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Charles Dickens
Chapter 55
Charles Dickens
 
 
1       This is not the time at which I am to enter on the state of my mind
2  beneath its load of sorrow. I came to think that the Future was
3  walled up before me, that the energy and action of my life were at
4  an end, that I never could find any refuge but in the grave. I
5  came to think so, I say, but not in the first shock of my grief.
6  It slowly grew to that. If the events I go on to relate, had not
7  thickened around me, in the beginning to confuse, and in the end to
8  augment, my affliction, it is possible (though I think not
9  probable), that I might have fallen at once into this condition.
10  As it was, an interval occurred before I fully knew my own
11  distress; an interval, in which I even supposed that its sharpest
12  pangs were past; and when my mind could soothe itself by resting on
13  all that was most innocent and beautiful, in the tender story that
14  was closed for ever.

15       When it was first proposed that I should go abroad, or how it came
16  to be agreed among us that I was to seek the restoration of my
17  peace in change and travel, I do not, even now, distinctly know.
18  The spirit of Agnes so pervaded all we thought, and said, and did,
19  in that time of sorrow, that I assume I may refer the project to
20  her influence. But her influence was so quiet that I know no more.

21       And now, indeed, I began to think that in my old association of her
22  with the stained-glass window in the church, a prophetic
23  foreshadowing of what she would be to me, in the calamity that was
24  to happen in the fullness of time, had found a way into my mind.
25  In all that sorrow, from the moment, never to be forgotten, when
26  she stood before me with her upraised hand, she was like a sacred
27  presence in my lonely house. When the Angel of Death alighted
28  there, my child-wife fell asleep - they told me so when I could
29  bear to hear it - on her bosom, with a smile. From my swoon, I
30  first awoke to a consciousness of her compassionate tears, her
31  words of hope and peace, her gentle face bending down as from a
32  purer region nearer Heaven, over my undisciplined heart, and
33  softening its pain.

34       Let me go on.

35       I was to go abroad. That seemed to have been determined among us
36  from the first. The ground now covering all that could perish of
37  my departed wife, I waited only for what Mr. Micawber called the
38  'final pulverization of Heep'; and for the departure of the
39  emigrants.

40       At the request of Traddles, most affectionate and devoted of
41  friends in my trouble, we returned to Canterbury: I mean my aunt,
42  Agnes, and I. We proceeded by appointment straight to Mr.
43  Micawber's house; where, and at Mr. Wickfield's, my friend had been
44  labouring ever since our explosive meeting. When poor Mrs.
45  Micawber saw me come in, in my black clothes, she was sensibly
46  affected. There was a great deal of good in Mrs. Micawber's heart,
47  which had not been dunned out of it in all those many years.

48       'Well, Mr. and Mrs. Micawber,' was my aunt's first salutation after
49  we were seated. 'Pray, have you thought about that emigration
50  proposal of mine?'

51       'My dear madam,' returned Mr. Micawber, 'perhaps I cannot better
52  express the conclusion at which Mrs. Micawber, your humble servant,
53  and I may add our children, have jointly and severally arrived,
54  than by borrowing the language of an illustrious poet, to reply
55  that our Boat is on the shore, and our Bark is on the sea.'

56       'That's right,' said my aunt. 'I augur all sort of good from your
57  sensible decision.'

58       'Madam, you do us a great deal of honour,' he rejoined. He then
59  referred to a memorandum. 'With respect to the pecuniary
60  assistance enabling us to launch our frail canoe on the ocean of
61  enterprise, I have reconsidered that important business-point; and
62  would beg to propose my notes of hand - drawn, it is needless to
63  stipulate, on stamps of the amounts respectively required by the
64  various Acts of Parliament applying to such securities - at
65  eighteen, twenty-four, and thirty months. The proposition I
66  originally submitted, was twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four; but I
67  am apprehensive that such an arrangement might not allow sufficient
68  time for the requisite amount of - Something - to turn up. We
69  might not,' said Mr. Micawber, looking round the room as if it
70  represented several hundred acres of highly cultivated land, 'on
71  the first responsibility becoming due, have been successful in our
72  harvest, or we might not have got our harvest in. Labour, I
73  believe, is sometimes difficult to obtain in that portion of our
74  colonial possessions where it will be our lot to combat with the
75  teeming soil.'

