Home


Charles Dickens
Chapter 35
Charles Dickens
 
 
1       As soon as I could recover my presence of mind, which quite
2  deserted me in the first overpowering shock of my aunt's
3  intelligence, I proposed to Mr. Dick to come round to the
4  chandler's shop, and take possession of the bed which Mr. Peggotty
5  had lately vacated. The chandler's shop being in Hungerford
6  Market, and Hungerford Market being a very different place in those
7  days, there was a low wooden colonnade before the door (not very
8  unlike that before the house where the little man and woman used to
9  live, in the old weather-glass), which pleased Mr. Dick mightily.
10  The glory of lodging over this structure would have compensated
11  him, I dare say, for many inconveniences; but, as there were really
12  few to bear, beyond the compound of flavours I have already
13  mentioned, and perhaps the want of a little more elbow-room, he was
14  perfectly charmed with his accommodation. Mrs. Crupp had
15  indignantly assured him that there wasn't room to swing a cat
16  there; but, as Mr. Dick justly observed to me, sitting down on the
17  foot of the bed, nursing his leg, 'You know, Trotwood, I don't want
18  to swing a cat. I never do swing a cat. Therefore, what does that
19  signify to ME!'

20       I tried to ascertain whether Mr. Dick had any understanding of the
21  causes of this sudden and great change in my aunt's affairs. As I
22  might have expected, he had none at all. The only account he could
23  give of it was, that my aunt had said to him, the day before
24  yesterday, 'Now, Dick, are you really and truly the philosopher I
25  take you for?' That then he had said, Yes, he hoped so. That then
26  my aunt had said, 'Dick, I am ruined.' That then he had said, 'Oh,
27  indeed!' That then my aunt had praised him highly, which he was
28  glad of. And that then they had come to me, and had had bottled
29  porter and sandwiches on the road.

30       Mr. Dick was so very complacent, sitting on the foot of the bed,
31  nursing his leg, and telling me this, with his eyes wide open and
32  a surprised smile, that I am sorry to say I was provoked into
33  explaining to him that ruin meant distress, want, and starvation;
34  but I was soon bitterly reproved for this harshness, by seeing his
35  face turn pale, and tears course down his lengthened cheeks, while
36  he fixed upon me a look of such unutterable woe, that it might have
37  softened a far harder heart than mine. I took infinitely greater
38  pains to cheer him up again than I had taken to depress him; and I
39  soon understood (as I ought to have known at first) that he had
40  been so confident, merely because of his faith in the wisest and
41  most wonderful of women, and his unbounded reliance on my
42  intellectual resources. The latter, I believe, he considered a
43  match for any kind of disaster not absolutely mortal.

44       'What can we do, Trotwood?' said Mr. Dick. 'There's the Memorial
45  -'

46       'To be sure there is,' said I. 'But all we can do just now, Mr.
47  Dick, is to keep a cheerful countenance, and not let my aunt see
48  that we are thinking about it.'

49       He assented to this in the most earnest manner; and implored me, if
50  I should see him wandering an inch out of the right course, to
51  recall him by some of those superior methods which were always at
52  my command. But I regret to state that the fright I had given him
53  proved too much for his best attempts at concealment. All the
54  evening his eyes wandered to my aunt's face, with an expression of
55  the most dismal apprehension, as if he saw her growing thin on the
56  spot. He was conscious of this, and put a constraint upon his
57  head; but his keeping that immovable, and sitting rolling his eyes
58  like a piece of machinery, did not mend the matter at all. I saw
59  him look at the loaf at supper (which happened to be a small one),
60  as if nothing else stood between us and famine; and when my aunt
61  insisted on his making his customary repast, I detected him in the
62  act of pocketing fragments of his bread and cheese; I have no doubt
63  for the purpose of reviving us with those savings, when we should
64  have reached an advanced stage of attenuation.

65       My aunt, on the other hand, was in a composed frame of mind, which
66  was a lesson to all of us - to me, I am sure. She was extremely
67  gracious to Peggotty, except when I inadvertently called her by
68  that name; and, strange as I knew she felt in London, appeared
69  quite at home. She was to have my bed, and I was to lie in the
70  sitting-room, to keep guard over her. She made a great point of
71  being so near the river, in case of a conflagration; and I suppose
72  really did find some satisfaction in that circumstance.

