Book 2, Chapter 33 Summary

Going!

  • After Merdle's suicide, Fanny, Sparkler, and Mrs. Merdle are now forced to live together on Sparkler's salary from his Circumlocution Office job. Which is fine – except they've become very accustomed to being super-rich, and now they're just snobby middle class. Also, Fanny and Mrs. Merdle do nothing but fight.
  • Amy tells Meagles briefly some of what was in the Blandois documents, and he recommends trying to find and secure the originals.
  • Then Henry Gowan tells his father-in-law that he wishes to never have anything to do with him, and so the Meagleses interact only with Pet. The whole thing is obviously stressful.
  • Meagles volunteers to hunt down the papers and travels all over Europe.
  • Finally he gets a tip about Blandois's connection to Miss Wade, and he tracks her down in Calais.
  • She denies having the papers and refuses to deal with Meagles. She takes everything he says the wrong way and is her normal cold, unfeeling self.
  • Just as the Meagleses have given up and returned to England, in their hotel they find... Tattycoram! She is holding the box with the documents!
  • Tattycoram begs them to take her back and says that Miss Wade had the documents the whole time but didn't want to give them up. She tells them that she realized Miss Wade's life was her future if she couldn't figure out a way to stop being so angry about her birth and her station in life.
  • They come to see Amy, and Meagles tells her that he's leaving the next day to find and bring back to London... Doyce!