76       'Arrange it in any way you please, sir,' said my aunt.

77       'Madam,' he replied, 'Mrs. Micawber and myself are deeply sensible
78  of the very considerate kindness of our friends and patrons. What
79  I wish is, to be perfectly business-like, and perfectly punctual.
80  Turning over, as we are about to turn over, an entirely new leaf;
81  and falling back, as we are now in the act of falling back, for a
82  Spring of no common magnitude; it is important to my sense of
83  self-respect, besides being an example to my son, that these
84  arrangements should be concluded as between man and man.'

85       I don't know that Mr. Micawber attached any meaning to this last
86  phrase; I don't know that anybody ever does, or did; but he
87  appeared to relish it uncommonly, and repeated, with an impressive
88  cough, 'as between man and man'.

89       'I propose,' said Mr. Micawber, 'Bills - a convenience to the
90  mercantile world, for which, I believe, we are originally indebted
91  to the Jews, who appear to me to have had a devilish deal too much
92  to do with them ever since - because they are negotiable. But if
93  a Bond, or any other description of security, would be preferred,
94  I should be happy to execute any such instrument. As between man
95  and man.'

96       MY aunt observed, that in a case where both parties were willing to
97  agree to anything, she took it for granted there would be no
98  difficulty in settling this point. Mr. Micawber was of her
99  opinion.

100       'In reference to our domestic preparations, madam,' said Mr.
101  Micawber, with some pride, 'for meeting the destiny to which we are
102  now understood to be self-devoted, I beg to report them. My eldest
103  daughter attends at five every morning in a neighbouring
104  establishment, to acquire the process - if process it may be called
105  - of milking cows. My younger children are instructed to observe,
106  as closely as circumstances will permit, the habits of the pigs and
107  poultry maintained in the poorer parts of this city: a pursuit from
108  which they have, on two occasions, been brought home, within an
109  inch of being run over. I have myself directed some attention,
110  during the past week, to the art of baking; and my son Wilkins has
111  issued forth with a walking-stick and driven cattle, when
112  permitted, by the rugged hirelings who had them in charge, to
113  render any voluntary service in that direction - which I regret to
114  say, for the credit of our nature, was not often; he being
115  generally warned, with imprecations, to desist.'

116       'All very right indeed,' said my aunt, encouragingly. 'Mrs.
117  Micawber has been busy, too, I have no doubt.'

118       'My dear madam,' returned Mrs. Micawber, with her business-like
119  air. 'I am free to confess that I have not been actively engaged
120  in pursuits immediately connected with cultivation or with stock,
121  though well aware that both will claim my attention on a foreign
122  shore. Such opportunities as I have been enabled to alienate from
123  my domestic duties, I have devoted to corresponding at some length
124  with my family. For I own it seems to me, my dear Mr.
125  Copperfield,' said Mrs. Micawber, who always fell back on me, I
126  suppose from old habit, to whomsoever else she might address her
127  discourse at starting, 'that the time is come when the past should
128  be buried in oblivion; when my family should take Mr. Micawber by
129  the hand, and Mr. Micawber should take my family by the hand; when
130  the lion should lie down with the lamb, and my family be on terms
131  with Mr. Micawber.'

132       I said I thought so too.

133       'This, at least, is the light, my dear Mr. Copperfield,' pursued
134  Mrs. Micawber, 'in which I view the subject. When I lived at home
135  with my papa and mama, my papa was accustomed to ask, when any
136  point was under discussion in our limited circle, "In what light
137  does my Emma view the subject?" That my papa was too partial, I
138  know; still, on such a point as the frigid coldness which has ever
139  subsisted between Mr. Micawber and my family, I necessarily have
140  formed an opinion, delusive though it may be.'

141       'No doubt. Of course you have, ma'am,' said my aunt.

