nt her, up-stairs, in which they could wait for her, if
they pleased. Mistrustful that it might be hazardous to Arthur to see
him without preparation, Mr Meagles accepted the offer; and they were
left shut up in the room, looking down through its barred window into
the jail.

The cramped area of the prison had such an effect on Mrs Meagles that
she began to weep, and such an effect on Mr Meagles that he began to
gasp for air. He was walking up and down the room, panting, and making
himself worse by laboriously fanning himself with her handkerchief, when
he turned towards the opening door.

'Eh? Good gracious!' said Mr Meagles, 'this is not Miss Dorrit! Why,
Mother, look! Tattycoram!'

No other. And in Tattycoram's arms was an iron box some two feet square.
Such a box had Affery Flintwinch seen, in the first of her dreams, going
out of the old house in the dead of the night under Double's arm. This,
Tattycoram put on the ground at her old master's feet: this, Tattycoram
fell on her knees by, and beat her hands upon, crying half in exultation
and half in despair, half in laughter and half in tears, 'Pardon, dear
Master; take me back, dear Mistress; here it is!'

'Tatty!' exclaimed Mr Meagles.

'What you wanted!' said Tattycoram. 'Here it is! I was put in the next
room not to see you. I heard you ask her about it, I heard her say she
hadn't got it, I was there when he left it, and I took it at bedtime and
brought it away. Here it is!'

'Why, my girl,' cried Mr Meagles, more breathless than before, 'how did
you come over?'

'I came in the boat with you. I was sitting wrapped up at the other end.
When you took a coach at the wharf, I took another coach and followed
you here. She never would have given it up after what you had said to
her about its being wanted; she would sooner have sunk it in the sea, or
burnt it. But, here it is!'

The glow and rapture that the girl was in, with her 'Here it is!'

'She never wanted it to be left, I must say that for her; but he left
it, and I knew well that after what you said, and after her denying
it, she never would have given it up. But here it is! Dear Master, dear
Mistress, take me back again, and give me back the dear old name! Let
this intercede for me. Here it is!'

Father and Mother Meagles never deserved their names better than when
they took the headstrong foundling-girl into their protection again.

'Oh! I have been so wretched,' cried Tattycoram, weeping much mor