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Charles Dickens
Chapter 53
Charles Dickens
 
 
1       When the time Mr. Micawber had appointed so mysteriously, was
2  within four-and-twenty hours of being come, my aunt and I consulted
3  how we should proceed; for my aunt was very unwilling to leave
4  Dora. Ah! how easily I carried Dora up and down stairs, now!

5       We were disposed, notwithstanding Mr. Micawber's stipulation for my
6  aunt's attendance, to arrange that she should stay at home, and be
7  represented by Mr. Dick and me. In short, we had resolved to take
8  this course, when Dora again unsettled us by declaring that she
9  never would forgive herself, and never would forgive her bad boy,
10  if my aunt remained behind, on any pretence.

11       'I won't speak to you,' said Dora, shaking her curls at my aunt.
12  'I'll be disagreeable! I'll make Jip bark at you all day. I shall
13  be sure that you really are a cross old thing, if you don't go!'

14       'Tut, Blossom!' laughed my aunt. 'You know you can't do without
15  me!'

16       'Yes, I can,' said Dora. 'You are no use to me at all. You never
17  run up and down stairs for me, all day long. You never sit and
18  tell me stories about Doady, when his shoes were worn out, and he
19  was covered with dust - oh, what a poor little mite of a fellow!
20  You never do anything at all to please me, do you, dear?' Dora made
21  haste to kiss my aunt, and say, 'Yes, you do! I'm only joking!'-
22  lest my aunt should think she really meant it.

23       'But, aunt,' said Dora, coaxingly, 'now listen. You must go. I
24  shall tease you, 'till you let me have my own way about it. I
25  shall lead my naughty boy such a life, if he don't make you go. I
26  shall make myself so disagreeable - and so will Jip! You'll wish
27  you had gone, like a good thing, for ever and ever so long, if you
28  don't go. Besides,' said Dora, putting back her hair, and looking
29  wonderingly at my aunt and me, 'why shouldn't you both go? I am
30  not very ill indeed. Am I?'

31       'Why, what a question!' cried my aunt.

32       'What a fancy!' said I.

33       'Yes! I know I am a silly little thing!' said Dora, slowly looking
34  from one of us to the other, and then putting up her pretty lips to
35  kiss us as she lay upon her couch. 'Well, then, you must both go,
36  or I shall not believe you; and then I shall cry!'

37       I saw, in my aunt's face, that she began to give way now, and Dora
38  brightened again, as she saw it too.

39       'You'll come back with so much to tell me, that it'll take at least
40  a week to make me understand!' said Dora. 'Because I know I shan't
41  understand, for a length of time, if there's any business in it.
42  And there's sure to be some business in it! If there's anything to
43  add up, besides, I don't know when I shall make it out; and my bad
44  boy will look so miserable all the time. There! Now you'll go,
45  won't you? You'll only be gone one night, and Jip will take care
46  of me while you are gone. Doady will carry me upstairs before you
47  go, and I won't come down again till you come back; and you shall
48  take Agnes a dreadfully scolding letter from me, because she has
49  never been to see us!'

50       We agreed, without any more consultation, that we would both go,
51  and that Dora was a little Impostor, who feigned to be rather
52  unwell, because she liked to be petted. She was greatly pleased,
53  and very merry; and we four, that is to say, my aunt, Mr. Dick,
54  Traddles, and I, went down to Canterbury by the Dover mail that
55  night.

56       At the hotel where Mr. Micawber had requested us to await him,
57  which we got into, with some trouble, in the middle of the night,
58  I found a letter, importing that he would appear in the morning
59  punctually at half past nine. After which, we went shivering, at
60  that uncomfortable hour, to our respective beds, through various
61  close passages; which smelt as if they had been steeped, for ages,
62  in a solution of soup and stables.

63       Early in the morning, I sauntered through the dear old tranquil
64  streets, and again mingled with the shadows of the venerable
65  gateways and churches. The rooks were sailing about the cathedral
66  towers; and the towers themselves, overlooking many a long
67  unaltered mile of the rich country and its pleasant streams, were
68  cutting the bright morning air, as if there were no such thing as
69  change on earth. Yet the bells, when they sounded, told me
70  sorrowfully of change in everything; told me of their own age, and
71  my pretty Dora's youth; and of the many, never old, who had lived
72  and loved and died, while the reverberations of the bells had
73  hummed through the rusty armour of the Black Prince hanging up
74  within, and, motes upon the deep of Time, had lost themselves in
75  air, as circles do in water.

76       I looked at the old house from the corner of the street, but did
77  not go nearer to it, lest, being observed, I might unwittingly do
78  any harm to the design I had come to aid. The early sun was
79  striking edgewise on its gables and lattice-windows, touching them
80  with gold; and some beams of its old peace seemed to touch my
81  heart.

82       I strolled into the country for an hour or so, and then returned by
83  the main street, which in the interval had shaken off its last
84  night's sleep. Among those who were stirring in the shops, I saw
85  my ancient enemy the butcher, now advanced to top-boots and a baby,
86  and in business for himself. He was nursing the baby, and appeared
87  to be a benignant member of society.

88       We all became very anxious and impatient, when we sat down to
89  breakfast. As it approached nearer and nearer to half past nine
90  o'clock, our restless expectation of Mr. Micawber increased. At
91  last we made no more pretence of attending to the meal, which,
92  except with Mr. Dick, had been a mere form from the first; but my
93  aunt walked up and down the room, Traddles sat upon the sofa
94  affecting to read the paper with his eyes on the ceiling; and I
95  looked out of the window to give early notice of Mr. Micawber's
96  coming. Nor had I long to watch, for, at the first chime of the
97  half hour, he appeared in the street.

98       'Here he is,' said I, 'and not in his legal attire!'

99       My aunt tied the strings of her bonnet (she had come down to
100  breakfast in it), and put on her shawl, as if she were ready for
101  anything that was resolute and uncompromising. Traddles buttoned
102  his coat with a determined air. Mr. Dick, disturbed by these
103  formidable appearances, but feeling it necessary to imitate them,
104  pulled his hat, with both hands, as firmly over his ears as he
105  possibly could; and instantly took it off again, to welcome Mr.
106  Micawber.

107       'Gentlemen, and madam,' said Mr. Micawber, 'good morning! My dear
108  sir,' to Mr. Dick, who shook hands with him violently, 'you are
109  extremely good.'

110       'Have you breakfasted?' said Mr. Dick. 'Have a chop!'

111       'Not for the world, my good sir!' cried Mr. Micawber, stopping him
112  on his way to the bell; 'appetite and myself, Mr. Dixon, have long
113  been strangers.'