142       'Precisely so,' assented Mrs. Micawber. 'Now, I may be wrong in my
143  conclusions; it is very likely that I am, but my individual
144  impression is, that the gulf between my family and Mr. Micawber may
145  be traced to an apprehension, on the part of my family, that Mr.
146  Micawber would require pecuniary accommodation. I cannot help
147  thinking,' said Mrs. Micawber, with an air of deep sagacity, 'that
148  there are members of my family who have been apprehensive that Mr.
149  Micawber would solicit them for their names. - I do not mean to be
150  conferred in Baptism upon our children, but to be inscribed on
151  Bills of Exchange, and negotiated in the Money Market.'

152       The look of penetration with which Mrs. Micawber announced this
153  discovery, as if no one had ever thought of it before, seemed
154  rather to astonish my aunt; who abruptly replied, 'Well, ma'am,
155  upon the whole, I shouldn't wonder if you were right!'

156       'Mr. Micawber being now on the eve of casting off the pecuniary
157  shackles that have so long enthralled him,' said Mrs. Micawber,
158  'and of commencing a new career in a country where there is
159  sufficient range for his abilities, - which, in my opinion, is
160  exceedingly important; Mr. Micawber's abilities peculiarly
161  requiring space, - it seems to me that my family should signalize
162  the occasion by coming forward. What I could wish to see, would be
163  a meeting between Mr. Micawber and my family at a festive
164  entertainment, to be given at my family's expense; where Mr.
165  Micawber's health and prosperity being proposed, by some leading
166  member of my family, Mr. Micawber might have an opportunity of
167  developing his views.'

168       'My dear,' said Mr. Micawber, with some heat, 'it may be better for
169  me to state distinctly, at once, that if I were to develop my views
170  to that assembled group, they would possibly be found of an
171  offensive nature: my impression being that your family are, in the
172  aggregate, impertinent Snobs; and, in detail, unmitigated
173  Ruffians.'

174       'Micawber,' said Mrs. Micawber, shaking her head, 'no! You have
175  never understood them, and they have never understood you.'

176       Mr. Micawber coughed.

177       'They have never understood you, Micawber,' said his wife. 'They
178  may be incapable of it. If so, that is their misfortune. I can
179  pity their misfortune.'

180       'I am extremely sorry, my dear Emma,' said Mr. Micawber, relenting,
181  'to have been betrayed into any expressions that might, even
182  remotely, have the appearance of being strong expressions. All I
183  would say is, that I can go abroad without your family coming
184  forward to favour me, - in short, with a parting Shove of their
185  cold shoulders; and that, upon the whole, I would rather leave
186  England with such impetus as I possess, than derive any
187  acceleration of it from that quarter. At the same time, my dear,
188  if they should condescend to reply to your communications - which
189  our joint experience renders most improbable - far be it from me to
190  be a barrier to your wishes.'

191       The matter being thus amicably settled, Mr. Micawber gave Mrs.
192  Micawber his arm, and glancing at the heap of books and papers
193  lying before Traddles on the table, said they would leave us to
194  ourselves; which they ceremoniously did.

195       'My dear Copperfield,' said Traddles, leaning back in his chair
196  when they were gone, and looking at me with an affection that made
197  his eyes red, and his hair all kinds of shapes, 'I don't make any
198  excuse for troubling you with business, because I know you are
199  deeply interested in it, and it may divert your thoughts. My dear
200  boy, I hope you are not worn out?'

201       'I am quite myself,' said I, after a pause. 'We have more cause to
202  think of my aunt than of anyone. You know how much she has done.'

203       'Surely, surely,' answered Traddles. 'Who can forget it!'

204       'But even that is not all,' said I. 'During the last fortnight,
205  some new trouble has vexed her; and she has been in and out of
206  London every day. Several times she has gone out early, and been
207  absent until evening. Last night, Traddles, with this journey
208  before her, it was almost midnight before she came home. You know
209  what her consideration for others is. She will not tell me what
210  has happened to distress her.'

211       My aunt, very pale, and with deep lines in her face, sat immovable
212  until I had finished; when some stray tears found their way to her
213  cheeks, and she put her hand on mine.

