The Life of David Learn English through story level 3

chapter one

david copperfield’s childhood

i was born at blunderstone in suffolk in

the east of england

and was given my poor father’s name

david copperfield

sadly he never saw me

he was much older than my mother when

they married and died six months before

i was born

my father’s death made my beautiful

young mother very unhappy

and she knew she would find life

extremely difficult with a new baby and

no husband

the richest and most important person in

our family was my father’s aunt

miss betsy trotwood

she had in fact been married once to a

handsome young husband

but because he demanded money from her

and sometimes beat her

she decided they should separate

he went abroad and soon news came of his

death

miss trotwood bought a small house by

the sea and lived there alone with only

one servant

she had not spoken to my father since

his marriage because she considered he

had made a mistake in marrying a very

young girl

but just before i was born

when she heard that my mother was

expecting a baby

she came to visit blunderstone

it was a cold windy friday afternoon in

march

my mother was sitting by the fire

feeling very lonely and unhappy and

crying a little

suddenly a stern strange looking face

appeared at the window

open the door

ordered the stern-faced lady

my mother was shocked but obeyed at once

you must be david copperfield’s wife

said the lady as she entered

i’m betsy trotwood

you’ve heard of me

yes

whispered my mother trembling how young

you are cried miss betsy just a baby

my mother started sobbing again

i know i look like a child

i know i was young to be a wife and i’m

young to be a mother

but perhaps i’ll die before i become a

mother come come answered miss betsy

have some tea

then you’ll feel better

what do you call your girl

my girl

i don’t know yet that it will be a girl

replied my mother miserably no i don’t

mean the baby i mean your servant

her name’s peggotty

her first name’s clara the same as mine

so i call her by her family name you see

what a terrible name

however never mind peggety she called

going to the door bring mrs copperfield

some tea at once

she sat down again and continued

speaking

you were talking about the baby

i’m sure it’ll be a girl now

as soon as she’s born

he perhaps said my mother bravely don’t

be stupid

of course it’ll be a she

i’m going to send her to school and

educate her well

i want to prevent her from making the

mistakes i’ve made in life miss betsy

looked quite angry as she said this

my mother said nothing but she was not

feeling at all well

but tell me

were you and your husband happy

asked miss

betsy this made my poor mother feel

worse than ever

i know i wasn’t very sensible

about money

or cooking

or things like that she sobbed

but we loved each other

and he was helping me to learn

and then he died

and she fell back in her chair

completely unconscious

peggotty who came in just then with the

tea realized how serious the situation

was and took my mother upstairs to bed

the doctor arrived soon afterwards and

stayed all evening to take care of his

patient

at about midnight he came downstairs to

the sitting room where miss betsy was

waiting impatiently

well doctor

what’s the news

how is she

the young mother is quite comfortable

madam

replied the doctor politely but she

the baby

how is she

cried miss betsy

the doctor looked strangely at miss

betsy

it’s a boy madam

he replied

miss betsy said nothing

but walked straight out of the house

and never came back

that was how i was born

my early childhood was extremely happy

as my beautiful mother and kind peggety

took care of me

but when i was about eight

a shadow passed over my happiness

my mother often went out walking in her

best clothes with a gentleman called mr

murdstone

he had black hair a big black moustache

and an unpleasant smile

and seemed to be very fond of my mother

but i knew that peggety did not like him

a few months later peggotty told me that

my mother was going to have a short

holiday with some friends

meanwhile peggotty and i would go to

stay with her brother daniel in yarmouth

on the east coast for two weeks

i was very excited when we climbed into

the cart

although it was sad saying goodbye to my

mother

mr murdstone was at her shoulder waving

goodbye as the driver called to his

horse

and we drove out of the village

when we got down from the cart in

yarmouth after our journey peggotty said

that’s the house master david

looked around

but could only see an old ship on the

sand

is that

that your brother’s house i asked in

delight

and when we reached it i saw it had

doors and windows and a chimney just

like a real house

i could not imagine a nicer place to

live

everything was clean and tidy and smell

to fish

now i was introduced to the pekiti

family

there was daniel peggotty a kind old

sailor

although he was not married he had

adopted two orphans who lived with him

and called him uncle

ham peggotty was a large young man with

a gentle smile and emily was a beautiful

blue-eyed little girl

they all welcomed peggotty and me warmly

i spent a wonderfully happy two weeks

there playing all day on the beach with

emily and sleeping in my own little bed

on the ship

i’m sure i was in love with little emily

in my childish way

and i cried bitterly when we had to say

goodbye at the end of the holiday

but on the way home to blunderstone

peggotty looked at me very worriedly

master david my dear

she said suddenly in a trembling voice

i must tell you

you’ll have to know now

while we’ve been away

your dear mother

has married mr murdstone

he’s your stepfather now

i was deeply shocked

i could not understand how my mother

could have married that man

and when we arrived home

i could not help showing my mother how

very miserable i was

i went straight to my room and lay

sobbing on my bed

which made my poor mother very unhappy

too

as she sat beside me holding my hand

mr murdstone suddenly came

in what’s this cloud of my love he asked

sternly

remember

you must be firm with the boy

i’ve told you before

you’re too weak with him

oh

yes edward

i’m afraid you’re right my mother

replied quickly

i’m very sorry

i’ll try to be firmer with him

and when she left the room

mr murdstone whispered angrily to me

david

you know what i’ll do if you don’t obey

me

i’ll beat you like a dog

i was still very young

and i was very frightened of him

if he had said one kind word to me

perhaps i would have liked and trusted

him

and my life would have been different

instead

i hated him for the influence he had

over my dear mother who wanted to be

kind to me but also wanted to please her

new husband

that evening mr murdstone’s sister

arrived to help my mother in the house

a tall dark lady with a stern frowning

face

she looked and sounded very much like

her brother

i thought she was planning to stay with

us for a long time

and i was right

in fact

she intended to stay

forever she started work the next

morning

she said firmly to my mother at

breakfast

i’m here to help you

you’re much too pretty and thoughtless

to worry about the servants the food and

so on

so just hand me your keys to all the

cupboards

and i’ll take care of everything for you

my poor mother just blushed

looked a little ashamed and obeyed

from then on

miss murdstone took complete control of

the house

keeping the keys hanging from her waist

as she hurried through the house

checking that everything was being done

just as she wished

chapter 2

david is sent away to school

i was very unhappy during this time

mr murdstone insisted on my studying

and so my mother gave me lessons

in the past

she and i had enjoyed our studies

together

and she had taught me a lot in her

gentle way

but now

both mr and miss murdstone were present

during my lessons

and somehow i could not concentrate

or remember what i had learned

my poor mother was very sympathetic

and tried to encourage me

sometimes even whispering the answer to

me

but the murder stones had sharp ears

clouded my love mr murdstone used to say

crossly

remember

be firm

you’re making the boy’s character worse

by helping him like that

oh

edward i’m sorry

my mother replied

looking embarrassed

and hanging her head like a guilty child

one morning

when i arrived in the sitting room as

usual for my lesson

i saw that mr murdstone

had a thin stick in his hand

i could not take my eyes off it

you must be very careful today david

he said with his unpleasant smile

holding the stick in both hands

i knew what would happen then

a terrible fear

took hold of me

and all that i had learnt disappeared

immediately from my memory

so that i could not answer any of my

mother’s questions

mr murdstone got up from his chair

well david

he said heavily

i think you’ve worried your mother

enough today

we’ll go upstairs boy

come

and he picked up the stick

i heard my mother crying as we went

upstairs

please mr murdstone i cried

don’t beat me

i’ve tried to learn really i have sir

but he did not listen to me

in my bedroom he held my arms

and started hitting me with a stick

i managed to get hold of his hand

and bit deep into it

he cried out angrily

and began to hit me as hard as he could

above the noise of my screams

i could hear my mother and peggotty

crying outside the door

then the next moment

he was gone

i heard him lock the door

and i was lying

sore and bleeding

on the floor

the whole house

seemed suddenly very quiet

i stayed there for a time

without moving

in the evening

miss murdstone brought me some bread and

milk

which she left on the floor beside me

frowning angrily at me as she went out

i was kept locked in that room for five

days and nights

and saw nobody except miss murdstone

who brought me food

but never spoke to me

to a small boy

the five days

seemed like years

and i can still remember how frightened

and guilty i felt

but during the fifth night

i heard a strange noise at the keyhole

it was peggety

trying to give me a message

master david my dear she whispered

sobbing

they’re going to send you away to

boarding school tomorrow

oh piggety i cried

then i won’t see you and mother very

often

know my love

but don’t forget

i’ll take care of your mother

she needs her cross-old peggotty

i’ll stay with her

although i hate these murder stones

and remember david

i love you as much as i love your mother

and more

and i write to you

thank you

dear peggotty

i whispered back

tears rolling down my face

will you write your brother too

and ham

and little emily

and tell them

i’m not as bad as the murder stones

think

and send my love to them

especially

little emily

peggotty promised to do what i asked

the next morning miss murdstone told me

that because of my wickedness

i was going away to school

she had already packed my case for me

my mother was only allowed to say a very

quick goodbye to me

when the horse and cart arrived

the driver put my case on the cart

and we drove slowly out of blunderstone

i was still sobbing loudly

when suddenly i saw peggety running

after us on the road

the driver stopped and waited for her

with difficulty

she climbed up onto the cut

here master david

she cried breathlessly

a little present from me

and your dear mother

take care of yourself my dear

she put a small purse and a paper bag

into my hands

and held me so close to her fat body

that i thought i would never breathe

again

then she jumped down

and ran back along the road to the

village

as we continued our journey i dried my

tears and looked at what she had given

me

the bag was full of peggotty’s special

cakes

and in the purse were eight bright

shilling coins

thinking of my mother and peggotty

made me start crying again

but just then the driver

mr barkus

began to talk to me he was a large

red-faced man

who clearly found conversation difficult

did

she make those cakes

he asked slowly having finished the one

that i had offered him

you mean pegatisa

yes

she does all our cooking

replied mr barcus

with great interest

there was a long silence while he

considered his next question

does she

have a young man he asked

you know

someone

wants to marry her

peggotty

a young man i repeated surprised

oh no

she’s never had any young men

ah

replied mr barcus

looking very pleased

again

he thought for a long time before

speaking

wow

he said it last

perhaps

if you write to her

will you be right into her

you could give her a message from me

you could say

barcus

is willing

would you do that

barcus

is willing

i repeated innocently

wondering what the message meant

yes of course

but you could tell her yourself mr

barcus when you return to blunderstone

tomorrow

no

no

he said no

you just give her the message

remember

barcase is willing

after this conversation

mr barcus was completely silent for the

rest of the journey

when we arrived in yarmouth

i bought paper at the hotel

and wrote this letter to peggotty

my dear pekety

i have arrived safely in yarmouth

barcus is willing

please give my love to mother

yours david

p.s

he says it’s important

barcus is willing

in yarmouth

i was put on the long distance coach to

london

and traveled all through the night

at the coach station in london

i was collected by a teacher

mr mel and taken to salem house

the school which the murder stones had

chosen for me

the school was a large old building with

a dusty playground

surrounded by a high brick wall

it looked strangely deserted

i was very surprised to find that none

of the boys were there

and was told that they were all on

holiday

that i had been sent there during the

holidays as a punishment for my

wickedness

the headmaster and teachers were on

holiday too

all except for mr mel who had to look

after me

i spent a whole month

in that miserable place

doing my lessons in the dirty empty

classroom

which smelt of old food

and unwashed boys

every evening i had to eat my supper

with mr mel

and then go straight to bed

the worst thing

was the sign i had to wear around my

neck

it said

be careful

he bites

i was only allowed to take it off when i

went to bed

although i was extremely lonely and

unhappy at this time

i was not looking forward to meeting all

the other boys

i felt sure they would laugh at me

and especially at the sign i was forced

away

but one day mr mel told me that the

headmaster mr kriegel had returned and

wanted to see me

so i went trembling to his part of the

house

i realized at once that mr kriegel lived

much more comfortably than the boys or

the teachers

he was a small fat man with a purple

nose who was sitting in an armchair with

a bottle and a glass in front of him

so this is the boy who bites is it

he asked unpleasantly

i know your stepfather boy

he’s a man of strong character he is

he knows me

and i know him

do you know me

answer me boy

he pulled violently at my ear

not yet sir

i answered tears of pain in my eyes

ah

but you soon well

oh yes

i have a strong character too you’ll see

he banged his hand hard on the table

i was very frightened

but i made myself ask the question i had

been considering for a whole month

please sir

i’m very sorry for what i did to mr

murdstone

could

could i take this sign off

before the other boys see it

mr creeker gave a sudden terrible shout

and jumped out of his chair

i did not wait to see whether he was

going to hit me

but ran out of his room

and hid in my bed

for the next hour

however

the boys were not as cruel to me as i

had feared

i made a friend almost immediately

a boy called tommy traddles

it was known to be the unluckiest boy in

the school

i was also noticed

and even smiled on

by the great james steerforth

one of the oldest boys

at least six years older than me

he was a handsome intelligent

curly-haired young man who had become an

important figure of the school

with great influence over the younger

boys

how much money have you got copperfield

he asked me

eight shillings stay forth i answered

remembering the present my mother and

peggotty had given me

you’d better give it to me

i’ll take care of it for you

he offered in a friendly way

i opened peggotty’s purse and turned it

upside down into his hand

perhaps you’d like to spend some of it

now he suggested smiling

a bottle of wine

a turn of biscuits

a few cakes

that sort of thing

i can go out whenever i like

so i can buy it for you

yes

that’s very kind of you i said

although i was a little worried that all

my money would disappear

when we went upstairs to bed

i realized that all my money had been

spent

as

eight shillings worth of food and drink

was laid out on my bed in the moonlight

of course

i did not want to eat and drink it all

by myself

so i invited steerforth and the others

to help themselves

the boys were very willing

and we spent a pleasant evening sitting

on our beds whispering to each other

i discovered that the boys all hated

salem house

which they considered one of the worst

schools in the country

they especially hated mr kriegel who was

in the habit of beating them regularly

with a heavy stick which he carried with

him at all times

the only boy he dared not beat was

steerforth

i admired steerforth even more when i

heard this

when we were all too tired to stay awake

steerforth got up to go

good night young copperfield he said

putting a hand on my head

i’ll take care of you

it’s very kind of you

i replied gratefully

you haven’t got a sister have you

yes sleepily

no i haven’t i answered

what a pity

if you had one

i’m sure she’d be a pretty

bright-eyed little girl

i would have liked to meet her

i thought of him a lot that night

with his laughing handsome face and his

careless confident manner

i could never have imagined

what a dark shadow he would throw over

the lives of people who were dear to me

i stayed at salem house

for three more months

although one or two of the teachers like

mr mel were kind to us boys

and tried to teach us properly

we were too afraid of mr crickle and his

stick

to concentrate on our studies

but tommy traddles and i cheered each

other up if we were beaten

and i was lucky enough to be friendly

with the great steerforth

in spite of the difference in our ages

however

my home

even with the murder stones there

seemed a much pleasanter place than

school

and i was glad when the christmas

holidays arrived and i was allowed to

return to blunderstone

i was a little surprised to find that my

mother had a new baby

and i could see it once

that she was not well

she looked tired and worried

and very thin

but she and peggotty were delighted to

see me

although

they dared not show it if the murder

stones were present

my stepfather and his sister

seemed to hate me even more than before

if that were possible

and they made my life

quite miserable whenever they could

in fact

i was almost pleased when it was time to

return to school

and see travels and steer forth again

as the cart drove away

i remember my mother standing outside

our house

with her baby in her arms

smiling sadly at me

that was the last time i saw her

and that is how

i shall always remember her

chapter 3

david the orphan

life went on as normal for me at school

until my birthday two months later in

march

i remember that day very well

it was cold icy weather

and we boys had to blow on our fingers

and rub our hands to keep warm in the

freezing classrooms

when a message came for me to go and see

mr kriegel

i thought that peggotty must have sent

me a birthday present

and so i hurried gladly along to his

room

but there i realized something unusual

had happened

because it was mr kriegel’s wife who was

waiting to speak to me

david my child

she said kindly holding my hand

we all have to accept

that our loved ones can die at any

moment

i looked at her

trying to understand what she meant

i’m sorry to tell you she continued

that your mother

is dangerously ill

there was a mist in front of my eyes

and suddenly

burning tears ran down my face

i knew the truth

your mother is dead

she said

i was already sobbing loudly

and i felt i was an orphan

quite alone in the world

mrs kriegel packed my case herself

and sent me home on the coach for the

funeral

i did not realize at the time

that i would never return to salem house

when i arrived home

peggotty met me at the door

and we cried miserably in each other’s

arms

mr murdstone seemed very sad

and did not speak to me at all

miss murdstone however

showed her usual firmness of character

which she and her brother were so proud

of

by checking that i had brought all my

clothes back from school