114       Mr. Dixon was so well pleased with his new name, and appeared to
115  think it so obliging in Mr. Micawber to confer it upon him, that he
116  shook hands with him again, and laughed rather childishly.

117       'Dick,' said my aunt, 'attention!'

118       Mr. Dick recovered himself, with a blush.

119       'Now, sir,' said my aunt to Mr. Micawber, as she put on her gloves,
120  'we are ready for Mount Vesuvius, or anything else, as soon as YOU
121  please.'

122       'Madam,' returned Mr. Micawber, 'I trust you will shortly witness
123  an eruption. Mr. Traddles, I have your permission, I believe, to
124  mention here that we have been in communication together?'

125       'It is undoubtedly the fact, Copperfield,' said Traddles, to whom
126  I looked in surprise. 'Mr. Micawber has consulted me in reference
127  to what he has in contemplation; and I have advised him to the best
128  of my judgement.'

129       'Unless I deceive myself, Mr. Traddles,' pursued Mr. Micawber,
130  'what I contemplate is a disclosure of an important nature.'

131       'Highly so,' said Traddles.

132       'Perhaps, under such circumstances, madam and gentlemen,' said Mr.
133  Micawber, 'you will do me the favour to submit yourselves, for the
134  moment, to the direction of one who, however unworthy to be
135  regarded in any other light but as a Waif and Stray upon the shore
136  of human nature, is still your fellow-man, though crushed out of
137  his original form by individual errors, and the accumulative force
138  of a combination of circumstances?'

139       'We have perfect confidence in you, Mr. Micawber,' said I, 'and
140  will do what you please.'

141       'Mr. Copperfield,' returned Mr. Micawber, 'your confidence is not,
142  at the existing juncture, ill-bestowed. I would beg to be allowed
143  a start of five minutes by the clock; and then to receive the
144  present company, inquiring for Miss Wickfield, at the office of
145  Wickfield and Heep, whose Stipendiary I am.'

146       My aunt and I looked at Traddles, who nodded his approval.

147       'I have no more,' observed Mr. Micawber, 'to say at present.'

148       With which, to my infinite surprise, he included us all in a
149  comprehensive bow, and disappeared; his manner being extremely
150  distant, and his face extremely pale.

151       Traddles only smiled, and shook his head (with his hair standing
152  upright on the top of it), when I looked to him for an explanation;
153  so I took out my watch, and, as a last resource, counted off the
154  five minutes. My aunt, with her own watch in her hand, did the
155  like. When the time was expired, Traddles gave her his arm; and we
156  all went out together to the old house, without saying one word on
157  the way.

158       We found Mr. Micawber at his desk, in the turret office on the
159  ground floor, either writing, or pretending to write, hard. The
160  large office-ruler was stuck into his waistcoat, and was not so
161  well concealed but that a foot or more of that instrument protruded
162  from his bosom, like a new kind of shirt-frill.

163       As it appeared to me that I was expected to speak, I said aloud:

164       'How do you do, Mr. Micawber?'

165       'Mr. Copperfield,' said Mr. Micawber, gravely, 'I hope I see you
166  well?'

167       'Is Miss Wickfield at home?' said I.

168       'Mr. Wickfield is unwell in bed, sir, of a rheumatic fever,' he
169  returned; 'but Miss Wickfield, I have no doubt, will be happy to
170  see old friends. Will you walk in, sir?'

171       He preceded us to the dining-room - the first room I had entered in
172  that house - and flinging open the door of Mr. Wickfield's former
173  office, said, in a sonorous voice:

174       'Miss Trotwood, Mr. David Copperfield, Mr. Thomas Traddles, and Mr.
175  Dixon!'

176       I had not seen Uriah Heep since the time of the blow. Our visit
177  astonished him, evidently; not the less, I dare say, because it
178  astonished ourselves. He did not gather his eyebrows together, for
179  he had none worth mentioning; but he frowned to that degree that he
180  almost closed his small eyes, while the hurried raising of his
181  grisly hand to his chin betrayed some trepidation or surprise.
182  This was only when we were in the act of entering his room, and
183  when I caught a glance at him over my aunt's shoulder. A moment
184  afterwards, he was as fawning and as humble as ever.

185       'Well, I am sure,' he said. 'This is indeed an unexpected
186  pleasure! To have, as I may say, all friends round St. Paul's at
187  once, is a treat unlooked for! Mr. Copperfield, I hope I see you
188  well, and - if I may umbly express myself so - friendly towards
189  them as is ever your friends, whether or not. Mrs. Copperfield,
190  sir, I hope she's getting on. We have been made quite uneasy by
191  the poor accounts we have had of her state, lately, I do assure
192  you.'

193       I felt ashamed to let him take my hand, but I did not know yet what
194  else to do.

195       'Things are changed in this office, Miss Trotwood, since I was an
196  umble clerk, and held your pony; ain't they?' said Uriah, with his
197  sickliest smile. 'But I am not changed, Miss Trotwood.'

198       'Well, sir,' returned my aunt, 'to tell you the truth, I think you
199  are pretty constant to the promise of your youth; if that's any
200  satisfaction to you.'

201       'Thank you, Miss Trotwood,' said Uriah, writhing in his ungainly
202  manner, 'for your good opinion! Micawber, tell 'em to let Miss
203  Agnes know - and mother. Mother will be quite in a state, when she
204  sees the present company!' said Uriah, setting chairs.

205       'You are not busy, Mr. Heep?' said Traddles, whose eye the cunning
206  red eye accidentally caught, as it at once scrutinized and evaded
207  us.

208       'No, Mr. Traddles,' replied Uriah, resuming his official seat, and
209  squeezing his bony hands, laid palm to palm between his bony knees.
210  'Not so much so as I could wish. But lawyers, sharks, and leeches,
211  are not easily satisfied, you know! Not but what myself and
212  Micawber have our hands pretty full, in general, on account of Mr.
213  Wickfield's being hardly fit for any occupation, sir. But it's a
214  pleasure as well as a duty, I am sure, to work for him. You've not
215  been intimate with Mr. Wickfield, I think, Mr. Traddles? I believe
216  I've only had the honour of seeing you once myself?'

217       'No, I have not been intimate with Mr. Wickfield,' returned
218  Traddles; 'or I might perhaps have waited on you long ago, Mr.
219  Heep.'

