As David passes by the Steerforths’ house one evening, a servant summons him inside to speak to Miss Dartle. At her request, Littimer tells David what he knows about Emily.
Steerforth grew tired of
Little Em’ly and left her in a villa in Naples. With Steerforth’s approval,
Littimer proposed to her, but she became hysterical, so he locked her up to
prevent her from killing herself. She fled the house nonetheless, leaving no
trace.
David goes to Mr Peggotty, who is still in London. They decide to ask Martha to try to find Little Em’ly.
Martha appears to be near suicidal but agrees to help them find Little Em’ly.
On his way home, David sees Betsey with the man from chapters 17 and 23. Betsey reveals that he is her husband, who continues to extort money from her.
David and Dora are regularly taken
advantage of by their servants. David gives up trying to turn Dora into a
competent housekeeper. For a while, he tries to form Dora’s intellect but he
gives that up too.
David hopes that having
a child might make Dora more mature. Dora does become pregnant but she has a
miscarriage (page 571) from which she does not completely recover. She
gradually loses the use of her legs.
David receives a letter from Mr
Micawber asking to meet him in London. Traddles receives a letter from Mrs
Micawber asking him to keep an eye on her husband.
Mr. Micawber is incensed at Uriah Heep. He begs David and Miss Betsey to meet him and Mrs. Micawber at an inn the following week.
Chapter L
Martha comes for David one night and encourages him to follow her. She has already tried to retrieve Mr. Peggotty, but he was not at home, so she has left him a note telling him where to find her. Martha takes David to a house. They find Miss Dartle already there, spewing hateful invectives at Little Em’ly. Eventually, Mr. Peggotty arrives and carries Little Em’ly away, passed out in his arms.