214       'It's nothing, Trot; it's nothing. There will be no more of it.
215  You shall know by and by. Now Agnes, my dear, let us attend to
216  these affairs.'

217       'I must do Mr. Micawber the justice to say,' Traddles began, 'that
218  although he would appear not to have worked to any good account for
219  himself, he is a most untiring man when he works for other people.
220  I never saw such a fellow. If he always goes on in the same way,
221  he must be, virtually, about two hundred years old, at present.
222  The heat into which he has been continually putting himself; and
223  the distracted and impetuous manner in which he has been diving,
224  day and night, among papers and books; to say nothing of the
225  immense number of letters he has written me between this house and
226  Mr. Wickfield's, and often across the table when he has been
227  sitting opposite, and might much more easily have spoken; is quite
228  extraordinary.'

229       'Letters!' cried my aunt. 'I believe he dreams in letters!'

230       'There's Mr. Dick, too,' said Traddles, 'has been doing wonders! As
231  soon as he was released from overlooking Uriah Heep, whom he kept
232  in such charge as I never saw exceeded, he began to devote himself
233  to Mr. Wickfield. And really his anxiety to be of use in the
234  investigations we have been making, and his real usefulness in
235  extracting, and copying, and fetching, and carrying, have been
236  quite stimulating to us.'

237       'Dick is a very remarkable man,' exclaimed my aunt; 'and I always
238  said he was. Trot, you know it.'

239       'I am happy to say, Miss Wickfield,' pursued Traddles, at once with
240  great delicacy and with great earnestness, 'that in your absence
241  Mr. Wickfield has considerably improved. Relieved of the incubus
242  that had fastened upon him for so long a time, and of the dreadful
243  apprehensions under which he had lived, he is hardly the same
244  person. At times, even his impaired power of concentrating his
245  memory and attention on particular points of business, has
246  recovered itself very much; and he has been able to assist us in
247  making some things clear, that we should have found very difficult
248  indeed, if not hopeless, without him. But what I have to do is to
249  come to results; which are short enough; not to gossip on all the
250  hopeful circumstances I have observed, or I shall never have done.'
251  His natural manner and agreeable simplicity made it transparent
252  that he said this to put us in good heart, and to enable Agnes to
253  hear her father mentioned with greater confidence; but it was not
254  the less pleasant for that.

255       'Now, let me see,' said Traddles, looking among the papers on the
256  table. 'Having counted our funds, and reduced to order a great
257  mass of unintentional confusion in the first place, and of wilful
258  confusion and falsification in the second, we take it to be clear
259  that Mr. Wickfield might now wind up his business, and his
260  agency-trust, and exhibit no deficiency or defalcation whatever.'

261       'Oh, thank Heaven!' cried Agnes, fervently.

262       'But,' said Traddles, 'the surplus that would be left as his means
263  of support - and I suppose the house to be sold, even in saying
264  this - would be so small, not exceeding in all probability some
265  hundreds of pounds, that perhaps, Miss Wickfield, it would be best
266  to consider whether he might not retain his agency of the estate to
267  which he has so long been receiver. His friends might advise him,
268  you know; now he is free. You yourself, Miss Wickfield -
269  Copperfield - I -'

270       'I have considered it, Trotwood,' said Agnes, looking to me, 'and
271  I feel that it ought not to be, and must not be; even on the
272  recommendation of a friend to whom I am so grateful, and owe so
273  much.'

274       'I will not say that I recommend it,' observed Traddles. 'I think
275  it right to suggest it. No more.'

276       'I am happy to hear you say so,' answered Agnes, steadily, 'for it
277  gives me hope, almost assurance, that we think alike. Dear Mr.
278  Traddles and dear Trotwood, papa once free with honour, what could
279  I wish for! I have always aspired, if I could have released him
280  from the toils in which he was held, to render back some little
281  portion of the love and care I owe him, and to devote my life to
282  him. It has been, for years, the utmost height of my hopes. To
283  take our future on myself, will be the next great happiness - the
284  next to his release from all trust and responsibility - that I can
285  know.'

286       'Have you thought how, Agnes?'

