The Dickens Dictionary by Gilbert A. Pierce

Author:Gilbert A. Pierce
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486141473
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

XIII

XIV

XV

I was so disheartened at parting with the Micawbers that I made a desperate resolve, travelled down to Dover on foot, and presented myself, ragged, dirty, and tired, to my aunt, already mentioned, Miss Betsey Trotwood. Miss Trotwood was a tall, rather hard-featured, but handsome woman. She was of a stern, resolute character, very high-handed and hot-tempered, but kind and generous. There were two other occupants of her house,—Janet, a pretty, neat maid-servant, and Mr. Dick, a gray-headed, half-mad gentleman, good-natured and smiling, and perpetually rattling the loose change in the pockets of his trousers. He had been engaged for ten years or more in drawing up a memorial to the Lord Chancellor, relating to Mr. Dick’s affairs; but his inability to keep out of it the name of Charles I. had, as yet, prevented its completion. My aunt received me kindly, washed and fed and clothed me ; and when, at her request, Mr. Murdstones and his sister called upon her, she routed them most gallantly and effectually, making even Mr. Murdstone wince; and constituted herself and Mr. Dick my guardians. In a short time my aunt sent me to Canterbury, where I went to school, but I lived with Mr. Wickfield, a lawyer, and a friend of my aunt’s, who had a beautiful daughter, Agnes, of about my own age. Mr. Wickfield’s clerk was one Uriah Heep, a pale, bloodless fellow, with no eyebrows or eyelashes to speak of, and cold, clammy hands, which it was very unpleasant to shake. Uriah Heep was, so at least he frequently said, a very “’umble” person ; but he had a sly way of peering about, and of turning up in unexpected places at unexpected times, which was not quite pleasant.

XVI

The master of the school was Dr. Strong, an absentminded, learned, and very kindly man, of nearly sixty years of age, with a young and lovely wife. (People wondered, by the way, why the doctor was not jealous of Mr. Jack Maldon, his wife’s handsome young cousin, for whom the doctor generously found a remunerative employment.)

XVII

Once I condescended, as Uriah Heep expressed it, to take tea with his mother and himself in their “’umble” abode ; and I must confess that they wormed out of me much information about myself, and more especially about Mr. Wickfield, which I never intended to reveal. While I was with Uriah on this occasion, who should meet us but Mr. Micawbers, then on a flying visit to Canterbury in an (unsuccessful) search for employment. I was obliged to introduce them to each other.

XVIII

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XX

At Canterbury I spent five peaceful, happy years; I rose to the head of the school, thrashed the strongest butcher-boy in town, and then, at my dear aunt’s suggestion, I started off first for London, and then to visit Peggotty at Yarmouth. In London I met my old friend and schoolmate, Steerforth, who proposed to accompany me to Yarmouth, but first I stayed with him for a few days at his mother’s house in Highgate.

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