220       There was something in the tone of this reply, which made Uriah
221  look at the speaker again, with a very sinister and suspicious
222  expression. But, seeing only Traddles, with his good-natured face,
223  simple manner, and hair on end, he dismissed it as he replied, with
224  a jerk of his whole body, but especially his throat:

225       'I am sorry for that, Mr. Traddles. You would have admired him as
226  much as we all do. His little failings would only have endeared
227  him to you the more. But if you would like to hear my
228  fellow-partner eloquently spoken of, I should refer you to
229  Copperfield. The family is a subject he's very strong upon, if you
230  never heard him.'

231       I was prevented from disclaiming the compliment (if I should have
232  done so, in any case), by the entrance of Agnes, now ushered in by
233  Mr. Micawber. She was not quite so self-possessed as usual, I
234  thought; and had evidently undergone anxiety and fatigue. But her
235  earnest cordiality, and her quiet beauty, shone with the gentler
236  lustre for it.

237       I saw Uriah watch her while she greeted us; and he reminded me of
238  an ugly and rebellious genie watching a good spirit. In the
239  meanwhile, some slight sign passed between Mr. Micawber and
240  Traddles; and Traddles, unobserved except by me, went out.

241       'Don't wait, Micawber,' said Uriah.

242       Mr. Micawber, with his hand upon the ruler in his breast, stood
243  erect before the door, most unmistakably contemplating one of his
244  fellow-men, and that man his employer.

245       'What are you waiting for?' said Uriah. 'Micawber! did you hear me
246  tell you not to wait?'

247       'Yes!' replied the immovable Mr. Micawber.

248       'Then why DO you wait?' said Uriah.

249       'Because I - in short, choose,' replied Mr. Micawber, with a burst.

250       Uriah's cheeks lost colour, and an unwholesome paleness, still
251  faintly tinged by his pervading red, overspread them. He looked at
252  Mr. Micawber attentively, with his whole face breathing short and
253  quick in every feature.

254       'You are a dissipated fellow, as all the world knows,' he said,
255  with an effort at a smile, 'and I am afraid you'll oblige me to get
256  rid of you. Go along! I'll talk to you presently.'

257       'If there is a scoundrel on this earth,' said Mr. Micawber,
258  suddenly breaking out again with the utmost vehemence, 'with whom
259  I have already talked too much, that scoundrel's name is - HEEP!'

260       Uriah fell back, as if he had been struck or stung. Looking slowly
261  round upon us with the darkest and wickedest expression that his
262  face could wear, he said, in a lower voice:

263       'Oho! This is a conspiracy! You have met here by appointment! You
264  are playing Booty with my clerk, are you, Copperfield? Now, take
265  care. You'll make nothing of this. We understand each other, you
266  and me. There's no love between us. You were always a puppy with
267  a proud stomach, from your first coming here; and you envy me my
268  rise, do you? None of your plots against me; I'll counterplot you!
269  Micawber, you be off. I'll talk to you presently.'

270       'Mr. Micawber,' said I, 'there is a sudden change in this fellow.
271  in more respects than the extraordinary one of his speaking the
272  truth in one particular, which assures me that he is brought to
273  bay. Deal with him as he deserves!'

274       'You are a precious set of people, ain't you?' said Uriah, in the
275  same low voice, and breaking out into a clammy heat, which he wiped
276  from his forehead, with his long lean hand, 'to buy over my clerk,
277  who is the very scum of society, - as you yourself were,
278  Copperfield, you know it, before anyone had charity on you, - to
279  defame me with his lies? Miss Trotwood, you had better stop this;
280  or I'll stop your husband shorter than will be pleasant to you. I
281  won't know your story professionally, for nothing, old lady! Miss
282  Wickfield, if you have any love for your father, you had better not
283  join that gang. I'll ruin him, if you do. Now, come! I have got
284  some of you under the harrow. Think twice, before it goes over
285  you. Think twice, you, Micawber, if you don't want to be crushed.
286  I recommend you to take yourself off, and be talked to presently,
287  you fool! while there's time to retreat. Where's mother?' he said,
288  suddenly appearing to notice, with alarm, the absence of Traddles,
289  and pulling down the bell-rope. 'Fine doings in a person's own
290  house!'

291       'Mrs. Heep is here, sir,' said Traddles, returning with that worthy
292  mother of a worthy son. 'I have taken the liberty of making myself
293  known to her.'

294       'Who are you to make yourself known?' retorted Uriah. 'And what do
295  you want here?'

296       'I am the agent and friend of Mr. Wickfield, sir,' said Traddles,
297  in a composed and business-like way. 'And I have a power of
298  attorney from him in my pocket, to act for him in all matters.'

299       'The old ass has drunk himself into a state of dotage,' said Uriah,
300  turning uglier than before, 'and it has been got from him by
301  fraud!'

302       'Something has been got from him by fraud, I know,' returned
303  Traddles quietly; 'and so do you, Mr. Heep. We will refer that
304  question, if you please, to Mr. Micawber.'

305       'Ury -!' Mrs. Heep began, with an anxious gesture.

306       'YOU hold your tongue, mother,' he returned; 'least said, soonest
307  mended.'

308       'But, my Ury -'

309       'Will you hold your tongue, mother, and leave it to me?'

310       Though I had long known that his servility was false, and all his
311  pretences knavish and hollow, I had had no adequate conception of
312  the extent of his hypocrisy, until I now saw him with his mask off.
313  The suddenness with which he dropped it, when he perceived that it
314  was useless to him; the malice, insolence, and hatred, he revealed;
315  the leer with which he exulted, even at this moment, in the evil he
316  had done - all this time being desperate too, and at his wits' end
317  for the means of getting the better of us - though perfectly
318  consistent with the experience I had of him, at first took even me
319  by surprise, who had known him so long, and disliked him so
320  heartily.

321       I say nothing of the look he conferred on me, as he stood eyeing
322  us, one after another; for I had always understood that he hated
323  me, and I remembered the marks of my hand upon his cheek. But when
324  his eyes passed on to Agnes, and I saw the rage with which he felt
325  his power over her slipping away, and the exhibition, in their
326  disappointment, of the odious passions that had led him to aspire
327  to one whose virtues he could never appreciate or care for, I was
328  shocked by the mere thought of her having lived, an hour, within
329  sight of such a man.

330       After some rubbing of the lower part of his face, and some looking
331  at us with those bad eyes, over his grisly fingers, he made one
332  more address to me, half whining, and half abusive.