after that

she showed no interest in me at all

there was a deathly stillness in the

house

peggotty took me up to the room where my

dear mother’s dead body lay

with my little brother

who had died a few hours after her

everything was fresh and clean in the

room

but i could not look at my mother’s

lovely face

which would never smile at me again

without crying

how did it happen peggotty

i asked sobbing

she was ill for a long time master david

she got worse after the baby was born

you see

she was sometimes unhappy and forgetful

but she was always the same to me

her old peggety

those two downstairs

often spoke crossly to her

and made her sad

but she still loved them you know

she was so sweet and loving

i always sat beside her while she went

to sleep

it made her feel better she said

there was a short silence while peggotty

dried her eyes

then took both my hands in hers

on the last night

she asked me for some water

and then gave me such a patient smile

she looked so beautiful

the sun was beginning to rise and she

put her head on my arm

on a stupid crossover pegged his arm

and died

like an innocent child

going to sleep

after my mother’s funeral

i began to wonder what would happen to

me

the murder stones did not even seem to

notice that i was in the house

they had told pegarty to leave

as they did not want her as their

servant anymore

so peggotty was going to her brothers in

yarmouth

until she decided what work to do next

she suggested taking me with her for a

holiday

and to my surprise the murder stones

agreed

so

next morning

mr barkes appeared at the door with his

cart

and peggotty’s cases were put on it

we climbed up

and sat beside him

peggotty was naturally a little sad to

leave her old home

where she had been so happy with my

mother and me

and at first she cried a little

but when mr barcus saw her drying her

eyes and looking more cheerful

he too began to look happier

and he whispered to me

parkers is willing

you told her that

aloud he said to peggotty

are you comfortable

peggety laughed

and said that she was

and are you

comfortable

master david

he asked

i said that i was

mr barcus was so pleased with this

conversation

that he repeated it many times during

the journey

and peggotty and i

both had to keep giving him the same

answer

when we arrived in yarmouth and got down

from the cart

we said goodbye to mr barkes

daniel and ham peggotty were waiting for

us

daniel and ham were exactly the same as

i remembered them

cheerful and generous as ever

but little emily

seemed different somehow

she was taller and prettier

but she did not want to play with me

or spend her time with me

i was rather disappointed

because i still considered she was the

most beautiful girl i had ever seen

and i thought i was in love with her

daniel and ham were very proud of her

intelligence and beauty

and just smiled when she laughingly

refused to sit next to me

but they all listened with interest to

my stories of school life at salem house

i told them about the other boys

especially the handsome clever

steerforth

i admired him so much that i could not

stop myself telling them all about him

suddenly i noticed that emily was

listening eagerly her blue eyes shining

and a smile on her lips

she blushed when she saw that we were

all looking at her

and hid her face behind her hands

emil is like me

said peggotty kindly and would like to

see david’s friend mr steerforth

the days passed happily although emily

and i did not play together as we had

done before

mr barcus was a frequent visitor

and soon peggety explained to me that

she had decided to marry him

i love you just as much david my dear

when i’m married she told me holding me

close to her

and i’ll be able to come and see you in

the cart anytime i like

marcus is a good man

and i’m sure i’ll be happy with him

he’s got a nice little house and i’ll

keep a little bedroom there for you to

use whenever you want you’ll always be

welcome to come and stay

so when i returned to blunderstone

peggotty had become mrs barcus

and i was glad to think of her in her

own house with a husband to take care of

her

at home

my stepfather and his sister did not

seem pleased to see me and were clearly

trying to find a way of getting rid of

me

as they considered school too expensive

they finally arranged for me to start

work

although i was still only 10 years old

and very small for my age

i was sent to london

to work in a warehouse in the east of

the city near the river

my job was to wash bottles

which would then be filled with wine

or to pack the filled bottles in cases

i was paid only six shillings a week

there were several other boys who worked

with me

but i was the only one who had been to

school

all the warehouse workers were coarse

rough people

who were used to working in dirty

conditions for long hours

no words can describe the horror i felt

when i realized what my life was going

to be like from now on

i was deeply ashamed at having such a

job

and i was also afraid that i would

forget everything i had learned from my

mother and my teachers

i would never find friends like traddles

or steerforth

or be able to get a better position in

life

it was an extremely unhappy time for me

my stepfather had asked mr quinion the

manager to find me somewhere to stay in

london

so at the end of my first day i was

called to mr quinion’s office and

introduced to an important looking

rather fat middle-aged man with a head

as bald as an egg

his name was mr micawber

and he offered me a spare room in the

house he was renting with his family i

agreed to take it

and mr micawber and i walked home

together

the micawbers were obviously very poor

but tried hard not to let the show

the house had several floors of rather

dirty empty rooms with very little

furniture

mrs macorber was a thin

tired looking woman with a baby in her

arms

the baby was one of twins

and in all my experience of the family

i never saw mrs micawber without at

least one of the twins

they also had a four-year-old son

and a three-year-old daughter

their only servant was a young orphan

girl

i never thought mrs micawber told me

sadly as she showed me my room

when i lived with mother and father

before i was married

though i would ever be as poor as this

but as mr micawber is for the moment in

difficulties

i must of course accept the situation

i’m afraid he owes a lot of money

but his creditors will just have to wait

you can’t get blood out of a stone

nor can anyone get any money at all out

of mr micawber a present

i soon realized

that neither mr nor mrs micawber had

ever been able to manage money

the little that mr micawber earned was

not enough either to keep his creditors

happy

or to pay for the needs of his growing

family

so

his creditors were constantly at the

door demanding payment

and meals were rather irregular in the

micawber house

mr and mrs micawber’s moods varied

according to the situation

one moment mr micawber looked extremely

miserable and depressed

the next he was brushing his shoes and

singing a song before going out

mrs micawber’s character was similar to

her husband’s

sometimes i came home to find her lying

on the floor with her hair undone

looking wild and desperate

but an hour later she was cheerfully

eating a good supper

i lived with these kind people for

several months and became very fond of

them

i bought my own food out of my wages

because i knew the micawbers hardly ever

had enough for themselves

and i lived mostly on bread and cheese

as they were so short of money

once or twice i offered to lend them a

few shillings

which they refused to accept

but at last mr micawber’s creditors

became tired of waiting for their money

and went to the police who arrested him

for debt

he was taken to the king’s prison and

asked me to visit him there

when i arrived i was shown to his room

where he was waiting for me

he seemed quite broken-hearted

and even cried a little

this is a black day for me copperfield

he sobbed

i hope my mistakes will be a warning to

young people like you

remember

if a man earns 20 pounds a year

and spends 19 pounds and 19 shillings

the result

is happiness

but if he spends 20 pounds and one

shilling the result

is misery

by the way copperfield could you lend me

a shilling for some beer

mrs micawber will pay you back as soon

as you arrive home

and when the beer arrived

he appeared much more cheerful

we had a pleasant evening telling

stories and jokes

he stayed in prison for several weeks

and i visited him regularly

i was delighted to hear on one of my

visits that he would soon be free as his

creditors had unwillingly accepted the

fact that he had no way of paying his

debts

i gave the news to mrs micawber when i

returned home

we celebrated by sharing our supper and

a glass of wine together

may i ask what you will do madam when mr

micawber is free i ask politely

my family said mrs micawber grandly

believe that mr micawber should move to

the country

to devon

and carry on his business interests

there

mr micawber is a very clever man master

copperfield

i’m sure he is i agreed

although they haven’t found anything

exactly right for him yet

my family think he should be ready in

devon

in case something turns up

she put down her empty glass

and

will you be going with him madam i asked

i must i will

mrs micawber’s voice rose to a scream he

is my life my love my husband the father

of my children i would never desert mr

micawber you can’t ask me to desert him

i felt very uncomfortable

as i had not asked her to desert him at

all

but she soon became calm again and

finished her supper i was becoming used

to the micawber’s changes of mood

i now realized that when the micawbers

left london as they were planning to do

i would be very lonely in the city

i still hated my work in the warehouse

and wanted to make a better life for

myself

i thought about it for a long time

and decided there was only one thing i

could do

i would try to find my one surviving

relation my father’s aunt

miss betsy trotwood and ask her to help

me

i knew that she lived somewhere near

dover in kent

i could go there by coach because

peggotty had once sent me ten shillings

to keep in case i ever needed it

the time had come to use that money

chapter four

david and his aunt

so after helping the micawbers to pack

their few clothes and waving goodbye to

them at the coach station on their way

to devon

i went to the warehouse for my last day

at work

i did not tell anyone i would not be

coming back the following week

in the evening i packed my case and put

the ten shillings in the little purse

peggotty had once given me

i looked around for someone to help me

with my case which was rather heavy for

me

and saw a tall young man with a horse

and cart passing by

could you please take my case to the

coach station i asked him politely

the young man put the case into his cart

then

looking around quickly to make sure

there were no witnesses

he pushed me roughly against the wall

and took my purse out of my trembling

hand

before i could say a word he had driven

the horse and cart down the road and out

of sight round the corner

i knew i would never see him my case or

my ten shillings again

i sat down on the pavement and cried

now i had lost everything i owned in the

world

and had no money for the coach fair to

dover

in the end

i decided i would have to walk there

and i started the long journey

it took me six days to cover the hundred

kilometers as i got tired very easily

and had to rest

i sold my jacket for a shilling so that

i could buy bread and milk on the way

and at night i slept in disused farm

buildings or under trees

sometimes i was afraid of the dangerous

looking beggars and thieves i met on the

road

but i knew i had to keep going

as i walked

i thought of my mother’s gentle pretty

face

i felt sure she would approve of what i

was doing

and that encouraged me to continue

but when i arrived in dover

it seemed a much larger town than i had

imagined

i spent a whole morning asking people if

they knew where miss betsy trotwood

lived

finally i found someone who recognized

the name and showed me the way to her

house

stood at her front door in the neat

little garden for a few moments

trembling with fear and wondering what

my aunt would think of me

my face and hands were dirty my hair was

unbrushed and my clothes were torn and

dusty

perhaps she wouldn’t even want to invite

me into her house

just then a handsome but strict looking

grey-haired woman came out of the door

towards me

i knew she must be my aunt go away she

said crossley i don’t allow anyone to

walk on my grass

please madam i said bravely

please aunt what cried miss betsy in

great surprise

please aunt

i’m your nephew good

havels she cried and sat down rather

suddenly on the grass

i’m david copperfield your your nephew

son of blunderstone in suffolk where you

came on the night i was born and saw my

dear mother i’ve been very unhappy since

she died

my stepfather sent me to work in london

and i hated it and ran away and someone

stole my case and my money and i’ve had

to walk all the way and i haven’t slept

in a bed for six nights

here my self-control broke

they fell to the ground sobbing bitterly

my aunt jumped to her feet picked me up

and took me into her sitting room

where she mixed some medicine in a glass

and made me drink it

she also wrapped me in a large blanket

and put me on her sofa

then she rang the bell for her servant

janet

please ask mr dick to come here janet

she said

a tall grey-haired pleasant-looking

gentleman entered a few minutes later

laughing rather strangely to himself

now mr dick said my aunt firmly

don’t be a fool because we all know

you’re intelligent

mr dick looked very serious at once

no doubt you remember that i had a

nephew david copperfield well

this is his son

he has run away

oh really

david’s son

run away

well

said mr dick

now the question is mr dick what shall i

do with him

well

mr dick looked vacantly at me

and then suddenly his eyes shone

if i were you

i would wash him

well done mr dick you always have the

right answer

said my aunt delightedly

and so they washed me

and gave me clean clothes and delicious

food

while i was eating my aunt stared at me

occasionally whispering good heavens to

herself

when she could see that i felt better

she asked me question after question

and i told her the story of my life good

heavens she said again when i had

finished

why did your poor mother marry again

what a terrible mistake

perhaps she was in love suggested mr

dick

smiling his rather foolish smile

in love

said miss betsy crossley

perhaps the poor silly girl thought she

was in love

but now mr dick another question

what should we do with the boy

well

said mr dick thinking

then an idea suddenly came to him

you should put him to bed

thank you again mr dick for your common

sense said my aunt happily

janet

put the boy to bed

and so

in a comfortable clean little bed in a

pleasant airy room at the top of miss

betsy trotwood’s house

i floated away into the world of my

dreams

at breakfast next morning i bravely

asked my aunt

are you

have you

what’s going to happen to me

i’ve written to your stepfather she

replied

oh

are you going to send me back to the

merch stones

please don’t aunt

please let me stay here i cried

trembling i don’t know what i’ll do yet

we’ll have to wait and see

she answered firmly

this news made me very depressed but

there was nothing i could do about it

and my aunt soon began to talk about

something else

what do you think of mr dick child

he looks a little

well

mad

is he mad aunt

well

his family called him mad and wanted to

lock him up forever

but i met him and thought i still think

he’s an extremely sensible intelligent

person

so i offered to take care of him and

he’s lived in my house for 10 years

nobody knows what useful advice he’s

given me i trust him completely

when i heard how generous my aunt had

been to poor harmless mr dick

i began to understand her character

better

in spite of her stern appearance and

frequent crossness

she was very kind to people who needed

her help

i hoped she would be kind to me

several days later i was looking out of

the sitting room window

when i saw mr and miss murdstone riding

into my aunt’s garden

my aunt had seen them too and hurried

out waving her umbrella angrily at them

and shouting go away don’t ride on my

grass who do you think you are go away i

tell you

aunt i cried out

they’re mr and miss murdstone i don’t

care she shouted nobody is allowed to

ride on my grass

and she went back into her house banging

the door behind her

the merch stones had to lead their

horses out of the garden and then return

to ring the doorbell

they looked very uncomfortable and

unsure of themselves

janet showed them into the sitting room

where my aunt mr dick and i were waiting

miss trotwood began mr murdstone

stepping forward excuse me said my aunt

sharply i imagine

you are the mr murderstone who married

my nephew’s widow

in my opinion it would have been much

better if you had never married the poor

child

i agree with you miss trotwood said miss

murdstone smiling falsely my brother

would certainly have been happier if he

hadn’t married her because i consider

poor dear clara was in fact just a child

fortunately said my aunt you and i

madame are too old and plain for anyone

to say that about us

miss murdstone did not seem eager to

agree to this

her brother however wanted to get down

to business

miss trotwood he said a little crossly

having received your letter i’ve come to

explain to you in case you haven’t

realized it yet

that this boy is extremely wicked and

violent

both my sister and i have tried to

change his character but sadly we have

failed

i must add said miss murdstone that of

all the boys in the world

i believe this is the worst boy

i see

said my aunt

now tell me

has david inherited any money from his

father or mother

no madam answered mr murdstone

my dear clara naturally trusted me to

take care of david and i’m ready to do

that if he comes back with me now

but i alone shall decide what to do with

him miss trotwood understand that i am

here for the first and last time to take

him away

if you decide to keep him with you

you keep him forever

what to say david

asked my aunt turning to me

please don’t let me go with them aunt i

bet

they’ve always been unkind to me and

they made my mother very unhappy

i’ll be so miserable if i have to go

back with them

what do you think mr dick asked my aunt

mr dick thought for a moment

get a suit of clothes made for him

immediately he said

what would i do without you mr dick

asked my aunt shaking his hand

enthusiastically

then she turned to mr murdstone

you’d better go

i’ll keep the boy and take my chance

with him

i don’t believe a word of your story do

you think i don’t know how you broke

that poor girl’s heart

and how you hated her son and punished

him for it

i can see by your face that i’m right

we all stared at mr murdstone

it was true that his face was white

and he was breathing fast

goodbye sir

and goodbye to you too madam

added my aunt

turning suddenly to miss murdstone

if i see you riding on my grass again

i’ll knock your hat right off your head

the murder stone said nothing in reply

to these fierce words

but walked quickly out of the house

thank you

thank you aunt i cried

i’ll do my best to make you proud of me

and i kissed her many times

mr dick

you and i will adopt this boy together

said my aunt

a stern expression

softening into a smile

and so a new life began for me

i was soon able to forget the warehouse

and the merchants in learning to please

my aunt and to play games with mr dick

who spent much of his time with me

but one day my aunt suggested that i

should go to boarding school in

canterbury

i was delighted as i was eager to

continue my studies and canterbury was

very near my aunt’s home in dover

so the next day my aunt and i went to

canterbury where i admired the beautiful

old buildings in the ancient city center

is it a large school aunt i asked

politely

i haven’t decided which school you’ll go

to yet she replied

first we’re going to ask my old friend

mr wickfield’s advice about it

he lives and works in canterbury you see

soon we stopped in front of a very old

house

with a very clean front doorstep and

fresh white curtains at the windows

a strange-looking person

dressed in black with short red hair and

a very thin white face came out to meet

us

i thought he must be a servant

he was about fifteen but looked much

