第 38 页

Master Copperfield!’ He writhed himself quite off his stool in the

excitement of his feelings, and, being off, began to make arrangements

for going home.

‘Mother will be expecting me,’ he said, referring to a pale,

inexpressive-faced watch in his pocket, ‘and getting uneasy; for though

we are very umble, Master Copperfield, we are much attached to one

another. If you would come and see us, any afternoon, and take a cup of

tea at our lowly dwelling, mother would be as proud of your company as I

should be.’

I said I should be glad to come.

‘Thank you, Master Copperfield,’ returned Uriah, putting his book

away upon the shelf--‘I suppose you stop here, some time, Master

Copperfield?’

I said I was going to be brought up there, I believed, as long as I

remained at school.

‘Oh, indeed!’ exclaimed Uriah. ‘I should think YOU would come into the

business at last, Master Copperfield!’

I protested that I had no views of that sort, and that no such scheme

was entertained in my behalf by anybody; but Uriah insisted on blandly

replying to all my assurances, ‘Oh, yes, Master Copperfield, I should

think you would, indeed!’ and, ‘Oh, indeed, Master Copperfield, I should

think you would, certainly!’ over and over again. Being, at last, ready

to leave the office for the night, he asked me if it would suit my

convenience to have the light put out; and on my answering ‘Yes,’

instantly extinguished it. After shaking hands with me--his hand felt

like a fish, in the dark--he opened the door into the street a very

little, and crept out, and shut it, leaving me to grope my way back into

the house: which cost me some trouble and a fall over his stool. This

was the proximate cause, I suppose, of my dreaming about him, for what

appeared to me to be half the night; and dreaming, among other things,

that he had launched Mr. Peggotty’s house on a piratical expedition,

with a black flag at the masthead, bearing the inscription ‘Tidd’s

Practice’, under which diabolical ensign he was carrying me and little

Em’ly to the Spanish Main, to be drowned.

I got a little the better of my uneasiness when I went to school

next day, and a good deal the better next day, and so shook it off by

degrees, that in less than a fortnight I was quite at home, and happy,

among my new companions. I was awkward enough in their games, and

backward enough in their studies; but custom would improve me in the

first respect, I hoped, and hard work in the second. Accordingly, I

went to work very hard, both in play and in earnest, and gained great

commendation. And, in a very little while, the Murdstone and Grinby life

became so strange to me that I hardly believed in it, while my present

life grew so familiar, that I seemed to have been leading it a long

time.

Doctor Strong’s was an excellent school; as different from Mr. Creakle’s

as good is from evil. It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and

on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honour and good

faith of the boys, and an avowed intention to rely on their possession

of those qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which

worked wonders. We all felt that we had a part in the management of

the place, and in sustaining its character and dignity. Hence, we soon

became warmly attached to it--I am sure I did for one, and I never knew,

in all my time, of any other boy being otherwise--and learnt with a good

will, desiring to do it credit. We had noble games out of hours, and

plenty of liberty; but even then, as I remember, we were well spoken of

in the town, and rarely did any disgrace, by our appearance or manner,

to the reputation of Doctor Strong and Doctor Strong’s boys.

Some of the higher scholars boarded in the Doctor’s house, and through

them I learned, at second hand, some particulars of the Doctor’s

history--as, how he had not yet been married twelve months to the

beautiful young lady I had seen in the study, whom he had married for

love; for she had not a sixpence, and had a world of poor relations (so

our fellows said) ready to swarm the Doctor out of house and home. Also,

how the Doctor’s cogitating manner was attributable to his being always

engaged in looking out for Greek roots; which, in my innocence and

ignorance, I supposed to be a botanical furor on the Doctor’s part,

especially as he always looked at the ground when he walked about,

until I understood that they were roots of words, with a view to a new

Dictionary which he had in contemplation. Adams, our head-boy, who had

a turn for mathematics, had made a calculation, I was informed, of the

time this Dictionary would take in completing, on the Doctor’s plan, and

at the Doctor’s rate of going. He considered that it might be done

in one thousand six hundred and forty-nine years, counting from the

Doctor’s last, or sixty-second, birthday.