333       'You think it justifiable, do you, Copperfield, you who pride
334  yourself so much on your honour and all the rest of it, to sneak
335  about my place, eaves-dropping with my clerk? If it had been ME,
336  I shouldn't have wondered; for I don't make myself out a gentleman
337  (though I never was in the streets either, as you were, according
338  to Micawber), but being you! - And you're not afraid of doing this,
339  either? You don't think at all of what I shall do, in return; or
340  of getting yourself into trouble for conspiracy and so forth? Very
341  well. We shall see! Mr. What's-your-name, you were going to refer
342  some question to Micawber. There's your referee. Why don't you
343  make him speak? He has learnt his lesson, I see.'

344       Seeing that what he said had no effect on me or any of us, he sat
345  on the edge of his table with his hands in his pockets, and one of
346  his splay feet twisted round the other leg, waiting doggedly for
347  what might follow.

348       Mr. Micawber, whose impetuosity I had restrained thus far with the
349  greatest difficulty, and who had repeatedly interposed with the
350  first syllable Of SCOUN-drel! without getting to the second, now
351  burst forward, drew the ruler from his breast (apparently as a
352  defensive weapon), and produced from his pocket a foolscap
353  document, folded in the form of a large letter. Opening this
354  packet, with his old flourish, and glancing at the contents, as if
355  he cherished an artistic admiration of their style of composition,
356  he began to read as follows:

357       '"Dear Miss Trotwood and gentlemen -"'

358       'Bless and save the man!' exclaimed my aunt in a low voice. 'He'd
359  write letters by the ream, if it was a capital offence!'

360       Mr. Micawber, without hearing her, went on.

361       '"In appearing before you to denounce probably the most consummate
362  Villain that has ever existed,"' Mr. Micawber, without looking off
363  the letter, pointed the ruler, like a ghostly truncheon, at Uriah
364  Heep, '"I ask no consideration for myself. The victim, from my
365  cradle, of pecuniary liabilities to which I have been unable to
366  respond, I have ever been the sport and toy of debasing
367  circumstances. Ignominy, Want, Despair, and Madness, have,
368  collectively or separately, been the attendants of my career."'

369       The relish with which Mr. Micawber described himself as a prey to
370  these dismal calamities, was only to be equalled by the emphasis
371  with which he read his letter; and the kind of homage he rendered
372  to it with a roll of his head, when he thought he had hit a
373  sentence very hard indeed.

374       '"In an accumulation of Ignominy, Want, Despair, and Madness, I
375  entered the office - or, as our lively neighbour the Gaul would
376  term it, the Bureau - of the Firm, nominally conducted under the
377  appellation of Wickfield and - HEEP, but in reality, wielded by -
378  HEEP alone. HEEP, and only HEEP, is the mainspring of that
379  machine. HEEP, and only HEEP, is the Forger and the Cheat."'

380       Uriah, more blue than white at these words, made a dart at the
381  letter, as if to tear it in pieces. Mr. Micawber, with a perfect
382  miracle of dexterity or luck, caught his advancing knuckles with
383  the ruler, and disabled his right hand. It dropped at the wrist,
384  as if it were broken. The blow sounded as if it had fallen on
385  wood.

386       'The Devil take you!' said Uriah, writhing in a new way with pain.
387  'I'll be even with you.'

388       'Approach me again, you - you - you HEEP of infamy,' gasped Mr.
389  Micawber, 'and if your head is human, I'll break it. Come on, come
390  on! '

391       I think I never saw anything more ridiculous - I was sensible of
392  it, even at the time - than Mr. Micawber making broad-sword guards
393  with the ruler, and crying, 'Come on!' while Traddles and I pushed
394  him back into a corner, from which, as often as we got him into it,
395  he persisted in emerging again.

396       His enemy, muttering to himself, after wringing his wounded hand
397  for sometime, slowly drew off his neck-kerchief and bound it up;
398  then held it in his other hand, and sat upon his table with his
399  sullen face looking down.

400       Mr. Micawber, when he was sufficiently cool, proceeded with his
401  letter.

402       '"The stipendiary emoluments in consideration of which I entered
403  into the service of - HEEP,"' always pausing before that word and
404  uttering it with astonishing vigour, '"were not defined, beyond the
405  pittance of twenty-two shillings and six per week. The rest was
406  left contingent on the value of my professional exertions; in other
407  and more expressive words, on the baseness of my nature, the
408  cupidity of my motives, the poverty of my family, the general moral
409  (or rather immoral) resemblance between myself and - HEEP. Need I
410  say, that it soon became necessary for me to solicit from - HEEP -
411  pecuniary advances towards the support of Mrs. Micawber, and our
412  blighted but rising family? Need I say that this necessity had
413  been foreseen by - HEEP? That those advances were secured by
414  I.O.U.'s and other similar acknowledgements, known to the legal
415  institutions of this country? And that I thus became immeshed in
416  the web he had spun for my reception?"'

417       Mr. Micawber's enjoyment of his epistolary powers, in describing
418  this unfortunate state of things, really seemed to outweigh any
419  pain or anxiety that the reality could have caused him. He read
420  on:

421       '"Then it was that - HEEP - began to favour me with just so much of
422  his confidence, as was necessary to the discharge of his infernal
423  business. Then it was that I began, if I may so Shakespearianly
424  express myself, to dwindle, peak, and pine. I found that my
425  services were constantly called into requisition for the
426  falsification of business, and the mystification of an individual
427  whom I will designate as Mr. W. That Mr. W. was imposed upon, kept
428  in ignorance, and deluded, in every possible way; yet, that all
429  this while, the ruffian - HEEP - was professing unbounded gratitude
430  to, and unbounded friendship for, that much-abused gentleman. This
431  was bad enough; but, as the philosophic Dane observes, with that
432  universal applicability which distinguishes the illustrious
433  ornament of the Elizabethan Era, worse remains behind!"'

434       Mr. Micawber was so very much struck by this happy rounding off
435  with a quotation, that he indulged himself, and us, with a second
436  reading of the sentence, under pretence of having lost his place.

437       '"It is not my intention,"' he continued reading on, '"to enter on
438  a detailed list, within the compass of the present epistle (though
439  it is ready elsewhere), of the various malpractices of a minor
440  nature, affecting the individual whom I have denominated Mr. W., to
441  which I have been a tacitly consenting party. My object, when the
442  contest within myself between stipend and no stipend, baker and no
443  baker, existence and non-existence, ceased, was to take advantage
444  of my opportunities to discover and expose the major malpractices
445  committed, to that gentleman's grievous wrong and injury, by -
446  HEEP. Stimulated by the silent monitor within, and by a no less
447  touching and appealing monitor without - to whom I will briefly
448  refer as Miss W. - I entered on a not unlaborious task of
449  clandestine investigation, protracted - now, to the best of my
450  knowledge, information, and belief, over a period exceeding twelve
451  calendar months."'