73       'Trot, my dear,' said my aunt, when she saw me making preparations
74  for compounding her usual night-draught, 'No!'

75       'Nothing, aunt?'

76       'Not wine, my dear. Ale.'

77       'But there is wine here, aunt. And you always have it made of
78  wine.'

79       'Keep that, in case of sickness,' said my aunt. 'We mustn't use it
80  carelessly, Trot. Ale for me. Half a pint.'

81       I thought Mr. Dick would have fallen, insensible. My aunt being
82  resolute, I went out and got the ale myself. As it was growing
83  late, Peggotty and Mr. Dick took that opportunity of repairing to
84  the chandler's shop together. I parted from him, poor fellow, at
85  the corner of the street, with his great kite at his back, a very
86  monument of human misery.

87       My aunt was walking up and down the room when I returned, crimping
88  the borders of her nightcap with her fingers. I warmed the ale and
89  made the toast on the usual infallible principles. When it was
90  ready for her, she was ready for it, with her nightcap on, and the
91  skirt of her gown turned back on her knees.

92       'My dear,' said my aunt, after taking a spoonful of it; 'it's a
93  great deal better than wine. Not half so bilious.'

94       I suppose I looked doubtful, for she added:

95       'Tut, tut, child. If nothing worse than Ale happens to us, we are
96  well off.'

97       'I should think so myself, aunt, I am sure,' said I.

98       'Well, then, why DON'T you think so?' said my aunt.

99       'Because you and I are very different people,' I returned.

100       'Stuff and nonsense, Trot!' replied my aunt.

101       MY aunt went on with a quiet enjoyment, in which there was very
102  little affectation, if any; drinking the warm ale with a tea-spoon,
103  and soaking her strips of toast in it.

104       'Trot,' said she, 'I don't care for strange faces in general, but
105  I rather like that Barkis of yours, do you know!'

106       'It's better than a hundred pounds to hear you say so!' said I.

107       'It's a most extraordinary world,' observed my aunt, rubbing her
108  nose; 'how that woman ever got into it with that name, is
109  unaccountable to me. It would be much more easy to be born a
110  Jackson, or something of that sort, one would think.'

111       'Perhaps she thinks so, too; it's not her fault,' said I.

112       'I suppose not,' returned my aunt, rather grudging the admission;
113  'but it's very aggravating. However, she's Barkis now. That's
114  some comfort. Barkis is uncommonly fond of you, Trot.'

115       'There is nothing she would leave undone to prove it,' said I.

116       'Nothing, I believe,' returned my aunt. 'Here, the poor fool has
117  been begging and praying about handing over some of her money -
118  because she has got too much of it. A simpleton!'

119       My aunt's tears of pleasure were positively trickling down into the
120  warm ale.

121       'She's the most ridiculous creature that ever was born,' said my
122  aunt. 'I knew, from the first moment when I saw her with that poor
123  dear blessed baby of a mother of yours, that she was the most
124  ridiculous of mortals. But there are good points in Barkis!'

125       Affecting to laugh, she got an opportunity of putting her hand to
126  her eyes. Having availed herself of it, she resumed her toast and
127  her discourse together.

128       'Ah! Mercy upon us!' sighed my aunt. 'I know all about it, Trot!
129  Barkis and myself had quite a gossip while you were out with Dick.
130  I know all about it. I don't know where these wretched girls
131  expect to go to, for my part. I wonder they don't knock out their
132  brains against - against mantelpieces,' said my aunt; an idea which
133  was probably suggested to her by her contemplation of mine.

134       'Poor Emily!' said I.

135       'Oh, don't talk to me about poor,' returned my aunt. 'She should
136  have thought of that, before she caused so much misery! Give me a
137  kiss, Trot. I am sorry for your early experience.'

138       As I bent forward, she put her tumbler on my knee to detain me, and
139  said:

140       'Oh, Trot, Trot! And so you fancy yourself in love! Do you?'

141       'Fancy, aunt!' I exclaimed, as red as I could be. 'I adore her
142  with my whole soul!'

143       'Dora, indeed!' returned my aunt. 'And you mean to say the little
144  thing is very fascinating, I suppose?'

145       'My dear aunt,' I replied, 'no one can form the least idea what she
146  is!'

147       'Ah! And not silly?' said my aunt.

148       'Silly, aunt!'

