She laid her hand upon his arm, and he took her over the way; the crowd, rather injured by the near prospect of losing her, pressing before and behind and on either side, and recommending an adjournment to Bedlam. After a momentary whirl in the outer court-yard, the prison-door opened, and shut upon them. In the Lodge, which seemed by contrast with the outer noise a place of refuge and peace, a yellow lamp was already striving with the prison shadows.
‘Why, John!’ said the turnkey who admitted them. ‘What is it?’
‘Nothing, father; only this lady not knowing her way, and being badgered by the boys. Who did you want, ma’am?’
‘Miss Dorrit. Is she here?’
The young man became more interested. ‘Yes, she is here. What might your name be?’
‘Mrs Clennam.’
‘Mr Clennam’s mother?’ asked the young man.
She pressed her lips together, and hesitated. ‘Yes. She had better be told it is his mother.’
‘You see,’ said the young man, ‘the Marshal’s family living in the country at present, the Marshal has given Miss Dorrit one of the rooms in his house to use when she likes. Don’t you think you had better come up there, and let me bring Miss Dorrit?’
She signified her assent, and he unlocked a door and conducted her up a side staircase into a dwelling-house above. He showed her into a darkening room, and left her. The room looked down into the darkening prison-yard, with its inmates strolling here and there, leaning out of windows communing as much apart as they could with friends who were going away, and generally wearing out their imprisonment as they best might that summer evening. The air was heavy and hot; the closeness of the place, oppressive; and from without there arose a rush of free sounds, like the jarring memory of such things in a headache and heartache. She stood at the window, bewildered, looking down into this prison as it were out of her own different prison, when a soft word or two of surprise made her start, and Little Dorrit stood before her.