often,' said Little Dorrit, timidly.

'Every day?'

'I think,' said Little Dorrit, after hesitating, 'that I have been here
at least twice every day.' He might have released the little light hand
after fervently kissing it again; but that, with a very gentle lingering
where it was, it seemed to court being retained. He took it in both of
his, and it lay softly on his breast.

'Dear Little Dorrit, it is not my imprisonment only that will soon be
over. This sacrifice of you must be ended. We must learn to part again,
and to take our different ways so wide asunder. You have not forgotten
what we said together, when you came back?'

'O no, I have not forgotten it. But something has been--You feel quite
strong to-day, don't you?'

'Quite strong.'

The hand he held crept up a little nearer his face.

'Do you feel quite strong enough to know what a great fortune I have
got?'

'I shall be very glad to be told. No fortune can be too great or good
for Little Dorrit.'

'I have been anxiously waiting to tell you. I have been longing and
longing to tell you. You are sure you will not take it?'

'Never!'

'You are quite sure you will not take half of it?'

'Never, dear Little Dorrit!'

As she looked at him silently, there was something in her affectionate
face that he did not quite comprehend: something that could have broken
into tears in a moment, and yet that was happy and proud.

'You will be sorry to hear what I have to tell you about Fanny. Poor
Fanny has lost everything. She has nothing left but her husband's
income. All that papa gave her when she married was lost as your money
was lost. It was in the same hands, and it is all gone.'

Arthur was more shocked than surprised to hear it. 'I had hoped it might
not be so bad,' he said: 'but I had feared a heavy loss there, knowing
the connection between her husband and the defaulter.'

'Yes. It is all gone. I am very sorry for Fanny; very, very, very sorry
for poor Fanny. My poor brother too!' 'Had he property in the same
hands?'

'Yes! And it's all gone.--How much do you think my own great fortune
is?'

As Arthur looked at her inquiringly, with a new apprehension on him,
she withdrew her hand, and laid her face down on the spot where it had
rested.

'I have nothing in the world. I am as poor as when I lived here. When
papa came over to England, he confided everything he had to the same
hands, and it is all swept away. O my dearest and best, are you qui