older

is mr wickfield at home uriah heap

asked my aunt

here’s madam

replied uriah smiling unpleasantly

he showed us into the sitting room

where i noticed two large paintings on

the wall

one of a grey-haired gentleman the other

of a lady with a sweet gentle face

just then a gentleman entered the room

looking a little older than his picture

i soon discovered he was mr wickfield my

aunt’s lawyer

mr wickfield said my aunt this is my

nephew i have adopted him

and i want to send him to a good

boarding school here in canterbury

can you help me find a school for him

mr wickfield thought for a moment

there’s a very good school i can

recommend dr strong’s

but the boy can’t board there

and it’s too far to travel from dover

every day however

he could live here if you liked in my

house

there’s plenty of room for him

that’s very kind of you mr wickfield

i’ll pay you for his food of course said

my aunt

come and meet agnes who takes care of

everything and manages the house

said mr wickfield

we all went upstairs to another sitting

room prettily furnished

where a girl of my own age was sitting

on her face i saw immediately the

beautiful calm expression of the lady in

the painting downstairs

and i knew she must be mr wickfield’s

daughter agnes

when i saw the way mr whitfield looked

at agnes and held her hand

i realized that she was the only thing

that made life worth living for him

the lady in the painting was her mother

who had died some years before and agnes

was now in complete charge of the house

she welcomed me warmly as a guest and

showed me the comfortable bedroom i

would sleep in

my aunt was very happy to leave me in

the care of mr wickfield and his

daughter

i must leave now david she told me

mr wickfield will take you to school

tomorrow and make all the arrangements

i’m sure you will work hard and do well

thank you aunt i said trying not to cry

and give my love to mr dick

and thank you again

when she had gone i dried my tears

and spent a pleasant evening with the

wickfields

we ate supper and talked in the pretty

little sitting room

agnes played the piano and tried to

amuse her father

but he often looked serious and rather

sad

during the evening he drank a good deal

of wine

i wondered why he seemed unhappy

the next day i had my first experience

of a well-organized school

it could not have been more different

from salem house

the headmaster dr strong was a gentle

kind man who enjoyed teaching and never

punished anybody

i soon made friends with the other boys

and as time went on with the teachers

too

but although i liked school very much

i was always happy to return to the

wickfield’s quiet house every evening

there agnes used to help me with my

studies

and listen sympathetically to my

problems

and her father always seemed pleased to

see me

i often wrote to my aunt and peggety and

mr dick came to visit me once a week

the strangest person in my new life was

uriah heap

soon after i arrived in canterbury we

had a conversation one evening

he was doing a lot of mr whitfield’s

work

and was working late in his small office

just off the hall of the wickfield’s

house

come in come in master copperfield he

cried when he saw me passing the door

i entered

and found him reading a large dusty book

and making careful notes in a notebook

what are you studying uriah i asked

politely

i’m going to be a lawyer he replied

rubbing his thin hands together and

smiling his oily smile

you’re mr wickfield’s assistant aren’t

you

perhaps one day you’ll be his partner i

said trying to make conversation

oh no master copperfield cried uriah

rolling his eyes upwards

i could never rise so high

no

i’m much too humble for that

but thank you master copperfield for

thinking kindly of me

and may i say

that if ever you have the time and i’m

sure a young gentleman like you is much

too busy to spare the time for a poor

person like me

my mother and i would be glad to offer

you a cup of tea at our humble home

of course

if i have time i answered

and left the room quickly

did not feel comfortable with him for

some reason

but the following week he invited me to

tea again

and i did not want to appear rude so i

agreed

that evening he and i walked to the

small house where he lived with his

mother

it was a warm day and we were drinking

our tea near the open door

when a gentleman i recognized passed by

it was mr micawber

he saw me sitting near the door and

called out

copperfield

is it really you

i was delighted to see him again

and mrs heap invited him in for some tea

i had to introduce him to the heaps

but i did not think that uriah would be

a good influence on mr micawber

however i was interested to discover

that the micawbers were now living in

canterbury as nothing had turned up in

devon

they seem to be very short of money

again and surrounded by creditors as

usual

i left the heaps house as soon as

possible taking mr micawber with me as i

did not want him to tell uriah all about

my life at the warehouse in london

and so

the years passed

i learned everything that dr strong and

his teachers could teach me

and at 17

came to the end of my school days

my aunt suggested that before deciding

what profession to choose

i should spend a month in london or

traveling around the country

this would give me time to consider my

next step

i agreed enthusiastically and although i

was sorry to say goodbye to my sweet

friend agnes and her father

i was looking forward to leading the

life of an independent young gentleman

chapter 5

david meets old friends again

i decided to go to london first to stay

at a hotel for a few nights and see all

the sights of that great city

i knew it would be very different from

the last time i was in london when i was

working at the warehouse

now

i was adult and educated

and had money

the hotel i chose was called the golden

cross

and because i looked so young i was

given a very small dark room in the roof

but i did not feel confident enough to

complain

that evening

i was returning from the theater when i

recognized someone going into the hotel

i could not prevent myself from saying

it once

steer forth

do you remember me

he stared at me for a moment

then he cried

good heavens

it’s little copperfield

i was so delighted to see him that i

held both his hands saying

my dear stiff

you have no idea how pleased i am to see

you again

i remembered how much i had admired him

and all my love for him came back

i had to brush away the tears from my

eyes

don’t cry copperfield old boy he said

kindly

i’m glad to see you too

what are you doing here

i’ve just finished school and my aunt

has sent me to london to look around

before deciding on a profession

what about you steerforth

well i’m studying at oxford university

but nothing exciting ever happens there

that’s why i’m in london for a few days

but it’s boring here too isn’t it

in london i asked surprised

i think it’s wonderful

there’s so much to do and see

i’ve just been to the theater

the actors were excellent and david

david laughs steerforth

it does me good to see your fresh

innocent face so full of excitement now

let me see

which room are you staying in

number 44

it’s rather high up i can first blushing

they’ve put you in number 44

i’ll soon change that and when

steerforth complained to the manager i

was immediately given a large airy

comfortable room on the first floor next

to his

that night as i fell asleep i thought

happily of the next few days which

steerforth and i were planning to spend

together

a week passed very quickly

with visits to the theater the museums

and the zoo

we went sightseeing riding swimming and

boating

steerforth was the perfect companion to

have

and i admired him even more than before

in fact i loved him with all my heart

one day i said to him

you know stay forth

i really must go and visit my mother’s

old servant peggotty

she was very good to me when i was a

child

yes david i remember you told me

she lives in yarmouth now doesn’t she

why don’t we go there together

oh yes dear forth

you’d enjoy meeting her brother and all

the family

they’re very kind good people

even if they are only working people

said steerforth

i looked quickly at him to see what he

meant

but he was smiling at me so i knew he

was joking

and i smiled too

we traveled to yarmouth by coach

and when we arrived steerforth stayed at

the hotel while i went to barcus’s house

to find pegatty

when i knocked at the door

peggotty opened it and did not recognize

me for a moment

i had continued to write to her

regularly

but we had not seen each other for seven

years

and i was no longer the small boy she

remembered but when she realized i was

her master david

she sobbed and sobbed with delight

holding me in her arms as she had always

done

soon she was calmer

and we talked about the events of the

last few years

i heard that she was very happy with mr

barcus who however was ill in bed at the

time

she was so pleased to see me that she

insisted i should sleep at her house

during my stay in yarmouth

in the little bedroom she had always

kept for me

the next day i took steerforth with me

to visit daniel peggotty

it was a dark and windy winter evening

as we came closer to the old boat

we heard happy voices and laughter

inside

i opened the door and suddenly i was

surrounded by daniel

ham and emily all looking very surprised

look it’s master david

look how he’s grown

and for a moment we were all shaking

hands and talking and laughing at the

same time

i did not forget to introduce steerforth

they welcomed him warmly as my best

friend

well

cried daniel peggety his large face red

and shining with delight

it’s wonderful master david that you two

gentlemen have come here tonight of all

nights

that’s the best night of my life

because tonight gentlemen

my little emily

and he took emily’s small white hand in

his rough red one and placed it on his

heart

as agreed to become ham’s wife

i congratulate you with all my heart

said steer forth politely to him

without taking his eyes off emily was

blushing prettily

master david knows how i love this girl

continued old daniel

and my dearest wish was for her to have

a good husband to take care of her

and there’s no one i trust more than ham

he’s only a rough sailor like me but

he’s honest and sincere

and i know she’ll come to no harm while

he lives

meanwhile

ham was blushing too

i did not know what to say

unsure whether i still loved emily and

was therefore jealous of ham

or whether i was glad they were going to

be happy together

but stir forth always knew the right

thing to say

and with a few well-chosen words

he made us all feel much more

comfortable

we spent the rest of the evening very

pleasantly telling stories and singing

songs

and it was midnight when steerforth and

i left the old boat

well said steer forth to me as we walked

across the sand in the cold night air

what a lovely girl

and what a coarse young man she’s

engaged to

i was shocked by these unexpectedly cold

words

but when i turned to him

and saw him smiling i replied warmly ah

steer forth

you pretend to laugh at people who are

poorer or less educated than yourself

but i’ve just seen you spend the whole

evening with the peggotty family making

them happy

i know you understand and love them

and i admire you all the more for it

he stopped and looked at me

saying rather sadly

david you’re serious aren’t you

i wish i were as good as you

for the next two weeks

i was often with peggotty and barcas

while steerforth went sailing or fishing

with daniel and ham

or found other things to do

so i did not see very much of him

finally we decided to return to london

while we were traveling back on the

coach

i turned to say something

and was surprised to see how miserable

he looked

oh david he said unhappily

i wish i could control myself better

i hate myself sometimes

steerforth

what can you mean i cried

you’re the best the most intelligent the

kindest of men

thank you david he said shaking his head

but you don’t know how bad i am

bad i repeated

my dear steerforth don’t say that

i know your character well

and i’m proud to call you my friend

in a little while his mood changed and

he became cheerful again

i soon forgot his words

but i remembered them later

in london

i discovered that my aunt had arrived at

the golden cross hotel and had booked a

room there for several days

we were delighted to see each other and

had a long conversation that evening

she had come to ask me a particular

question

david

she said very seriously

i’ve been thinking about your future

profession

how would you feel about becoming a

lawyer

i thought for a moment

well not

it sounds a very good idea

i confess i hadn’t considered it before

but i think i’d like it

very good said my aunt jumping up

in that case

let’s go immediately to see mr spendler

he’s a partner in an important law firm

and i think he’ll agree to train you

we’ll have to pay him of course

but after several years you’ll be a

properly trained lawyer and be able to

earn your own money

and so we carried out this plan

my aunt paid mr spenlow’s firm a

thousand pounds

and i promised to work hard and do my

best to become a successful lawyer

before she returned to dover my aunt

rented a small flat for me at the top of

her house near the law courts and i

moved in at once

at first it seemed very exciting to walk

through the busy streets after a long

day in the courts or mr spenlow’s dusty

office

and know that i had my own home to

return to

but when i had climbed up all the stairs

and entered my sitting room it no longer

seemed so exciting

in fact

my flat looked empty and depressing

so

after two days of loneliness i was very

glad to receive my first visitor

steerforth

and because i was so happy to see him i

invited him and two friends of his to

dinner the next evening

as it was my first dinner party

i did not know what to buy

but i ordered cooked dishes of chicken

and fish from the restaurant

bought cheese and fruit from the market

and had a large number of bottles of

wine delivered

i was quite frightened by how much money

i had spent

but when starforth and his friends

arrived i soon became more cheerful

the party was a great success

and we all enjoyed ourselves very much

we ate and drank and smoked

and drank again

i was constantly opening bottles of wine

and became unusually talkative

i began to feel rather strange

and when i caught sight of myself in a

mirror

i seemed very pale

i had to confess to myself that i looked

drunk

someone suggested going to the theater

and in a kind of mist we left my flat

and walked through the streets

steerforth was holding my arm and

laughing then

a man in a little box looked out of the

fog

and took money from somebody

soon

we were sitting high up in a very hot

very crowded theater

there were bright lights there was music

but i could not understand what anyone

was saying

and the whole building

seemed to swim in front of my eyes

then someone suggested going to visit

some friends in another part of the

theater

so we went downstairs

suddenly i saw quite clearly agnes

wickfield

sitting with a lady and a gentleman

she was looking at me with a surprised

expression on her face

good heavens i cried agnes

you’re in london

quiet she whispered

people are trying to listen to the

actors you’ll disturb them then she

added kindly

david

please do what i say

ask your friends to take you home

i’d always taken agnes advice

and i did so this time

i do not remember how i got home

but i do remember steerforth helping me

to undress and get into bed

what a terrible sleepless night i spent

how ill i felt

how dry my mouth was

the next morning

i felt even worse

i was so miserable and ashamed that i

had been so stupid and that agnes had

seen me drunk

i could not even apologize to her

because i did not know where she was

staying in london

i spent the whole day with my head in my

hands in my dirty smoky room surrounded

by empty wine bottles

but the next day a note was delivered to

my flat

it was from agnes

asking me to visit her at the house

where she was staying

i went straight there after my day’s

work at the

office she looked so quiet and good

and reminded me so much of my happy

school days in canterbury that i could

not help crying

i’m so sorry agnes i said

that you saw me like that i wish i were

dead

david don’t be unhappy she said

cheerfully you know you can trust me and

i’ll always be your friend

i took her hand and kissed it

agnes

you’re my good angel

she shook her head

no david

but if i were

i’d warn you to stay away from your bad

angel

my dear agnes i cried

do you mean steer forth

i do david

she replied looking firmly at me

agnes you’re wrong

here’s my trusted friend he helps and

guides me

it wasn’t his fault that i got drunk you

know

i wasn’t thinking of that

i judge him from what you’ve told me

about him

and your character

and his influence over you

agnes spoke very seriously

and her words went straight to my heart

i’m certain i’m right

you’ve made a dangerous friend david

because you’re so trusting

please remember what i say

and forgive me for saying it

i will

if you forgive me for getting drunk

agnes agreed smiling and then said

suddenly

have you seen uriah heap

no i replied is he in london

what’s he doing here

i’m worried david answered agnes with

sadness in her beautiful eyes

i think he’s going to be father’s

partner

i remembered uriah heaps oily smile and

how uncomfortable he always used to make

me feel

what

that creature

he’s so unpleasant you must prevent your

father from agreeing to it agnes

agnes smiled miserably

my poor father has no choice

you know how unhappy he has often been

and of course you’ve seen him drinking

you see

he loved my mother very much

and when she died

he didn’t care so much about his work

that’s when he started drinking

your eye is very clever

he knows all this

and he’s been very useful to father

doing all the work that father had

forgotten

or didn’t want to do

father really needs uriah now to keep

his business going

and uriah himself pretends to be humble

and grateful but in fact

he’s in a strong position

and is insisting on becoming a partner

father is ashamed of himself

but he has to agree

poor father

i’d do anything to help him

anything

and agnes sobbed bitterly

i had never seen agnes cry before

it made me so sad

that i could only say helplessly

my dear agnes

please don’t cry

however

in a few minutes she was calm again

and i was able to leave her

promising to visit her and her father in

canterbury very soon

chapter 6

david falls in love

agnes had asked me to be polite to uriah

if i met him and so when i saw him the

next day near the law courts i was

careful not to offend him

he looked even stranger than before with

his small evil head and long thin body

and his wide oily smile

when we shook hands i noticed how cold

and wet his hand felt

just like a fish

would you

would you like to come to my rooms for

coffee uriah i offered trying to hide my

horror of him

oh master copperfield i mean mr

copperfield i should say now how kind of

you i’m too humble to expect such

kindness but i would like that

and when we reached my flat he looked at

me with an unpleasantly confident smile

and said

perhaps you’ve heard that i’m going to

become mr wickfield’s partner mr

copperfield

yes i replied

agnes has told me about it

i’m glad to hear that miss agnes knows

about it he answered

thank you for that mr copperfield

i was annoyed with myself for mentioning

agnes’s name

and hated hearing him say it but i said

nothing and drank my coffee

you said once mr copperfield continued

uriah rubbing his hands together happily

that’s perhaps i’d be mr wickfield’s

partner one day

it was kind of you to say so

a humble person like me remembers things

like that

and now it’s true

i’m glad to think i’ve been able to help

poor mr wickfield

oh how very careless he has been

if i hadn’t been his assistant

he would certainly have lost his

business his house and all his money by

now of course i’m helping him because i

admire him

and not only him

suddenly although the room was warm an

icy coldness spread through my body

as i stared into his cruel little face

miss agnes is looking beautiful at the

moment isn’t she he went on smiling

horribly

mr copperfield i trust you because as

you know i’ve always liked you although

i’m so humble

and you’re a gentleman

so i’d like to tell you my little secret

in spite of my low position

i love miss agnes

i’ve given my heart to her and i hope to