287       'Often! I am not afraid, dear Trotwood. I am certain of success.
288  So many people know me here, and think kindly of me, that I am
289  certain. Don't mistrust me. Our wants are not many. If I rent
290  the dear old house, and keep a school, I shall be useful and
291  happy.'

292       The calm fervour of her cheerful voice brought back so vividly,
293  first the dear old house itself, and then my solitary home, that my
294  heart was too full for speech. Traddles pretended for a little
295  while to be busily looking among the papers.

296       'Next, Miss Trotwood,' said Traddles, 'that property of yours.'

297       'Well, sir,' sighed my aunt. 'All I have got to say about it is,
298  that if it's gone, I can bear it; and if it's not gone, I shall be
299  glad to get it back.'

300       'It was originally, I think, eight thousand pounds, Consols?' said
301  Traddles.

302       'Right!' replied my aunt.

303       'I can't account for more than five,' said Traddles, with an air of
304  perplexity.

305       '- thousand, do you mean?' inquired my aunt, with uncommon
306  composure, 'or pounds?'

307       'Five thousand pounds,' said Traddles.

308       'It was all there was,' returned my aunt. 'I sold three, myself.
309  One, I paid for your articles, Trot, my dear; and the other two I
310  have by me. When I lost the rest, I thought it wise to say nothing
311  about that sum, but to keep it secretly for a rainy day. I wanted
312  to see how you would come out of the trial, Trot; and you came out
313  nobly - persevering, self-reliant, self-denying! So did Dick.
314  Don't speak to me, for I find my nerves a little shaken!'

315       Nobody would have thought so, to see her sitting upright, with her
316  arms folded; but she had wonderful self-command.

317       'Then I am delighted to say,' cried Traddles, beaming with joy,
318  'that we have recovered the whole money!'

319       'Don't congratulate me, anybody!' exclaimed my aunt. 'How so,
320  sir?'

321       'You believed it had been misappropriated by Mr. Wickfield?' said
322  Traddles.

323       'Of course I did,' said my aunt, 'and was therefore easily
324  silenced. Agnes, not a word!'

325       'And indeed,' said Traddles, 'it was sold, by virtue of the power
326  of management he held from you; but I needn't say by whom sold, or
327  on whose actual signature. It was afterwards pretended to Mr.
328  Wickfield, by that rascal, - and proved, too, by figures, - that he
329  had possessed himself of the money (on general instructions, he
330  said) to keep other deficiencies and difficulties from the light.
331  Mr. Wickfield, being so weak and helpless in his hands as to pay
332  you, afterwards, several sums of interest on a pretended principal
333  which he knew did not exist, made himself, unhappily, a party to
334  the fraud.'

335       'And at last took the blame upon himself,' added my aunt; 'and
336  wrote me a mad letter, charging himself with robbery, and wrong
337  unheard of. Upon which I paid him a visit early one morning,
338  called for a candle, burnt the letter, and told him if he ever
339  could right me and himself, to do it; and if he couldn't, to keep
340  his own counsel for his daughter's sake. - If anybody speaks to
341  me, I'll leave the house!'

342       We all remained quiet; Agnes covering her face.

343       'Well, my dear friend,' said my aunt, after a pause, 'and you have
344  really extorted the money back from him?'

345       'Why, the fact is,' returned Traddles, 'Mr. Micawber had so
346  completely hemmed him in, and was always ready with so many new
347  points if an old one failed, that he could not escape from us. A
348  most remarkable circumstance is, that I really don't think he
349  grasped this sum even so much for the gratification of his avarice,
350  which was inordinate, as in the hatred he felt for Copperfield. He
351  said so to me, plainly. He said he would even have spent as much,
352  to baulk or injure Copperfield.'

353       'Ha!' said my aunt, knitting her brows thoughtfully, and glancing
354  at Agnes. 'And what's become of him?'

355       'I don't know. He left here,' said Traddles, 'with his mother, who
356  had been clamouring, and beseeching, and disclosing, the whole
357  time. They went away by one of the London night coaches, and I
358  know no more about him; except that his malevolence to me at
359  parting was audacious. He seemed to consider himself hardly less
360  indebted to me, than to Mr. Micawber; which I consider (as I told
361  him) quite a compliment.'