But the Doctor himself was the idol of the whole school: and it must

have been a badly composed school if he had been anything else, for

he was the kindest of men; with a simple faith in him that might have

touched the stone hearts of the very urns upon the wall. As he walked up

and down that part of the courtyard which was at the side of the house,

with the stray rooks and jackdaws looking after him with their heads

cocked slyly, as if they knew how much more knowing they were in worldly

affairs than he, if any sort of vagabond could only get near enough to

his creaking shoes to attract his attention to one sentence of a tale

of distress, that vagabond was made for the next two days. It was so

notorious in the house, that the masters and head-boys took pains to cut

these marauders off at angles, and to get out of windows, and turn them

out of the courtyard, before they could make the Doctor aware of their

presence; which was sometimes happily effected within a few yards of

him, without his knowing anything of the matter, as he jogged to and

fro. Outside his own domain, and unprotected, he was a very sheep for

the shearers. He would have taken his gaiters off his legs, to give

away. In fact, there was a story current among us (I have no idea, and

never had, on what authority, but I have believed it for so many

years that I feel quite certain it is true), that on a frosty day, one

winter-time, he actually did bestow his gaiters on a beggar-woman, who

occasioned some scandal in the neighbourhood by exhibiting a fine infant

from door to door, wrapped in those garments, which were universally

recognized, being as well known in the vicinity as the Cathedral. The

legend added that the only person who did not identify them was the

Doctor himself, who, when they were shortly afterwards displayed at the

door of a little second-hand shop of no very good repute, where such

things were taken in exchange for gin, was more than once observed to

handle them approvingly, as if admiring some curious novelty in the

pattern, and considering them an improvement on his own.

It was very pleasant to see the Doctor with his pretty young wife. He

had a fatherly, benignant way of showing his fondness for her, which

seemed in itself to express a good man. I often saw them walking in the

garden where the peaches were, and I sometimes had a nearer observation

of them in the study or the parlour. She appeared to me to take great

care of the Doctor, and to like him very much, though I never thought

her vitally interested in the Dictionary: some cumbrous fragments of

which work the Doctor always carried in his pockets, and in the lining

of his hat, and generally seemed to be expounding to her as they walked

about.

I saw a good deal of Mrs. Strong, both because she had taken a liking

for me on the morning of my introduction to the Doctor, and was always

afterwards kind to me, and interested in me; and because she was very

fond of Agnes, and was often backwards and forwards at our house. There

was a curious constraint between her and Mr. Wickfield, I thought (of

whom she seemed to be afraid), that never wore off. When she came there

of an evening, she always shrunk from accepting his escort home, and ran

away with me instead. And sometimes, as we were running gaily across

the Cathedral yard together, expecting to meet nobody, we would meet Mr.

Jack Maldon, who was always surprised to see us.

Mrs. Strong’s mama was a lady I took great delight in. Her name was Mrs.

Markleham; but our boys used to call her the Old Soldier, on account of

her generalship, and the skill with which she marshalled great forces

of relations against the Doctor. She was a little, sharp-eyed woman,

who used to wear, when she was dressed, one unchangeable cap, ornamented

with some artificial flowers, and two artificial butterflies supposed

to be hovering above the flowers. There was a superstition among us

that this cap had come from France, and could only originate in the

workmanship of that ingenious nation: but all I certainly know about it,

is, that it always made its appearance of an evening, wheresoever Mrs.

Markleham made HER appearance; that it was carried about to friendly

meetings in a Hindoo basket; that the butterflies had the gift of

trembling constantly; and that they improved the shining hours at Doctor

Strong’s expense, like busy bees.

I observed the Old Soldier--not to adopt the name disrespectfully--to

pretty good advantage, on a night which is made memorable to me by

something else I shall relate. It was the night of a little party at the

Doctor’s, which was given on the occasion of Mr. Jack Maldon’s departure

for India, whither he was going as a cadet, or something of that kind:

Mr. Wickfield having at length arranged the business. It happened to be

the Doctor’s birthday, too. We had had a holiday, had made presents to

him in the morning, had made a speech to him through the head-boy, and

had cheered him until we were hoarse, and until he had shed tears. And

now, in the evening, Mr. Wickfield, Agnes, and I, went to have tea with

him in his private capacity.