149       I seriously believe it had never once entered my head for a single
150  moment, to consider whether she was or not. I resented the idea,
151  of course; but I was in a manner struck by it, as a new one
152  altogether.

153       'Not light-headed?' said my aunt.

154       'Light-headed, aunt!' I could only repeat this daring speculation
155  with the same kind of feeling with which I had repeated the
156  preceding question.

157       'Well, well!' said my aunt. 'I only ask. I don't depreciate her.
158  Poor little couple! And so you think you were formed for one
159  another, and are to go through a party-supper-table kind of life,
160  like two pretty pieces of confectionery, do you, Trot?'

161       She asked me this so kindly, and with such a gentle air, half
162  playful and half sorrowful, that I was quite touched.

163       'We are young and inexperienced, aunt, I know,' I replied; 'and I
164  dare say we say and think a good deal that is rather foolish. But
165  we love one another truly, I am sure. If I thought Dora could ever
166  love anybody else, or cease to love me; or that I could ever love
167  anybody else, or cease to love her; I don't know what I should do
168  - go out of my mind, I think!'

169       'Ah, Trot!' said my aunt, shaking her head, and smiling gravely;
170  'blind, blind, blind!'

171       'Someone that I know, Trot,' my aunt pursued, after a pause,
172  'though of a very pliant disposition, has an earnestness of
173  affection in him that reminds me of poor Baby. Earnestness is what
174  that Somebody must look for, to sustain him and improve him, Trot.
175  Deep, downright, faithful earnestness.'

176       'If you only knew the earnestness of Dora, aunt!' I cried.

177       'Oh, Trot!' she said again; 'blind, blind!' and without knowing
178  why, I felt a vague unhappy loss or want of something overshadow me
179  like a cloud.

180       'However,' said my aunt, 'I don't want to put two young creatures
181  out of conceit with themselves, or to make them unhappy; so, though
182  it is a girl and boy attachment, and girl and boy attachments very
183  often - mind! I don't say always! - come to nothing, still we'll be
184  serious about it, and hope for a prosperous issue one of these
185  days. There's time enough for it to come to anything!'

186       This was not upon the whole very comforting to a rapturous lover;
187  but I was glad to have my aunt in my confidence, and I was mindful
188  of her being fatigued. So I thanked her ardently for this mark of
189  her affection, and for all her other kindnesses towards me; and
190  after a tender good night, she took her nightcap into my bedroom.

191       How miserable I was, when I lay down! How I thought and thought
192  about my being poor, in Mr. Spenlow's eyes; about my not being what
193  I thought I was, when I proposed to Dora; about the chivalrous
194  necessity of telling Dora what my worldly condition was, and
195  releasing her from her engagement if she thought fit; about how I
196  should contrive to live, during the long term of my articles, when
197  I was earning nothing; about doing something to assist my aunt, and
198  seeing no way of doing anything; about coming down to have no money
199  in my pocket, and to wear a shabby coat, and to be able to carry
200  Dora no little presents, and to ride no gallant greys, and to show
201  myself in no agreeable light! Sordid and selfish as I knew it was,
202  and as I tortured myself by knowing that it was, to let my mind run
203  on my own distress so much, I was so devoted to Dora that I could
204  not help it. I knew that it was base in me not to think more of my
205  aunt, and less of myself; but, so far, selfishness was inseparable
206  from Dora, and I could not put Dora on one side for any mortal
207  creature. How exceedingly miserable I was, that night!

208       As to sleep, I had dreams of poverty in all sorts of shapes, but I
209  seemed to dream without the previous ceremony of going to sleep.
210  Now I was ragged, wanting to sell Dora matches, six bundles for a
211  halfpenny; now I was at the office in a nightgown and boots,
212  remonstrated with by Mr. Spenlow on appearing before the clients in
213  that airy attire; now I was hungrily picking up the crumbs that
214  fell from old Tiffey's daily biscuit, regularly eaten when St.
215  Paul's struck one; now I was hopelessly endeavouring to get a
216  licence to marry Dora, having nothing but one of Uriah Heep's
217  gloves to offer in exchange, which the whole Commons rejected; and
218  still, more or less conscious of my own room, I was always tossing
219  about like a distressed ship in a sea of bed-clothes.