362       'Do you suppose he has any money, Traddles?' I asked.

363       'Oh dear, yes, I should think so,' he replied, shaking his head,
364  seriously. 'I should say he must have pocketed a good deal, in one
365  way or other. But, I think you would find, Copperfield, if you had
366  an opportunity of observing his course, that money would never keep
367  that man out of mischief. He is such an incarnate hypocrite, that
368  whatever object he pursues, he must pursue crookedly. It's his
369  only compensation for the outward restraints he puts upon himself.
370  Always creeping along the ground to some small end or other, he
371  will always magnify every object in the way; and consequently will
372  hate and suspect everybody that comes, in the most innocent manner,
373  between him and it. So the crooked courses will become crookeder,
374  at any moment, for the least reason, or for none. It's only
375  necessary to consider his history here,' said Traddles, 'to know
376  that.'

377       'He's a monster of meanness!' said my aunt.

378       'Really I don't know about that,' observed Traddles thoughtfully.
379  'Many people can be very mean, when they give their minds to it.'

380       'And now, touching Mr. Micawber,' said my aunt.

381       'Well, really,' said Traddles, cheerfully, 'I must, once more, give
382  Mr. Micawber high praise. But for his having been so patient and
383  persevering for so long a time, we never could have hoped to do
384  anything worth speaking of. And I think we ought to consider that
385  Mr. Micawber did right, for right's sake, when we reflect what
386  terms he might have made with Uriah Heep himself, for his silence.'

387       'I think so too,' said I.

388       'Now, what would you give him?' inquired my aunt.

389       'Oh! Before you come to that,' said Traddles, a little
390  disconcerted, 'I am afraid I thought it discreet to omit (not being
391  able to carry everything before me) two points, in making this
392  lawless adjustment - for it's perfectly lawless from beginning to
393  end - of a difficult affair. Those I.O.U.'s, and so forth, which
394  Mr. Micawber gave him for the advances he had -'

395       'Well! They must be paid,' said my aunt.

396       'Yes, but I don't know when they may be proceeded on, or where they
397  are,' rejoined Traddles, opening his eyes; 'and I anticipate, that,
398  between this time and his departure, Mr. Micawber will be
399  constantly arrested, or taken in execution.'

400       'Then he must be constantly set free again, and taken out of
401  execution,' said my aunt. 'What's the amount altogether?'

402       'Why, Mr. Micawber has entered the transactions - he calls them
403  transactions - with great form, in a book,' rejoined Traddles,
404  smiling; 'and he makes the amount a hundred and three pounds,
405  five.'

406       'Now, what shall we give him, that sum included?' said my aunt.
407  'Agnes, my dear, you and I can talk about division of it
408  afterwards. What should it be? Five hundred pounds?'

409       Upon this, Traddles and I both struck in at once. We both
410  recommended a small sum in money, and the payment, without
411  stipulation to Mr. Micawber, of the Uriah claims as they came in.
412  We proposed that the family should have their passage and their
413  outfit, and a hundred pounds; and that Mr. Micawber's arrangement
414  for the repayment of the advances should be gravely entered into,
415  as it might be wholesome for him to suppose himself under that
416  responsibility. To this, I added the suggestion, that I should
417  give some explanation of his character and history to Mr. Peggotty,
418  who I knew could be relied on; and that to Mr. Peggotty should be
419  quietly entrusted the discretion of advancing another hundred. I
420  further proposed to interest Mr. Micawber in Mr. Peggotty, by
421  confiding so much of Mr. Peggotty's story to him as I might feel
422  justified in relating, or might think expedient; and to endeavour
423  to bring each of them to bear upon the other, for the common
424  advantage. We all entered warmly into these views; and I may
425  mention at once, that the principals themselves did so, shortly
426  afterwards, with perfect good will and harmony.

427       Seeing that Traddles now glanced anxiously at my aunt again, I
428  reminded him of the second and last point to which he had adverted.