Mr. Jack Maldon was there, before us. Mrs. Strong, dressed in white,

with cherry-coloured ribbons, was playing the piano, when we went in;

and he was leaning over her to turn the leaves. The clear red and

white of her complexion was not so blooming and flower-like as usual, I

thought, when she turned round; but she looked very pretty, Wonderfully

pretty.

‘I have forgotten, Doctor,’ said Mrs. Strong’s mama, when we were

seated, ‘to pay you the compliments of the day--though they are, as you

may suppose, very far from being mere compliments in my case. Allow me

to wish you many happy returns.’

‘I thank you, ma’am,’ replied the Doctor.

‘Many, many, many, happy returns,’ said the Old Soldier. ‘Not only

for your own sake, but for Annie’s, and John Maldon’s, and many other

people’s. It seems but yesterday to me, John, when you were a little

creature, a head shorter than Master Copperfield, making baby love to

Annie behind the gooseberry bushes in the back-garden.’

‘My dear mama,’ said Mrs. Strong, ‘never mind that now.’

‘Annie, don’t be absurd,’ returned her mother. ‘If you are to blush to

hear of such things now you are an old married woman, when are you not

to blush to hear of them?’

‘Old?’ exclaimed Mr. Jack Maldon. ‘Annie? Come!’

‘Yes, John,’ returned the Soldier. ‘Virtually, an old married woman.

Although not old by years--for when did you ever hear me say, or who has

ever heard me say, that a girl of twenty was old by years!--your cousin

is the wife of the Doctor, and, as such, what I have described her. It

is well for you, John, that your cousin is the wife of the Doctor. You

have found in him an influential and kind friend, who will be kinder

yet, I venture to predict, if you deserve it. I have no false pride.

I never hesitate to admit, frankly, that there are some members of our

family who want a friend. You were one yourself, before your cousin’s

influence raised up one for you.’

The Doctor, in the goodness of his heart, waved his hand as if to make

light of it, and save Mr. Jack Maldon from any further reminder. But

Mrs. Markleham changed her chair for one next the Doctor’s, and putting

her fan on his coat-sleeve, said:

‘No, really, my dear Doctor, you must excuse me if I appear to dwell

on this rather, because I feel so very strongly. I call it quite my

monomania, it is such a subject of mine. You are a blessing to us. You

really are a Boon, you know.’

‘Nonsense, nonsense,’ said the Doctor.

‘No, no, I beg your pardon,’ retorted the Old Soldier. ‘With nobody

present, but our dear and confidential friend Mr. Wickfield, I cannot

consent to be put down. I shall begin to assert the privileges of a

mother-in-law, if you go on like that, and scold you. I am perfectly

honest and outspoken. What I am saying, is what I said when you first

overpowered me with surprise--you remember how surprised I was?--by

proposing for Annie. Not that there was anything so very much out of

the way, in the mere fact of the proposal--it would be ridiculous to say

that!--but because, you having known her poor father, and having known

her from a baby six months old, I hadn’t thought of you in such a light

at all, or indeed as a marrying man in any way,--simply that, you know.’

‘Aye, aye,’ returned the Doctor, good-humouredly. ‘Never mind.’

‘But I DO mind,’ said the Old Soldier, laying her fan upon his lips. ‘I

mind very much. I recall these things that I may be contradicted if I am

wrong. Well! Then I spoke to Annie, and I told her what had happened.

I said, “My dear, here’s Doctor Strong has positively been and made you

the subject of a handsome declaration and an offer.” Did I press it in

the least? No. I said, “Now, Annie, tell me the truth this moment; is

your heart free?” “Mama,” she said crying, “I am extremely young”--which

was perfectly true--“and I hardly know if I have a heart at all.” “Then,

my dear,” I said, “you may rely upon it, it’s free. At all events, my

love,” said I, “Doctor Strong is in an agitated state of mind, and

must be answered. He cannot be kept in his present state of suspense.”

“Mama,” said Annie, still crying, “would he be unhappy without me? If he

would, I honour and respect him so much, that I think I will have him.”