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Charles Dickens
Chapter 27
Charles Dickens
 
 
1       It may have been in consequence of Mrs. Crupp's advice, and,
2  perhaps, for no better reason than because there was a certain
3  similarity in the sound of the word skittles and Traddles, that it
4  came into my head, next day, to go and look after Traddles. The
5  time he had mentioned was more than out, and he lived in a little
6  street near the Veterinary College at Camden Town, which was
7  principally tenanted, as one of our clerks who lived in that
8  direction informed me, by gentlemen students, who bought live
9  donkeys, and made experiments on those quadrupeds in their private
10  apartments. Having obtained from this clerk a direction to the
11  academic grove in question, I set out, the same afternoon, to visit
12  my old schoolfellow.

13       I found that the street was not as desirable a one as I could have
14  wished it to be, for the sake of Traddles. The inhabitants
15  appeared to have a propensity to throw any little trifles they were
16  not in want of, into the road: which not only made it rank and
17  sloppy, but untidy too, on account of the cabbage-leaves. The
18  refuse was not wholly vegetable either, for I myself saw a shoe, a
19  doubled-up saucepan, a black bonnet, and an umbrella, in various
20  stages of decomposition, as I was looking out for the number I
21  wanted.

22       The general air of the place reminded me forcibly of the days when
23  I lived with Mr. and Mrs. Micawber. An indescribable character of
24  faded gentility that attached to the house I sought, and made it
25  unlike all the other houses in the street - though they were all
26  built on one monotonous pattern, and looked like the early copies
27  of a blundering boy who was learning to make houses, and had not
28  yet got out of his cramped brick-and-mortar pothooks - reminded me
29  still more of Mr. and Mrs. Micawber. Happening to arrive at the
30  door as it was opened to the afternoon milkman, I was reminded of
31  Mr. and Mrs. Micawber more forcibly yet.

32       'Now,' said the milkman to a very youthful servant girl. 'Has that
33  there little bill of mine been heerd on?'

34       'Oh, master says he'll attend to it immediate,' was the reply.

35       'Because,' said the milkman, going on as if he had received no
36  answer, and speaking, as I judged from his tone, rather for the
37  edification of somebody within the house, than of the youthful
38  servant - an impression which was strengthened by his manner of
39  glaring down the passage - 'because that there little bill has been
40  running so long, that I begin to believe it's run away altogether,
41  and never won't be heerd of. Now, I'm not a going to stand it, you
42  know!' said the milkman, still throwing his voice into the house,
43  and glaring down the passage.

44       As to his dealing in the mild article of milk, by the by, there
45  never was a greater anomaly. His deportment would have been fierce
46  in a butcher or a brandy-merchant.

47       The voice of the youthful servant became faint, but she seemed to
48  me, from the action of her lips, again to murmur that it would be
49  attended to immediate.

50       'I tell you what,' said the milkman, looking hard at her for the
51  first time, and taking her by the chin, 'are you fond of milk?'

52       'Yes, I likes it,' she replied.
53  'Good,' said the milkman. 'Then you won't have none tomorrow.
54  D'ye hear? Not a fragment of milk you won't have tomorrow.'

55       I thought she seemed, upon the whole, relieved by the prospect of
56  having any today. The milkman, after shaking his head at her
57  darkly, released her chin, and with anything rather than good-will
58  opened his can, and deposited the usual quantity in the family jug.
59  This done, he went away, muttering, and uttered the cry of his
60  trade next door, in a vindictive shriek.

61       'Does Mr. Traddles live here?' I then inquired.

62       A mysterious voice from the end of the passage replied 'Yes.' Upon
63  which the youthful servant replied 'Yes.'

64       'Is he at home?' said I.

65       Again the mysterious voice replied in the affirmative, and again
66  the servant echoed it. Upon this, I walked in, and in pursuance of
67  the servant's directions walked upstairs; conscious, as I passed
68  the back parlour-door, that I was surveyed by a mysterious eye,
69  probably belonging to the mysterious voice.