220       My aunt was restless, too, for I frequently heard her walking to
221  and fro. Two or,three times in the course of the night, attired in
222  a long flannel wrapper in which she looked seven feet high, she
223  appeared, like a disturbed ghost, in my room, and came to the side
224  of the sofa on which I lay. On the first occasion I started up in
225  alarm, to learn that she inferred from a particular light in the
226  sky, that Westminster Abbey was on fire; and to be consulted in
227  reference to the probability of its igniting Buckingham Street, in
228  case the wind changed. Lying still, after that, I found that she
229  sat down near me, whispering to herself 'Poor boy!' And then it
230  made me twenty times more wretched, to know how unselfishly mindful
231  she was of me, and how selfishly mindful I was of myself.

232       It was difficult to believe that a night so long to me, could be
233  short to anybody else. This consideration set me thinking and
234  thinking of an imaginary party where people were dancing the hours
235  away, until that became a dream too, and I heard the music
236  incessantly playing one tune, and saw Dora incessantly dancing one
237  dance, without taking the least notice of me. The man who had been
238  playing the harp all night, was trying in vain to cover it with an
239  ordinary-sized nightcap, when I awoke; or I should rather say, when
240  I left off trying to go to sleep, and saw the sun shining in
241  through the window at last.

242       There was an old Roman bath in those days at the bottom of one of
243  the streets out of the Strand - it may be there still - in which I
244  have had many a cold plunge. Dressing myself as quietly as I
245  could, and leaving Peggotty to look after my aunt, I tumbled head
246  foremost into it, and then went for a walk to Hampstead. I had a
247  hope that this brisk treatment might freshen my wits a little; and
248  I think it did them good, for I soon came to the conclusion that
249  the first step I ought to take was, to try if my articles could be
250  cancelled and the premium recovered. I got some breakfast on the
251  Heath, and walked back to Doctors' Commons, along the watered roads

252       and through a pleasant smell of summer flowers, growing in gardens
253  and carried into town on hucksters' heads, intent on this first
254  effort to meet our altered circumstances.

255       I arrived at the office so soon, after all, that I had half an
256  hour's loitering about the Commons, before old Tiffey, who was
257  always first, appeared with his key. Then I sat down in my shady
258  corner, looking up at the sunlight on the opposite chimney-pots,
259  and thinking about Dora; until Mr. Spenlow came in, crisp and
260  curly.

261       'How are you, Copperfield?' said he. 'Fine morning!'

262       'Beautiful morning, sir,' said I. 'Could I say a word to you
263  before you go into Court?'

264       'By all means,' said he. 'Come into my room.'

265       I followed him into his room, and he began putting on his gown, and
266  touching himself up before a little glass he had, hanging inside a
267  closet door.

268       'I am sorry to say,' said I, 'that I have some rather disheartening
269  intelligence from my aunt.'

270       'No!' said he. 'Dear me! Not paralysis, I hope?'

271       'It has no reference to her health, sir,' I replied. 'She has met
272  with some large losses. In fact, she has very little left,
273  indeed.'

274       'You as-tound me, Copperfield!' cried Mr. Spenlow.

275       I shook my head. 'Indeed, sir,' said I, 'her affairs are so
276  changed, that I wished to ask you whether it would be possible - at
277  a sacrifice on our part of some portion of the premium, of course,'
278  I put in this, on the spur of the moment, warned by the blank
279  expression of his face - 'to cancel my articles?'

280       What it cost me to make this proposal, nobody knows. It was like
281  asking, as a favour, to be sentenced to transportation from Dora.

282       'To cancel your articles, Copperfield? Cancel?'

283       I explained with tolerable firmness, that I really did not know
284  where my means of subsistence were to come from, unless I could
285  earn them for myself. I had no fear for the future, I said - and
286  I laid great emphasis on that, as if to imply that I should still
287  be decidedly eligible for a son-in-law one of these days - but, for
288  the present, I was thrown upon my own resources.
289  'I am extremely sorry to hear this, Copperfield,' said Mr. Spenlow.
290  'Extremely sorry. It is not usual to cancel articles for any such
291  reason. It is not a professional course of proceeding. It is not
292  a convenient precedent at all. Far from it. At the same time -'

293       'You are very good, sir,' I murmured, anticipating a concession.