452       He read this passage as if it were from an Act of Parliament; and
453  appeared majestically refreshed by the sound of the words.

454       '"My charges against - HEEP,"' he read on, glancing at him, and
455  drawing the ruler into a convenient position under his left arm, in
456  case of need, '"are as follows."'

457       We all held our breath, I think. I am sure Uriah held his.

458       '"First,"' said Mr. Micawber, '"When Mr. W.'s faculties and memory
459  for business became, through causes into which it is not necessary
460  or expedient for me to enter, weakened and confused, - HEEP -
461  designedly perplexed and complicated the whole of the official
462  transactions. When Mr. W. was least fit to enter on business, -
463  HEEP was always at hand to force him to enter on it. He obtained
464  Mr. W.'s signature under such circumstances to documents of
465  importance, representing them to be other documents of no
466  importance. He induced Mr. W. to empower him to draw out, thus,
467  one particular sum of trust-money, amounting to twelve six
468  fourteen, two and nine, and employed it to meet pretended business
469  charges and deficiencies which were either already provided for, or
470  had never really existed. He gave this proceeding, throughout, the
471  appearance of having originated in Mr. W.'s own dishonest
472  intention, and of having been accomplished by Mr. W.'s own
473  dishonest act; and has used it, ever since, to torture and
474  constrain him."'

475       'You shall prove this, you Copperfield!' said Uriah, with a
476  threatening shake of the head. 'All in good time!'

477       'Ask - HEEP - Mr. Traddles, who lived in his house after him,' said
478  Mr. Micawber, breaking off from the letter; 'will you?'

479       'The fool himself- and lives there now,' said Uriah, disdainfully.

480       'Ask - HEEP - if he ever kept a pocket-book in that house,' said
481  Mr. Micawber; 'will you?'

482       I saw Uriah's lank hand stop, involuntarily, in the scraping of his
483  chin.

484       'Or ask him,' said Mr. Micawber,'if he ever burnt one there. If he
485  says yes, and asks you where the ashes are, refer him to Wilkins
486  Micawber, and he will hear of something not at all to his
487  advantage!'

488       The triumphant flourish with which Mr. Micawber delivered himself
489  of these words, had a powerful effect in alarming the mother; who
490  cried out, in much agitation:

491       'Ury, Ury! Be umble, and make terms, my dear!'

492       'Mother!' he retorted, 'will you keep quiet? You're in a fright,
493  and don't know what you say or mean. Umble!' he repeated, looking
494  at me, with a snarl; 'I've umbled some of 'em for a pretty long
495  time back, umble as I was!'

496       Mr. Micawber, genteelly adjusting his chin in his cravat, presently
497  proceeded with his composition.

498       '"Second. HEEP has, on several occasions, to the best of my
499  knowledge, information, and belief -"'

500       'But that won't do,' muttered Uriah, relieved. 'Mother, you keep
501  quiet.'

502       'We will endeavour to provide something that WILL do, and do for
503  you finally, sir, very shortly,' replied Mr. Micawber.

504       '"Second. HEEP has, on several occasions, to the best of my
505  knowledge, information, and belief, systematically forged, to
506  various entries, books, and documents, the signature of Mr. W.; and
507  has distinctly done so in one instance, capable of proof by me. To
508  wit, in manner following, that is to say:"'

509       Again, Mr. Micawber had a relish in this formal piling up of words,
510  which, however ludicrously displayed in his case, was, I must say,
511  not at all peculiar to him. I have observed it, in the course of
512  my life, in numbers of men. It seems to me to be a general rule.
513  In the taking of legal oaths, for instance, deponents seem to enjoy
514  themselves mightily when they come to several good words in
515  succession, for the expression of one idea; as, that they utterly
516  detest, abominate, and abjure, or so forth; and the old anathemas
517  were made relishing on the same principle. We talk about the
518  tyranny of words, but we like to tyrannize over them too; we are
519  fond of having a large superfluous establishment of words to wait
520  upon us on great occasions; we think it looks important, and sounds
521  well. As we are not particular about the meaning of our liveries
522  on state occasions, if they be but fine and numerous enough, so,
523  the meaning or necessity of our words is a secondary consideration,
524  if there be but a great parade of them. And as individuals get
525  into trouble by making too great a show of liveries, or as slaves
526  when they are too numerous rise against their masters, so I think
527  I could mention a nation that has got into many great difficulties,
528  and will get into many greater, from maintaining too large a
529  retinue of words.

530       Mr. Micawber read on, almost smacking his lips:

531       '"To wit, in manner following, that is to say. Mr. W. being
532  infirm, and it being within the bounds of probability that his
533  decease might lead to some discoveries, and to the downfall of -
534  HEEP'S - power over the W. family, - as I, Wilkins Micawber, the
535  undersigned, assume - unless the filial affection of his daughter
536  could be secretly influenced from allowing any investigation of the
537  partnership affairs to be ever made, the said - HEEP - deemed it
538  expedient to have a bond ready by him, as from Mr. W., for the
539  before-mentioned sum of twelve six fourteen, two and nine, with
540  interest, stated therein to have been advanced by - HEEP - to Mr.
541  W. to save Mr. W. from dishonour; though really the sum was never
542  advanced by him, and has long been replaced. The signatures to
543  this instrument purporting to be executed by Mr. W. and attested by
544  Wilkins Micawber, are forgeries by - HEEP. I have, in my
545  possession, in his hand and pocket-book, several similar imitations
546  of Mr. W.'s signature, here and there defaced by fire, but legible
547  to anyone. I never attested any such document. And I have the
548  document itself, in my possession."'
549  Uriah Heep, with a start, took out of his pocket a bunch of keys,
550  and opened a certain drawer; then, suddenly bethought himself of
551  what he was about, and turned again towards us, without looking in
552  it.

553       '"And I have the document,"' Mr. Micawber read again, looking about
554  as if it were the text of a sermon, '"in my possession, - that is
555  to say, I had, early this morning, when this was written, but have
556  since relinquished it to Mr. Traddles."'

557       'It is quite true,' assented Traddles.

558       'Ury, Ury!' cried the mother, 'be umble and make terms. I know my
559  son will be umble, gentlemen, if you'll give him time to think.
560  Mr. Copperfield, I'm sure you know that he was always very umble,
561  sir!'

562       It was singular to see how the mother still held to the old trick,
563  when the son had abandoned it as useless.