70       When I got to the top of the stairs - the house was only a story
71  high above the ground floor - Traddles was on the landing to meet
72  me. He was delighted to see me, and gave me welcome, with great
73  heartiness, to his little room. It was in the front of the house,
74  and extremely neat, though sparely furnished. It was his only
75  room, I saw; for there was a sofa-bedstead in it, and his
76  blacking-brushes and blacking were among his books - on the top
77  shelf, behind a dictionary. His table was covered with papers, and
78  he was hard at work in an old coat. I looked at nothing, that I
79  know of, but I saw everything, even to the prospect of a church
80  upon his china inkstand, as I sat down - and this, too, was a
81  faculty confirmed in me in the old Micawber times. Various
82  ingenious arrangements he had made, for the disguise of his chest
83  of drawers, and the accommodation of his boots, his shaving-glass,
84  and so forth, particularly impressed themselves upon me, as
85  evidences of the same Traddles who used to make models of
86  elephants' dens in writing-paper to put flies in; and to comfort
87  himself under ill usage, with the memorable works of art I have so
88  often mentioned.

89       In a corner of the room was something neatly covered up with a
90  large white cloth. I could not make out what that was.

91       'Traddles,' said I, shaking hands with him again, after I had sat
92  down, 'I am delighted to see you.'

93       'I am delighted to see YOU, Copperfield,' he returned. 'I am very
94  glad indeed to see you. It was because I was thoroughly glad to
95  see you when we met in Ely Place, and was sure you were thoroughly
96  glad to see me, that I gave you this address instead of my address
97  at chambers.'
98  'Oh! You have chambers?' said I.

99       'Why, I have the fourth of a room and a passage, and the fourth of
100  a clerk,' returned Traddles. 'Three others and myself unite to
101  have a set of chambers - to look business-like - and we quarter the
102  clerk too. Half-a-crown a week he costs me.'

103       His old simple character and good temper, and something of his old
104  unlucky fortune also, I thought, smiled at me in the smile with
105  which he made this explanation.

106       'It's not because I have the least pride, Copperfield, you
107  understand,' said Traddles, 'that I don't usually give my address
108  here. It's only on account of those who come to me, who might not
109  like to come here. For myself, I am fighting my way on in the
110  world against difficulties, and it would be ridiculous if I made a
111  pretence of doing anything else.'

112       'You are reading for the bar, Mr. Waterbrook informed me?' said I.

113       'Why, yes,' said Traddles, rubbing his hands slowly over one
114  another. 'I am reading for the bar. The fact is, I have just
115  begun to keep my terms, after rather a long delay. It's some time
116  since I was articled, but the payment of that hundred pounds was a
117  great pull. A great pull!' said Traddles, with a wince, as if he
118  had had a tooth out.

119       'Do you know what I can't help thinking of, Traddles, as I sit here
120  looking at you?' I asked him.

121       'No,' said he.

122       'That sky-blue suit you used to wear.'

123       'Lord, to be sure!' cried Traddles, laughing. 'Tight in the arms
124  and legs, you know? Dear me! Well! Those were happy times,
125  weren't they?'

126       'I think our schoolmaster might have made them happier, without
127  doing any harm to any of us, I acknowledge,' I returned.

128       'Perhaps he might,' said Traddles. 'But dear me, there was a good
129  deal of fun going on. Do you remember the nights in the bedroom?
130  When we used to have the suppers? And when you used to tell the
131  stories? Ha, ha, ha! And do you remember when I got caned for
132  crying about Mr. Mell? Old Creakle! I should like to see him
133  again, too!'

134       'He was a brute to you, Traddles,' said I, indignantly; for his
135  good humour made me feel as if I had seen him beaten but yesterday.

136       'Do you think so?' returned Traddles. 'Really? Perhaps he was
137  rather. But it's all over, a long while. Old Creakle!'

138       'You were brought up by an uncle, then?' said I.

139       'Of course I was!' said Traddles. 'The one I was always going to
140  write to. And always didn't, eh! Ha, ha, ha! Yes, I had an uncle
141  then. He died soon after I left school.'

142       'Indeed!'

143       'Yes. He was a retired - what do you call it! - draper -
144  cloth-merchant - and had made me his heir. But he didn't like me
145  when I grew up.'

146       'Do you really mean that?' said I. He was so composed, that I
147  fancied he must have some other meaning.

148       'Oh dear, yes, Copperfield! I mean it,' replied Traddles. 'It was
149  an unfortunate thing, but he didn't like me at all. He said I
150  wasn't at all what he expected, and so he married his housekeeper.'

