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Dora Spenlow was a pretty warm hearted little girl, with no practical views of the duties in life or the value of money.
Two months after David had been articled Mr. Spenlow, invited him to his house in Norwood for the weekend. He told him that his daughter would be back from a finishing school in Paris.
David fell in love with Dora at first sight. In a moment he was a captive and a slave. Dora was very kind to him. She looked like a fairy. All the time David would think of the girlish, bright-eyed, lovely Dora. What a form she had! What graceful enchanting manner! Dora had the most delightful little voice. Her laughter was gay. She sang songs to the accompaniment of the guitar. David felt enchanted by the song, when he meets Dora and Jip, Dora's little dog in the garden. He was so taken by her childlike beauty.
On returning to London, David could not banish the thought of Dora from his mind. He went on loving her harder than ever. David had just come back from Yarmouth where he had got the painful news that Little Emily had eloped with Steerforth and that Mr. Peggotty and made a firm resolve to stake everything and find out his niece.
Three days after his return he learns that Dora was visiting her friend Miss Mill. He goes to meet her. Dora and he sit on the sofa. Soon they are engaged. Dora insists that they should marry only after getting her father's consent. The two spent a happy day at Miss Mill's. When David returns home he speaks to his aunt about Dora and his engagement with her.
David frequently visits the house of Miss Mill's in order to meet Dora. On one of these visits, he asks her if she would love a beggar. Dora does not understand what David means. With this word David merely wanted to tell her that he had not much money. Dora, however, thought that beggars, too, were men but with crutches or wooden-legs. How could she love them? It was foolish of David to ask her that question.
Soon after that Dora's father Mr. Spenlow dies. Dora was broken hearted. She weeps bitterly for her father. She has two aunts who live in Putney. She goes to live with them soon after the funeral. With the permission of her aunts, David begins to pay court to Dora at their house. Dora's aunt calls her "Little Blossom" Their chief delight was to wait upon her, make ornaments for her and treat her like a pet child. David wanted that she should learn something of housekeeping. He brought her a cookery book. But the cookery book made Dora's headache. The figures made her cry. They would not add up. Dora rubbed them out and drew flowers and pictures of David all over. When David and Dora have their first big housekeeping fight, Miss Betsey warns David to love Dora for "the qualities she has." In other words, David stops hoping that Dora will suddenly turn overnight into an efficient will ordered housekeeper David takes 14,55 Betsey words at heart. Then ultimately David gives up trying to make a house-keeper out of Dora. They return to flower painting and the songs. Dora's aunts adore her like a plaything. Even David commits the mistake of treating her similarly.
Weeks, months and seasons pass by. David was twenty now. His marriage with Dora had been settled. Dora's aunts prepare her wardrobe. Traddles acts as the best man when Dora and David are married.
Dora has a maidservant who kept the house for them. But she was very inefficient. She was also a thief. David wanted Dora to keep a strict eye on her. He blamed her for not looking after the house. Dora did not like that David should scold her. David tried to pacify her. But Dora was angry. She did not want arguments with David.
After sometime Dora gets pregnant but miscarries and slides into the long illness that eventually killed her. On her deathbed, she secretly asks Agnes to marry David for her.