294       'Not at all. Don't mention it,' said Mr. Spenlow. 'At the same
295  time, I was going to say, if it had been my lot to have my hands
296  unfettered - if I had not a partner - Mr. Jorkins -'

297       My hopes were dashed in a moment, but I made another effort.

298       'Do you think, sir,' said I, 'if I were to mention it to Mr.
299  Jorkins -'

300       Mr. Spenlow shook his head discouragingly. 'Heaven forbid,
301  Copperfield,' he replied, 'that I should do any man an injustice:
302  still less, Mr. jorkins. But I know my partner, Copperfield. Mr.
303  jorkins is not a man to respond to a proposition of this peculiar
304  nature. Mr. jorkins is very difficult to move from the beaten
305  track. You know what he is!'

306       I am sure I knew nothing about him, except that he had originally
307  been alone in the business, and now lived by himself in a house
308  near Montagu Square, which was fearfully in want of painting; that
309  he came very late of a day, and went away very early; that he never
310  appeared to be consulted about anything; and that he had a dingy
311  little black-hole of his own upstairs, where no business was ever
312  done, and where there was a yellow old cartridge-paper pad upon his
313  desk, unsoiled by ink, and reported to be twenty years of age.

314       'Would you object to my mentioning it to him, sir?' I asked.

315       'By no means,' said Mr. Spenlow. 'But I have some experience of
316  Mr. jorkins, Copperfield. I wish it were otherwise, for I should
317  be happy to meet your views in any respect. I cannot have the
318  objection to your mentioning it to Mr. jorkins, Copperfield, if you
319  think it worth while.'

320       Availing myself of this permission, which was given with a warm
321  shake of the hand, I sat thinking about Dora, and looking at the
322  sunlight stealing from the chimney-pots down the wall of the
323  opposite house, until Mr. jorkins came. I then went up to Mr.
324  jorkins's room, and evidently astonished Mr. jorkins very much by
325  making my appearance there.

326       'Come in, Mr. Copperfield,' said Mr. jorkins. 'Come in!'

327       I went in, and sat down; and stated my case to Mr. jorkins pretty
328  much as I had stated it to Mr. Spenlow. Mr. Jorkins was not by any
329  means the awful creature one might have expected, but a large,
330  mild, smooth-faced man of sixty, who took so much snuff that there
331  was a tradition in the Commons that he lived principally on that
332  stimulant, having little room in his system for any other article
333  of diet.

334       'You have mentioned this to Mr. Spenlow, I suppose?' said Mr.
335  jorkins; when he had heard me, very restlessly, to an end.

336       I answered Yes, and told him that Mr. Spenlow had introduced his
337  name.

338       'He said I should object?' asked Mr. jorkins.

339       I was obliged to admit that Mr. Spenlow had considered it probable.

340       'I am sorry to say, Mr. Copperfield, I can't advance your object,'
341  said Mr. jorkins, nervously. 'The fact is - but I have an
342  appointment at the Bank, if you'll have the goodness to excuse me.'

343       With that he rose in a great hurry, and was going out of the room,
344  when I made bold to say that I feared, then, there was no way of
345  arranging the matter?

346       'No!' said Mr. jorkins, stopping at the door to shake his head.
347  'Oh, no! I object, you know,' which he said very rapidly, and went
348  out. 'You must be aware, Mr. Copperfield,' he added, looking
349  restlessly in at the door again, 'if Mr. Spenlow objects -'

350       'Personally, he does not object, sir,' said I.

351       'Oh! Personally!' repeated Mr. Jorkins, in an impatient manner.
352  'I assure you there's an objection, Mr. Copperfield. Hopeless!
353  What you wish to be done, can't be done. I - I really have got an
354  appointment at the Bank.' With that he fairly ran away; and to the
355  best of my knowledge, it was three days before he showed himself in
356  the Commons again.

357       Being very anxious to leave no stone unturned, I waited until Mr.
358  Spenlow came in, and then described what had passed; giving him to
359  understand that I was not hopeless of his being able to soften the
360  adamantine jorkins, if he would undertake the task.

361       'Copperfield,' returned Mr. Spenlow, with a gracious smile, 'you
362  have not known my partner, Mr. jorkins, as long as I have. Nothing
363  is farther from my thoughts than to attribute any degree of
364  artifice to Mr. jorkins. But Mr. jorkins has a way of stating his
365  objections which often deceives people. No, Copperfield!' shaking
366  his head. 'Mr. jorkins is not to be moved, believe me!'