151       'And what did you do?' I asked.

152       'I didn't do anything in particular,' said Traddles. 'I lived with
153  them, waiting to be put out in the world, until his gout
154  unfortunately flew to his stomach - and so he died, and so she
155  married a young man, and so I wasn't provided for.'

156       'Did you get nothing, Traddles, after all?'

157       'Oh dear, yes!' said Traddles. 'I got fifty pounds. I had never
158  been brought up to any profession, and at first I was at a loss
159  what to do for myself. However, I began, with the assistance of
160  the son of a professional man, who had been to Salem House -
161  Yawler, with his nose on one side. Do you recollect him?'

162       No. He had not been there with me; all the noses were straight in
163  my day.

164       'It don't matter,' said Traddles. 'I began, by means of his
165  assistance, to copy law writings. That didn't answer very well;
166  and then I began to state cases for them, and make abstracts, and
167  that sort of work. For I am a plodding kind of fellow,
168  Copperfield, and had learnt the way of doing such things pithily.
169  Well! That put it in my head to enter myself as a law student; and
170  that ran away with all that was left of the fifty pounds. Yawler
171  recommended me to one or two other offices, however - Mr.
172  Waterbrook's for one - and I got a good many jobs. I was fortunate
173  enough, too, to become acquainted with a person in the publishing
174  way, who was getting up an Encyclopaedia, and he set me to work;
175  and, indeed' (glancing at his table), 'I am at work for him at this
176  minute. I am not a bad compiler, Copperfield,' said Traddles,
177  preserving the same air of cheerful confidence in all he said, 'but
178  I have no invention at all; not a particle. I suppose there never
179  was a young man with less originality than I have.'

180       As Traddles seemed to expect that I should assent to this as a
181  matter of course, I nodded; and he went on, with the same sprightly
182  patience - I can find no better expression - as before.

183       'So, by little and little, and not living high, I managed to scrape
184  up the hundred pounds at last,' said Traddles; 'and thank Heaven
185  that's paid - though it was - though it certainly was,' said
186  Traddles, wincing again as if he had had another tooth out, 'a
187  pull. I am living by the sort of work I have mentioned, still, and
188  I hope, one of these days, to get connected with some newspaper:
189  which would almost be the making of my fortune. Now, Copperfield,
190  you are so exactly what you used to be, with that agreeable face,
191  and it's so pleasant to see you, that I sha'n't conceal anything.
192  Therefore you must know that I am engaged.'

193       Engaged! Oh, Dora!

194       'She is a curate's daughter,' said Traddles; 'one of ten, down in
195  Devonshire. Yes!' For he saw me glance, involuntarily, at the
196  prospect on the inkstand. 'That's the church! You come round here
197  to the left, out of this gate,' tracing his finger along the
198  inkstand, 'and exactly where I hold this pen, there stands the
199  house - facing, you understand, towards the church.'

200       The delight with which he entered into these particulars, did not
201  fully present itself to me until afterwards; for my selfish
202  thoughts were making a ground-plan of Mr. Spenlow's house and
203  garden at the same moment.

204       'She is such a dear girl!' said Traddles; 'a little older than me,
205  but the dearest girl! I told you I was going out of town? I have
206  been down there. I walked there, and I walked back, and I had the
207  most delightful time! I dare say ours is likely to be a rather
208  long engagement, but our motto is "Wait and hope!" We always say
209  that. "Wait and hope," we always say. And she would wait,
210  Copperfield, till she was sixty - any age you can mention - for
211  me!'

212       Traddles rose from his chair, and, with a triumphant smile, put his
213  hand upon the white cloth I had observed.

214       'However,' he said, 'it's not that we haven't made a beginning
215  towards housekeeping. No, no; we have begun. We must get on by
216  degrees, but we have begun. Here,' drawing the cloth off with
217  great pride and care, 'are two pieces of furniture to commence
218  with. This flower-pot and stand, she bought herself. You put that
219  in a parlour window,' said Traddles, falling a little back from it
220  to survey it with the greater admiration, 'with a plant in it, and
221  - and there you are! This little round table with the marble top
222  (it's two feet ten in circumference), I bought. You want to lay a
223  book down, you know, or somebody comes to see you or your wife, and
224  wants a place to stand a cup of tea upon, and - and there you are
225  again!' said Traddles. 'It's an admirable piece of workmanship -
226  firm as a rock!'
227  I praised them both, highly, and Traddles replaced the covering as
228  carefully as he had removed it.

