Whereby

　　She put her hands before her face; but otherwise remained quiet.

　　'I have heerd her  tell,' said Mr. Peggotty,  'as you was early  left fatherless and motherless,  with no  friend fur  to take,  in a  rough seafaring-way, their place.  Maybe you can guess that if you'd had such a friend, you'd have got into a way of  being fond of  him in course  of time, and  that my niece  was kiender daughter-like to me.'

　　As she was silently trembling, he  put her shawl carefully about her,  taking it up from the ground for that purpose.

　　'Whereby,' said he, 'I  know, both as she  would go to the  wureld's furdest end with me, if she could once see me again; and that she would fly to the  wureld's furdest end to  keep off seeing  me.  For though  she ain't no  call to doubt my love, and doen't - and doen't,' he repeated, with a quiet assurance of the truth of what he said, 'there's shame steps in, and keeps betwixt us.'

　　I read, in  every word of  his plain impressive  way of delivering  himself, new evidence of his having thought of this one topic, in every feature it presented.

　　'According to our reckoning,' he proceeded, 'Mas'r Davy's here, and mine, she is like, one day,  to make  her own  poor solitary  course to  London.  We  believe Mas'r Davy, me, and all of us - that you are as innocent of everything that  has befell her, as the unborn child.  You've spoke of her being pleasant,  kind, and gentle to you.  Bless her, I knew she was! I knew she always was, to all. You're thankful to her, and  you love her.  Help  us all you can  to find her, and  may Heaven reward you!'

　　She looked at him hastily,  and for the first time,  as if she were doubtful  of what he had said.

　　'Will you trust me?' she asked, in a low voice of astonishment.

　　'Full and free!' said Mr. Peggotty.

　　'To speak to her, if I should ever find her; shelter her, if I have any  shelter to divide with her; and then, without her knowledge, come to you, and bring  you to her?' she asked hurriedly.

　　We both replied together, 'Yes!'