367       I was completely bewildered between Mr. Spenlow and Mr. jorkins, as
368  to which of them really was the objecting partner; but I saw with
369  sufficient clearness that there was obduracy somewhere in the firm,
370  and that the recovery of my aunt's thousand pounds was out of the
371  question. In a state of despondency, which I remember with
372  anything but satisfaction, for I know it still had too much
373  reference to myself (though always in connexion with Dora), I left
374  the office, and went homeward.

375       I was trying to familiarize my mind with the worst, and to present
376  to myself the arrangements we should have to make for the future in
377  their sternest aspect, when a hackney-chariot coming after me, and
378  stopping at my very feet, occasioned me to look up. A fair hand
379  was stretched forth to me from the window; and the face I had never
380  seen without a feeling of serenity and happiness, from the moment
381  when it first turned back on the old oak staircase with the great
382  broad balustrade, and when I associated its softened beauty with
383  the stained-glass window in the church, was smiling on me.

384       'Agnes!' I joyfully exclaimed. 'Oh, my dear Agnes, of all people
385  in the world, what a pleasure to see you!'

386       'Is it, indeed?' she said, in her cordial voice.

387       'I want to talk to you so much!' said I. 'It's such a lightening
388  of my heart, only to look at you! If I had had a conjuror's cap,
389  there is no one I should have wished for but you!'

390       'What?' returned Agnes.

391       'Well! perhaps Dora first,' I admitted, with a blush.

392       'Certainly, Dora first, I hope,' said Agnes, laughing.

393       'But you next!' said I. 'Where are you going?'

394       She was going to my rooms to see my aunt. The day being very fine,
395  she was glad to come out of the chariot, which smelt (I had my head
396  in it all this time) like a stable put under a cucumber-frame. I
397  dismissed the coachman, and she took my arm, and we walked on
398  together. She was like Hope embodied, to me. How different I felt
399  in one short minute, having Agnes at my side!

400       My aunt had written her one of the odd, abrupt notes - very little
401  longer than a Bank note - to which her epistolary efforts were
402  usually limited. She had stated therein that she had fallen into
403  adversity, and was leaving Dover for good, but had quite made up
404  her mind to it, and was so well that nobody need be uncomfortable
405  about her. Agnes had come to London to see my aunt, between whom
406  and herself there had been a mutual liking these many years:
407  indeed, it dated from the time of my taking up my residence in Mr.
408  Wickfield's house. She was not alone, she said. Her papa was with
409  her - and Uriah Heep.

410       'And now they are partners,' said I. 'Confound him!'

411       'Yes,' said Agnes. 'They have some business here; and I took
412  advantage of their coming, to come too. You must not think my
413  visit all friendly and disinterested, Trotwood, for - I am afraid
414  I may be cruelly prejudiced - I do not like to let papa go away
415  alone, with him.'
416  'Does he exercise the same influence over Mr. Wickfield still,
417  Agnes?'

418       Agnes shook her head. 'There is such a change at home,' said she,
419  'that you would scarcely know the dear old house. They live with
420  us now.'

421       'They?' said I.

422       'Mr. Heep and his mother. He sleeps in your old room,' said Agnes,
423  looking up into my face.

424       'I wish I had the ordering of his dreams,' said I. 'He wouldn't
425  sleep there long.'

426       'I keep my own little room,' said Agnes, 'where I used to learn my
427  lessons. How the time goes! You remember? The little panelled
428  room that opens from the drawing-room?'

429       'Remember, Agnes? When I saw you, for the first time, coming out
430  at the door, with your quaint little basket of keys hanging at your
431  side?'

432       'It is just the same,' said Agnes, smiling. 'I am glad you think
433  of it so pleasantly. We were very happy.'

434       'We were, indeed,' said I.

435       'I keep that room to myself still; but I cannot always desert Mrs.
436  Heep, you know. And so,' said Agnes, quietly, 'I feel obliged to
437  bear her company, when I might prefer to be alone. But I have no
438  other reason to complain of her. If she tires me, sometimes, by
439  her praises of her son, it is only natural in a mother. He is a
440  very good son to her.'

441       I looked at Agnes when she said these words, without detecting in
442  her any consciousness of Uriah's design. Her mild but earnest eyes
443  met mine with their own beautiful frankness, and there was no
444  change in her gentle face.