229       'It's not a great deal towards the furnishing,' said Traddles, 'but
230  it's something. The table-cloths, and pillow-cases, and articles
231  of that kind, are what discourage me most, Copperfield. So does
232  the ironmongery - candle-boxes, and gridirons, and that sort of
233  necessaries - because those things tell, and mount up. However,
234  "wait

235       and hope!" And I assure you she's the dearest girl!'

236       'I am quite certain of it,' said I.

237       'In the meantime,' said Traddles, coming back to his chair; 'and
238  this is the end of my prosing about myself, I get on as well as I
239  can. I don't make much, but I don't spend much. In general, I
240  board with the people downstairs, who are very agreeable people
241  indeed. Both Mr. and Mrs. Micawber have seen a good deal of life,
242  and are excellent company.'

243       'My dear Traddles!' I quickly exclaimed. 'What are you talking
244  about?'

245       Traddles looked at me, as if he wondered what I was talking about.

246       'Mr. and Mrs. Micawber!' I repeated. 'Why, I am intimately
247  acquainted with them!'

248       An opportune double knock at the door, which I knew well from old
249  experience in Windsor Terrace, and which nobody but Mr. Micawber
250  could ever have knocked at that door, resolved any doubt in my mind
251  as to their being my old friends. I begged Traddles to ask his
252  landlord to walk up. Traddles accordingly did so, over the
253  banister; and Mr. Micawber, not a bit changed - his tights, his
254  stick, his shirt-collar, and his eye-glass, all the same as ever -
255  came into the room with a genteel and youthful air.

256       'I beg your pardon, Mr. Traddles,' said Mr. Micawber, with the old
257  roll in his voice, as he checked himself in humming a soft tune.
258  'I was not aware that there was any individual, alien to this
259  tenement, in your sanctum.'

260       Mr. Micawber slightly bowed to me, and pulled up his shirt-collar.

261       'How do you do, Mr. Micawber?' said I.

262       'Sir,' said Mr. Micawber, 'you are exceedingly obliging. I am in
263  statu quo.'

264       'And Mrs. Micawber?' I pursued.

265       'Sir,' said Mr. Micawber, 'she is also, thank God, in statu quo.'

266       'And the children, Mr. Micawber?'

267       'Sir,' said Mr. Micawber, 'I rejoice to reply that they are,
268  likewise, in the enjoyment of salubrity.'

269       All this time, Mr. Micawber had not known me in the least, though
270  he had stood face to face with me. But now, seeing me smile, he
271  examined my features with more attention, fell back, cried, 'Is it
272  possible! Have I the pleasure of again beholding Copperfield!' and
273  shook me by both hands with the utmost fervour.

274       'Good Heaven, Mr. Traddles!' said Mr. Micawber, 'to think that I
275  should find you acquainted with the friend of my youth, the
276  companion of earlier days! My dear!' calling over the banisters to
277  Mrs. Micawber, while Traddles looked (with reason) not a little
278  amazed at this description of me. 'Here is a gentleman in Mr.
279  Traddles's apartment, whom he wishes to have the pleasure of
280  presenting to you, my love!'

281       Mr. Micawber immediately reappeared, and shook hands with me again.

282       'And how is our good friend the Doctor, Copperfield?' said Mr.
283  Micawber, 'and all the circle at Canterbury?'

284       'I have none but good accounts of them,' said I.

285       'I am most delighted to hear it,' said Mr. Micawber. 'It was at
286  Canterbury where we last met. Within the shadow, I may
287  figuratively say, of that religious edifice immortalized by
288  Chaucer, which was anciently the resort of Pilgrims from the
289  remotest corners of - in short,' said Mr. Micawber, 'in the
290  immediate neighbourhood of the Cathedral.'

291       I replied that it was. Mr. Micawber continued talking as volubly
292  as he could; but not, I thought, without showing, by some marks of
293  concern in his countenance, that he was sensible of sounds in the
294  next room, as of Mrs. Micawber washing her hands, and hurriedly
295  opening and shutting drawers that were uneasy in their action.

