Little Dorrit2008

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.