marry her one day

there was a purple mist in front of my

eyes

i wanted to hit his ugly face

or stab a knife right into his wicked

heart

i was almost mad with anger

but i thought of agnes request

and i managed to control myself

have

have you spoken to agnes about your

your love

i asked as calmly as i could

oh no mr copperfield

i’m waiting for the right moment perhaps

i’ll ask her when i become her father’s

partner

she’ll think kindly of me you see when

she realizes how much her father needs

me

she loves him so much

what a good daughter my agnes is

and what an excellent wife she’ll be to

me

dear

sweet agnes

my adopted sister

i did not know any man good enough to be

her husband

could she ever marry this worthless

insect

when uriah left my flat

i spent a sleepless night worrying about

what i should do

in the end i decided to say nothing to

agnes about uriah’s plan

as she already had enough to worry about

a year had passed since i first started

work in mr spenlow’s firm

i often went to court with him and began

to understand the details of some of the

most difficult cases

mr spendlo was kind to me

and occasionally talked to me not only

about law but also about other matters

i discovered that his wife had died and

that he lived in a large country house

just outside london with his only

daughter and her paid companion

one day he invited me to his house for

the weekend and i accepted gratefully

so on friday evening mr spendlo’s coach

and horses drove us to the house

when i saw the spendlos home

i realized how rich mr spendler must be

it was a lovely old building with large

gardens

as soon as we entered mr spenlow asked

one of the servants

where’s ms dora

dora i thought

what a beautiful name

we went into the sitting room and i

suppose mr spenlow introduced me

i did not notice because

nothing mattered at that moment

i just stared stupidly at his daughter

dora

lost in wonder at her beauty

and unable to say anything

i had fallen in love in a second

as i stared

i heard a voice speaking to me

but it was not dora’s

it was her companion whom i had not

noticed at all while mr spendler was

making the introductions

when i saw that the companion was miss

i was surprised certainly

but nothing could take my attention away

from dora for more than a second or two

mr spender explained that miss murdstone

had been kind enough to come and look

after his poor motherless daughter and

to be her confidential friend and

companion

but it seemed to me

that dora was neither friendly nor

confidential towards her stone companion

as for me

the rest of the weekend passed in a kind

of fog

we ate meals and went for walks

people spoke to me and i answered

but i have no idea what i actually said

all i remember was dora’s golden hair

and dora’s blushing face

and dora’s beautiful blue eyes

occasionally i was lucky enough to speak

to her alone and then i was so shy

that i blushed as much as dora herself

i was very jealous of the little dog

that she carried everywhere with her

sometimes i thought she liked me a

little

and at other times i was sure she would

never love me

i was wildly

desperately in love

i had wondered if miss murdstone would

try and blacken my name with the

spendlose but on that first evening she

had taken me to one side

david copperfield she said coldly

i see no need for either of us to speak

about the past to anyone here

i imagine we are agreed on that

certainly mom

we are agreed on that

although

i shall never change my opinion of you

i put miss murdstone out of my mind and

for several weeks after meeting dora i

lived in a dream

i did my work automatically and i never

stopped thinking of her

the greatest happiness i could imagine

was being engaged to dora

i dared not hope that one day

we would be married

while walking around london one day

hoping to meet dora out shopping

i met my old school friend tommy

traddles

he was living in the city like me and

was also studying to become a lawyer

i arranged to visit him and went to his

house after work the next day

he lived in one room in a rented house

in a very poor part of the city

his room was small and almost empty

copperfield i’m glad to see you he said

warmly

you can see i haven’t got much furniture

but i’m hoping to earn more money later

when i finish my studies didn’t you have

a rich uncle traddles i asked

yes

but i’ve always been unlucky you know

he decided he didn’t like me so he

didn’t leave me anything when he died

i’m really very poor and i have to do

several jobs to pay for my studies

travels look surprisingly cheerful but i

must tell you copperfield as you’re an

old friend that i’m engaged

to a lovely girl who comes from a large

family and lives in devon

i was thinking of dora as i shook hands

with him and congratulated him

enthusiastically

will you get married soon i asked

no

she’s very poor too so we’ll have to

wait a long time until we’ve saved

enough money

she’s such a dear girl copperfield she

says she’ll wait for me until she’s 60

if necessary

and i’m quite happy here with the people

who rent the house

the micawbers are very kind

who did you say i cried

the micawbers i know them

just then

mr micawber himself knocked at the door

and entered

his stomach was a little fatter and his

face a little older than before but he

looked as confident as ever

i went up to him and shook his hand

how are you mr micawber i asked do you

remember me

is it possible

can it be

a vi the pleasure of seeing my old

friend copperfield again he replied a

smile spreading over his large face

he turned to call downstairs my dear

come and meet this gentleman my love

when mrs macrober came in

she was also delighted to see me and we

talked for some time about the twins and

the other children and her husband’s

business interests

but this conversation soon made mr

micawber rather depressed

you see copperfield he said miserably

nothing is turned up yet sometimes i

wonder whether anything ever will turn

up

i can’t pay for our food or even our

water

it’s hard enough for me to accept the

situation but how can i expect my dear

wife to live like this

perhaps it would have been better if i’d

never asked her to marry me

he put his head in his hands

mikorba cried his wife how can you say

that

you know i’ve always loved and admired

you and always will love and admire you

my dear husband

they fell into each other’s arms sobbing

on each other’s shoulders

in a few moments they had both dried

their eyes and looked quite cheerful

again

i realized that the micawbers had not

changed at all but this quick change of

mood was rather a surprise for traddles

before i left i made sure i had a word

in private with my old school friend

rattles i whispered take my advice

don’t lend mr micawber any money

he’s got a lot of debts

rattles looked uncomfortable

thank you copperfield he whispered in

reply

but i’ve already lent him some

i don’t know whether he’ll give it back

you know how unlucky i am

when i got back to my rooms i found

steerforth waiting for me there

i thought of agnes warning about him

but when i saw his open good-looking

face i could not believe he could be a

bad influence on anyone

however

there was something rather strange in

his manner that night sometimes he

seemed quite depressed almost desperate

but a minute later he was laughing

wildly

and i had no idea why he was like that

i’ve just been to yarmouth david he told

me oh i replied

you’ve seen the pegarty family i expect

i haven’t seen much of them

but i have got some news for you

it’s about old barcus

i’m afraid his illness has got much

worse

and the doctor thinks he’ll die very

soon

oh dear i said

poor peggety will be so sad

yes it’s bad luck replied steer forth

carelessly but people die in this world

every minute

i’m not afraid of death

i want to live life in my own way and

nobody can stop me

he threw his head back proudly

i looked into his handsome face

wondering why he was so excited which

was unusual for him

steerforth

i think i’ll have to go to yarmouth

myself i said

perhaps i can help pekety at this

difficult time

smiling he put his hands on my shoulders

i wish i could be as good as you

david

promise me that if anything ever happens

to separate us

you’ll think of me at my best

promise me that

stir forth

you have no best or worst for me i

answered

you will always have your place in my

heart

and as he turned to go he gave me his

hand and smiled in his old friendly way

that is how i like to remember him

now that i shall never touch his hand

again

or see him smile

when i arrived in yarmouth

i went straight to barcas house

in the sitting room i found daniel ham

and emily

ham was standing by the door while emily

was sobbing in daniel’s arms

none of them seemed surprised to see me

emily’s very young master david

explained daniel it’s hard for her to

accept death

that’s why she’s crying

now cheer up emily my dear

ham has come to take you home

what’s that

he bent his grey head down to hear her

whispered reply

you want to stay here with your old

uncle

but you should go with ham

you’ll be your husband soon

that’s alright said ham

if it makes emily happy it’ll make me

happy i’ll go home alone

he went over to emily and gave her a

gentle kiss

she seemed to turn away from him a

little

as ham went out i went upstairs to see

poor barkers

he was lying unconscious in bed looking

very pale and ill

peggety was sitting beside him

she jumped up and took me delightedly in

her arms just as she used to do

then she turned to her husband marcus my

dear she said almost cheerfully

here’s master david who brought us

together you remember

he carried your messages for you

can you speak to him

marcus lay silently there not moving

we sat beside him all through that long

night

in the early morning he suddenly opened

his eyes

reached out his hand to me and said

clearly

with a pleasant smile

markers

his swelling

and then he closed his eyes

and died

he was a good man

said peggety with tears in her eyes

i shall miss him

i was able to help peggotty with the

arrangements for the funeral

bacchus was buried in blunderstone

churchyard close to my mother and little

brother

we discovered that bacchus had saved

quite a lot of money which he left at

peggotty and daniel

so i knew that peggotty would not need

to work in future

on the day before the funeral we all

arranged to meet at the old boat

it was my last evening in yarmouth as i

was returning to london the following

day

when i arrived i was surprised to see

that ham and emily were not there

peggotty was feeling more cheerful now

and daniel was talking to her

just then

ham came to the door

master david

come outside a minute would you he asked

i stepped outside and ham shut the door

carefully

it was raining heavily

and as we stood on the lonely beach i

noticed how very pale ham’s face was

ham i cried

what’s the matter

mr david

he sobbed wildly

i had never seen such a strong man cry

like that before

it’s emily

i’d have died for her

i love her with all my heart

but she’s run away

and worse than that

oh

how i wish god had saved her from this

ruin

i shall never forget his desperate face

turned towards me

and the pain in his honest eyes

your educator master david he continued

you know how to express yourself

help me

how can i ever explain to him in there

he loves her even more than i do

i saw the door open

and tried to stop ham speaking but it

was too late

daniel peggety came out

and when he saw us he seemed to realize

immediately what we were talking about

the expression on his face changed in a

moment

and he pulled us both back inside

i found myself with a letter in my hand

which ham had given me

read it sir said daniel

his face pale and trembling and his eyes

wild

read it slowly please

the room was completely silent as i read

aloud

dear ham

please please forgive me for running

away and leaving you

when you see this

i’ll be far away

i shall never return to my dear home

unless he marries me and brings me back

as a lady

oh i am so sorry

and so ashamed

i know this will break your heart

but believe me

i’m not good enough for you

i’m too wicked

tell uncle i’ll always love him

even if he can never love me again

and i’ll always think of you dear ham

even if you hate me for what i’ve done

forgive me

and goodbye

emily

daniel did not move for a long time

after i had finished reading

i took his hand

but he did not notice

suddenly he appeared to wake up and said

in a low voice

who’s the man

i want to know his name

ham looked quickly at me

and i felt a shock run through my whole

body

i fell onto a chair and could not speak

don’t listen master david ham said

hesitating

we don’t blame you for it

peggotty put her arm around my neck

but i could not move

i’d

gentleman’s been here very often

recently

continued ham in a broken voice

and

today

people saw emily driving off with him in

his coach

tell me cried daniel wildly

is his name steer forth

it is

replied ham just as

and i’m sorry master david

but he’s the wickedest man i’ve ever

known

after a moment daniel spoke

he looked suddenly much older

i wish i drowned him when i had the

chance

but it’s too late now

there’s no peace for me here

while my dear girl is away

i’m going to look for her and bring her

back home don’t any of you try to stop

me

ham

you must stay here in yarmouth

keep a light always burning in the

window of this house

so that if the poor girl ever comes back

she can find her way home across the

sand

i’m going to london

and france

and all over the world if necessary

i’m prepared to spend my whole life

traveling

until i find her

if anything happens to me

if i don’t come back

tell her

i forgive her

tell her my love for her

is

unchanged

and although we all tried hard to

persuade him to stay

he refused to listen

he took his coat hat bag and stick

and stepped out into the darkness

we watched him walking along the london

road until he disappeared from sight

i often thought of that lonely figure in

the next few weeks and months

walking through strange streets in

foreign cities

looking for his adopted child

when i thought of him i remembered his

last words to us

if anything happens to me

if i don’t come back

tell her i forgive her

tell her my love for her

is unchanged

chapter 7

good news and bad news for david

all this time i had gone on loving dora

more than ever

the more evil there seemed to be in the

world the more brightly dora’s star

shone down on me

i’m sure i considered her a beautiful

angel

far above the rest of us poor humans

and i had no real hope of persuading her

to love me

peggotty had come to london with me as

she was feeling rather lonely after

barcus’s death and daniel’s departure

and i could not stop myself telling her

all about dora

she was very interested and most

encouraging

the young lady should be very proud to

have such a handsome intelligent young

man as you master david she cried and

i’m sure her father will be delighted to

accept you as her husband

but i could not share her hopeful view

of the situation

however

a wonderful thing happened

during a long conversation with mr

spendler in the office he mentioned that

it was dora’s birthday the following

week and invited me to a picnic to

celebrate it

as soon as i heard this i went

completely mad and could not think at

all clearly

in the next week i bought expensive new

clothes and boots and arranged to hire a

handsome white horse

on the day of the picnic i got up at six

in the morning and went to covent garden

market to buy the freshest and most

beautiful flowers fedora and by 10

o’clock i was riding towards the

spendlo’s house

how lovely dora looked in her sky blue

dress and white hat when i met her in

the garden in front of the house

and when she accepted my flowers with

delight

i almost thought i would die of

happiness

you’ll be glad to hear mr copperfield

she said smiling prettily

that cross miss murdstone isn’t here

she’ll be away for at least three weeks

instead i have my dear friend miss julia

mills here with me

sitting next to door was a young lady i

had not noticed before

although she was only about 20 she

looked very calm and wise

i later discovered that she had had an

unhappy experience in love and had

decided never again to become personally

involved in matters of the heart

how delightful for you i answered

blushing as i always did when i spoke to

dora

and everything that is delightful to you

is delightful to me miss spendlo

miss mills said nothing

but smiled kindly on us both

to get to the picnic place which was

some way from the house mr spenlow dora

and miss mills drove in an open carriage

while i rode by their side on my

handsome white horse

i shall never have such a ride again

dora sat with her back to the horses

looking towards me and holding my

flowers close to her sweet face

our eyes often met

and i’m surprised i did not fall off my

horse

i did not notice the dust

or the road we were taking

sometimes mr spenlow spoke to me about

the scenery and i replied politely

i cannot remember what i said

all i could see

was dora

i was very disappointed when we arrived

to find that other guests had been

invited

i was quite jealous even of the ladies

because they talked to dora and took her

away from me

but i hated all the men as soon as i saw

them

there was a very unpleasant talkative

man with a red moustache who insisted he

knew all about preparing food

and soon had most of the young ladies

around him

one of them was dora

i felt that he was now my worst enemy

when we started eating i saw to my

horror that red moustache was sitting

with a huge plate of chicken at dora’s

feet

i could not think clearly

but i pretended to be cheerful

i sat with a young lady dressed in pink

and talked amusingly to her

and looked at her and fetched her

whatever she needed

sometimes i looked over at dora

she looked back at me

but she had red moustache

and i had the young lady in pink

after the meal the young lady’s mother

took her away

and i walked alone into a wood feeling

angry and desperate

i was just planning to ride away on my

handsome white horse

although i did not know where to

when i saw dora and miss mills coming to

meet me

mr copperfield said miss mills

you are unhappy

no no miss mills i protested firmly

perfectly happy

and dora continued miss mills

you are unhappy

who could heavens know julia cried dora

not at all

mr copperfield andorra said miss mills

looking old and wise

enough of this foolishness

you love each other

confess it and be happy

take the chance that life offers you

listen to one who speaks from bitter

experience

i was so hot and excited that i took

dora’s little hand immediately and

kissed it

and she let me i kissed miss mills’s

hand too

and life seemed wonderful again

dora shyly put her arm in mine

and we walked about together until

much too soon we heard the other guests

calling her name

so we had to go back

and when they wanted dora to sing a song

red mustache offered to fetch the guitar

from the carriage for her

but dora told him nobody except me knew

where it was

so i fetched the guitar

and i held her gloves and i sat beside

her while she sang

and i knew that in that great crowd of

people she was singing only for me

who loved her

when the guests left

i rode beside the carriage all the way

back to the spendelo’s house

mr spanlow who had drunk a lot of wine

was asleep in his seat

and miss mills was smiling in a motherly

way as dora and i whispered happily to

each other

once miss mills called me to her side of

the carriage

dora is coming to stay with me she told

me quietly the day after tomorrow

perhaps you would like to visit us

miss mills

how can i ever thank you i said

what a friend you are

to miss spendlo and me

when we arrived at the spendlose house i

had to say goodbye to dora and ride back

to london

on the way i remembered everything she

had done or said ten thousand

times i decided i had to tell her i

loved her as soon as possible and asked

whether she loved me too it was the most

important question in the world and only

dora could give me the answer to it

so two days later

i dressed in my finest clothes and went

to the address miss mills had given me

the servant took me to the sitting room

where i found julia mills learning a

song and dora painting the flowers i had

given her

after the short conversation miss mills

made an excuse and left the room

and dora and i

were alone together

i hope your poor horse wasn’t tired the

other night said dora raising her

