ervants stole the silver spoons, and the storekeepers
overcharged them, and the house was never tidy or comfortable. For a
while David tried to make Dora learn these things, but when he chid her
the tears would come, and she would throw her arms around his neck and
sob that she was only his child-wife after all, and he would end by
kissing her and telling her not to mind. She was most like a beautiful
toy; and like a toy, she seemed made only to play with, just as she
played with her dog Jip, instead of helping and encouraging David in his
work.

But at length Dora fell ill--so ill that they knew she was too frail and
weak to get well and strong again. David carried her down stairs every
day, and every day the burden grew lighter. She never complained, but
called him her poor, dear boy, and one day she whispered that she was
only his child-wife and could never have been more, so that it was
better as it was!

Agnes came, and was there when Dora died. But for her comfort all the
world would have been blank for poor David as he sat alone, longing for
the child-wife who could never be his again!

IV

DAVID FINDS ALL WELL AT LAST

More than once during this life of David's with his child-wife he had
seen Mr. Peggotty. The brave old man had searched Europe for little
Em'ly in vain; then he had come back to London, feeling somehow that
some day she would stray there. He used to walk the streets by night,
looking at every face he passed. In the room where he lived he kept a
candle always lighted and one of her dresses hanging on a chair for her.

After Dora's death David joined in the search, and at length they did
find poor little Em'ly. Steerforth had treated her cruelly and finally
deserted her, and she had crept back to London heartbroken and
repentant, hoping for nothing but to die within sight of those who had
loved her so.

But nothing had dimmed Mr. Peggotty's love. Wretched as she was, he
caught her in his arms, held her to his breast as he had done so often
when she was a child, and told her she was still his own little Em'ly,
just as she had always been.

She was ill, but he nursed her back to health. Then he went to Yarmouth
to fetch Mrs. Gummidge, and they and the little Em'ly that had been
found took passage for Australia, where they might forget the dark past
and find happiness in a new life.

But before they sailed fate had brought to naught the villainous plot
that had been woven by Uriah Heep ab