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And they were married with the sun shining on them through the painted figure of Our Saviour on the window. And they went into the very room where Little Dorrit had slumbered after her party, to sign the Marriage Register. And there, Mr Pancks, (destined to be chief clerk to Doyce and Clennam, and afterwards partner in the house), sinking the Incendiary in the peaceful friend, looked in at the door to see it done, with Flora gallantly supported on one arm and Maggy on the other, and a back-ground of John Chivery and father and other turnkeys who had run round for the moment, deserting the parent Marshalsea for its happy child. Nor had Flora the least signs of seclusion upon her, notwithstanding her recent declaration; but, on the contrary, was wonderfully smart, and enjoyed the ceremonies mightily, though in a fluttered way.

Little Dorrit's old friend held the inkstand as she signed her name, and the clerk paused in taking off the good clergyman's surplice, and all the witnesses looked on with special interest. 'For, you see,' said Little Dorrit's old friend, 'this young lady is one of our curiosities, and has come now to the third volume of our Registers. Her birth is in what I call the first volume; she lay asleep, on this very floor, with her pretty head on what I call the second volume; and she's now a-writing her little name as a bride in what I call the third volume.'

They all gave place when the signing was done, and Little Dorrit and her husband walked out of the church alone. They paused for a moment on the steps of the portico, looking at the fresh perspective of the street in the autumn morning sun's bright rays, and then went down.

Went down into a modest life of usefulness and happiness. Went down to give a mother's care, in the fulness of time, to Fanny's neglected children no less than to their own, and to leave that lady going into Society for ever and a day. Went down to give a tender nurse and friend to Tip for some few years, who was never vexed by the great exactions he made of her in return for the riches he might have given her if he had ever had them, and who lovingly closed his eyes upon the Marshalsea and all its blighted fruits. They went quietly down into the roaring streets, inseparable and blessed; and as they passed along in sunshine and shade, the noisy and the eager, and the arrogant and the froward and the vain, fretted and chafed, and made their usual uproar.

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The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman

by Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray

I.

Lord Bateman vos a noble Lord,

A noble Lord of high degree;

He shipped his-self all aboard of a ship,

Some foreign country for to see.

II.

He sail-ed east, he sail-ed vest,

Until he come to famed Tur-key,

Vere he vos taken, and put to prisin,

Until his life was quite wea-ry.

III.

All in this prisin there grew a tree,

O! there it grew so stout and strong,

Vere he vos chain-ed all by the middle

Until his life vos almost gone.

IV.

This Turk he had one ounly darter,

The fairest my two eyes e'er see,

She steele the keys of her father's prisin,

And swore Lord Bateman she would let go free.

V.

O she took him to her father's cellar,

And guv to him the best of vine;

And ev'ry holth she dronk unto him,

Vos, "I vish Lord Bateman as you vos mine!"

VI.

"O have you got houses, have you got land,

And does Northumberland belong to thee?

And what would you give to the fair young lady

As out of prisin would let you go free?"

VII.

"O I've got houses, and I've got land,

And half Northumberland belongs to me;

And I vill give it all to the fair young lady

As out of prisin vould let me go free."

VIII.

"O in sevin long years, I'll make a wow

For sevin long years, and keep it strong,

That if you'll ved no other voman,

O I vill v-e-ed no other man."

IX.

O She took him to her father's harbour,

And guv to him a ship of fame,

Saying, "Farevell, Farevell to you, Lord Bateman,

I fear I