beautiful eyes to mine

it was a long way for him

to and from the picnic place

i must ask her today i thought

my whole body was trembling

it was a long way for him i answered

for me

it seemed very short

because of my happiness in being so near

you

there was a moment silence

then dora said

you didn’t seem to care for that

happiness earlier in the day

when you were sitting with the lady in

pink

but i expect you don’t mean what you say

and of course you’re quite free to do

whatever you like

i don’t know how i did it

it happened so quickly

suddenly i had dora in my arms and i

couldn’t stop speaking

i told her how i loved her i told her i

would die without her

and when she blushed and cried a little

i said i had loved her day and night

since the moment i had first seen her

i told her that nobody had ever loved or

could ever love as much as i loved her

somehow

i found myself sitting quietly next to

dora on the sofa holding her little hand

we were engaged

i suppose we realized that one day we

would get married

but for the moment we were going to keep

our engagement secret from mr spendlo

when miss mills came in

she was delighted to hear our news and

promised to help us as much as possible

now began one of the happiest times of

my life

when i look back i see how foolish i was

but how loving and sincere

i visited dora every day

and i did not have time for anyone or

anything else

but in the middle of my excitement i

suddenly thought of agnes

of her

clear calm eyes and her gentle face and

i sat down immediately to write to her

and tell her all about dora

i knew that as my adopted sister she

would share my happiness

and i wanted her approval

one day when peggy and i were having tea

in my flat tommy traddles came to visit

me

my dear copperfield he cried

i’ve been several times before but

you’ve been out

my dear traddles i replied yes i’m very

sorry i’ve been visiting my

miss d you know

i expect she lives in london doesn’t she

mind that’s sophie beautiful name isn’t

it

mine lives in devon i think i told you

so i don’t see her very often

she really is the dearest girl

she’s very busy at home you know looking

after the other nine children and a

mother who’s unable to walk

what a wonderful girl she must be i

agreed politely

and tell me traddles

how is mr micawber

i’m not living in his house at the

moment said traddles

because his creditors demanded payment

of his debts recently and he had to move

to another house

to avoid these unpleasant men he’s even

changed his name to mortimer and he only

comes out of the house after dark

wearing glasses

so nothing has turned up for him yet

and what about the money you lent him

traddles

i’m afraid i may not get it back

but mr micawber promises to give it back

one day

he’s a fine honest man isn’t he

and rattles looked hopefully at me

before i could reply we heard footsteps

on the stairs

i was very surprised to see my aunt

coming upstairs

she was carrying two cases and her cat

and was followed closely by mr dick

carrying two more cases

my dear aunt i cried what an unexpected

pleasure

we kissed each other and i shook hands

with mr dick

traddles left quietly as he could see we

would be discussing family matters

peggotty made some more tea for my aunt

who had sat down heavily on her cases

dear aunt i said make yourself more

comfortable

sit in an armchair

or sit on the sofa

why do you think i’m sitting on my cases

she asked looking seriously at me

i shook my head unable to guess

because what i’m sitting on

is all i have

because i’ve lost

all my money my dear

i couldn’t have been more shocked if the

house and all of us in it had fallen

into the river thames

yes

continued my aunt putting her head

calmly on my shoulder

i’ll tell you all about it tomorrow

david but tonight

we must find a bed for mr dick

and i’ll sleep here to save money

so that night my aunt agreed to take my

bed while i planned to sleep on the

sitting room sofa and i took mr dick to

a neighbor’s house to rent a room

when i returned i found my aunt walking

up and down in front of the sitting room

fire

that pegarty woman is very fond of you

david she said

she’s been offering to give us some of

her money the money she inherited from

her husband

of course i refused it once

but she’s a good woman

and she’s been telling me about the

trouble at yarmouth

yes

poor emily i could not stop myself

saying

silly emily you mean

but i’m sorry for you because you cared

for her once

and now piggety tells me you’re in love

again

i blushed

i loved dora with all my heart aunt

i suppose the little thing is very

lovely is she

no one can imagine how lovely she is

isn’t it all silly is she asked my aunt

i had never considered this possibility

before

and could only repeat what my aunt had

said

silly

aunt well well i only ask replied my

aunt gently

david you’re very loving like your poor

mother

and you need a good

serious sensible person to love

aunt

if you only knew how sensible dora is i

replied

oh david she answered blind blind blind

this made me feel a little uncomfortable

but i was glad she knew my secret

i thought perhaps she was rather tired

so i said good night

she went to my bedroom and i lay down on

the sofa

how miserable i was that night

i knew i should be thinking of my poor

aunt situation

but i could not prevent myself

from thinking of dora

how could i marry her if i had no money

no expensive clothes to wear no handsome

white horse to ride all flowers to give

her

the next morning i got up early to have

a walk in the fresh air and on the way

home a carriage stopped beside me

and agnes wickfield got out

i immediately felt better when i saw her

beautiful calm face smiling at me

she had heard that my aunt was in

trouble and had come to london to see

her

we walked together to my flat

you know that uriah heap is my father’s

partner now she said quietly

his influence over my father is far too

great

father is much

much worse

he looks years older

and i’m afraid that encouraged by uriah

he drinks more than ever

your i and his old mother live with us

now

so i can’t always be with father to

to protect him

from whatever uriah is planning

i just hope that love and truth will

always be stronger than evil

i could not give her my opinion of uriah

because by then we had arrived at the

flat my aunt was very pleased to see

agnes again and made us sit down on the

sofa next to peggotty

now

let me explain to you all what happened

to my money said my aunt firmly

i was surprised to see that agnes was

pale and trembling

betsy trotwood continued

i saved a lot of money over the years

and my lawyer mr wickfield

used to help me invest it in the right

companies

but recently

i thought he wasn’t such a good lawyer

as he used to be

so i decided to invest my money myself

but a lot of mistakes i made

who knows where it’s gone

in gold

and foreign banks and so on

that’s no good worrying about it but i

can tell you

there’s nothing left

the color was beginning to return to

agnes face

so it

it wasn’t my father’s fault dear miss

trotwood

not at all agnes said my aunt joyfully

now

can any of you give me some advice

i’ve asked my servant janet to rent my

little house in kent

it will bring in about 70 pounds a year

i think we’ll need more than that to

live on

you and david could share this flat very

cheaply

with mr dick just round the corner in

his rented room

suggested agnes

and i think i can find a little job for

david

do you remember dr strong the headmaster

of the canterbury school

now that he’s retired and come to live

in london he needs a private secretary

to work for him in the mornings and

evenings at his house

he was asking father about it the other

day

what do you think

agnes i cried

what would we do without you

you are my good angel i told you so

before

i could easily be dr strong’s secretary

as well as continuing my work in mr

spendler’s firm

i’ll go and see him today and arrange it

with him

agnes gave me her beautiful smile as she

got up to leave

i went downstairs with her

and as we walked together to the coach

station

i saw an old beggar with a white stick

in the street

he was holding out his thin hand for

money and crying blind blind

blind

it sounded like an echo of what my aunt

had said the day before

oh agnes

dear sister

if i had only known then

what i discovered long afterwards

chapter 8

david’s new life

with agnes encouragement i felt much

stronger and no longer depressed

my life now had a purpose

i intended to work as hard as i could to

help my aunt and to earn enough money to

marry dora

i got up every morning at five o’clock

walked to dr strong’s house on the other

side of london

worked with him for two hours every

morning and then walked back to mr

spenalo’s office where i spent most of

the day in the law courts

then i returned to dr strong’s for two

or three more hours in the evening

and finally came home to my flat where

my aunt peggotty and mr dick would be

waiting for me

i was glad to be able to tell my aunt

that dr strong would pay me 70 pounds a

year for my work

with that and the rent from my aunt’s

house in kent

we could live quite well if we were

careful

because i was young and healthy i did

not mind hard work and whenever i was

tired i told myself

you’re doing it for dora and that made

me work even harder

when i met traddles one day near the

courts i told him about my new situation

and he was very sympathetic

but i have news for you too copperfield

he said

the micawbers are moving to canterbury

oh

that means something must have turned up

for them i replied interested

yes mr micawber is going to become

assistant to someone called uriah heap a

partner in a firm of canterbury lawyers

heap i cried in horror

i know him

why would mr micawber want to work for

him

well i do know that heap has paid all mr

micawber’s debts in london answered

traddles the whole family is leaving

tomorrow they asked me to tell you

i wondered why heap wanted micawber to

work for him

and i felt sure uriah had some evil plan

in his ugly head

the next day peggotty was returning to

yarmouth to look after ham while daniel

was away

after i had taken her to the coach

station and said goodbye to her i

hurried to miss mills house

i had not yet told dora about the

changes in my life because i had not

wanted to explain it all in a letter but

today she was visiting julia mills and

was expecting me to come to tea

how happy and beautiful dora looked when

she met me in the sitting room

and how shocked and miserable she looked

when i asked her immediately

can you love a beggar dora my pretty

little daughter she had no idea what i

meant

don’t be silly david she cried what are

you talking about

it’s true dora my love i cried

i’ve lost all my money i’m a beggar. and

i looked so serious that dora was

frightened and began to sob bitterly on

my shoulder

but i love you dora and always will i

continued it doesn’t matter if we are

poor because i’ll work hard to buy our

bread we don’t need much as long as we

have each other

tell me your heart is still mine dear

dora

oh yes she cried oh yes it’s all yours

only don’t frighten me again don’t talk

of hard work and bread i don’t

understand i hardly ever eat bread

i loved her more than ever

but i felt she was not very practical

in a few moments when she had stopped

crying and was calmer i tried again to

make her understand

my dearest

may i mention something

oh please don’t be practical beg dora

tears coming to her lovely eyes it

frightens me so much

my dear one if we work together and

share our problems it will make us and

our love stronger

but i’m not strong at all

she cried miserably ask julia

she’ll tell you

i’m weak

and foolish

but if you thought sometimes my sweet

daughter that you are engaged to a poor

man

if you try to see how your father

manages the servants or

how much food costs in the markets

it would be helpful to us

we must be brave dear dora

our path in life is steep and rocky

i was becoming quite enthusiastic

but i suddenly realized i had said far

too much

poor little dora was sobbing and

screaming with fear

and in a moment was lying unconscious on

the sofa

i really thought i’d killed her

i threw water on her face

and went down on my knees to ask her to

forgive me

i called myself a selfish heartless

creature and shouted for julia mills

at last she hurried in and i explained

what had happened

when dora opened her eyes her friend

helped her upstairs

while dora was upstairs washing her face

and calming herself i asked miss mills’s

advice on the best way to encourage dora

to become more practical

miss mills shook her head sadly

i must be honest with you mr copperfield

our dearest dora is a beautiful innocent

child of nature

full of light and happiness

she is above the things of this world

which we poor humans have to worry about

i think you’ll just have to accept that

fact

when dora came downstairs again she

looked so lovely that i felt bitterly

angry with myself for making her unhappy

even for a moment

we had tea and she sang her french songs

to me and played the guitar

we were happy again until the moment

when i stupidly mentioned that i had to

get up at five o’clock the next morning

suddenly her pretty face looked sad and

she did not play or sing again

when i got up to go she came up close to

me and said lovingly

you bad boy

don’t be so silly

don’t get up at five o’clock why should

you

but my love

i have work to do

i have to work in order to live i

replied work

don’t be so foolish david dear

and she seemed to think that was the end

of the matter as she gave me a kiss

straight from her innocent little heart

i loved her

and went on loving her

but i went on working hard too and

worrying about earning money

some evenings as i sat opposite my aunt

in my little sitting room at the end of

another exhausting day i was quite

frightened when i thought of the

problems i was going to have to solve

alone

several months passed in this way

dora and i wrote to each other every day

and occasionally i was able to visit her

at miss mills’s house

but one morning when i arrived at the

office for work mr spenlow greeted me

very coldly and asked me to step into

his office where we could talk privately

when i entered the room i was surprised

to see miss murdstone standing by his

desk staring unpleasantly at me

i knew at once that dora’s father had

discovered our secret

and i guessed who had told him

mr copperfield

said mr spenlow frowning sternly at me

i am sorry to say that miss murdstone

has found some letters which appear to

be from you to my daughter dora

are they yours

i looked at the letters he handed to me

blushed and whispered

yes sir

poor little dora i hoped she had not

been frightened by that horrible murder

stone woman

i hated to think of dora’s unhappiness

at losing my letters

i suspected something was wrong when

miss spendlo came back from her last

visit to miss mills said miss murdstone

looking very pleased with herself

i always said julia mills was not a

suitable friend for miss spendlo and i

was right

mr spenlow appeared to agree but rather

sadly

i’m very sorry sir i said

but it is all my fault

please don’t blame dora miss spendlo to

you young man said her father angrily

i know it wasn’t right to keep its

secrets

but i love your daughter

and i hope that one day don’t speak to

me of love mr copperfield cried mr

spenlow

you are both much too young we’ll throw

these letters in the fire and you must

promise to forget the whole thing there

is no question if you’re marrying dora

but sir

i can’t forget her

i love her i protested

that is my last word mr copperfield

when you have time to consider

you’ll realize it’s wiser to do as i say

now go to your work

i spent all day thinking of poor sweet

dora and how she must be feeling

in the evening i hurried round to miss

mills house but although she spoke

wisely of love and broken hearts

she could not offer me any practical

advice

the next day after the sleepless night i

arrived at the office at the normal time

and discovered all the clerks standing

talking at the front door

this was so unusual that i stopped to

ask what had happened

why don’t you know asked one of them

the police have found mr spendlo dead

i fell back shocked

you look very pale mr copperfield said

another

sit down here sir tell me

tell me what happened i gasped

well

he went into town to dinner last night

and the carriage and horses came back at

midnight without him

he was driving himself you see

so the servants went to look for him

and found him dead in the road

must have been ill

and have fallen out of the carriage

anyway

he was dead when they found him

this was a terrible shock to me

perhaps his anger with me had made him

ill

in that case

i was partly to blame for his death

but i’m sorry to say i was also jealous

of dora’s sadness

while she was crying for her dead father

she was not thinking of me

and i selfishly wanted to be the only

person in her life

in the next few weeks i became quite

desperate because i could not see or

speak to my sweet dora

miss mills reported that dora cried all

day

and when my name was mentioned only

sobbed more loudly and said oh poor dear

father how wicked of me to keep a secret

from him oh

so i did not feel encouraged to visit

her

soon after her father’s funeral dora was

taken to live with her two aunts at

putney in south london where she seemed

to be further away from me than ever

my aunt meanwhile began to be seriously

worried about my health as i was getting

more and more depressed

so she suggested i should go to dover

for a few days to make sure that her

house was still in good condition and

then to canterbury to visit the

wickfields

i agreed willingly as i was always happy

to see agnes

it was easy to take a few days holiday

from my work at the law courts and with

dr strong

i was glad to find that the person who

was renting my aunt’s house in dover was

looking after it well

i was then free to continue my journey

to canterbury that beautiful ancient

city

which seemed very little changed since

my school days

the soft clean air made me feel better

than i had done for weeks

when i arrived at the wickfield’s house

i found mr micawber in uriah heaps old

office

we were pleased to see each other but we

both felt a little embarrassed

i realized that he did not want to talk

about confidential matters concerning

the firm of heap and wickfield

and he knew that i disliked his employer

heap

so

conversation was difficult

and in the end i was glad to leave him

and go upstairs to look for agnes

i found her in her sitting room

and she looked up at me with such a warm

welcome in her smile

that i was very moved

ah agnes i said

i’ve missed you so much recently

you helped me such a lot in the old days

that i suppose i never learnt to think

for myself

i always feel i need your help and

advice

i get into such trouble and i get so

worried and have so little confidence in

myself

but when i’m with you

you give me purpose

you make me strong

what is your secret

my dear adopted sister

agnes gave me her hand which i kissed

and she went on in her sisterly way to

listen sympathetically as i told her

everything that had happened in the past

few weeks

as usual she knew the right thing to do

she advised me to write to dora’s aunts

to ask if i could visit dora

occasionally

and she encouraged me in my hopes of

marriage

i felt again

that peace which agnes always brought to

me

we had not been sitting together long

when mrs heap came in

she did not leave us for a moment all

that evening

and i wondered whether uriah had told

her to watch over us

whenever i looked at agnes lovely face

i saw mrs heaps evil black eyes staring

at me

the next day mrs heap did not leave

agnes and me alone even for a minute

the heaps mother and son seemed to me

like two ugly great black birds hanging

over the house

and they made me so uncomfortable that i

went out for a walk in the afternoon

i was walking along a path near the

house wondering if i should warn agnes

about uriah’s plan of marriage

when i heard footsteps behind me

and turned to see uriah himself running

after me wait for me mr copperfield he

cried

actually i said

i came out to be alone ah

he said with his oily smile

you don’t like my mother being there all

the time do you

no i don’t i replied not caring if i

sounded rude

but you see he continued

in my humble position i have to be very

careful

i’m not married to my agnes yet and

you’re a dangerous rival mr copperfield