296       'You find us, Copperfield,' said Mr. Micawber, with one eye on
297  Traddles, 'at present established, on what may be designated as a
298  small and unassuming scale; but, you are aware that I have, in the
299  course of my career, surmounted difficulties, and conquered
300  obstacles. You are no stranger to the fact, that there have been
301  periods of my life, when it has been requisite that I should pause,
302  until certain expected events should turn up; when it has been
303  necessary that I should fall back, before making what I trust I
304  shall not be accused of presumption in terming - a spring. The
305  present is one of those momentous stages in the life of man. You
306  find me, fallen back, FOR a spring; and I have every reason to
307  believe that a vigorous leap will shortly be the result.'

308       I was expressing my satisfaction, when Mrs. Micawber came in; a
309  little more slatternly than she used to be, or so she seemed now,
310  to my unaccustomed eyes, but still with some preparation of herself
311  for company, and with a pair of brown gloves on.

312       'My dear,' said Mr. Micawber, leading her towards me, 'here is a
313  gentleman of the name of Copperfield, who wishes to renew his
314  acquaintance with you.'

315       It would have been better, as it turned out, to have led gently up
316  to this announcement, for Mrs. Micawber, being in a delicate state
317  of health, was overcome by it, and was taken so unwell, that Mr.
318  Micawber was obliged, in great trepidation, to run down to the
319  water-butt in the backyard, and draw a basinful to lave her brow
320  with. She presently revived, however, and was really pleased to
321  see me. We had half-an-hour's talk, all together; and I asked her
322  about the twins, who, she said, were 'grown great creatures'; and
323  after Master and Miss Micawber, whom she described as 'absolute
324  giants', but they were not produced on that occasion.

325       Mr. Micawber was very anxious that I should stay to dinner. I
326  should not have been averse to do so, but that I imagined I
327  detected trouble, and calculation relative to the extent of the
328  cold meat, in Mrs. Micawber's eye. I therefore pleaded another
329  engagement; and observing that Mrs. Micawber's spirits were
330  immediately lightened, I resisted all persuasion to forego it.

331       But I told Traddles, and Mr. and Mrs. Micawber, that before I could
332  think of leaving, they must appoint a day when they would come and
333  dine with me. The occupations to which Traddles stood pledged,
334  rendered it necessary to fix a somewhat distant one; but an
335  appointment was made for the purpose, that suited us all, and then
336  I took my leave.

337       Mr. Micawber, under pretence of showing me a nearer way than that
338  by which I had come, accompanied me to the corner of the street;
339  being anxious (he explained to me) to say a few words to an old
340  friend, in confidence.

341       'My dear Copperfield,' said Mr. Micawber, 'I need hardly tell you
342  that to have beneath our roof, under existing circumstances, a mind
343  like that which gleams - if I may be allowed the expression - which
344  gleams - in your friend Traddles, is an unspeakable comfort. With
345  a washerwoman, who exposes hard-bake for sale in her
346  parlour-window, dwelling next door, and a Bow-street officer
347  residing over the way, you may imagine that his society is a source
348  of consolation to myself and to Mrs. Micawber. I am at present, my
349  dear Copperfield, engaged in the sale of corn upon commission. It
350  is not an avocation of a remunerative description - in other words,
351  it does not pay - and some temporary embarrassments of a pecuniary
352  nature have been the consequence. I am, however, delighted to add
353  that I have now an immediate prospect of something turning up (I am
354  not at liberty to say in what direction), which I trust will enable
355  me to provide, permanently, both for myself and for your friend
356  Traddles, in whom I have an unaffected interest. You may, perhaps,
357  be prepared to hear that Mrs. Micawber is in a state of health
358  which renders it not wholly improbable that an addition may be
359  ultimately made to those pledges of affection which - in short, to
360  the infantine group. Mrs. Micawber's family have been so good as
361  to express their dissatisfaction at this state of things. I have
362  merely to observe, that I am not aware that it is any business of
363  theirs, and that I repel that exhibition of feeling with scorn, and
364  with defiance!'

365       Mr. Micawber then shook hands with me again, and left me.

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