445       'The chief evil of their presence in the house,' said Agnes, 'is
446  that I cannot be as near papa as I could wish - Uriah Heep being so
447  much between us - and cannot watch over him, if that is not too
448  bold a thing to say, as closely as I would. But if any fraud or
449  treachery is practising against him, I hope that simple love and
450  truth will be strong in the end. I hope that real love and truth
451  are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.'

452       A certain bright smile, which I never saw on any other face, died
453  away, even while I thought how good it was, and how familiar it had
454  once been to me; and she asked me, with a quick change of
455  expression (we were drawing very near my street), if I knew how the
456  reverse in my aunt's circumstances had been brought about. On my
457  replying no, she had not told me yet, Agnes became thoughtful, and
458  I fancied I felt her arm tremble in mine.

459       We found my aunt alone, in a state of some excitement. A
460  difference of opinion had arisen between herself and Mrs. Crupp, on
461  an abstract question (the propriety of chambers being inhabited by
462  the gentler sex); and my aunt, utterly indifferent to spasms on the
463  part of Mrs. Crupp, had cut the dispute short, by informing that
464  lady that she smelt of my brandy, and that she would trouble her to
465  walk out. Both of these expressions Mrs. Crupp considered
466  actionable, and had expressed her intention of bringing before a
467  'British Judy' - meaning, it was supposed, the bulwark of our
468  national liberties.

469       MY aunt, however, having had time to cool, while Peggotty was out
470  showing Mr. Dick the soldiers at the Horse Guards - and being,
471  besides, greatly pleased to see Agnes - rather plumed herself on
472  the affair than otherwise, and received us with unimpaired good
473  humour. When Agnes laid her bonnet on the table, and sat down
474  beside her, I could not but think, looking on her mild eyes and her
475  radiant forehead, how natural it seemed to have her there; how
476  trustfully, although she was so young and inexperienced, my aunt
477  confided in her; how strong she was, indeed, in simple love and
478  truth.

479       We began to talk about my aunt's losses, and I told them what I had
480  tried to do that morning.

481       'Which was injudicious, Trot,' said my aunt, 'but well meant. You
482  are a generous boy - I suppose I must say, young man, now - and I
483  am proud of you, my dear. So far, so good. Now, Trot and Agnes,
484  let us look the case of Betsey Trotwood in the face, and see how it
485  stands.'

486       I observed Agnes turn pale, as she looked very attentively at my
487  aunt. My aunt, patting her cat, looked very attentively at Agnes.

488       'Betsey Trotwood,' said my aunt, who had always kept her money
489  matters to herself. '- I don't mean your sister, Trot, my dear,
490  but myself - had a certain property. It don't matter how much;
491  enough to live on. More; for she had saved a little, and added to
492  it. Betsey funded her property for some time, and then, by the
493  advice of her man of business, laid it out on landed security.
494  That did very well, and returned very good interest, till Betsey
495  was paid off. I am talking of Betsey as if she was a man-of-war.
496  Well! Then, Betsey had to look about her, for a new investment.
497  She thought she was wiser, now, than her man of business, who was
498  not such a good man of business by this time, as he used to be - I
499  am alluding to your father, Agnes - and she took it into her head
500  to lay it out for herself. So she took her pigs,' said my aunt,
501  'to a foreign market; and a very bad market it turned out to be.
502  First, she lost in the mining way, and then she lost in the diving
503  way - fishing up treasure, or some such Tom Tiddler nonsense,'
504  explained my aunt, rubbing her nose; 'and then she lost in the
505  mining way again, and, last of all, to set the thing entirely to
506  rights, she lost in the banking way. I don't know what the Bank
507  shares were worth for a little while,' said my aunt; 'cent per cent
508  was the lowest of it, I believe; but the Bank was at the other end
509  of the world, and tumbled into space, for what I know; anyhow, it
510  fell to pieces, and never will and never can pay sixpence; and
511  Betsey's sixpences were all there, and there's an end of them.
512  Least said, soonest mended!'

513       My aunt concluded this philosophical summary, by fixing her eyes
514  with a kind of triumph on Agnes, whose colour was gradually
515  returning.

516       'Dear Miss Trotwood, is that all the history?' said Agnes.

517       'I hope it's enough, child,' said my aunt. 'If there had been more
518  money to lose, it wouldn't have been all, I dare say. Betsey would
519  have contrived to throw that after the rest, and make another

Previous: Chapter 34 | Next: Chapter 36

Return:    Contents