what

i cried in disgust

you allow miss wickfield no peace in her

own home because of me

don’t you realize i think of her as my

very dear sister nothing more

let me tell you

i’m engaged to another lady there

is that enough for you

oh mr copperfield cried uriah gratefully

shaking my hand with his cold fishy one

i’ll tell mother to stop watching you at

once

why didn’t you tell me that before

i know you’ve never liked and trusted me

as i’ve liked you

we returned to the house together in

silence

that evening after dinner when agnes and

mrs heap had left us

uriah said to mr wickfield

let’s have some wine partner and drink

the young mr copperfield’s health

it isn’t often we have the pleasure of

his company is it partner

i knew your i was deliberately

encouraging mr wickfield to drink too

much

but i saw that although agnes father was

aware of his weakness

he could no longer stop himself

as the evening passed i was disgusted to

see that uriah became more and more

cheerful as mr wickfield became more and

more drunk

finally uriah stood up with a glass in

his hand come partner he said with his

evil smile

let’s drink to the health of the most

beautiful woman in the world

poor

broken mr whitfield looked for a moment

of the picture of his dead wife on the

wall so similar to agnes

i may be humble continued uriah but i

admire no

i love

your daughter agnes

suddenly

a horrible cry came from mr wickfield

he had stood up and was screaming with

anger

he behaved so wildly and desperately

that i thought he had gone mad

my child and you heep no never

you’ve taken everything from me my

business my good name my home

but you’ll never take her

perhaps i’ve said too much too soon

said uriah looking uncomfortable but

you’ll be sorry partner if you say any

more

you need me remember

you’ve got nothing without me

remember that

before you accuse me of anything

just then the door opened and agnes

entered silently

you’re not well father

come with me

she whispered gently

and helped the ashamed old man out

i thought she must have heard what had

been said

later that night she came to say good

night to me in the sitting room where i

was alone reading

agnes my dear sister i said to her

promise me that you will never agree to

marry that evil creature for any reason

through her tears she smiled calmly at

me

don’t worry brother

i’m not afraid of him

my duty is to take care of father

and i trust in god for the rest

good night david

chapter 9

david gets married

when i returned to london i was

delighted to discover that dora’s aunts

had decided to allow me to visit her

so every saturday and sunday i walked to

their house in putney and spent the

afternoons there

sometimes dora sang or played the guitar

sometimes we walked by the river and

sometimes i brought traddles or my aunt

with me

what happy times they were

mr spenlow had seemed a very rich man to

me but when he died the lawyers

discovered that dora would not inherit

much from him after all

as there were many debts to pay

so i did not feel worried that anyone

would suspect me of marrying dora for

her money

mr spenlow’s firm lost a lot of business

after his death

and i realized i would have to find

another profession

i had always been good at writing so i

continued as secretary to dr strong and

also began reporting what was said in

parliament for the daily newspapers

i even wrote some stories which were

published in magazines and was very

pleased with the money i was earning

the months passed and i reached my 21st

birthday

traddles was still studying to be a

lawyer and still hoping to marry the

dearest girl in the world

i had moved out of my flat into a

pleasant little house and at last dora’s

aunts had agreed to our marriage

i was looking forward to the happiest

day of my life

the next few days went by very fast in a

midst of excitement and happiness

my aunt and mr dick moved into an even

smaller house near mine and peggotty

traveled from yarmouth to be present at

my wedding

i had always wanted agnes to meet dora

so i was glad when they met the day

before the wedding

it was beautiful to see dora’s pretty

face next to agnes calm one and dora

whispering her secrets into agnes ears

as a child does to its mother

but after agnes had gone to see my aunt

dora said seriously to me when we were

alone

perhaps if i’d had agnes as a friend

when i was younger david dear i wouldn’t

be so foolish and silly

but i love you as you are dora i replied

i wonder why you ever fell in love with

me

because nobody can see you and not fall

in love with you

but if you’d never seen me david

i wonder

who you’d have married

i laughed and kissed her pretty lips and

she was soon as cheerful as usual again

i cannot remember much about the wedding

except dora by my side in her beautiful

dress and with a blushing face

only when we were driving away from

putney together did i wake from the

dream

i believed it at last

it was my dear little wife i was sitting

next to whom i loved so much

it seemed strange to return from our

week’s holiday and to find myself in my

own small house with dora

it was difficult to believe that we were

going to spend the rest of our lives

together but soon i realized that

married life was not as comfortable as

it appeared

neither dora nor i knew anything about

managing the house

we had a servant of course who managed

us

she served our meals late drank all our

wine and stole all our silver spoons

when she finally left we had another who

behaved in a similar way

i felt i had to speak to dora about it

my love i began

couldn’t you perhaps control the

servants a little better

david

don’t be cross with your little dora she

said

coming to sit on my knee

but i wanted to show i could be firm my

sweet dora

i really do think you should do

something i mean

yesterday i had no supper at all because

the beef was burnt

and last week when traddles came to

dinner

the meat wasn’t cooked at all

you knew before you married me what a

silly girl i am

you shouldn’t have married me if you

were going to be angry with me

i don’t think you love me at all

and large tears ran down her pretty

little face

dora my love of course i love you

don’t cry

i could not continue our conversation

then

but when she was calmer and had dried

her tears she said very seriously

david

will you do something for me

will you call me your child wife

whatever do you mean my dearest i asked

in surprise

just that whenever you feel i’m being

very foolish

you should remember that i’m like a

child

not as clever as you or anyone else

don’t be disappointed with me

just remember that your child wife loves

you very very much

of all the conversations we had

i remember that one very clearly

it made a strong impression on me

and i’m glad now that i did not try to

change dora anymore

i had fallen in love with an innocent

childlike girl and i could not expect

her to become a wise experienced woman

in such a short time

but this meant that i had to carry all

our problems on my own shoulders and

sometimes i felt sorry that i did not

have a real partner in life with whom to

share these worries

at about this time

my first book was published and was a

great success dora and my aunt were

equally proud of me

i was becoming however rather worried

about dora

she had been ill for some time but did

not seem to be getting better

she was not strong and could not walk

anywhere by herself

i began to carry her downstairs every

morning and upstairs every night

and my aunt came every day to look after

her

my little wife was still very pretty and

cheerful

but i knew how light she was and how

weak

i began to fear she would not be with me

for much longer

early one morning when i was walking in

the garden i saw daniel peggotty opening

the gate and coming towards me

his clothes were dusty and he looked

older than before with white hair

escaping untiedly from under his hand

but his face was brown and he looked

healthy and strong

asked david he said gladly when he saw

me i have come to tell you

you were always our friend

i found her

you found little emily i cried

delightedly but where and how

i heard she traveled with that wicked

steerforth through italy and lived there

for a while

but in the end he became tired of her

and left her

she didn’t know what to do or where to

go poor thing

but she came back to london

that’s where i found my dear child

because i’ve been all over europe

looking for her but i knew she’d come

back to england one day

so every night i’ve been searching the

city streets for her

last night i found her hopeless and

exhausted on a bridge looking down into

the river

i hadn’t found her then

i don’t like to think what she would

have done

but god was looking after my dear girl

and she’s safe with me now

he passed his strong hand over his eyes

and smiled at me

i’ve planned what we’ll do master david

and i want to tell you about it

emily and i are going to australia

it’s a new country

nobody knows anything about her past

we’ll be able to start a new life

together

we’ll be leaving in about six weeks

very sensible i said

and what about the rest of your family

a ham and peckety going to australia too

no they aren’t

poor am will never be the same again

i really think his heart is broken

but he’s got a good job he’s very

popular in yarmouth so he’ll stay there

my sister wants to stay too partly

because of you master david

partly to look after him

she cooks and cleans for me yarmouth you

know

well my friend i said shaking hands

firmly with the old boatmen

i wish you and emily all the best in

your new life

i’ll do my duty whether i’m in england

or australia said daniel

and i’ll never be separated from my

little emily again

chapter 10

death

and discovery

traddles and i had both received rather

strange letters from mr micawber in

which he asked us to come to canterbury

with my aunt

at this meeting he said he would show to

all of us the proof of uriah heaps

wickedness

dora was too ill to come with us so

traddles my aunt mr dick and i travelled

to canterbury by coach spent the night

in a hotel there and arrived punctually

at the wickfield’s house the next

morning

mr micawber met us at the door and

showed us into uriah heap’s office

uriah himself seemed rather surprised to

see us

but pretended to welcome us as old

friends

mr micawber brought agnes into the room

too

and then stood firmly by the door

don’t wait micawber

said uriah to his assistant

but mr micawber did not move

he stared coldly at his employer

did you hear what i said micawber

said uriah angrily his little eyes

becoming redder while his long face went

very pale

yes

replied micawber but i don’t choose to

leave

listen to me heap

i don’t care if i lose my job

i don’t wish to work any longer

for the wickedest man in england

uriah fell back shocked

looking slowly round at us with a dark

evil expression on his face he said

i see

you’ve all arranged this between you

but i know who to blame for this

it’s you copperfield

you’re jealous of my new position aren’t

you

but i know things about all of you which

i can use against you for example i know

about your father’s business mistakes

miss agnes

and i know about your past in the

warehouse copperfield

so be careful

i warn you all

mr micawber i said calmly please tell us

what you were going to say about this

man

just then traddles who had disappeared a

few minutes before reappeared with

missy’s heap

uriah had not noticed traddles before

who are you he demanded angrily

i’m a lawyer and a friend of mr

wickfield sir said traddles in a

business-like way and he’s asked me to

carry out all his business arrangements

from now on

this came as a surprise to me as well as

to uriah

the old fool has been drinking too much

again said uriah looking uglier than

ever you can’t believe anything he says

and you’ve bribed my assistant i suppose

to speak against me

it’s you have been dishonest said

traddles firmly as we shall hear from mr

micawber

and we all looked expectantly towards

that large important looking gentleman

he was clearly delighted to have such an

interested audience

and cleared his throat several times

before starting to speak

as he spoke

his voice became louder and louder with

excitement until he was almost shouting

ladies and gentlemen he began

when very poor and desperate for work i

came to canterbury as assistant to this

evil man ape

i’m sorry to say

i was soon involved in all his wicked

plans

i may be poor but i can’t accept his

lies his cheating his bribes and all the

rest of it

so i’ve brought you here today ladies

and gentlemen to hear me accuse heap

publicly

one

he has confused and lied to his partner

so often that poor mr wickfield now

thinks he has himself been dishonest

two

he has sometimes copied mr wickfield’s

signature onto false documents and

checks

three

for years he has been stealing large

amounts of money from mr whitfield and

the firm

you can never prove it cried uriah

wildly i’ve taken copies of all the

necessary documents said mr micawber

confidently while working as your clerk

and just to make sure

i’ve given them to mr traddles to keep

safely uriah my dear boy cried his

mother sobbing bitterly tell them how

humble you are

so you didn’t mean to hurt anyone

say you’re sorry and arrange matters

with these gentlemen

do dear boy brother be quiet he

whispered angrily don’t help my enemies

copperfield here would have given you a

hundred pounds to say what you just said

suddenly my aunt attacked uriah hitting

his head with her umbrella give me back

my investments she cried

i thought mr wickfield had lost my money

and i didn’t want to hurt agnes by

saying so

but now i know you’ve had control of the

firm and you’ve stolen my money

somehow i managed to get her away from

him before she hurt him too badly

then mrs heap fell on her knees to all

office begging us to forgive her dear

boy and to remember how humble he always

was be silent mother said her son

he turned to traddles and asked

unpleasantly well

what are you asking me to do

not asking

demanding heap

you will give us the keys to all your

boxes and drawers all your documents and

checkbooks everything infected belongs

to the firm

you will stay in this house until we’ve

checked all the documents

if i don’t agree he asked frowning

copperfield

perhaps you would fetch a couple of

policemen

things move slowly in the law courts but

in the end mr wickfield will get his

business back and you heap

will be in prison for a very long time

uriah realized that he had to do what we

wanted and went to fetch the documents

with mr dick at his side

at the door

with his blackest most evil expression

he turned and said to me

i’ve always hated you copperfield

then he was taken away

in the next few days traddles and

micawber worked very hard together to

put right what uriah had done

they discovered my aunt’s money and gave

it back to her and paid all the firm’s

debts

mr wickfield decided to sell his

business and retire

the wickfields would not have much money

but at least they did not owe anything

in the end uriah heap and his mother

left canterbury

but we all thought he was too evil to

stay out of trouble for long

my aunt had a wonderful idea for the

mikoba family

have you ever thought of going to live

in australia she suggested it’s a new

country with a lot of business

opportunities

mr micawber was very interested

something could easily turn up there he

agreed

my aunt generously offered to lend him

the necessary money to pay for the

journey and the whole mikorba family

started planning and packing immediately

when i returned to london

i realized my poor daughter was much

worse

she stayed upstairs all the time now and

the sitting room seemed very quiet

without my little child wife in her

usual place

one day when i was sitting with her in

her room she said lovingly

you know david dear

i’m afraid i was too young

don’t say that dora i whispered

conscious that she was speaking of

herself in the past

i was a silly little girl david and you

know it

it’s just as well that i won’t live much

longer

perhaps if i lived but we should marry

someone more sensible more practical

someone like

she did not finish what she was saying

but we’ve been so happy dora i said

trying not to cry

she took my hand and kissed it

we have haven’t we

david

you think if you asked agnes she’d come

and see me

i have something particular to say to

her

of course my love

i write to her tonight

agnes came the next day and went

straight upstairs to see dora

although the doctor and my aunt had told

me there was no hope that daughter would

live

when i held her hand and saw her love

for me and her innocent blue eyes i

could not believe she would be taken

from me but when agnes came downstairs

so calmly and silently and said nothing

but raised her hand and pointed upwards

i knew

it was over

and i remembered only darkness for a

long time afterwards

in the middle of my terrible sadness i

received a message from emily

she asked me to take a letter from her

to ham her last words to the man who had

loved her so much

before she and daniel left england for

australia

they were sailing in two weeks time and

the micawbers were going on the same

ship

i remembered my childish love for little

emily and agreed to do what she asked

the weather was very stormy as i

traveled through the night to yarmouth

several times the coach was almost

knocked off the road by the wind and the

rain

by the time we arrived in yarmouth most

of the local people were in the streets

afraid to stay in their houses in case

the roof or the chimney blew down

many women were crying afraid for their

husbands or brothers who were out

fishing in their small boats

the sea itself with its huge waves

crashing noisily on the beach frightened

us all very much

i went to the hotel and tried to sleep a

little after my tiring journey but the

wind made so much noise that i could not

sleep

and i went down to the beach again where

a lot of people were standing together

watching the waves

by now the storm had got even worse

two ships have gone down sir local

fishermen shouted to me few miles away

we couldn’t save any of the men on them

the waves were too high and look there’s

another

and suddenly i gasped in horror

i could see a great ship which had been

pushed violently onto the rocks by the

waves

it was in danger of falling back into

the waves sort of breaking in half at

any moment

several figures were visible on the ship

especially one very active curly-haired

young man who seemed to be giving orders

the crowd on the beach cried out as the

ship rolled and a huge wave swept over

it carrying the men into the rushing

water in a moment the only figure we

could see was the curly-haired young man

holding desperately onto the side of the

ship and calling for help

what could we do

it was certain death for any man to

enter those waves

just then i saw ham peggotty running

through the crowd to the edge of the

water

one end of a rope was tied around his

waist and the other end was held firmly

by three strong men standing on the

beach no ham i cried trying to hold him

back don’t try to rescue that poor

sailor you’ll kill yourself

let me go master david he replied

cheerfully shaking both my hands if god

thinks it’s time for me to die then i’m

ready

friends i’m going in

give me more rope

he dived in under a great wave and swam

strongly towards the ship

in another moment he would have reached

it

when a high green hill of water appeared

and the ship went down with a great

crash

the people on the beach pulled on ham’s

rope and he arrived at my feet

dead

they carried him to the nearest house

and i called a doctor but nothing could

be done for him he had been beaten to

death by that great wave and his

generous heart had stopped forever

as i sat hopelessly by his bed a

fisherman who had known me when emily

and i were children came to tell me he

recognized the curly-haired sailor whose

body had been thrown out of the water by

the waves

i went to sea

and then on the beach where she and i

had played

i saw steerforth lying with his handsome

face on his arm he would never smile at

me or emily again

i was surrounded by too many ghosts to

return to london and my old life

i was selfishly sad that i had lost my

child wife and my childhood friend

and sometimes i felt i wanted to die

so i left england and traveled for many

months in europe

i lived in a dark miserable dream with

no hope or interest in my future

one evening i arrived in a village in