429       'You and your aunt will excuse me, Copperfield, if I touch upon a
430  painful theme, as I greatly fear I shall,' said Traddles,
431  hesitating; 'but I think it necessary to bring it to your
432  recollection. On the day of Mr. Micawber's memorable denunciation
433  a threatening allusion was made by Uriah Heep to your aunt's -
434  husband.'

435       My aunt, retaining her stiff position, and apparent composure,
436  assented with a nod.

437       'Perhaps,' observed Traddles, 'it was mere purposeless
438  impertinence?'

439       'No,' returned my aunt.

440       'There was - pardon me - really such a person, and at all in his
441  power?' hinted Traddles.

442       'Yes, my good friend,' said my aunt.

443       Traddles, with a perceptible lengthening of his face, explained
444  that he had not been able to approach this subject; that it had
445  shared the fate of Mr. Micawber's liabilities, in not being
446  comprehended in the terms he had made; that we were no longer of
447  any authority with Uriah Heep; and that if he could do us, or any
448  of us, any injury or annoyance, no doubt he would.

449       My aunt remained quiet; until again some stray tears found their
450  way to her cheeks.
451  'You are quite right,' she said. 'It was very thoughtful to
452  mention it.'

453       'Can I - or Copperfield - do anything?' asked Traddles, gently.

454       'Nothing,' said my aunt. 'I thank you many times. Trot, my dear,
455  a vain threat! Let us have Mr. and Mrs. Micawber back. And don't
456  any of you speak to me!' With that she smoothed her dress, and sat,
457  with her upright carriage, looking at the door.

458       'Well, Mr. and Mrs. Micawber!' said my aunt, when they entered.
459  'We have been discussing your emigration, with many apologies to
460  you for keeping you out of the room so long; and I'll tell you what
461  arrangements we propose.'

462       These she explained to the unbounded satisfaction of the family, -
463  children and all being then present, - and so much to the awakening
464  of Mr. Micawber's punctual habits in the opening stage of all bill
465  transactions, that he could not be dissuaded from immediately
466  rushing out, in the highest spirits, to buy the stamps for his
467  notes of hand. But, his joy received a sudden check; for within
468  five minutes, he returned in the custody of a sheriff 's officer,
469  informing us, in a flood of tears, that all was lost. We, being
470  quite prepared for this event, which was of course a proceeding of
471  Uriah Heep's, soon paid the money; and in five minutes more Mr.
472  Micawber was seated at the table, filling up the stamps with an
473  expression of perfect joy, which only that congenial employment, or
474  the making of punch, could impart in full completeness to his
475  shining face. To see him at work on the stamps, with the relish of
476  an artist, touching them like pictures, looking at them sideways,
477  taking weighty notes of dates and amounts in his pocket-book, and
478  contemplating them when finished, with a high sense of their
479  precious value, was a sight indeed.

480       'Now, the best thing you can do, sir, if you'll allow me to advise
481  you,' said my aunt, after silently observing him, 'is to abjure
482  that occupation for evermore.'

483       'Madam,' replied Mr. Micawber, 'it is my intention to register such
484  a vow on the virgin page of the future. Mrs. Micawber will attest
485  it. I trust,' said Mr. Micawber, solemnly, 'that my son Wilkins
486  will ever bear in mind, that he had infinitely better put his fist
487  in the fire, than use it to handle the serpents that have poisoned
488  the life-blood of his unhappy parent!' Deeply affected, and changed
489  in a moment to the image of despair, Mr. Micawber regarded the
490  serpents with a look of gloomy abhorrence (in which his late
491  admiration of them was not quite subdued), folded them up and put
492  them in his pocket.

493       This closed the proceedings of the evening. We were weary with
494  sorrow and fatigue, and my aunt and I were to return to London on
495  the morrow. It was arranged that the Micawbers should follow us,
496  after effecting a sale of their goods to a broker; that Mr.
497  Wickfield's affairs should be brought to a settlement, with all
498  convenient speed, under the direction of Traddles; and that Agnes
499  should also come to London, pending those arrangements. We passed
500  the night at the old house, which, freed from the presence of the
501  Heeps, seemed purged of a disease; and I lay in my old room, like
502  a shipwrecked wanderer come home.