564       'Mother,' he said, with an impatient bite at the handkerchief in
565  which his hand was wrapped, 'you had better take and fire a loaded
566  gun at me.'

567       'But I love you, Ury,' cried Mrs. Heep. And I have no doubt she
568  did; or that he loved her, however strange it may appear; though,
569  to be sure, they were a congenial couple. 'And I can't bear to
570  hear you provoking the gentlemen, and endangering of yourself more.
571  I told the gentleman at first, when he told me upstairs it was come
572  to light, that I would answer for your being umble, and making
573  amends. Oh, see how umble I am, gentlemen, and don't mind him!'

574       'Why, there's Copperfield, mother,' he angrily retorted, pointing
575  his lean finger at me, against whom all his animosity was levelled,
576  as the prime mover in the discovery; and I did not undeceive him;
577  'there's Copperfield, would have given you a hundred pound to say
578  less than you've blurted out!'

579       'I can't help it, Ury,' cried his mother. 'I can't see you running
580  into danger, through carrying your head so high. Better be umble,
581  as you always was.'

582       He remained for a little, biting the handkerchief, and then said to
583  me with a scowl:

584       'What more have you got to bring forward? If anything, go on with
585  it. What do you look at me for?'

586       Mr. Micawber promptly resumed his letter, glad to revert to a
587  performance with which he was so highly satisfied.

588       '"Third. And last. I am now in a condition to show, by - HEEP'S
589  - false books, and - HEEP'S - real memoranda, beginning with the
590  partially destroyed pocket-book (which I was unable to comprehend,
591  at the time of its accidental discovery by Mrs. Micawber, on our
592  taking possession of our present abode, in the locker or bin
593  devoted to the reception of the ashes calcined on our domestic
594  hearth), that the weaknesses, the faults, the very virtues, the
595  parental affections, and the sense of honour, of the unhappy Mr. W.
596  have been for years acted on by, and warped to the base purposes of
597  - HEEP. That Mr. W. has been for years deluded and plundered, in
598  every conceivable manner, to the pecuniary aggrandisement of the
599  avaricious, false, and grasping - HEEP. That the engrossing object
600  of- HEEP - was, next to gain, to subdue Mr. and Miss W. (of his
601  ulterior views in reference to the latter I say nothing) entirely
602  to himself. That his last act, completed but a few months since,
603  was to induce Mr. W. to execute a relinquishment of his share in
604  the partnership, and even a bill of sale on the very furniture of
605  his house, in consideration of a certain annuity, to be well and
606  truly paid by - HEEP - on the four common quarter-days in each and
607  every year. That these meshes; beginning with alarming and
608  falsified accounts of the estate of which Mr. W. is the receiver,
609  at a period when Mr. W. had launched into imprudent and ill-judged
610  speculations, and may not have had the money, for which he was
611  morally and legally responsible, in hand; going on with pretended
612  borrowings of money at enormous interest, really coming from - HEEP
613  - and by - HEEP - fraudulently obtained or withheld from Mr. W.
614  himself, on pretence of such speculations or otherwise; perpetuated
615  by a miscellaneous catalogue of unscrupulous chicaneries -
616  gradually thickened, until the unhappy Mr. W. could see no world
617  beyond. Bankrupt, as he believed, alike in circumstances, in all
618  other hope, and in honour, his sole reliance was upon the monster
619  in the garb of man,"' - Mr. Micawber made a good deal of this, as
620  a new turn of expression, - '"who, by making himself necessary to
621  him, had achieved his destruction. All this I undertake to show.
622  Probably much more!"'

623       I whispered a few words to Agnes, who was weeping, half joyfully,
624  half sorrowfully, at my side; and there was a movement among us, as
625  if Mr. Micawber had finished. He said, with exceeding gravity,
626  'Pardon me,' and proceeded, with a mixture of the lowest spirits
627  and the most intense enjoyment, to the peroration of his letter.

628       '"I have now concluded. It merely remains for me to substantiate
629  these accusations; and then, with my ill-starred family, to
630  disappear from the landscape on which we appear to be an
631  encumbrance. That is soon done. It may be reasonably inferred
632  that our baby will first expire of inanition, as being the frailest
633  member of our circle; and that our twins will follow next in order.
634  So be it! For myself, my Canterbury Pilgrimage has done much;
635  imprisonment on civil process, and want, will soon do more. I
636  trust that the labour and hazard of an investigation - of which the
637  smallest results have been slowly pieced together, in the pressure
638  of arduous avocations, under grinding penurious apprehensions, at
639  rise of morn, at dewy eve, in the shadows of night, under the
640  watchful eye of one whom it were superfluous to call Demon -
641  combined with the struggle of parental Poverty to turn it, when
642  completed, to the right account, may be as the sprinkling of a few
643  drops of sweet water on my funeral pyre. I ask no more. Let it
644  be, in justice, merely said of me, as of a gallant and eminent
645  naval Hero, with whom I have no pretensions to cope, that what I
646  have done, I did, in despite of mercenary and selfish objects,

647       

For England, home, and Beauty.

648       

'"Remaining always, &c. &c., WILKINS MICAWBER."'

649       Much affected, but still intensely enjoying himself, Mr. Micawber
650  folded up his letter, and handed it with a bow to my aunt, as
651  something she might like to keep.

652       There was, as I had noticed on my first visit long ago, an iron
653  safe in the room. The key was in it. A hasty suspicion seemed to
654  strike Uriah; and, with a glance at Mr. Micawber, he went to it,
655  and threw the doors clanking open. It was empty.

656       'Where are the books?' he cried, with a frightful face. 'Some
657  thief has stolen the books!'

658       Mr. Micawber tapped himself with the ruler. 'I did, when I got the
659  key from you as usual - but a little earlier - and opened it this
660  morning.'

661       'Don't be uneasy,' said Traddles. 'They have come into my
662  possession. I will take care of them, under the authority I
663  mentioned.'

664       'You receive stolen goods, do you?' cried Uriah.

665       'Under such circumstances,' answered Traddles, 'yes.'

666       What was my astonishment when I beheld my aunt, who had been
667  profoundly quiet and attentive, make a dart at Uriah Heep, and
668  seize him by the collar with both hands!

669       'You know what I want?' said my aunt.

670       'A strait-waistcoat,' said he.

671       'No. My property!' returned my aunt. 'Agnes, my dear, as long as
672  I believed it had been really made away with by your father, I
673  wouldn't - and, my dear, I didn't, even to Trot, as he knows -
674  breathe a syllable of its having been placed here for investment.
675  But, now I know this fellow's answerable for it, and I'll have it!
676  Trot, come and take it away from him!'