switzerland and received a packet of

letters that had been waiting for me

the first one i opened was from agnes

she gave me no advice

but she told me simply that she trusted

me to find a purpose in life

and that she would always be proud of me

and love me as a sister

as the light died out of the sky and i

watched the color of the snow on the

mountain tops change

i felt i was waking from my unhappy

dream

and i began to understand how much i

loved agnes

she had been the one who had always

guided and supported me and now i

realized i needed her love for the rest

of my life

had falling in love with dora been a

mistake

we had both been very young it is true

i had always called agnes sister and now

perhaps i no longer had the right to ask

whether her love for me was more than

sisterly

however

i decided to return

and traveled home to england after three

years of absence

i was delighted to find that traddles

had married his sophie and was doing

well as a lawyer

my aunt had moved back to her old dover

house and was living happily there with

mr dick and peggotty

when i visited my aunt i took the

opportunity of asking her about agnes

has she

has she any young man she’d like to

marry

i asked as likely as possible

aunt looked carefully at me as she

replied

i suspect she has david

she’s never mentioned it to me but i

think

i feel sure

she’s going to marry soon

i was firm with myself and did not show

my feelings

i borrowed a horse and wrote to

canterbury to ask agnes myself

when i saw that beautiful gentle face

again

i knew i had come home

i knew how dear she was to me

and would always be

agnes i said

i am so grateful to you for making me

what i am

for helping me to be good

but i think you have a secret let me

share it agnes as your brother

tell me whom you love

agnes turned away from me and burst into

tears

somehow

these tears did not sadden me but gave

me hope

my dear agnes

don’t cry

david

leave me

i can’t talk about it now she sobbed

agnes

you’re dearer to me than anything in the

world

don’t think i’ll be jealous of any man

you choose to marry

i only want you to be happy

she had stopped crying no one was calmer

if i have a secret david it is

not a new one

it has been my secret

for a long time

i was wild with hope

not a new one

did she mean

dearest agnes

dare i hope to call you more than a

sister

she was in my arms and sobbing again

but this time with happiness

i went away agnes loving you

i returned home

loving you

we held each other for some time

sure now of each other’s love

there is something i must tell you david

she said gently looking calmly into my

face

i have loved you

all my life

she added

and something else

before our sweet daughter died

she asked me

can you guess

to fill the empty place in your heart

and agnes laid her head on my shoulder

and cried

and i cried with her

although we were both

so

happy

my story has almost come to an end

i have published several books now

and i’m a well-known writer

agnes and i have been married for 20

years and live in perfect happiness with

our children around us

we have heard from daniel peggotty in

australia

he and emily have made friends there and

are happy

mr micawber has become an important

figure in a large australian town and

his family are quite used to living

there

my aunt mr dick and peggotty are all

white-haired and old now but still very

fit

and they love playing with our children

whenever they can

my old friend traddles has two sons of

his own and will soon become a judge

when i think of my friends and family

agnes lovely face shines above them all

she is here next to me as i write

and i hope that when my life comes to

its end

she will be with me in the shadows

pointing upwards

to the light

you

第一章

大卫科波菲尔的童年

我出生在

英格兰东部萨福克

郡的布兰德斯通，我可怜的父亲取名为大卫科波菲尔，

遗憾的是，他从未见过我

，他们结婚时他比我母亲大得多

，在我出生前六个月就去世

了 父亲的去世使我美丽的

年轻母亲非常不高兴

，她知道她会发现生

了一个新孩子，

没有丈夫

，生活会非常困难我们家中最富有和最重要的人

是我父亲的姑姑

贝茜·特罗伍德小姐，

她实际上曾经嫁给一个

英俊的年轻丈夫，

但因为他向她要钱

，有时还打她，

她决定分开

他出国，很快就传来他去世的消息，

特洛特伍德小姐在海边买了一栋小房子，

独自一人住在那里，只有

一个

她没有说过话的仆人 自从我

父亲结婚以来，她认为他

娶了一个非常年轻的女孩是一个错误，

但就在我出生之前，

当她听到 d 我妈妈

怀孕了，

她来拜访布劳德斯通

那是三月的一个寒冷多风的星期五下午，

我妈妈坐在炉火

旁感到非常孤独和不快乐，

突然有点哭了，一张严肃的奇怪面孔

出现在

窗户上。 门

吩咐那位面容严厉的女士

我妈妈很震惊，但马上服从了

你一定是大卫·科波菲尔的妻子

进门的那位女士说

我是贝茜·特罗伍德

你听说过我

是的

低声说 我妈妈颤抖着

你哭得多么年轻 贝茜小姐 只是个婴儿，

我妈妈又开始哭泣

了 喝点茶，

你会感觉好些

你怎么称呼你的女孩

我的女孩

我还不知道会是女孩

克拉拉同一个 是我的

所以我用她的姓来称呼她 你

知道这个名字多么可怕

不过别介意 佩吉蒂 她叫

她到门口去 马上给科波菲尔太太倒杯茶

她又坐下来继续

说

你说的是那个孩子

我敢肯定 生下来就变成女孩了

他也许说我妈勇敢

别傻 当然是她

我要送她上学

好好教育她

我要阻止她

犯了我在生活中犯过的错误 贝茜

小姐说这话时看起来很生气，

我妈妈什么也没说，但她

感觉一点都不舒服，

但告诉

我你和你丈夫开心吗

问

贝茜小姐这让我可怜的母亲感觉

更糟

我知道我

对金钱

、烹饪

或诸如此类的事情不太敏感，她哭着说，

但我们彼此相爱

，他在帮助我学习

，然后他死了

，她倒在椅子上，

完全失去知觉，

当时就进来了 与

茶意识到如何se 考虑到

情况并把我妈妈带到楼上

睡觉 医生很快就到了，

整晚都待在午夜时分照顾他的

病人

他下楼

到客厅 贝茜小姐

正在不耐烦地等着

医生 有

什么

消息 她好吗

年轻的妈妈很舒服

女士

礼貌地回答了医生 但

她 婴儿

她怎么

哭了 贝茜小姐

医生奇怪地看着

贝茜小姐 是个男孩 夫人

他回答

贝茜小姐什么

也没说，径直走出家门

，再也没有

回来 我是这样出生的

我的童年非常快乐，

因为我美丽的母亲和善良的佩吉蒂

照顾着我，

但是当我大约八岁时

，我的幸福笼罩着阴影，

我的母亲经常穿着

最好的衣服和一位名叫默德斯通先生的绅士一起出去散步

他有一头黑色的头发，黑色的大胡子

，带着难看的笑容

，似乎很喜欢我妈妈，

但我知道佩吉蒂不喜欢他

几个月后，皮果蒂告诉我，

我妈妈要

和一些朋友一起度过一个短暂的假期，

同时皮果蒂和我会去东海岸的

雅茅斯和她哥哥丹尼尔一起住

两个星期，

当我们

爬上 马车

虽然很伤心，但要和我妈妈说再见，

当司机招呼他的

马时

，默德斯通先生在她的肩膀上挥手告别，我们

在

旅途结束后从雅茅斯的马车下车时开车离开了村子，皮果蒂说

那是房主 大卫

环顾四周，

但只能看到沙滩上的一艘旧船，

我高兴地问你兄弟的房子

，当我们到达它时，我看到它有

门窗和烟囱，

就像真正的房子一样，

我无法想象有更好的地方 生活

一切都干净整洁，闻

到鱼的味道

现在我被介绍给pekiti

家庭

有丹尼尔·佩戈蒂是一位善良的老

水手

虽然他没有结婚他

收养了两个孤儿 o 和他住在一起

，叫他

火腿叔叔 皮果提是个大个子

，笑容温和，艾米丽是个漂亮的

蓝眼睛小女孩，

他们都热情地欢迎皮果提和我

我在那里度过了愉快的两周

，整天在沙滩上玩耍 和

艾米丽一起睡在船上我自己的小床上

我确定我以

幼稚的方式爱上了小艾米丽，

当我们不得不在假期结束但在回家的路上说再见时，我痛苦地哭了起来。

皮果提非常担心地看着

我，亲爱的戴维少爷，

她突然用颤抖的声音说，

我必须告诉你

，

趁我们不在的时候，你现在必须知道了，

你亲爱的妈妈

已经嫁给了默德斯通先生，

他是你的继父，现在

我被深深地震惊了

无法理解我母亲

怎么会嫁给那个男人

，当我们回到家时，

我忍不住向我母亲展示我是

多么痛苦，

我直接回到我的房间，躺在

我的床上抽泣，

这让我可怜的母亲非常不高兴

我也是，她坐在我身边握着我的手，

默德斯通先生突然走进来

，他严厉地问我的爱是什么云，

记住

你必须对我告诉过你的男孩坚定，否则

你对他太软弱了

哦，

是的，爱德华，

我 恐怕你是对的，我妈妈

很快就回复了，

我很抱歉，

我会试着对他更坚定

，当她离开房间时，

默德斯通先生生气地对我低声说，

大卫

你知道如果你不服从我会怎么做

我会像狗一样打你

我还很年轻

，

如果他对我说一句

好话，我会很害怕他，也许我会喜欢并信任

他

，我的生活会有所不同

他

对我亲爱的母亲的影响，她

想对我好，但也想在那天晚上取悦她的

新丈夫

，默德斯通先生的姐姐

来帮我妈妈上门

一个身材高大的黑女人，一脸严肃的皱眉头

，看起来和听起来都很 就像

她哥哥一样，

我以为她打算 你和

我们在一起很长一段时间

，我是对

的，事实上

她打算永远留下

她第二天早上开始工作

她在早餐时坚定地对我妈妈说

我是来帮助你

的 仆人 食物

等等 把你所有

橱柜

的钥匙交给我 我会为你打理一切

我可怜的妈妈脸红了

看起来有点羞愧

从那时起

默德斯通小姐完全控制了

家务 钥匙挂在她腰间

，她匆匆穿过房子，

检查一切

是否如她所愿

第二章

大卫被送去学校

那段时间我很不开心，

默德斯通先生坚持

让我学习，所以我妈妈给我上课

过去

她和我一起享受我们的学习

，她以温柔的方式教了我很多东西，

但

现在默德斯通先生和小姐都

在我的课上

，不知何故我无法集中注意力

或重新 成员我了解到

我可怜的母亲非常同情

我，有时甚至试图鼓励我，

甚至低声告诉我答案，

但谋杀石头尖锐的耳朵

遮住了我的爱，默德斯通先生曾经生硬地说

记住

要坚定，

你让男孩的性格变得更糟

通过那样帮助他，

哦，

爱德华，对不起，

我妈妈回答说，

看起来很尴尬

，像一个有罪的孩子一样低着头，

当我像

往常一样来到客厅上课时，

我看到默德斯通先生

手里拿着一根细棍子

我不能把我的眼睛从它身上移开，

你今天必须非常小心大卫

他带着不愉快的微笑说，

双手拿着棍子

我知道会发生什么，然后

一种可怕的恐惧

抓住了我

，我所学到的一切

立即从我的脑海中消失了。 记忆，

所以我无法回答我

母亲的任何问题，

默德斯通先生从椅子上站起来，

大卫

他重重地说，

我想你今天已经让你母亲担心

得够多了，

我们要上楼了 装腔作势的男孩

来了

，他拿起了棍子

，我们上楼的时候，我听到妈妈在哭，

请默德斯通先生，我哭了

，不要打我，

我已经努力学习了，真的，先生，

但他

在我的卧室里不听我，他抱着 我的

手臂开始用一根棍子打我

我设法抓住他的手

并深深地咬了它

他愤怒地大叫

并开始用力打我

超过我的尖叫声

我能听到妈妈和皮果蒂的

哭声 在门外

然后他走的下一刻

我听到他

锁门我

躺在地板上酸痛流血

整个

房子突然变得很安静

我在那里呆了一段时间

晚上

没有动静默德斯通小姐给我带来了一些面包 和

她留在我身边地板上的牛奶，

她出去时对我生气地皱着眉头，

我被锁在那个房间里五天五

夜

，除了

给我带来食物

但从未和

一个小

男孩说话的默德斯通小姐之外，没有人看到任何人 五天后

像几年一样

，我仍然记得我当时是多么害怕

和内疚，

但在第五个晚上，

我听到钥匙孔里有一种奇怪的声音，

那是佩吉蒂

试图给我一个消息，

大卫大师，亲爱的，她低声

抽泣着

他们要送你 明天要去

寄宿学校

哦，猪崽子，我哭了，

然后我就再也见不到

你了

我讨厌这些杀人石

，记住大卫，

我爱你，就像我爱你妈妈一样

多

，我给你写信，

谢谢你，

亲爱的皮果蒂，

我低声回答，

眼泪从我脸上滚落下来，

你也写信给你的兄弟

，火腿

和小艾米丽，

然后告诉 他们

我并没有杀人石想的那么坏

，把我的爱送给他们，

尤其是

小艾米莉·

皮果蒂答应第二天早上按照我的要求去做，

默德斯通小姐告诉我

，由于我的邪恶，

我要去

上学了 阿迪帮我收拾好我的箱子

我妈妈只被允许

在马车到达时和

我说

一声再见

在路上追着我们

司机停下来

艰难地等

她 她爬上了这里的切口

大卫大师

她气喘吁吁地哭泣

一个我

和你亲爱的妈妈送给你的小礼物

照顾好自己 亲爱的

她放了一个小钱包和一张纸 把袋子

塞进我手里

，把我抱得离她肥胖的身体如此之近

，我以为我再也无法呼吸

了，

然后她跳下来

，沿着通往村子的路跑回去

，我们继续我们的旅程，我擦干

眼泪，看着她给的东西

我

的袋子里装满了皮果提特制的

蛋糕

，钱包里有八枚闪亮的

先令硬币，

想起我的母亲和皮果

提，我又哭了起来，

但就在这时，司机

巴库斯先生

开始和我说话 e 他是个

红脸的大个子

，显然觉得谈话很困难

她做了那些蛋糕吗？

他慢慢地问

我给他的蛋糕吃完了

你的意思是 pegatisa

是的，

她做我们所有的菜

在他

考虑他的下一个问题时保持沉默

他问

你知道

有人

想娶她的

皮果蒂

一个年轻人 我重复惊讶

哦不

她从来没有任何年轻人

啊

回答巴克斯先生

看起来很高兴

他想了很久 在说话之前，

哇，

他最后说了，

也许

如果你写信给她，

你会喜欢她

吗？你可以给她发我的信息，

你可以说

巴克斯

愿意，你愿意吗？巴克斯愿意吗？

我天真地重复着，

想知道这条信息的含义

是什么 当然，

但你可以自己告诉她巴克斯先生，

当你明天回到布兰德斯通时，

不，

不，

他说不，

你只是给她信息，

记住

barcase是w

谈话结束后

感到恶心，

当我们到达雅茅斯时，巴克斯先生在接下来的旅程中完全保持沉默

我在旅馆买了纸，

并写了这封信给皮果蒂

亲爱的皮克蒂

我已经安全抵达雅

茅斯巴克斯愿意

请把我的爱给妈妈

你的大卫

ps

他说

巴库斯愿意在雅茅斯很重要

我被安排乘坐长途汽车去

伦敦，

并

在伦敦的长途汽车站通宵旅行，

我被

梅尔先生收集并带到

学校的塞勒姆学院 谋杀石

为我选择

的学校是一栋古老的大型建筑，有

一个尘土飞扬的操场，

周围是一堵高高的砖墙

，看起来很冷清。

我很惊讶地发现

没有一个男孩在那里

，并被告知他们都在

度假

我在假期被派到那里

作为对我的

邪恶

的惩罚校长和老师们

也都在度假，

除了梅尔先生，他不得不去

在我之后，

我花了整整一个月的时间

在那个肮脏的空

教室里上课

，每天晚上都散发着旧食物

和未洗过的男孩的味道。

我不得不

和梅尔先生一起吃晚饭

，然后直接上床睡觉。

最糟糕的

是 我必须戴在脖子上的牌子上写着

要小心

他咬

我只允许在我睡觉时脱掉它

虽然此时我非常孤独和

不开心

我并不期待见到

我所感受到的所有其他男孩 他们肯定会嘲笑我

，尤其是看到我被迫离开的标志

，

但有一天梅尔先生告诉我，

校长克里格尔先生回来了

，想见我，

所以我颤抖着走到他的

房子里，

我立刻意识到先生 kriegel 的生活

比男孩们或老师们要舒服得多，

他是一个有着紫色鼻子的小胖子

，坐在扶手椅上

，面前放着一个瓶子和一个玻璃杯，

所以这就是那个咬人的男孩，

他不愉快地问

ik 现在你的继父男孩

他是一个性格坚强的人他是

他认识

我我认识他

你认识我

回答我男孩

他猛烈地拉着我的耳朵

还没有先生

我回答我眼中的痛苦泪水

啊

但你很快就会

好哦是的

我的性格也很坚强，你会看到

他的手重重地敲在桌子上

我很害怕，

但我让自己问了一个

我考虑了整整一个月的问题，

先生，

我为我对先生所做的事情感到非常抱歉

默德斯通

我能不能

在其他男孩看到它之前

把这个牌子拿掉

在接下来的一个小时里睡觉

但是男孩们并不像我

担心的那样

残忍 伟大的詹姆斯·斯蒂尔福斯

是最年长的男孩之一 他

至少比我大六岁

他是一个英俊聪明的

卷发小伙子，他已

成为学校的重要人物，

对年轻男孩有很大的影响力

他问我

留下八先令我回答

想起我妈妈和

皮果提给我的礼物，

你最好把它给我，

我会替你处理

的 现在花一些，

他建议微笑

着喝一瓶酒，

一圈

饼干，一些蛋糕

之类的东西，

我可以随时出去，

这样我就可以给你买

了 有点担心上楼睡觉时我所有的

钱都不见了

我意识到我所有的钱都

花光了，

因为

月光下我的床上摆满了价值八先令的食物和饮料 我

当然不想吃喝 这一切

都是我一个人，

所以我邀请了 steerforth 和其他人

来帮助

自己，男孩们非常愿意

，我们在床上度过了一个愉快的夜晚

，彼此耳语

我发现男孩们都讨厌

塞勒姆学院

，他们认为这是最糟糕的

学校之一 在乡下，

他们特别讨厌克里格尔先生

，他经常用随身携带的大棍子

打

他们，唯一一个他不敢打的男孩是

steerforth，

当我

听到这话

时，我更加钦佩 steerforth。 太累了，无法保持清醒

steerforth 起床去

晚安 年轻的科波菲尔 他说

把手放在我的头上

我会照顾你

你真是

太好了 我感激地回答 你没有妹妹 有 你

是 睡着了

没有 我还没有回答

如果你有一个多可惜

我相信她会是一个非常

明亮的小女孩

我很想见到她

那天晚上我很想他

，他笑着的英俊脸和 他

漫不经心的自信态度

我无法想象

他会给

我亲爱的人们的生活带来多么黑暗的阴影

我在塞勒姆家又

呆了三个月

尽管像梅尔先生这样的一两个老师

对我们男孩很友善

并试图正确地教我们，

我们太害怕克里克先生和他的

棍子而

无法专注于我们的学习，

但是

如果我们被殴打

，我会互相鼓励，我很幸运能够

与伟大的 steerforth 友好

，尽管 我们的年龄不同，

但是

我的家，

即使有谋杀石，

那里似乎比

学校

更愉快，当圣诞节假期到来时我很高兴

，我被允许

回到笨拙的地方，

我有点惊讶地发现我

妈妈有一个新的 宝贝

，我曾经

看到她身体不好，

她看起来很累，

很担心，很瘦，

但她和皮果提很高兴

见到我，

尽管

如果谋杀

案发生，他们不敢表现出来 如果可能的话，

我的继父和他的妹妹

似乎比以前更讨厌我

，他们让我的生活

变得非常痛苦

，事实上，

当我

回到学校

并看到旅行并继续前进时，我几乎很高兴 再次

，当马车开走时，

我记得我的母亲站在

我们家门外

，怀里抱着她的孩子，

对我悲伤地微笑着，

那是我最后一次见到她

，这就是

我将永远记住她的方式

第 3 章

大卫孤儿

生活继续 我在学校很正常，

直到两个月后的三月生日

我清楚地记得

那天是寒冷的冰天雪地

，当我收到一条消息时，我们男孩不得不在寒冷的教室里吹手指

和搓手以保持温暖

去见

克里格尔先生，

我想皮果提一定给

我送了生日礼物

，所以我高兴地跑到他的

房间，

但在那里我意识到发生了一些不寻常

的事情，

因为那是克里格尔先生的妻子

等着和我说话的人

大卫 我的孩子

她说和蔼地握着我的手

我们都必须

接受我们所爱的人随时可能死去

我看着她

试图理解她的

意思 很抱歉告诉你她继续

说你妈妈

病危 眼前一片迷雾

顿时

滚烫的泪水从我脸上流下

我知道真相

你妈妈已经死了

她说

我已经在大声抽泣

我觉得我是一个孤儿

孤身一人

克里格尔夫人亲自收拾好我的行李

，送我回家参加

葬礼。

当时我并没有意识到，当我到家时

，我再也回

不了塞勒姆家了

默德斯通看起来很伤心

，根本没有和我说话，

但默德斯通小姐

表现出她一贯的坚定性格

，她和她的兄弟为此感到非常自豪

，

因为她检查了我

从学校带回来的所有衣服

我对我一点兴趣都没有

屋子里一片死寂

但是我无法看到我母亲

那张

永远不会再不哭就对我微笑的可爱的脸

皮果蒂

我哭着问

她病了很长时间 大卫大师

她在孩子出生后变得更糟

你看

她有时不开心 很健忘，

但她对我总是一样

她的老佩吉蒂

楼下的那两个

经常对她发脾气

，让她伤心，

但她仍然爱他们，你知道

她是如此甜蜜和爱，

我总是在她睡觉时坐在她身边

她感觉好多了 她说

有短暂的沉默，而皮果提

擦干了她的眼睛，

然后在昨晚她把我的双手握在她的手中

如果太阳开始升起，

她把头靠在我的手臂

上，在一个愚蠢的交叉点上钉住他的手臂

，

像一个无辜的孩子一样死去

，

在我母亲的葬礼后睡着了，

我开始想知道我会发生

什么，谋杀石甚至没有 似乎

注意到我在

他们告诉佩格蒂离开的房子里，

因为他们不再希望她成为他们的

仆人，

所以佩格蒂要去

雅茅斯的兄弟们那里，

直到她决定下一步该做什么

她建议带我一起去

假期

，令我惊讶的是，谋杀石

同意了，

所以

第二天早上，

巴克斯先生带着他的推车出现在门口

，上面放着皮果提的箱子，

我们爬上

去坐在他身边，

皮果提离开她曾经住过的老家自然有点难过

对我

妈妈和我很满意

，起初她哭了一点

，但当巴克斯先生看到她擦干

眼睛，看起来更快乐时，

他也开始看起来更快乐

，他低声对我说

帕克斯愿意

你 你告诉她，

他大声对皮果提说，

你舒服

吗？皮果蒂

笑着说她过去

，你现在舒服吗？

大卫大师，

他问

我说我是

巴库斯先生，他对这次谈话非常满意，

以至于他在旅途中重复了很多次，

并且 当我们到达雅茅斯并从马车上下来时，我和皮果蒂

都不得不一直给他同样的

答案

，

我们向巴克斯先生道别，

丹尼尔和火腿皮果蒂正在等

我们

丹尼尔和火腿和我记忆中的一模一样，

他们

快乐而 一如既往的大方，

但小艾米丽

似乎有所不同，不知何故

她更高更漂亮，

但她不想和我一起玩

或花时间陪我

我很失望，

因为我仍然认为她是

我见过的最漂亮的女孩

，我认为 我爱上了她的

丹尼尔，火腿为她的智慧和美丽感到非常自豪，

当她笑着

拒绝坐在我旁边时，

他们只是笑了笑，但他们都听着 对

我在塞勒姆学院的学校生活的故事感兴趣

我告诉他们其他男孩，

尤其是英俊聪明的

斯蒂尔福斯

我非常钦佩他，以至于我无法

停止自己告诉他们关于他的一切

突然我注意到艾米丽

热切地听着她的蓝眼睛闪闪发光

当她看到我们

都在看着她

并把她的脸藏在她的手

后面时，她

的嘴唇

上挂着微笑，她

脸红了 不像

在

巴库斯先生成为常客之前我们一起玩

，很快佩吉蒂就向我解释说

她决定嫁给他

我爱你，就像我结婚时亲爱的大卫一样，

她告诉我把我抱

在她身边

，

任何时候我都可以在购物

车里见

你

使用时 你永远都

欢迎你来留下来

所以当我回到笨拙的时候，

皮果提已经成为了巴克斯太太

，我很高兴想到她在

自己的房子里和一个丈夫在家照顾

她

我的继父和他的 姐姐

看到我似乎不高兴，显然

想找到摆脱我的方法，

因为他们认为学校太贵了，

他们最终安排我开始

工作，

尽管我仍然只有 10 岁

，对我这个年龄来说还很小。

被派往伦敦

，

在城市东部靠近

河边的一个仓库工作 其他和我一起工作的男孩，

但我是唯一一个

上过学的

所有仓库工人都是粗鲁的

粗鲁

人，他们习惯于长时间在肮脏的

条件下工作

从现在开始我的生活会变成这样

我为拥有这样一份工作而深感羞愧，

我也害怕我会

忘记我从母亲和老师那里学到的一切

我永远找不到像 traddles 或 steerforth 这样的朋友

能够在生活中获得更好的位置，

那对我来说是一段非常不愉快的时光，

我的继父让经理 quinion 先生帮

我在伦敦找个地方住，

所以在第一天结束时，我

被叫到 quinion 先生的办公室，并被

介绍给 一个

看起来很胖的中年男人，

头秃得跟鸡蛋一样，

他的名字叫米考伯先生

，他在

他和家人一起租的房子里给了我一个空房间，我

同意接受

，米考伯先生和我步行回家

米考伯一家显然很穷，

但努力不让

别人看到房子有几层

很脏的空房间，家具很少

艾比是双胞胎之一

，在我所有的家庭经历中，

我从来没有见过米考伯夫人没有

至少一个双胞胎，

他们还有一个四岁的儿子

和一个三岁的女儿，

他们唯一的仆人是一个年轻的孤儿

女孩，

我从没想过米考伯夫人会

伤心地告诉我，当我结婚前我和父母住在一起时，她带我看了我的房间

，

虽然我永远不会像现在这样贫穷，

但鉴于米考伯先生目前处于

困境中，

我当然必须接受 这种

情况恐怕他欠了很多钱，

但他的债权人只能等着

你不能从石头里弄血，

也不能从米考伯先生那里得到任何钱

我很快就意识到

，无论先生 米考伯夫人也

从来没有能力理财

在

米考伯之家 米考伯夫妇的情绪

因情况

而异

她躺在地板上，头发散开，

看上去狂野而绝望，

但一个小时后，她愉快地

吃着丰盛的晚餐。

我和这些好心人住

了几个月，变得非常喜欢

他们 知道米考伯

一家几乎吃不饱

，我主要靠面包和奶酪过活，

因为他们有

一次或两次缺钱，我提出借给他们

几先令

，他们拒绝接受，

但最后米考伯先生的债权人

厌倦了等待 为了他们的钱，

然后去找警察，警察因为欠债而逮捕了他

，

他被带到了国王的监狱，并

让我在我到达时去那里探望他

ed 我被带到他的房间

，他在那里等我

他似乎很伤心

，甚至哭了一点

这对我来说是一个黑暗的日子科波菲尔

他抽泣着

我希望我的错误将是对

像你这样的年轻人的警告

记得

如果 男人一年挣 20 英镑

，花 19 英镑加 19

先令，结果

是幸福，

但如果他花 20 英镑加一

先令，结果

是

痛苦 顺便说一句，科波菲尔你能借我

一先令买点啤酒

吗？米考伯夫人会还给你的

你一到家

，啤酒一到，

他就显得开朗多了，

我们度过了一个愉快的夜晚，讲

故事和笑话

他在监狱里待了几个星期

，我经常去看他，

我很高兴在一次

访问中听到他很快就会 自由，因为他的

债权人不情愿地接受了

他无法偿还债务的事实。

当我回到家时，我把这个消息告诉了米考伯夫人，

我们一起分享晚餐和

一杯酒来庆祝

想问一下，夫人，当米考伯先生有空的时候，你会做什么？

我礼貌地问，

我的家人说，米考伯夫人非常相信米考

伯先生应该

搬到乡

下去德文

郡继续他的商业利益

，

米考伯先生是一个非常聪明的人，科波菲尔大师

我 “我确定他是我同意了，

尽管他们还没有找到

适合他的东西，但

我的家人认为他应该在德文郡做好准备

，以防万一

她放下空杯子

，

你会和他一起去吗，女士，我问

我 我必须

要让米考伯夫人的声音变得尖叫他

是我的生命我的爱我的丈夫

我孩子的父亲我永远不会抛弃米

考伯先生你不能要求我抛弃他

我感到很不舒服

因为我没有要求她抛弃 完全没有他，

但她很快又平静下来，

吃完晚饭。我已经

习惯了米考伯情绪的变化，

我现在意识到，当米考伯

夫妇按照他们的计划离开伦敦时，

我在城里会很孤独。

仍然讨厌我在仓库里的工作

，想为自己创造更好的生活

我想了很久

，决定只有一件事我

能做，

我会试着找到我唯一

幸存的亲戚我父亲的姑姑

贝茜·特罗伍德小姐和 请她帮助

我

我知道她住在肯特郡多佛附近的某个地方

我可以坐马车去那里 因为

皮果提曾经寄给我十先令

以备不时之需

第四章

大卫和他的钱到了 姨妈，

所以在去德文郡的路上帮米考伯夫妇

收拾好几件衣服并

在长途汽车站向

他们挥手告别后，

我去仓库工作了最后

一天，

我没有告诉任何人我

下周不会回来

晚上，我收拾好我的箱子，

把十先令

放进皮果提曾经给我的小钱

包里。 推车路过

你能不能把我的箱子带到

长途汽车站我礼貌地问他

那个年轻人把箱子放进了他的推车

然后

迅速环顾四周以确保

没有目击者

他粗暴地将我推到墙上

并拿出我的钱包 还没

来得及说一个字，我颤抖的手就

驾着马车驶过大路

，转过拐角就不见了

我知道我再也见不到他

了 我失去了我在

世界

上拥有的一切，也没有钱去

多佛的

长途汽车最后

我决定我必须步行到那里

，我开始了漫长的旅程

，我花了六天的时间走完一百

公里，因为我累了 非常轻松

，不得不休息

我卖掉了我的夹克换了一个先令，这样

我就可以在路上买面包和牛奶

，晚上我睡在废弃的

农舍或树下，

有时我害怕

我遇到的危险的乞丐和小偷 th 这

条路，

但我知道我必须一边走一边继续

走。

我想起了妈妈温柔漂亮的

脸庞 出乎我的

意料，

我花了整整一上午的时间询问人们

是否知道贝茜·特洛特伍德小姐

住在哪里

最后我找到了一个能认出

这个名字并带我去她

家的人

站在她前门整洁的

小花园里颤抖了片刻

害怕，想知道

姑姑会怎么看我，

我的脸和手都脏了，头发没

梳，衣服破烂，

满是灰尘，

也许她甚至不想邀请

我进她家，

就在那时，一个英俊但看起来很

严肃的灰姑娘—— 有头发的女人从门里

向我走来

我知道她一定是我的姑姑 走开 她

说克罗斯利 我不允许任何人

在我的草地上行走

请女士 我勇敢地说

请姑姑 什么叫贝茜小姐大吃一惊

拜托阿姨，

我是你的侄子，好朋友，

她哭着

突然坐在草地上

我是大卫科波菲尔，你

的侄子，萨福克的笨蛋儿子，

我出生那天晚上，你来了，看到了

我亲爱的妈妈 自从

她死后

我的继父让我去伦敦工作我很不高兴

我讨厌它然后逃跑了有人

偷了我的案子和我的钱我不得不

一路走路而且我已经

六个晚上没有睡在床上

我的自制力在这里崩溃了

他们倒在地上痛苦地抽泣

我的阿姨跳起来把我抱起来

带到她的客厅

里她在玻璃杯里混合了一些药

让我喝

她还把我裹在一条大毯子里

把我放在她的沙发上，

然后她按铃叫她的仆人

珍妮特

请迪克先生到这里来珍妮特

她说

几分钟后一位高大的灰发可爱的绅士进来了

，他自言自语地笑了起来，

现在迪克先生说我的阿姨 坚决

不要做傻瓜，因为 我们都知道

你很聪明

迪克先生立刻看起来很严肃

毫无疑问你记得我有一个

侄子大卫科波菲尔 嗯

这是他的儿子

他已经逃跑了

哦真的

大卫的儿子

逃跑了

说得好 迪克先生

现在问题是迪克先生 我

该怎么处理他

好

迪克先生茫然地看着我

然后突然他的眼睛闪闪发光

如果我是你

我会洗

他干得好 迪克先生你总是有

正确的答案

我阿姨高兴地说

所以他们

把我洗干净了

我吃饭的时候，我的阿姨偶尔会盯着我看我的衣服和美味的食物，

当她看到我感觉好多了时，她会不断地自言自语。她一个接一个地

问我问题

，我给她讲了我的生活故事

完了

你可怜的妈妈为什么又结婚了

多么可怕的错误

也许她恋爱了 建议迪克先生

微笑 他在爱情中相当愚蠢的微笑

说 贝茜·克罗斯利小姐

或许可怜的傻女孩想

她恋爱了，

但现在迪克先生又问了一个问题，

我们应该怎么处理这个男孩

说，迪克先生在想，

然后突然想到一个想法，

你应该让他上床睡觉

，再次感谢迪克先生的

常识，我姑姑高兴地说，

珍妮特

说 男孩上床睡觉

，所以

在贝茜特罗特伍德

小姐家顶上一个舒适通风的房间

里，

我在舒适干净的小床上，第二天早上早餐时，我飘进了我的梦想世界，

我勇敢地

问我的

阿姨，你

有

你吗？ 发生在我身上，

我已经写信给你的继父，她

回复说，

哦，你要送我回去

吗？请不要阿姨

请让我留在这里，我颤抖着哭了，

我不知道我会做

什么 我得等着看

她坚定地回答

这个消息让我很沮丧，

但我无能为力

，我的阿姨很快就开始谈论

别的

事情你怎么看迪克先生

他看起来有点

生气

是不是 疯狂的阿姨

以及

他的家人 我骂他疯了，

想把他永远关起来，

但我遇到他，认为我仍然认为

他是一个非常明智的聪明

人，

所以我提出要照顾他，

他在我家住了 10 年，

没人知道他给出了什么有用的建议

我完全相信他，

当我听说我姑姑

对可怜无害的迪克先生如此慷慨时，

我开始更好地理解她的性格

，尽管她外表严厉，

经常发脾气

她对需要她帮助的人非常友善，

我希望她会 对我很好

几天后，我正从客厅的窗户向外看，

当时我看到默德斯通先生和小姐骑马

进了我姑妈的花园，

我姑妈也看到了他们，急忙

冲着他们挥舞着雨伞冲着他们大喊滚开别骑 在我的

草地上 你以为你是谁 走开

她身后的门

商品石头不得不把他们的

马引出花园然后回来

按门铃

他们看起来很不舒服，

不确定自己

珍妮特带他们进入起居室，我的姨妈迪克先生和我正在等待特洛特伍德小姐开始 默德斯通先生

走上前，对不起，我的姑姑

尖锐地说，我想

你就是谋杀斯通先生，他娶了

我侄子的遗孀

，

如果你不嫁给那个可怜的孩子会好得多，

我同意你的看法，特罗特伍德小姐说，默德斯通小姐

假笑 如果我哥哥

没有娶她，他当然会更快乐，因为我认为

可怜的亲爱的克拉拉实际上只是个孩子，

幸运的是，我的姑姑你和我

夫人都太老太朴素了，任何人都

不能说我们

默德斯通小姐没有 似乎急于

同意

她的兄弟但想

谈正事特罗特伍德小姐他

收到你的信后有点生气地说我是来

解释的 如果你还没有

意识到这个男孩非常邪恶和

暴力，我姐姐和我都试图

改变他的性格，但遗憾的是我们

失败了，

我必须补充说，默德斯通小姐，

世界上所有男孩

我相信这是我见过的最糟糕的男孩

说我姨妈

现在告诉

我大卫从他父亲或母亲那里继承了任何钱

没有夫人回答 默德斯通先生

我亲爱的克拉拉自然相信

我会照顾大卫

，如果 他现在和我一起回来了，

但我一个人将决定如何处理

他 trotwood 小姐明白

我第一次也是最后一次来这里是为了带

他走

如果你决定让他和你在一起

你永远让他保持他

说什么大卫

问 我的阿姨转向我

请不要让我和他们一起去阿姨我

敢打赌

他们一直对我不友善，

他们让我妈妈很不高兴

如果我必须和他们一起回去我会很痛苦

你觉得 迪克先生问我阿姨

迪克先生想了一会儿

马上给他做一套衣服他说

没有你我该怎么办迪克先生

问我姑姑热情地握着他的手

然后她转向默德斯通先生

你最好走

我会留下这个男孩并抓住机会

和他在一起

我 一个字都不相信你的故事

你认为我不知道你是如何伤了

那个可怜女孩的

心你是如何憎恨她的儿子并

为此惩罚他的

我可以从你的脸上看出我是对的

我们都盯着 默德斯通先生

，他的脸色苍白，呼吸急促，这是真的，

再见，先生

，也向你再见，女士，

我的姑姑

突然转身想念默德斯通先生

谋杀之石没有

回答这些激烈的话，

而是迅速走出了房子

谢谢你

谢谢阿姨我哭了

我会尽我所能让你为我感到骄傲

我吻了她很多次

迪克先生

你和我会收养 这个男孩一起

对我

姑姑说着严厉的表情，

软化了 我笑了

，于是我的新生活开始了，

我很快就忘记了仓库

和商人，学会取悦

我的姑妈，和迪克先生玩游戏，

他大部分时间都和我在一起，

但有一天我姑姑建议 我

应该去坎特伯雷的寄宿学校

我很高兴，因为我渴望

继续我的学业，而且

坎特伯雷离我姨妈在多佛的家很近，

所以第二天我和姨妈去了

坎特伯雷，在那里我欣赏了美丽的

古老建筑 古城中心

是不是一个大学校阿姨我礼貌地问

我还没决定你要去哪所学校

她

先回答我们要问我的老朋友

维克菲尔德先生的建议

他在坎特伯雷生活和工作你看

很快我们就停在了一座非常古老的

房子

前

是 一个仆人，

他大约十五岁，但看起来比他大得多，

是家里的维克菲尔德先生 uriah heap

问我的姑姑

这里的夫人

回答 uriah 不愉快地微笑着带

我们进入客厅

，我注意到墙上有两幅大画，

一幅是一位白发苍苍的绅士 另一个

面带甜美温柔的女士

就在这时，一位绅士走进房间，

看起来比他的照片稍老

我很快发现他是 wickfield 先生 我

姑姑的律师

wickfield 先生说我姑姑这是我的

侄子 我收养了他

，我想 送他去

坎特伯雷的一所好寄宿学校

你能帮我为他找一所学校

吗 威克菲尔德先生想了一会儿

有一所很好的学校 我可以

推荐斯特朗博士的学校

但男孩不能在那里寄宿

而且去那里太远 每天都在多佛，

但是

如果你喜欢我的房子，他可以住在这里

，他有足够的空间

，你真好，威克菲尔德先生，

我会付钱给你吃他的食物，当然

我说我姑妈

来见艾格尼丝 负责

一切并管理房子的

威克菲尔德先生说，

我们都上楼去了另一个

布置精美的客厅

，一个与我同龄的女孩

坐在她的脸上，我立即看到

楼下画中女士美丽平静的表情

，我 我知道她一定是威克菲尔德先生的女儿艾格尼丝，

当我看到惠特菲尔德先生

看着艾格尼丝并握住她的手时，

我意识到她是唯一

让他的生活值得

过的人画中的女士是

她去世多年的母亲 以前，

艾格尼丝现在完全负责这所房子，

她作为客人热情地欢迎我，

并向我展示了我

会睡在

我姑妈的舒适卧室很高兴把我留在

维克菲尔德先生和他的女儿的照顾下，

我现在必须离开大卫 她告诉我，

威克菲尔德先生明天会带你去学校，

并安排好一切，

我相信你会努力工作，做得很好，

谢谢阿姨，我说尽量不要哭

，把我的爱献给 d 先生 哎呀

，她走后再次感谢你，

我擦干了眼泪，

和威克菲尔德一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚

晚上他喝了

很多酒

我想知道他为什么第二天看起来不

开心 我第一次体验

了一所组织良好的学校

它

与塞勒姆学院完全不同

校长斯特朗博士是一个温柔

善良的人 喜欢教学，从不

惩罚任何人

我很快就和其他男孩交上了朋友

，随着时间的推移，我也和老师们在一起了，

但虽然我非常喜欢学校，但

我总是很高兴

每天晚上回到威克菲尔德安静的房子

里，艾格尼丝过去常常帮助我 我的

学习

和同情地倾听我的

问题

，她的父亲似乎总是很高兴

见到我

我经常写信给我的阿姨和佩吉蒂，

迪克先生每周来看我一次

我新生活中最奇怪的人是

uriah heap

，我刚到坎特伯雷不久，我们

进行了一次谈话，一天晚上，

他正在做许多 Whitfield 先生的

工作，

而且在他的小办公室里工作到很晚，

就在 wickfield 家的大厅旁边

。进来吧 在科波菲尔大师

他看到我经过门他哭

了 双手合十，

微笑着他油腻的笑容，

你是维克菲尔德先生的助手，你是不是

，

也许有一天你会成为他的搭档，我

说，试图交谈，

哦，不，科波菲尔大师哭

了，乌利亚向上翻白眼，

我永远无法升得这么高，

不，

我 “我太谦虚了，

但感谢科波菲尔大师

对我的好意

，我可以说

，如果你有时间，我敢

肯定像你这样的年轻绅士

太忙了，没时间抽出时间 对于

像我这样的穷人，

我母亲和我很乐意

在我们简陋的家中为您提供一杯茶

当然

如果我有时间我回答

并迅速离开房间

由于某种原因对他感到不舒服

但接下来的一周 他再次邀请我

喝茶

，我不想显得粗鲁，所以我

同意

那天晚上他和我走到

他和他母亲住的小房子

那是一个温暖的一天，我们

在敞开的门附近喝茶，

当一个 我认

出是米考伯先生，

他看到我坐在门边，

叫了

科波菲尔

先生，真的是你吗？

我很高兴再次见到他

，堆太太邀请他进来喝茶，

我不得不把他介绍给堆场，

但我 不认为 uriah

会对 micawber 先生产生良好的影响，

但是我很感兴趣地

发现 micawber 一家现在住在

坎特伯雷，因为德文郡没有任何事情出现，

他们似乎又很

缺钱，并且被债权人包围

通常

我会

尽快带着米考伯先生离开堆屋，因为我

不想让他告诉 uriah

我在伦敦仓库的所有生活

，所以

这些年过去了，

我学会了斯特朗博士和

他的老师可以教给我的一切

在我 17 岁的

时候，我的学生时代结束了，我的

阿姨建议在

决定选择什么专业之前，

我应该在伦敦呆一个月或

环游全国，

这样我就有时间考虑我的

下一步，

我热情地同意了，尽管我

是 很抱歉和我亲爱的

朋友艾格尼丝和她的父亲说再见

我期待

过一个独立的年轻绅士的生活

第5章

大卫再次见到老朋友

我决定先去伦敦

在酒店住几晚看看

那个伟大城市的所有景点

我都知道这将

与我上次在伦敦时在仓库工作时非常不同

现在

我已经成年并受过教育

并且

有钱我选择的酒店 se 被称为金

十字架

，因为我看起来很年轻，所以我

在屋顶上得到了一个很小的黑暗房间，

但那天晚上我没有足够的信心

抱怨

我从剧院回来时，我

认出有人走进酒店，

我可以 不要阻止自己

说一次

引导

你还记得我吗

他盯着我看了一会儿

然后他哭

了 天哪

这是小铜矿

很高兴再次见到

你

你也在这儿做什么

我刚刚完成学业，我

姑姑派我去伦敦四处看看，

然后再决定从事

什么职业 为什么我在伦敦待了几天，

但这里也很无聊，不是

在伦敦吗？我惊讶地问

我觉得这很好，

有很多事情要做，

我刚去过

剧院，演员很棒，大卫

大卫 转向前大笑

看到你

那张天真烂漫的新面孔 让我很高兴 现在

让我看看

你住在 44 号哪个房间

它相当高 我可以先脸红

他们已经把你安排在 44 号

我很快就会改变 当

steerforth 向经理抱怨时，

我立即在他旁边的一楼获得了一个宽敞

舒适的房间

，当我睡着时，我

高兴地想到了接下来的几天，

我和 steerforth 计划一起度过

一个星期过去了 很快

就参观了剧院 博物馆

和动物园

我们去观光 骑马 游泳和

划船

steerforth 是完美的伴侣

，我比以前更钦佩他

事实上，有一天我全心全意地爱他

对他说，

你知道留下来，

我真的必须去拜访我母亲的

老仆人皮果提，

她小时候对我很好，

是的，大卫，我记得你告诉我

她现在住在雅茅斯，不是

吗？她为什么不呢？ 一起去那里

哦，是的，亲爱的，

你会很高兴见到她的兄弟和

全家人

他们是非常善良的好人，

即使他们只是工作人员

说 steerforth

我迅速看着他，想知道他的

意思，

但他对我微笑 所以我知道他

在开玩笑

，我也笑了，

我们乘长途汽车去雅茅斯

，当我们到达时，斯图尔福思住

在酒店，而我去巴库斯的

家寻找佩格蒂，

当我敲门时，

佩格蒂打开门，一时间没认出

我 那一刻

我继续定期给她写信，

但我们已经七年没有见面了

，我不再是她

记忆中的那个小男孩，但当她意识到我是

她的主人大卫时，

她高兴地

把我抱在怀里抽泣着。 她 广告总是

很快完成，她更平静

，我们谈论了过去几年的事件

我在雅茅斯逗留期间，在她家

她一直为我保留的小卧室里

第二天我带我

去拜访丹尼尔·

佩戈蒂 那是一个阴暗多风的冬夜，

当我们靠近那艘旧船时，

我们听到了快乐的声音