503       We went back next day to my aunt's house - not to mine- and when
504  she and I sat alone, as of old, before going to bed, she said:

505       'Trot, do you really wish to know what I have had upon my mind
506  lately?'

507       'Indeed I do, aunt. If there ever was a time when I felt unwilling
508  that you should have a sorrow or anxiety which I could not share,
509  it is now.'

510       'You have had sorrow enough, child,' said my aunt, affectionately,
511  'without the addition of my little miseries. I could have no other
512  motive, Trot, in keeping anything from you.'

513       'I know that well,' said I. 'But tell me now.'

514       'Would you ride with me a little way tomorrow morning?' asked my
515  aunt.

516       'Of course.'

517       'At nine,' said she. 'I'll tell you then, my dear.'

518       At nine, accordingly, we went out in a little chariot, and drove to
519  London. We drove a long way through the streets, until we came to
520  one of the large hospitals. Standing hard by the building was a
521  plain hearse. The driver recognized my aunt, and, in obedience to
522  a motion of her hand at the window, drove slowly off; we following.

523       'You understand it now, Trot,' said my aunt. 'He is gone!'

524       'Did he die in the hospital?'

525       'Yes.'

526       She sat immovable beside me; but, again I saw the stray tears on
527  her face.

528       'He was there once before,' said my aunt presently. 'He was ailing
529  a long time - a shattered, broken man, these many years. When he
530  knew his state in this last illness, he asked them to send for me.
531  He was sorry then. Very sorry.'

532       'You went, I know, aunt.'

533       'I went. I was with him a good deal afterwards.'

534       'He died the night before we went to Canterbury?' said I.
535  My aunt nodded. 'No one can harm him now,' she said. 'It was a
536  vain threat.'

537       We drove away, out of town, to the churchyard at Hornsey. 'Better
538  here than in the streets,' said my aunt. 'He was born here.'

539       We alighted; and followed the plain coffin to a corner I remember
540  well, where the service was read consigning it to the dust.

541       'Six-and-thirty years ago, this day, my dear,' said my aunt, as we
542  walked back to the chariot, 'I was married. God forgive us all!'
543  We took our seats in silence; and so she sat beside me for a long
544  time, holding my hand. At length she suddenly burst into tears,
545  and said:

546       'He was a fine-looking man when I married him, Trot - and he was
547  sadly changed!'

548       It did not last long. After the relief of tears, she soon became
549  composed, and even cheerful. Her nerves were a little shaken, she
550  said, or she would not have given way to it. God forgive us all!

551       So we rode back to her little cottage at Highgate, where we found
552  the following short note, which had arrived by that morning's post
553  from Mr. Micawber:

554       

'Canterbury,

555       

'Friday.

556       'My dear Madam, and Copperfield,

557       'The fair land of promise lately looming on the horizon is again
558  enveloped in impenetrable mists, and for ever withdrawn from the
559  eyes of a drifting wretch whose Doom is sealed!

560       'Another writ has been issued (in His Majesty's High Court of
561  King's Bench at Westminster), in another cause of HEEP V.
562  MICAWBER, and the defendant in that cause is the prey of the
563  sheriff having legal jurisdiction in this bailiwick.

564       

'Now's the day, and now's the hour,

565       

See the front of battle lower,

566       

See approach proud EDWARD'S power -

567       

Chains and slavery!

568       'Consigned to which, and to a speedy end (for mental torture is not
569  supportable beyond a certain point, and that point I feel I have
570  attained), my course is run. Bless you, bless you! Some future
571  traveller, visiting, from motives of curiosity, not unmingled, let
572  us hope, with sympathy, the place of confinement allotted to
573  debtors in this city, may, and I trust will, Ponder, as he traces
574  on its wall, inscribed with a rusty nail,
575  

'The obscure initials,

576       

'W. M.

577       'P.S. I re-open this to say that our common friend, Mr. Thomas
578  Traddles (who has not yet left us, and is looking extremely well),
579  has paid the debt and costs, in the noble name of Miss Trotwood;
580  and that myself and family are at the height of earthly bliss.'

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