677       Whether my aunt supposed, for the moment, that he kept her property
678  in his neck-kerchief, I am sure I don't know; but she certainly
679  pulled at it as if she thought so. I hastened to put myself
680  between them, and to assure her that we would all take care that he
681  should make the utmost restitution of everything he had wrongly
682  got. This, and a few moments' reflection, pacified her; but she
683  was not at all disconcerted by what she had done (though I cannot
684  say as much for her bonnet) and resumed her seat composedly.

685       During the last few minutes, Mrs. Heep had been clamouring to her
686  son to be 'umble'; and had been going down on her knees to all of
687  us in succession, and making the wildest promises. Her son sat her
688  down in his chair; and, standing sulkily by her, holding her arm
689  with his hand, but not rudely, said to me, with a ferocious look:

690       'What do you want done?'

691       'I will tell you what must be done,' said Traddles.

692       'Has that Copperfield no tongue?' muttered Uriah, 'I would do a
693  good deal for you if you could tell me, without lying, that
694  somebody had cut it out.'

695       'My Uriah means to be umble!' cried his mother. 'Don't mind what
696  he says, good gentlemen!'

697       'What must be done,' said Traddles, 'is this. First, the deed of
698  relinquishment, that we have heard of, must be given over to me now
699  - here.'

700       'Suppose I haven't got it,' he interrupted.

701       'But you have,' said Traddles; 'therefore, you know, we won't
702  suppose so.' And I cannot help avowing that this was the first
703  occasion on which I really did justice to the clear head, and the
704  plain, patient, practical good sense, of my old schoolfellow.
705  'Then,' said Traddles, 'you must prepare to disgorge all that your
706  rapacity has become possessed of, and to make restoration to the
707  last farthing. All the partnership books and papers must remain in
708  our possession; all your books and papers; all money accounts and
709  securities, of both kinds. In short, everything here.'

710       'Must it? I don't know that,' said Uriah. 'I must have time to
711  think about that.'

712       'Certainly,' replied Traddles; 'but, in the meanwhile, and until
713  everything is done to our satisfaction, we shall maintain
714  possession of these things; and beg you - in short, compel you - to
715  keep to your own room, and hold no communication with anyone.'

716       'I won't do it!' said Uriah, with an oath.

717       'Maidstone jail is a safer place of detention,' observed Traddles;
718  'and though the law may be longer in righting us, and may not be
719  able to right us so completely as you can, there is no doubt of its
720  punishing YOU. Dear me, you know that quite as well as I!
721  Copperfield, will you go round to the Guildhall, and bring a couple
722  of officers?'

723       Here, Mrs. Heep broke out again, crying on her knees to Agnes to
724  interfere in their behalf, exclaiming that he was very humble, and
725  it was all true, and if he didn't do what we wanted, she would, and
726  much more to the same purpose; being half frantic with fears for
727  her darling. To inquire what he might have done, if he had had any
728  boldness, would be like inquiring what a mongrel cur might do, if
729  it had the spirit of a tiger. He was a coward, from head to foot;
730  and showed his dastardly nature through his sullenness and
731  mortification, as much as at any time of his mean life.

732       'Stop!' he growled to me; and wiped his hot face with his hand.
733  'Mother, hold your noise. Well! Let 'em have that deed. Go and
734  fetch it!'

735       'Do you help her, Mr. Dick,' said Traddles, 'if you please.'

736       Proud of his commission, and understanding it, Mr. Dick accompanied
737  her as a shepherd's dog might accompany a sheep. But, Mrs. Heep
738  gave him little trouble; for she not only returned with the deed,
739  but with the box in which it was, where we found a banker's book
740  and some other papers that were afterwards serviceable.

741       'Good!' said Traddles, when this was brought. 'Now, Mr. Heep, you
742  can retire to think: particularly observing, if you please, that I
743  declare to you, on the part of all present, that there is only one
744  thing to be done; that it is what I have explained; and that it
745  must be done without delay.'

746       Uriah, without lifting his eyes from the ground, shuffled across
747  the room with his hand to his chin, and pausing at the door, said:

748       'Copperfield, I have always hated you. You've always been an
749  upstart, and you've always been against me.'

750       'As I think I told you once before,' said I, 'it is you who have
751  been, in your greed and cunning, against all the world. It may be
752  profitable to you to reflect, in future, that there never were
753  greed and cunning in the world yet, that did not do too much, and
754  overreach themselves. It is as certain as death.'

755       'Or as certain as they used to teach at school (the same school
756  where I picked up so much umbleness), from nine o'clock to eleven,
757  that labour was a curse; and from eleven o'clock to one, that it
758  was a blessing and a cheerfulness, and a dignity, and I don't know
759  what all, eh?' said he with a sneer. 'You preach, about as
760  consistent as they did. Won't umbleness go down? I shouldn't have
761  got round my gentleman fellow-partner without it, I think. -
762  Micawber, you old bully, I'll pay YOU!'

763       Mr. Micawber, supremely defiant of him and his extended finger, and
764  making a great deal of his chest until he had slunk out at the
765  door, then addressed himself to me, and proffered me the
766  satisfaction of 'witnessing the re-establishment of mutual
767  confidence between himself and Mrs. Micawber'. After which, he
768  invited the company generally to the contemplation of that
769  affecting spectacle.

770       'The veil that has long been interposed between Mrs. Micawber and
771  myself, is now withdrawn,' said Mr. Micawber; 'and my children and
772  the Author of their Being can once more come in contact on equal
773  terms.'

774       As we were all very grateful to him, and all desirous to show that
775  we were, as well as the hurry and disorder of our spirits would
776  permit, I dare say we should all have gone, but that it was
777  necessary for Agnes to return to her father, as yet unable to bear
778  more than the dawn of hope; and for someone else to hold Uriah in
779  safe keeping. So, Traddles remained for the latter purpose, to be
780  presently relieved by Mr. Dick; and Mr. Dick, my aunt, and I, went
781  home with Mr. Micawber. As I parted hurriedly from the dear girl
782  to whom I owed so much, and thought from what she had been saved,
783  perhaps, that morning - her better resolution notwithstanding - I
784  felt devoutly thankful for the miseries of my younger days which
785  had brought me to the knowledge of Mr. Micawber.

