs and shakes]

Amy Dorrit:
[Holding Clennam's discarded shirt button and hears John Chivery approach] John, is it you? [Sees his appearance and turns and hides button]

John Chivery:
I - I'm afraid... Did I disturb you? I took the liberty of walkin' this way because Mr. Dorrit chanced to mention you might be here.

Amy Dorrit:
Did he? [Turns away]

John Chivery:
Have I done something to upset you?

Amy Dorrit:
[Looks at him and shakes head no]

John Chivery:
[Takes off top hat] We've always been good friends, you and I haven't we, Amy?

Amy Dorrit:
Yes, we have. And I hope we will continue so, nothing change.

John Chivery:
Ah, but things do change, Amy. Is the way of things, and the way things should be.

Amy Dorrit:
[Turns to leave] I think I should go back now, John.

John Chivery:
Amy, please. Let me say what I have to say. I should go mad if I don't. [She stops and turns around] I th - I think you know I've always loved you, ever since we were play fellows.

Amy Dorrit:
And I've always been fond of you, John.

John Chivery:
I'd do anything for you. I - I'd fling myself off that parapet if it would give you a moment's joy.

Amy Dorrit:
Please don't do that, John.

John Chivery:
Then put me out of my misery and say you'll be my wife.

Amy Dorrit:
I'm sorry. I can't do that, John. I am fond of you, but I could never feel about you that way, the way you'd like me to.

John Chivery:
Well... You might come to?

Amy Dorrit:
No. Sorry, John. I know I never shall.

John Chivery:
Th-then I must ask, is there someone else?

Amy Dorrit:
No. That is, I don't expect I shall ever marry, and in truth I'm quite contented as I am looking after father. [Grabs his hand] But I hope you'll have a good wife one day. Because you deserve one. [John leans down and kisses her hand. Pause] Please don't cry.

John Chivery:
I can't help it, Amy. I set my heart on you. G - good-bye. [Walks away and tosses top hat in basket]

Maggy:
Little Mother. Guess who I've got and he's waitin' downstairs.

Amy Dorrit:
Who, Maggy?

Maggy:
Him! With the cake! You know...

Amy Dorrit:
Mr. Clennam.

Maggy:
Yeah, that's him. That's him. I brought him to see ya.

Amy Dorrit:
[Looks out window and sees Mr. Clennam waiting in the courtyard] I can't see Mr. Clennam today, Maggy. Go down and tell him I have a headache.

Maggy:
That's not very polite.

Amy Dorrit:
He will understand.

Maggy:
I will if you tell me a story first. [Amy laughs] Should it be about a princess?

Amy Dorrit:
If you like. [They get settled for the story] Once upon a time there was a princess. And she had everything that you could wish for and a great deal more.

Maggy:
Yeah. Everythin' like lemonade and chicken and baked potato.

Amy Dorrit:
Shh. Listen. [Looks down at Mr. Clennam in the courtyard] Now, near the palace was a cottage in which live a poor, little, tiny woman. All alone.

Maggy:
She was an old woman, I expect.

Amy Dorrit:
No, Maggie. Quite a young one. And one day, the princess stopped at the cottage and said to the tiny woman, "Let me see what you keep there." And the tiny women open her very secret place and showed the princess a shadow.

Maggy:
A shadow.

Amy Dorrit:
[Still looking down at Mr. Clennam] It was the shadow of someone who'd gone by many years ago. "And you keep watch over this every day?" said the princess. "Yes," said the tiny woman. "Because no one so good or kind had ever passed that way ever since."

Maggy:
Then what did the princess say?

Amy Dorrit:
She realized that for all of her gold and silver and diamonds and rubies, she had nothing so precious to her as that shadow was to that tiny woman. That's the end of the story, Maggy.

Maggy:
Well, that's not much of a story, is it?

Amy Dorrit:
Sorry, Maggy. That's the best I can do today.


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