He  was  earnest  to  finish  his  commission  at  once,  and  his  Principal  was
in  the  same  mind. So,  his  Principal  offered  to  set  him  down  at  the
Marshalsea  Gate,  and  they  drove  in  that  direction  over  Blackfriars
Bridge. On  the  way,  Arthur  elicited  from  his  new  friend,  a  confused
summary  of  the  interior  life  of  Bleeding  Heart  Yard. They  was  all  hard
up  there,  Mr. Plornish  said,  uncommon  hard  up,  to-be-sure. Well,  he
couldn't  say  how  it  was ;  he  didn't  know  as  anybody  could  say  how  it
was;  all  he  know' d  was,  that  so  it  was. When  a  man  felt,  on  his  own
back  and  in  his  own  belly,  that  he  was  poor,  that  man  (Mr. Plornish
gave  it  as  his  decided  belief)  know'd  well  that  poor  he  was  somehow  or
another,  and  you  couldn't  talk  it  out  of  him,  no  more  than  you  could  talk
Beef  into  him. Then  you  see,  some  people  as  was  better  off  said,  and
a  good  many  such  people  lived  pretty  close  up  to  the  mark  themselves
if  not  beyond  it  so  he'd  heerd,  that  they  was  "  improvident "  (that  was
the  favourite  word)  down  the  Yard. For  instance,  if  they  see  a  man  with
his  wife  and  children  going  to  Hampton  Court  in  a  "Wan,  perhaps  once
in. a  year,  they  says,  "  Hallo !  I  thought  you  was  poor,  my  improvident
friend !  "  Why,  Lord,  how  hard  it  was  upon  a  man  !   What  was  a  man


LITTLE   D0RR1T. 103

to  do  ?  He  couldn't  go  mollancholly  mad,  and  even  if  he  did,  you
wouldn't  be  the  better  for  it. In  Mr. Plornish' s  judgment,  you  would
be  the  worse  for  it. Yet  you  seemed  to  want  to  make  a  man  mollancholly
mad. You  was  always  at  it — if  not  with  your  right  hand,  with  your
left. "What  was  they  a  doing  in  the  Yard  ?  "Why,  take  a  look  at  'em
and  see. There  was  the  girls  and  their  mothers  a  working  at  their
sewing,  or  their  shoe-binding,  or  their  trimming,  or  their  waistcoat
making,  day  and  night  and  night  and  day,  and  not  more  than  able  to  keep
body  and  soul  together  after  all — often  not  so  much. There  was  people
of  pretty  well  all  sorts  of  trades  you  could  name,  all  wanting  to  work,  and
yet  not  able  to  get  it. 