786       His house was not far off; and as the street door opened into the
787  sitting-room, and he bolted in with a precipitation quite his own,
788  we found ourselves at once in the bosom of the family. Mr.
789  Micawber exclaiming, 'Emma! my life!' rushed into Mrs. Micawber's
790  arms. Mrs. Micawber shrieked, and folded Mr. Micawber in her
791  embrace. Miss Micawber, nursing the unconscious stranger of Mrs.
792  Micawber's last letter to me, was sensibly affected. The stranger
793  leaped. The twins testified their joy by several inconvenient but
794  innocent demonstrations. Master Micawber, whose disposition
795  appeared to have been soured by early disappointment, and whose
796  aspect had become morose, yielded to his better feelings, and
797  blubbered.

798       'Emma!' said Mr. Micawber. 'The cloud is past from my mind.
799  Mutual confidence, so long preserved between us once, is restored,
800  to know no further interruption. Now, welcome poverty!' cried Mr.
801  Micawber, shedding tears. 'Welcome misery, welcome houselessness,
802  welcome hunger, rags, tempest, and beggary! Mutual confidence will
803  sustain us to the end!'

804       With these expressions, Mr. Micawber placed Mrs. Micawber in a
805  chair, and embraced the family all round; welcoming a variety of
806  bleak prospects, which appeared, to the best of my judgement, to be
807  anything but welcome to them; and calling upon them to come out
808  into Canterbury and sing a chorus, as nothing else was left for
809  their support.

810       But Mrs. Micawber having, in the strength of her emotions, fainted
811  away, the first thing to be done, even before the chorus could be
812  considered complete, was to recover her. This my aunt and Mr.
813  Micawber did; and then my aunt was introduced, and Mrs. Micawber
814  recognized me.

815       'Excuse me, dear Mr. Copperfield,' said the poor lady, giving me
816  her hand, 'but I am not strong; and the removal of the late
817  misunderstanding between Mr. Micawber and myself was at first too
818  much for me.'

819       'Is this all your family, ma'am?' said my aunt.

820       'There are no more at present,' returned Mrs. Micawber.

821       'Good gracious, I didn't mean that, ma'am,' said my aunt. 'I mean,
822  are all these yours?'

823       'Madam,' replied Mr. Micawber, 'it is a true bill.'

824       'And that eldest young gentleman, now,' said my aunt, musing, 'what
825  has he been brought up to?'

826       'It was my hope when I came here,' said Mr. Micawber, 'to have got
827  Wilkins into the Church: or perhaps I shall express my meaning more
828  strictly, if I say the Choir. But there was no vacancy for a tenor
829  in the venerable Pile for which this city is so justly eminent; and
830  he has - in short, he has contracted a habit of singing in
831  public-houses, rather than in sacred edifices.'

832       'But he means well,' said Mrs. Micawber, tenderly.

833       'I dare say, my love,' rejoined Mr. Micawber, 'that he means
834  particularly well; but I have not yet found that he carries out his
835  meaning, in any given direction whatsoever.'

836       Master Micawber's moroseness of aspect returned upon him again, and
837  he demanded, with some temper, what he was to do? Whether he had
838  been born a carpenter, or a coach-painter, any more than he had
839  been born a bird? Whether he could go into the next street, and
840  open a chemist's shop? Whether he could rush to the next assizes,
841  and proclaim himself a lawyer? Whether he could come out by force
842  at the opera, and succeed by violence? Whether he could do
843  anything, without being brought up to something?

844       My aunt mused a little while, and then said:

845       'Mr. Micawber, I wonder you have never turned your thoughts to
846  emigration.'

847       'Madam,' returned Mr. Micawber, 'it was the dream of my youth, and
848  the fallacious aspiration of my riper years.' I am thoroughly
849  persuaded, by the by, that he had never thought of it in his life.

850       'Aye?' said my aunt, with a glance at me. 'Why, what a thing it
851  would be for yourselves and your family, Mr. and Mrs. Micawber, if
852  you were to emigrate now.'

853       'Capital, madam, capital,' urged Mr. Micawber, gloomily.

854       'That is the principal, I may say the only difficulty, my dear Mr.
855  Copperfield,' assented his wife.

856       'Capital?' cried my aunt. 'But you are doing us a great service -
857  have done us a great service, I may say, for surely much will come
858  out of the fire - and what could we do for you, that would be half
859  so good as to find the capital?'

860       'I could not receive it as a gift,' said Mr. Micawber, full of fire
861  and animation, 'but if a sufficient sum could be advanced, say at
862  five per cent interest, per annum, upon my personal liability - say
863  my notes of hand, at twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four months,
864  respectively, to allow time for something to turn up -'

865       'Could be? Can be and shall be, on your own terms,' returned my
866  aunt, 'if you say the word. Think of this now, both of you. Here
867  are some people David knows, going out to Australia shortly. If
868  you decide to go, why shouldn't you go in the same ship? You may
869  help each other. Think of this now, Mr. and Mrs. Micawber. Take
870  your time, and weigh it well.'

871       'There is but one question, my dear ma'am, I could wish to ask,'
872  said Mrs. Micawber. 'The climate, I believe, is healthy?'

873       'Finest in the world!' said my aunt.

874       'Just so,' returned Mrs. Micawber. 'Then my question arises. Now,
875  are the circumstances of the country such, that a man of Mr.
876  Micawber's abilities would have a fair chance of rising in the
877  social scale? I will not say, at present, might he aspire to be
878  Governor, or anything of that sort; but would there be a reasonable
879  opening for his talents to develop themselves - that would be amply
880  sufficient - and find their own expansion?'

881       'No better opening anywhere,' said my aunt, 'for a man who conducts
882  himself well, and is industrious.'

883       'For a man who conducts himself well,' repeated Mrs. Micawber, with
884  her clearest business manner, 'and is industrious. Precisely. It
885  is evident to me that Australia is the legitimate sphere of action
886  for Mr. Micawber!'

887       'I entertain the conviction, my dear madam,' said Mr. Micawber,
888  'that it is, under existing circumstances, the land, the only land,
889  for myself and family; and that something of an extraordinary
890  nature will turn up on that shore. It is no distance -
891  comparatively speaking; and though consideration is due to the
892  kindness of your proposal, I assure you that is a mere matter of
893  form.'

894       Shall I ever forget how, in a moment, he was the most sanguine of
895  men, looking on to fortune; or how Mrs. Micawber presently
896  discoursed about the habits of the kangaroo! Shall I ever recall
897  that street of Canterbury on a market-day, without recalling him,
898  as he walked back with us; expressing, in the hardy roving manner
899  he assumed, the unsettled habits of a temporary sojourner in the
900  land; and looking at the bullocks, as they came by, with the eye of
901  an Australian farmer!

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