我打开门，突然间我

被丹尼尔·

汉姆和艾米丽包围

了 介绍 steerforth

他们热情地欢迎他，因为我最好的

朋友

哭得很好，丹尼尔·佩吉蒂的大脸红得通红

，高兴得闪闪发光

那是我一生中最美好的夜晚，

因为今晚先生们，

我的小艾米莉

和他用他粗糙的红色一只手握住艾米莉的白色小手

，放在他的

心上

，同意成为火腿的妻子，

我衷心祝贺你，

礼貌地说

他目不转睛 艾米丽

脸红得漂亮

大卫大师知道我有多爱这个女孩

老丹尼尔继续说

我最希望她有

一个好丈夫来照顾

她 没有人比火腿更信任

像我这样粗鲁的水手，但

他诚实和真诚

，我知道在他活着的时候她不会受到伤害同时

火腿也在脸红

我不知道该说什么我

不确定我是否仍然

爱艾米丽因此嫉妒火腿

或者我是否 很高兴他们会

在一起很开心，

但他总是知道该

说什么正确的

话，他用一些精心挑选的

词让我们都感觉更

舒服，

我们度过了晚上剩下的时间，非常

愉快 不停地讲故事和唱歌

，当我和斯提尔福斯离开旧船时，已经是午夜了

被这出乎意料的冰冷

话

给吓了一跳，但当我转向他

，看到他微笑时，我热情地回答，啊，

引导

你假装嘲笑那些

比你更穷或受教育程度更低的人，

但我刚刚看到你整个

晚上都在和啄木鸟在一起 家人让

他们幸福

我知道你理解并爱

他们 我更加钦佩你

他停下来看着我

说 很伤心

大卫你是认真的 不是吗

我希望接下来的两个我和你一样好

几个星期

我经常和皮果蒂和巴卡斯在一起，

而斯蒂尔福斯

和丹尼尔和火腿一起去航海或钓鱼，

或者找其他事情做，

所以我没怎么看到他

最后我们决定在继续

旅行的时候回到伦敦 教练

我转身想说点什么

，惊讶地看到他看起来多么痛苦

哦，大卫，他不高兴地说，

我希望我能更好地控制自己

我讨厌自己有时会

转向

你是什么意思我哭了

你是最棒的 最聪明的

最善良的 伙计们，

谢谢你，大卫，他说，他摇头，

但你不知道我有多

糟糕我重复

了亲爱的 steerforth 不要说

我很了解你的性格

，我很自豪不久后可以称你

为我的朋友 心情变了，

他又变得开朗起来

我很快就忘记了他的话，

但后来我在伦敦想起了

我发现我的阿姨已经

到达金十字酒店并在那里预订

了几天的房间

我们很高兴见到对方并

有一个 那天晚上她聊了很长时间，

她来问我一个特别的

问题，

戴维

她非常认真地说

我一直在考虑你未来的

职业

你对成为一名律师有什么感觉

我想了

一会儿不

这听起来是个好主意，

我承认我以前没有考虑过，

但我想我

很喜欢我的阿姨

在这种情况下跳起来说

让我们马上去见斯潘德勒先生，

他是一家重要律师事务所的合伙人

，我 认为他会同意培训你，

我们当然要付钱给他，

但几年后，你将成为一名

受过适当培训的律师，并且能够

自己赚钱

，所以我们执行了这个计划，

我姑姑付钱给斯彭洛先生的公司

一千英镑

，我答应在她回到多佛之前努力工作，尽我

所能成为一名成功的律师

，我姑姑

在她家靠近法院的顶层为我租了一个小公寓

，我一开始就

搬进

去了

在法庭或斯彭洛先生尘土飞扬的办公室度过了漫长的一天之后，在繁忙的街道上行走似乎非常令人兴奋，

并且知道我有自己的家可以

返回，

但是当我爬上所有的

楼梯进入我的起居室时，它

似乎不再 太令人兴奋

了其实

我的公寓看起来空荡荡的 令人沮丧的是

，

经过两天的孤独，我很

高兴接待我的第一位客人

，因为我很高兴见到他，所以我

邀请他和他的两个朋友

在第二天晚上共进晚餐，

因为这是我的第一次晚宴，

我没有 知道该买什么，

但我从餐厅点了鸡肉

和鱼的熟食，

从市场上买了奶酪和水果，

还送了很多瓶葡萄酒

到了我很快就变得开朗

了 聚会很

成功 我们都玩得很开心

我们又吃又喝 又抽烟

又喝

我不停地打开

酒瓶 变得异常健谈

我开始觉得很

奇怪 当我看到 镜子里的自己

我看起来很苍白

我不得不向自己承认我看起来

喝醉了

有人建议去

剧院 我们在一种迷雾中离开了我的公寓

并走过 街上的

steerforth 挽着我的胳膊

笑着，然后

一个小盒子里的人从雾中望去

，从某人那里拿了钱

很快

我们就坐在一个非常热

非常拥挤的剧院里，

那里有明亮的灯光，有音乐，

但我可以 不明白有人

在说什么

，整栋楼

似乎在我眼前游泳

然后有人建议去剧院

另一部分拜访一些朋友

所以我们

突然下楼我很清楚地看到

艾格尼丝威克菲尔德

和一位女士和一位先生坐在一起

她看着我，脸上带着惊讶的

表情，

天哪，我哭了艾格尼丝，

你在伦敦

安静她低声说

人们试图听

演员的话，你会打扰他们然后她

补充说，

大卫，

请照我说的

问你 朋友带你回家

我一直都接受艾格尼丝的建议

，这次我这样

做了 一个可怕的不眠之夜，我度过了

多么难受的感觉

，第二天早上口干舌燥，

我感觉更糟，

我是如此痛苦和羞愧，以至于

我是如此愚蠢，而艾格尼丝

看到我喝醉了，

我什至无法向她道歉，

因为我 不知道她

在伦敦住在哪

里 我一整天都

双手抱头呆在肮脏的烟雾缭绕的房间

里 在

她住的房子里

，我在办公室工作了一天后直接去了那里

你看到我这样我希望我

死了

大卫不要不高兴她

高兴地说你知道你可以信任我，

我将永远是你的朋友

我拉着她的手亲吻它

艾格尼丝

你是我的好天使

她摇晃 她的头

不是大卫，

但如果我是

我会的 警告你远离你的坏

天使，

我亲爱的艾格尼丝，我哭了

，你的意思是继续前进，

我确实大卫

她回答说，坚定地看着我

艾格尼丝，你错了，

这是我值得信赖的朋友，他帮助和

指导我，我

不是他的错 喝醉了，你

知道

我没想到

我会根据你告诉我的

关于他

和你的性格

和他对你的影响来评判他，

艾格尼丝说得很认真

，她的话直击我的心，

我确定我是 是的，

你交了一个危险的朋友大卫，

因为你是如此信任，

请记住我说的话

，原谅我说的话，

如果你原谅我喝醉了，我会的。

艾格尼丝同意微笑然后

突然

说你看到乌利亚堆

没有我回答 他在伦敦

吗 他在这里做什么

我很担心 大卫回答艾格尼丝时

，她美丽的眼睛里充满了悲伤

我想他会成为父亲的

伴侣

我记得 uriah 堆着油腻的笑容

他总是让

我觉得

他是多么的不舒服 不愉快 你必须阻止你

父亲同意 agnes

agnes 苦笑着

我可怜的父亲别无选择

你知道他经常不开心

当然你见过他喝酒

你看到

他非常爱我的母亲

当她去世时

他 不太关心他的工作

，那是他开始喝

你的眼睛的时候非常聪明，

他知道这一切

，他对父亲非常有用，

做父亲忘记或不想做的所有工作，

父亲现在真的需要乌利亚 为了让

他的生意继续下去

，uriah自己假装谦虚

和感激，但实际上

他处于强势地位

并坚持成为合伙人

父亲为自己感到羞耻

但他不得不同意

可怜的父亲

我会做任何事情来帮助他

任何事情

艾格尼丝痛苦地抽泣着

我从来没有见过艾格尼丝哭过，

这让我很难过

，我只能无奈地说，

亲爱的艾格尼丝，

请不要哭，

但几分钟后她又平静了

，我能够离开她

承诺很快会在坎特伯雷拜访她和她的父亲

第 6 章

大卫坠入爱河

艾格尼丝曾要求我在

遇到他时对乌利亚有礼貌，所以当我第二天在法庭附近见到他时，我

小心翼翼地不冒犯他

当我们握手时，他的小脑袋和瘦长的身体以及油腻的笑容让他看起来比以前更奇怪了我注意到

他的手

像鱼一样

冰冷湿润 我提出要试图掩饰我

对他的恐惧

哦，科波菲尔大师，我的意思是科波菲尔先生，

我现在应该说你真好，

我太谦虚了，无法期待这样的

善意，但我愿意

，当我们到达我的公寓时，他

用一种眼神看着我 不愉快的自信微笑

并说

也许你听说我将

成为威克菲尔德先生的合伙人科波菲尔先生

是的我回答

艾格尼丝告诉我这件事

我很高兴听到艾格尼丝小姐

知道这件事他回答

谢谢你先生 铜田

我对自己提到

艾格尼丝的名字感到恼火

，讨厌听到他这么说，但我

什么也没说，喝了

你说的咖啡，一旦科波菲尔先生继续

uriah 开心地搓着手，

那也许有一天我会成为 wickfield 先生的

搭档，

这有点像 你这么说

像我这样一个谦虚的人记得那样的

事情现在这是真的

我很高兴我能够帮助

可怜的维克菲尔德先生哦

如果我不是他的助手

他会多么粗心 肯定已经失去了他的

生意他的房子和他所有的钱

现在当然我在帮助他因为我

钦佩他

而不仅仅是他

突然虽然房间很温暖

当我盯着他残酷的小脸

小姐时冰冷的寒冷蔓延到我的身体 艾格尼丝现在看起来很漂亮，

是不是她他继续笑

得很可怕科波菲尔先生我相信你，因为

你知道我一直很喜欢你，虽然

我很谦虚

而且你是个绅士，

所以我想告诉你 你是我的小秘书

尽管我的地位很低，但

我爱艾格尼丝小姐，

我已经把我的心献给了她，我希望

有一天能嫁给她

，我的眼前有一片紫色的雾气，

我想打他丑陋的脸，

或者把刀刺进 他邪恶的

心

我几乎被气疯了，

但我想到了艾格尼丝的要求

，我设法控制了自己

你有没有和艾格尼丝谈过

你的爱

我尽可能冷静地问

哦不，科波菲尔先生

我在等待合适的时机 也许

我会问她，当我成为她父亲的

伴侣时，

她会善待我，当

她意识到父亲多么需要

我时，

她会非常爱他

亲爱的，亲爱的

艾格尼丝，

我收养的妹妹，

我不知道有什么男人可以做

她的丈夫

关于 uriah 的解放军，不要对艾格尼丝说什么 n

因为

自从我第一次

开始在斯彭洛先生的公司工作以来，她已经担心得够多了，所以

我经常和他一起上法庭，

开始了解一些

最困难的案件的细节

不仅和我

谈了法律，还谈了其他事情

我发现他的妻子已经去世了

，他

和他唯一的

女儿和她的付费同伴住在伦敦郊外的一座大乡间别墅里

有一天他邀请我到他家

过周末 我欣然接受了，

所以周五晚上，斯彭洛先生的

马车和马匹将我们带到了房子，

当我看到斯彭洛先生的家时，

我意识到斯彭洛先生一定是多么富有，

这是一座可爱的老建筑，有大

花园

，我们一进门，斯彭洛先生就问了

一个 在仆人

中，多拉多拉女士在哪里

我觉得

我们走进客厅的名字多么美丽，我

想斯彭洛先生介绍了我

我没有注意到，因为

在那一刻什么都不重要

ij 乌斯特傻傻地盯着他的女儿

朵拉

，对她的美貌感到惊讶

，说不出话

我一瞬间就爱上

了我，

我听到一个声音在跟我说话，

但那不是朵拉的，

而是她的同伴，我没有

注意到 在斯潘德勒先生

做介绍

时，当我看到同伴是小姐时，

我当然很惊讶，

但没有什么能将我的注意力

从朵拉身上移开超过一两秒钟

，斯潘德勒先生解释说，默德斯通小姐

很友善地来了，

照顾他可怜的没有母亲的女儿

，成为她最亲密的朋友和

伴侣，

但在我看来

，朵拉

对她的石头伴侣既不友好也不保密，

因为对我来说

，周末剩下的时间在一种迷雾中过去，

我们吃了饭，然后去了 走路的

人跟我说话，我回答，

但我不知道我实际上说了什么我只

记得朵拉的金色头发

和朵拉红润的脸

和朵拉偶尔美丽的蓝眼睛

我很幸运能

单独和她说话，然后我很害羞

，我和朵拉一样脸红了

我非常嫉妒

她随身携带的小狗

有时我觉得她有点喜欢我

，有时我 确信她

永远不会爱我

我非常

绝望地坠入爱河

我想知道默德斯通小姐是否会

试图用挥霍来抹黑我的名字

但在第一个晚上她

把我带到了一边

大卫科波菲尔 她冷冷地说

我认为没有必要 我们中的

任何一个都可以在这里向任何人谈论过去

我想我们都同意

妈妈

我们同意

尽管

我永远不会改变我对你的看法

我把默德斯通小姐从我的脑海中抹去并且

在遇见朵拉之后的几个星期我

活在梦里

我自动完成我的工作我从未

停止想她

我能想象的最大

幸福就是与朵拉订婚

我不敢希望有一天

我们会

在伦敦散步时结婚 一天

希望见到dora 出去购物

我遇到了我的老同学

汤米·特拉德尔，

他和我一样住在城市

，也在学习成为一名律师，

我安排去拜访他，

第二天下班后去他家，

他住在一个 在

城里一个非常贫穷的地方租来的房子里的

房间他的房间很小而且几乎是空的

铜矿我很高兴见到你他

热情地说

你可以看到我没有多少家具

但我希望能赚更多的钱 后来

当我完成学业时，你不是有

一个富有的叔叔吗？

很穷，我不得不做

几份工作来支付我的学习费用

旅行看起来非常愉快，但我

必须告诉你科波菲尔，因为你是一位

老朋友，我与

一个来自一个大家庭并住在德文郡的可爱女孩订婚了

当我

和他握手并热情地祝贺他时，我想到了

朵拉

你会很快结婚吗？我问

不，

她也很穷，所以我们得

等很久才能存

够钱

我对租房子的人很满意

micawbers 非常好

你说谁 我哭

了 micawbers 我认识他们

就在那时

micawber 先生自己

敲门进入

他的肚子有点胖，他的

脸 比以前大一点，但他

看起来和以前一样自信

他的大脸上洋溢着笑容，

他转身向楼下打电话，亲爱的，

来见这位先生，我的

爱人 的

商业利益，

但这次谈话很快让 micawber 先生

相当沮丧，

你看科波菲尔，他说

什么都没有出现，但有时我

想知道是否会出现任何事情

我无法支付我们的食物甚至我们的

水，

这对我来说已经够难了 接受这种

情况，但我怎么能指望我亲爱的

妻子过这样的生活，

也许

我从来没有向她求婚会更好

他把头埋在手里，

米科尔巴哭了他的妻子，你怎么能说

你知道 我一直爱你，钦佩

你，永远爱你，钦佩你，

我亲爱的丈夫，

他们倒在彼此的怀里，

在彼此的肩膀

上抽泣了一会儿，他们都擦干

了眼睛，又看起来很开心

我意识到米考伯夫妇已经 一点都没有

改变，但是这种情绪的快速变化对我来说

是一个惊喜

在我离开之前，我确保我

和我的老同学私下

谈过，我低声说，听我的建议

，不要借给我 r micawber 任何钱

他有很多债务

嘎嘎声看起来不舒服 谢谢科波菲尔 他低声

回答

但我已经借给他一些

我不知道他是否会还给

你知道

当我回来时我有多不走运 到了我的房间，我发现

steerforth 在那里等我

有时他

看起来很沮丧，几乎绝望，

但一分钟后他狂笑起来

，我不知道他为什么会这样

没见过多少人，

但我有一些消息要告诉你

，是关于老巴库斯的，

我担心他的病已经更

严重

了，医生认为他很快就会死，

哦，亲爱的，我说

可怜的佩吉蒂会很难过，

是的 运气不好的回答

漫不经心 但是人在这个世界上

每分钟都会

死去 我不怕死

我想按照自己的方式生活

没人能阻止我

他骄傲地仰着头

我看着他英俊的脸

想知道他为什么这么

兴奋 对他来说很不寻常，

我想我必须自己去雅茅斯

我说

也许我可以在这个

困难的时刻帮助皮克蒂

微笑他把手放在我的肩膀上

我希望我能像你一样好

大卫

向我保证如果有的话 碰巧

把我们分开

你会想起我最好的

承诺我

激起

你对我没有最好或最坏我

回答

你将永远在我心中占有你的位置

当他转身离开时他把手给我

微笑 以他以前友好的方式

，这就是我

现在想记住他的方式，因为当我到达雅茅斯时，我再也不会碰他的手

或看到他微笑了

在门口的时候 艾米丽

在丹尼尔的怀里抽泣

看到我，他们似乎都没有感到惊讶

艾米丽的非常年轻的主人大卫

解释说 丹尼尔她很难

接受死亡

这就是为什么她

现在哭了 振作起来 艾米丽 我亲爱的

火腿来带你回家

他弯下腰是什么 灰色的头低着头听到她

低声回答

你想和你的老叔叔待在这里

但是你应该和火腿一起去

你很快就会成为你的丈夫

没关系说火腿

如果它让艾米丽开心它会让我

开心我会回家

他独自走到艾米丽身边，

轻轻地吻了

她

一下

，火腿一出，她似乎稍微转身离开他我上楼去看

可怜的巴克，

他躺在床上昏迷不醒，

脸色苍白，生病的

佩吉蒂坐在他旁边，

她跳了起来 起来，像

往常一样高兴地把我抱在怀里，

然后她转向她的丈夫马库斯，

亲爱的，她几乎兴高采烈地说

这里是大卫大师，他把我们

聚在一起，你记得

他带着你的信息给

你吗？ 和他说话

马库斯 静静地躺在那里 一

动不动 我们在他身边度过了那个漫长的

夜晚 清晨他突然

睁开眼睛

伸出手对我

用愉快的微笑清晰地说

标记

他的肿胀

然后他闭上了

眼睛 死了

他是个好人

眼里噙着泪说 佩吉蒂

我会想念他的

我能够帮助佩吉蒂

安排葬礼 巴克斯

被埋在

离我母亲和弟弟很近的大石头墓地里

我们发现巴克斯拯救

了很多 他把很多钱留在了

皮果提和丹尼尔身上，

所以我知道皮果提以后不需要

在葬礼前一天工作了

第二天

当我到达时，我很惊讶地

看到火腿和艾米丽不在，

皮果提现在感觉更开心了

，丹尼尔正在和她说话，

就在

火腿来了 或者

大卫大师

到外面一分钟他问

我走出去，哈姆小心翼翼地关上了门

，下着大雨

，当我们站在寂寞的海滩上时，我

注意到哈姆的脸是多么苍白，

我哭了

怎么回事

大卫先生

他抽泣着 在艾米丽之前，

我从未见过如此坚强的男人如此

哭泣 永远不要忘记他绝望的脸

转向我

，他诚实的眼睛中的痛苦

你的教育大师大卫他继续说

你知道如何表达自己

帮助我

我怎么能在里面向他解释他

比我更爱她

我看到了门 打开

并试图阻止火腿说话，

但为时已晚，

丹尼尔·佩吉蒂出来了

，当他看到我们时，他似乎

立即意识到我们在说什么

，他脸上的表情立刻改变了

，他把我们俩拉回了里面

我发现自己手里拿着一封信，

是火腿给我

读的，丹尼尔先生说，

他的脸色苍白颤抖，眼睛

狂野

地慢慢读，

请房间里完全安静，我

大声朗读，

亲爱的火腿，

请原谅我逃跑

当你看到这个离开你

我会很远

我永远不会回到我亲爱的家

除非他娶了我并把我

作为一个女人带回来

哦我很

抱歉很惭愧

我知道这会伤你的心

但相信我

我配不上你

我太坏了

告诉叔叔我会永远爱他

即使他再也不会爱

我我会永远想起你亲爱的火腿

即使你因为我的所作所为而恨我

原谅我

和再见

emily

daniel 我读完后久久没有动

我拉着他的手

却没有注意到

他突然醒了过来

低声说

我想知道他名字的人是谁

ham Look 很快

我就感到震惊，

如果 我坐在椅子上不能说话

不要听大卫汉姆大师说

犹豫

我们不怪你

peggotty用她的手臂搂着我的脖子

但我不能动

我会

经常来这里的先生

最近

继续火腿 声音破碎

，

今天

人们看到艾米丽和他一起开着

他的教练

告诉我丹尼尔疯狂地哭泣

是他的名字引导

它

回答火腿

就像我很抱歉大卫大师

但他是我认识的最邪恶的人

片刻之后 丹尼尔说

他看起来突然变老了

我希望有机会时我会淹死他

但现在为时已晚

，我亲爱的女孩不在，

我在这里没有安宁我要去寻找她并带她

回家不要 你们中的任何一个人都想阻止

我

火腿

你必须留在雅茅斯这房子

的窗户上一直亮着一盏灯

这样如果那个可怜的女孩回来了

她可以找到她穿过沙滩回家的路

我要去伦敦

和

如有必要，我在法国和世界各地

准备度过我的一生

去旅行

直到我找到她如果我出了

什么事

如果我不回来

告诉她

我原谅她

告诉她我对她的爱

没有

改变尽管我们都努力

说服他留下来

他拒绝 听着

他拿起他的大衣帽袋和

棍子走进黑暗

我们看着他沿着伦敦

路走直到他从视线中消失

在接下来的几周和几个月里，我经常想起那个孤独的身影

在外国城市的陌生街道上行走

对于他收养的孩子，

当我想起他时，我想起了他

对我们

说

的最后的

话

一直以来，我

比以往任何时候都

更爱朵拉 世界上似乎越邪恶

朵拉的星星越

闪耀在我身上

我敢肯定我认为她是一个美丽的

天使，

远远超过你其他人 作为可怜的人类

，我并没有真正的希望说服

她爱我

皮果蒂和我一起来到伦敦，因为

在巴库斯去世和丹尼尔离开后她感到相当孤独

，我无法停止自己告诉她

关于朵拉的一切，

她非常感兴趣并且 最

令人鼓舞的

是，这位年轻的女士应该为

有这样一个英俊聪明的

年轻人而感到自豪，因为大卫大师她哭了，

我相信她的父亲会很高兴

接受你作为她的丈夫，

但我不能分享她对这种情况充满希望的看法

然而

，在办公室与斯潘德勒先生的长时间交谈中发生了一件奇妙的事情，他

提到下周是朵拉的生日，

并邀请我去野餐

庆祝

，我一听到这话就

完全疯了，根本无法

思考 很明显

，在接下来的一周里，我买了昂贵的新

衣服和靴子，并安排在野餐那天租了

一匹漂亮的白马

，我

早上六点起床去海湾 nt garden

market 买了最新鲜最

漂亮的花 Fedora 到了 10

点钟我正骑着马去

sendlo 的房子

，当我在房子前面的花园里遇见她时，她穿着天蓝色的裙子和白色的帽子，看起来多么可爱

， 当她欣喜若狂地接受我的花时，

我几乎以为我会幸福地死去，

你会很高兴听到科波菲尔先生的话，

她漂亮地笑着

说，默德斯通小姐不在这里，

她至少要离开三个星期，

相反，我有我的 亲爱的朋友朱莉娅

米尔斯小姐和我

坐在隔壁是一位我

以前没有注意到的年轻女士，

虽然她只有大约 20 岁，她

看起来非常平静和聪明，

我后来发现她有过

不愉快的爱情经历，并

决定不再 亲自参与

内心的事情，我对

你很高兴 我

只是和蔼地对我们俩微笑

着去野餐的地方

，那里离家有点远

朵拉又一次背对着马背坐着

看着我，捧着我的

花靠近她甜美的脸庞

我们的目光经常相遇

，我很惊讶我没有从马背上摔下来

我没有注意到灰尘

或我们有时所走的路

斯彭洛先生和我谈

了风景，我礼貌地回答

我不记得我说

了什么我只能

看到朵拉

当我们到达

时发现其他客人被

邀请时

我感到非常失望我甚至很嫉妒女士们，

因为他们会说话 去朵拉，把她

从我身边带走，

但我一看到

他们

就讨厌

所有的男人

在他身边有

一个是朵拉

我觉得他现在是我最大的敌人

当我们开始吃饭时我

惊恐地看到红胡子正

坐在朵拉的脚下放着一大盘鸡肉

我无法清楚地思考

但我假装很高兴

我和一位穿着粉色衣服的年轻女士坐在一起，

和她谈笑风生

，看着她，拿

她需要的任何东西

有时我看着朵拉，

她回头看着我，

但她留着红胡子

，我让这位年轻女士穿着粉红色

吃饭 小姐的妈妈

把她带走了

，我一个人走进树林，感到

愤怒和绝望

我正打算骑着我

漂亮的白马离开，

虽然我不知道在哪里

看到多拉和米尔斯小姐来

接我，

先生 科波菲尔说米尔斯小姐

你不开心

不 不 米尔斯小姐 我坚决抗议

非常高兴

，朵拉继续说 米尔斯小姐

你不

开心 天知道 朱莉娅哭了

朵拉一点也不 科波菲尔先生 安道尔先生说 米尔小姐 你

看起来老了 也

够聪明

你彼此相爱

承认这一点 并快乐

抓住生活给你的机会

听一个经历过痛苦的人说话

她让我亲了我也吻了米尔斯小姐的

手

，生活似乎又美好了，

朵拉害羞地挽着我的手臂

，我们一起走来走去，

直到太早了，我们听到其他客人

叫她的名字，

所以我们不得不回去

，当他们想让朵拉去的时候 唱一首歌，

红胡子提出要从马车上取吉他

给她，

但朵拉告诉他，除了我之外，没人知道

吉他

在哪里 一大群

人 她只为

爱她的我唱歌

当客人离开时

我骑在马车旁 一路

回到斯潘德洛的房子

喝了很多酒的斯潘洛先生

在他的座位上睡着了

当米尔斯小姐把我叫到她的马车边时，米尔斯小姐像母亲一样微笑着，我和她愉快地窃窃私语，

朵拉要来陪我了，她

后天悄悄告诉我，

也许你想去看看 我们

想念米尔斯

，我怎么能谢谢你我说

你

是多么想念spendlo和我的朋友

当我们到达spendlose的房子时，我

不得不和dora说再见，然后骑马

回到伦敦

，我记得她

所做的一切，或者 说了一万

遍我决定我必须尽快告诉她我

爱她并

问她是否也爱我这是世界上最

重要的问题只有

朵拉能给我答案

所以两天后

我穿上了 穿着我最好的衣服，去

了米尔斯小姐给我的地址

，仆人带我去了客厅

，在那里我发现朱莉娅·米尔斯正在学一

首歌，朵拉正在画我

在短暂交谈后送给她的花，米尔斯小姐

做了一个 原谅我离开了房间

，朵拉和我

一个人

在一起 希望你那可怜的马不累

我以为

我整个人都在颤抖

对他来说路很长我

回答我

似乎很短

因为我很高兴能靠近

你

有片刻的沉默

然后朵拉说

你之前似乎不在乎那种

幸福

那天你和粉红色的女士坐在一起，

但我希望你不是认真的

，当然你可以做

任何你喜欢做的事

我不知道我是怎么做到的

我把朵拉抱在怀里，我

无法停止说话

我告诉她我有多爱她我告诉她我

会

死 第一次见到她

我告诉她没有人爱过或

永远不会爱 尽管我很爱她，但

不知何故，

我发现自己静静地

坐在沙发上的朵拉旁边，握着她的小手

，我们订婚了

当米尔斯小姐进来时，spendlo 先生

她很高兴听到我们的消息，并

承诺尽可能地帮助我们

现在开始了我一生中最快乐的时光之一

dora

每天我都没有时间和任何人或

任何事情

在一起，但在我兴奋的时候，我突然想起了 agnes 她

清澈平静的眼睛和她温柔的脸，

我立即坐下来给她写信

，告诉她关于 dora 的一切

我知道，作为我收养的姐姐，她

会分享我的快乐

，我希望

有一天，当我和佩吉在我的公寓里喝茶时，我希望得到她的认可，

我亲爱的科波菲尔，他哭了

我已经好几次了 但

你已经离开了

我亲爱的流浪者我回答是的我很

抱歉我一直在拜访我的

小姐你知道

我希望她住在伦敦她不

介意那是苏菲美丽的名字不是

我住在德文郡吗 我想我告诉过你，

所以我不常见到

她 她真的是最亲爱的女孩

她在家里很忙 你知道

照顾其他九个孩子和一个

不能走路的母亲

她一定是个很棒的女孩 我

礼貌地同意了

告诉我

micawber 先生怎么样

我现在不在他家

他只是

在天黑后才从房子里出来，

戴着眼镜，

所以他还什么都没有出现

，你借给他的钱

呢？

我担心我可能拿不回来，

但米考伯先生保证

有一天

他会还给他 一个诚实的好人，不是吗？

在我回答之前，拨浪鼓满怀希望地看着我

我们听到

楼梯上的脚步声

我很惊讶地看到我的阿姨

上楼了，

她带着两个箱子和她的猫

，紧随其后的是迪克先生，他还

拿着另外两个箱子

我亲爱的阿姨我哭了 多么意外的

快乐

我们互相亲吻，我

和迪克先生握手

，他可以看到他悄悄离开了，我们

将讨论家庭事务，

皮果蒂为我的姨妈再煮了一些茶，

她一直坐在她的案子上

亲爱的姨妈，我说让你自己

坐在扶手椅

上或沙发上更舒服

你为什么认为我坐在我的箱子上

她问 认真地看着我

我摇摇头 无法猜测

因为我坐的

是我所拥有的一切

因为我已经 失去

了我所有的钱，亲爱的，

如果

房子和我们所有人都掉进泰晤士河里，我会感到非常震惊，

是的，

继续说，我的阿姨

平静地把头靠在我的肩上

，明天我会告诉你一切

大卫，但今晚

我们必须给迪克先生找张床

，我会睡在这里以节省钱，

所以那天晚上我的阿姨同意占我的

床，而我打算睡在

客厅的沙发上，我把迪克先生

带到邻居家 我回来后租了一个房间

，我发现我的姑姑

在客厅的火炉前走来走去

那个佩格蒂女人很喜欢你，

大卫她说

她一直愿意把

她从丈夫那里继承下来的钱给我们一些钱

当然，我拒绝过一次，

但她是个好女人

，她一直在告诉我

雅茅斯的麻烦，

是的，

可怜的艾米丽，我忍不住

说

愚蠢的艾米丽，你的意思是，

但我为你感到抱歉，因为你

曾经关心过她

，现在小猪告诉我 我你又恋爱

了 这种可能性

以前

和可能 我只重复我阿姨

说过的话

傻

阿姨 很好 我只问

阿姨温柔

大卫你像你可怜的母亲一样非常有爱心 如果你只知道朵拉是多么懂事

，你需要一个

认真懂事的好人来爱

阿姨

我

回答

哦，大卫，她的回答是瞎的，瞎的，

这让我感觉有点不舒服，

但我很高兴她知道我的秘密

那天晚上

我知道我应该想起我可怜的

姑姑的情况，

但我无法阻止

自己想起朵拉

如果我没有钱

没有昂贵的衣服穿没有漂亮的

白马骑所有的花给

她我怎么能嫁给

她 第二天早上我早早起床去

呼吸新鲜空气，在回家的路上，

一辆马车停在我身边

，艾格尼丝威克菲尔德下了车，

当我看到她

美丽平静的脸对我微笑时，我立刻感觉好多了，

她听到了 我姑姑

遇到了麻烦，来伦敦看

她

我们一起走到我的公寓

你知道 uriah heap 是我父亲的

搭档 现在她悄悄地说

他对我父亲的影响

太大了

父亲

更糟糕

他看起来老了几岁

而且我担心在 uriah 的鼓励下，

他比以往任何时候都喝得更多

你我和他的老母亲现在和我们住在一起，

所以我不能总是和父亲在一起

来保护他

免受 uriah 计划的影响

我只希望爱和真相会

永远比邪恶更强大

我不能告诉她我对 uriah 的看法，

因为那时我们已经到了

公寓，我阿姨很高兴再次见到

艾格尼丝，让我们坐在

皮果蒂旁边的沙发上，

现在

让我给大家解释一下

我的钱怎么了 我的阿姨坚定地说

我很惊讶艾格尼丝

脸色苍白 颤抖着

贝茜·特罗伍德继续说 这些年来

我存了很多钱

我的律师维克菲尔德先生

曾经帮助我将其投资于合适的

公司

但最近

我认为他不像以前那样是个好律师

，

所以我决定自己投资我的钱，

但我犯了很多错误，

谁知道它

在黄金

和外国银行的去向等等，

这没什么好担心的 但我

可以告诉你，

现在什么都没有

了 艾格尼丝的脸色开始恢复了

所以

这不是我父亲的错 亲爱的

特洛特伍德小姐 一点也

没有 艾格尼丝现在高兴地说我的姑姑

谁能给我一些

我问过的建议 我的仆人珍妮特要在肯特租我的

小房子，

每年可以带来大约 70 英镑的

收入 房间

建议艾格尼丝

，我想我可以为大卫找到一份小工作，

你还记得

坎特伯雷学校的校长斯特朗博士，

现在他退休了，

来伦敦生活，他需要一个私人秘书

在早上和晚上为他工作

他的房子

国王父亲前几天关于这

件事你怎么看

艾格尼丝我哭

了没有你我们会怎么做

你是我的好天使我告诉过你所以

在

我可以轻松地成为斯特朗博士的秘书

以及继续我在斯潘德勒先生

的公司工作之前

我会 今天去见他，和他一起安排，

艾格尼丝在她起身离开时给了我她美丽的笑容

伸出他瘦弱的手

要钱，哭瞎眼瞎，

这听起来像是我阿姨前一天说的话的回声，

哦，艾格尼丝

亲爱的姐姐，

如果我那时才

知道我很久以后发现了什么

第8章

大卫

在艾格尼丝鼓励下的新生活我 感觉更

强壮，不再沮丧

我的生活现在有了一个目标

我打算尽我所能

帮助我的姑姑并赚到足够的钱来

嫁给朵拉

我每天早上五点起床

步行到斯特朗博士的家 在伦敦的另

一边，

每天早上和他一起工作两个小时

，然后走回斯佩纳洛先生

的办公室，在那里我

大部分时间都在法庭上度过，

然后我晚上回到斯特朗博士的办公室再工作

两三个小时

，最后 回到我的公寓，

我的姨妈皮果提和迪克先生会在那里

等我

我很高兴能够告诉我的姨妈

，斯特朗博士每年会付给我 70 英镑的

工作费

和我姨妈

家的租金 肯特

如果我们小心点，我们可以过得很好，

因为我年轻而且健康

在法院附近，

我告诉他我的新情况

，他非常同情，

但我也有消息要告诉你，科波菲尔

他

说米考伯一家要搬到坎特伯雷，

哦

，这意味着他们一定有什么事情发生了

，我回答说很感兴趣，

是的，米考伯先生要去 成为

一个叫 uriah heap 的

人的助理 坎特伯雷律师事务所的合伙人

heap 我惊恐地哭了

我认识他

为什么 micawber 先生愿意为

他

工作 我知道 heap 已经

偿还了 micawber 先生在伦敦的所有债务

全家人

明天要离开 他们让我告诉你

我想知道为什么 heap 要 micawber

为他

工作 我确信 uriah

在他丑陋的脑袋里有一些邪恶的计划

第二天皮果提回到

雅茅斯照顾火腿而

丹尼尔不在

送她到长途汽车

站和她道别后，我

匆匆赶往米尔斯家

我还没有告诉朵拉

我生活的变化，因为我

不想在信中解释这一切，但

今天她正在拜访朱莉娅

米尔斯等着我来喝茶

，当她在客厅遇见我时，朵拉看起来多么快乐

和美丽，当我立即问她时，她看起来多么震惊和痛苦，

你能爱一个乞丐吗？朵拉我的公关

小女儿，她不知道我的

意思

，别傻了，大卫，她哭了，

你在说什么，

这是真的，多拉，我的爱人，我哭了，

我失去了所有的钱，我是个乞丐。

我看起来如此严肃，以至于朵拉被

吓坏了，开始在我的肩膀上痛苦地抽泣，

但我爱你，朵拉，我会永远

继续下去，不管我们是否

贫穷，因为我会努力买我们的

面包，我们不 只要我们

有彼此

告诉我你的心还是我的 亲爱的

朵拉

哦是的她哭了

曾经吃过面包

我比以往任何时候都更爱她，

但是

当她停止

哭泣并且变得平静时，我觉得她不是很实际，我再次尝试

让她理解

我最亲爱

的我可以提一些事情

哦，请不要实际求求 朵拉的

眼泪夺眶而出，

我亲爱的，如果我们一起努力，

分享我们的问题，这会让我们和

我们的爱更坚强，

但我一点也不坚强，

她哭得很伤心问朱莉娅，

她会告诉你

我 我软弱

又愚蠢，

但如果你有时想我亲爱的

如果你想看看你父亲

是如何管理仆人的，或者

市场上的食品价格是多少，

这对我们会有帮助，那么你和一个穷人订婚了，

我们必须勇敢，亲爱的朵拉，

我们的人生道路

崎岖坎坷 变得非常热情，

但我突然意识到我说的太多

了 我跪下请求她

原谅

我称自己是一个自私无情的

人并为朱莉娅米尔斯大喊

她终于匆忙进来我

解释了

当朵拉睁开眼睛时她的朋友

帮助她上楼

而朵拉在楼上洗脸

和平静时发生的事情 我自己问过米尔斯小姐

关于鼓励朵拉变得更实际的最佳方法的建议

米尔斯小姐遗憾地摇摇头

充满光明和幸福的大自然

她凌驾于这个世界

上我们可怜的人类不得不担心的事情

我想当朵拉再次下楼时你必须接受这个

事实

我自己让她不开心

我们喝了茶她给我唱她的法语歌曲

弹吉他

我们又开心了

直到我愚蠢地提到我必须

在第二天早上五点钟起床的那一刻

突然 她漂亮的脸庞看起来很悲伤，

当我起身准备走的时候，她没有再弹琴或唱歌了，她走近

我，慈爱地说，

你这个

坏孩子，别

那么傻，别在五点钟起床，你为什么要

但我的爱，

我有工作要做，

我必须工作才能生活

我爱她

，继续爱她，

但我继续爱她 一天晚上我也很努力，

担心赚钱，

因为我

在我的小客厅里坐在姨妈对面，在

又一个疲惫的一天结束时，

当我想到几个月过去我将不得不独自解决的问题时，我感到非常害怕

就这样，

朵拉和我每天都给对方写信

，偶尔我可以去

米尔斯小姐家拜访她，

但有一天早上，当我到达

办公室上班时，斯彭洛先生

非常冷淡地向我打招呼，让我走进

他的办公室，我们在那里

当我进入房间时可以私下交谈 我很惊讶

地看到默德斯通小姐站在他的办公

桌旁不愉快地盯着我

我立刻知道朵拉的父亲

发现了我们的秘密

，我猜想是谁告诉他

科波菲尔

先生说斯彭洛先生严厉地皱着眉头看着我

很抱歉，默德斯通小姐

找到了一些看起来

是你写给我女儿朵拉的信，它们是你的吗？

我看着他递给我的信，

脸红了，低声说 红色

是的

可怜的小朵拉 先生 我希望她没有

被那个可怕的杀人

石女吓到

我讨厌想到朵拉

丢了我的信

时的不高兴 当斯潘德洛小姐上次拜访米尔斯小姐回来时我怀疑出了什么问题

看起来对自己很满意

我总是说朱莉娅米尔斯不是

斯潘洛小姐的合适朋友，我

是对的，

斯彭洛先生似乎同意但很

遗憾

我很抱歉先生，我说

但这都是我的错

请不要责怪朵拉 斯彭洛小姐对

你说 年轻人生气地说她父亲

我知道保守秘密是不对的

但我爱你的

女儿 我希望有一天不要对

我说爱 科波菲尔先生哭了

斯彭洛先生

你俩也太 年轻的我们会把

这些信扔进火里你必须

保证忘记整个事情

如果你嫁给朵拉毫无疑问

但是先生

我不能忘记她

我爱她我抗议

这是我的最后一句话科波菲尔先生

你有时间考虑

你会意识到按照我说的去做更明智

现在去上班

出于爱和心碎的智慧，

她无法

在不眠之夜后的第二天

向

我提供任何实用建议 发生了什么事

你为什么不知道 问他们中

的一个 警察发现斯潘德洛先生死了

我震惊地向后退了

你看起来很苍白 科波菲尔先生说

另一个

坐在这里 先生告诉我

告诉我发生了什么事

昨晚吃晚饭，

半夜马车回来了，

他没有他自己开车，你

看，仆人们去找他

，发现他死在路上，

一定是

生病了，从车里掉了下来。 无论如何

，当他们找到他时，他

已经死了

当她为死去的父亲哭泣时，

她并没有想到我，

而我自私地想

在接下来的几周内成为她生命中唯一的

人 朵拉哭了一整天

，当我提到我的名字时，她

抽泣的声音更大了，说哦，可怜的亲爱的

父亲，我对他保密是多么邪恶

哦，

所以

在她父亲的葬礼多拉被带走后不久，我并没有受到鼓励

去探望她 和她的两个阿姨

在伦敦南部的普特尼，她

似乎比以往任何时候都离我更远，

与此同时，我的阿姨开始严重

担心我的健康，因为我

越来越沮丧，

所以她建议我应该去多

佛 几天来确保她的

房子仍然处于良好状态，

然后去坎特伯雷参观

威克菲尔德

我心甘情愿地同意了，因为我总是很

高兴见到艾格尼丝

，很容易

从我在法院的工作中休假几天， 和

strong博士一起，

我很高兴发现

租我姑姑在多佛的房子的人

照顾得很好

，然后我可以自由地继续我的旅程，

前往坎特伯雷这座美丽的古城

，自从我上学以来，它似乎几乎没有什么变化

柔软干净 当我到达威克菲尔德的家时，空气让我感觉

比过去几周都好

我在 uriah heaps 旧办公室找到了 micawber 先生，

我们很高兴见到对方，但我们

都感到有点尴尬

我意识到他不想说话

关于

heap 和 wickfield 公司的机密事项

，他知道我不喜欢他的雇主

heap，

所以

谈话很困难

，最后我很高兴离开他

，上楼去找

我在她的客厅里找到了艾格尼丝

，她抬头看着我，

微笑中充满热情的欢迎

，我很感动

啊艾格尼丝我说

我最近很想你，

你在过去帮助了我很多

， 我想我从来没有学会为自己思考

我总是觉得我需要你的帮助和

建议

我陷入了困境，我很

担心，对自己没有信心

但是当我和你在一起时，

你给了我目标，

你让我变得坚强

你的秘密是什么，

我亲爱的收养妹妹

艾格尼丝给了我她的手，我吻了

她，

当我像往常一样告诉她

过去几周发生的一切时，她以姐妹般的方式继续同情地听她说

她知道该做的事情是正确的

建议我写信给朵拉的姑姑

，问我是否可以

偶尔

去看看朵拉，她鼓励我希望

结婚。

我再次感受到了

艾格尼丝一直带给我的那种平静，当堆太太进来时，

我们并没有坐在一起很久

，

她没有 离开我们 整个

晚上

我都在想，当我看到艾格尼丝可爱的脸庞时，我想知道乌利亚是否告诉

她要照顾我们。

第二天，赫普太太没有离开

艾格尼丝和我一个人。 一分钟后

，母子堆在我看来

就像两只丑陋的大黑鸟挂

在房子上空

，它们让我很不舒服，以至于我

下午出去散步，

我正沿着房子附近的一条小路走，

想知道是否应该警告艾格尼丝

关于 uriah 的结婚计划

当我听到身后的脚步声

转身看到 uriah 自己

追着我 等我 科波菲尔先生 他

哭了

我说

我出来是一个人 啊

他油腻的微笑说

你不喜欢我妈妈 一直在那里

，你

不，我不，我回答说不在乎我是否

听起来很粗鲁，

但你看到他继续

保持我卑微的地位，我必须非常

小心，

我还没有和我的艾格尼丝结婚，

你是一个危险的人 竞争对手科波菲尔先生

我厌恶地哭了

你让威克菲尔德小姐

因为我在她自己的家里没有安宁

你难道没有意识到我把她当作

我最亲爱的妹妹别再

让我告诉你

我已经和另一位女士订婚

了 你

哦，科波菲尔先生，乌利亚哭了，感激地

用他那冰冷的鱼腥味握着我的手

那天晚上，当艾格尼丝和

希普夫人离开我们时，我们在晚饭后默默地一起回到了家里

是伙伴

吗我知道你我故意鼓励维克菲尔德先生喝太多

但我看到虽然艾格尼丝父亲

意识到他的弱点

他不能再阻止自己

随着晚上过去我很反感

看到乌利亚变得越来越多

维克菲尔德先生喝得

越来越醉

了，他终于高兴起来了，最后乌利亚站了起来，

手里拿着一杯来搭档，他带着

邪恶的微笑说，

让我们

为世界上最美丽的女人的健康干杯，

可怜的

破碎的惠特菲尔德先生看了

一会儿 墙上他死去的妻子的照片

与艾格尼丝非常相似

我可能很谦虚 继续 uriah 但我

很佩服 不

我爱

你的女儿 艾格尼丝

突然

从维克菲尔德先生那里传来一声可怕的哭声

他站起来

愤怒

地尖叫 他表现得如此疯狂 绝望

地我以为他疯了

我的孩子，你不知道，你从来没有

夺走我的一切，我的

生意，我的好名声，我的家，

但你永远不会带走她，

也许我说得太早了，

说 uriah 看起来不舒服，但是

如果你再说下去你会很抱歉的伙伴

你需要我记住

没有我你一无所有

记住

在你指责我

之前就在门打开艾格尼丝

悄悄进来

你不是很胖

她和我一起来

她轻声细语

，把羞愧的老人扶了出来

我想她一定听到了

那天晚上晚些时候说的话 她

来客厅里跟我说晚安，

我一个人读着

艾格尼丝 我亲爱的姐姐，我说 对她

答应我，你永远

不会因为她的眼泪而同意嫁给那个邪恶的生物

她平静地对我微笑，

别担心兄弟

我不怕他

我的职责是照顾父亲

，我相信上帝 剩下的

晚安大卫

第 9 章

大卫结婚

当我回到伦敦我很

高兴地发现朵拉的阿姨

已经决定让我去看她

所以每个星期六和星期天我都会步行到

他们在普特尼的家，有时在

那里度过下午

朵拉唱歌或弹吉他

有时我们在河边散步

有时我会带 traddles 或我的姑妈

他们是多么幸福的时光

spenlow 先生对我来说似乎是一个非常富有的人

但是当他去世时律师们

发现 ed 毕竟多拉不会

从他那里继承太多，

因为有很多债务要偿还，

所以我不担心有人

会怀疑我嫁给多拉是为了

她的钱，

斯彭洛先生的公司在他死后失去了很多生意

，我意识到我 将不得不找到

另一个

我一直擅长写作的职业，所以我

继续担任斯特朗博士的秘书，

并开始为日报报道议会中所说的话，

我什至写了一些

在杂志上发表的

故事，并对

几个月过去了，我赚的钱到了我的 21

岁

生日，还在学习成为一名

律师，仍然希望嫁给

世界上最亲爱的

女孩 同意我们的婚姻

我期待着我一生中最幸福的

一天

接下来的几天在

兴奋和幸福中过得很快

我的阿姨和迪克先生搬进了一个平房

我和peggotty附近的小房子

从雅茅斯来参加

我的婚礼

我一直想让agnes见到dora

所以当他们在婚礼前一天见面时我

很高兴看到dora漂亮的

脸庞在agnes平静的一和dora旁边很漂亮

像小孩子对妈妈的耳语一样把她的秘密告诉艾格尼丝，

但是在艾格尼丝去看望我的姑姑之后，

朵拉在我们单独的时候认真地对我说

，

也许如果我年轻的时候有艾格尼丝作为朋友

，亲爱的大卫，我不会

不要那么愚蠢和愚蠢，

但我爱你，就像你是朵拉一样，我回答说

我想知道你为什么会爱上

我，

因为没有人能看到你，也不会

爱上你，

但如果你从未见过我，大卫，

我想知道是

谁 你早就结婚了

我笑着亲了亲她漂亮的嘴唇

她很快又像往常一样欢快了

我不记得婚礼

了

我在一起了吗 从梦中醒来，

我终于相信

这是我亲爱的小妻子，我坐在

我非常爱的人旁边

我们将一起度过余生，

但很快我意识到

婚姻生活并不像看起来那么舒服，

朵拉和我都不知道

管理房子

我们当然有一个仆人来管理

我们，

她很晚才为我们提供饭菜 当她最终离开时，喝光了我们所有的

酒，偷走了我们所有的银汤匙

，我们还有另一个

举止相似的人

不要生气你的小朵拉，她

说

要来坐在我的膝盖上，

但我想表明我可以坚强，亲爱的

朵拉，

我真的认为你应该

做点什么，我的意思是

昨天我根本没有吃晚饭，

因为牛肉是 烧焦了

，上周当 traddles

来吃晚饭时

，肉根本没有煮熟，

在你嫁给我之前你就知道我是个多么

愚蠢的女孩，

如果

你要生我的气，你不应该嫁给我，

我不认为 你完全爱我

，她漂亮的

小脸上

流下了大颗的泪水，我的爱当然爱你

，不要哭，

我无法继续我们的谈话，

但是当她平静

下来，擦干眼泪时，她非常认真地说，

大卫，

你愿意吗？ 为我做点什么

你会叫我你的孩子的妻子

不管你是什么意思我最亲爱的我

惊讶地问

只是每当你觉得我

很愚蠢时

你应该记住我就像一个

没有你或其他任何人聪明的孩子

不要对我失望

只要记住在我们所有的谈话中你的孩子妻子

非常非常爱你

我记得有一次非常

清楚地给我留下了深刻的印象

现在我很高兴我没有试图

改变 朵拉，

我已经爱上了一个 一个天真的

孩子气的女孩，我没想到

她会在这么短的时间内成为一个有智慧的有经验的女人

，

但这意味着我不得不把

我们所有的问题都扛在自己的肩上，

有时我会为自己

没有真正的伴侣而感到遗憾

大约在这个时候，

我的第一本书出版并取得了

巨大的成功 朵拉和我的姑姑

同样为我

感到骄傲 越来越好

她不强壮 不能一个人走路

我开始每天早上抱她下楼 每天

晚上上楼

每天阿姨都来照顾

她

我的小妻子仍然很漂亮很

开朗

但我知道有多轻 她很

虚弱，

我开始担心她不会再陪

我很久了

一天早上，当我在花园里散步时

，我看到丹尼尔·皮果提

打开大门，朝我走来，

他的衣服很脏 乌斯蒂，他看起来

比以前老了，白发

从他的手下松散地逸出，

但他的脸是棕色的，他看起来很

健康很强壮

问大卫他很高兴地说，当他看到我时，

我来告诉你，

你一直是我们的朋友，

我找到了她

你找到了小艾米丽，我高兴地哭了，

但我在哪里以及

如何听说她带着那只邪恶的

steerforth 穿越意大利并在那里住

了一段时间，

但最后他厌倦了她

，离开了

她，她不知道该做什么，也不知道该去哪里

去可怜的东西，

但她回到了伦敦

，那是我找到我亲爱的孩子的地方，

因为我一直在整个欧洲

寻找她，但我知道她

有一天会回到英国，

所以每天晚上我都在寻找

城市街道 昨晚为了她，

我发现她

在一座桥上望着河边绝望和筋疲力尽。

我没有找到她，然后

我不想去想她会怎么

做，

但上帝在照顾我亲爱的女孩

，她和我在一起很安全 现在

他通过了他的str 我用手捂住

眼睛对我微笑

我已经计划好了我们要做什么大卫大师

我想告诉你

艾米丽我要去澳大利亚

这是一个新的国家

没人知道她的过去

我们可以 一起开始新的生活

，

我们将在大约六周后离开

非常明智 我

说你的家人怎么样

一个火腿和小猪也去澳大利亚

不，他们不

穷 我永远不会再一样了

我真的 觉得他的心都碎了

但他有一份好工作 他

在雅茅斯很受欢迎 所以他会留在那里

我姐姐想留下来 部分是

因为大卫大师

部分是为了照顾他

她为我做饭和打扫 雅茅斯 你

很

清楚我的 朋友我说和

老船夫坚定地握手

祝你和艾米丽

在新的生活中一切顺利

无论我在英国还是澳大利亚我都会尽我的职责

丹尼尔说

我永远不会再和我的

小艾米丽分开了

第 10 章

死亡

和发现之间的

交叉，我两者都有

米考伯先生收到了相当奇怪的信，信

中他要求我们在这次会议上

和我姑姑一起去坎特伯雷，

他说他会向

我们所有人展示乌利亚堆邪恶的证据，

多拉病得太重，不能和我们一起去，所以

我姑姑先生 迪克和我

乘长途汽车前往坎特伯雷，

在那里的一家旅馆过夜，

第二天早上，米

考伯先生准时

到达威克菲尔德

家 欢迎我们，因为

老朋友，

米考伯先生也把艾格尼丝带到了房间

，然后坚定地站在门边

不要等米考

伯对他的助手说了乌利亚，

但米考伯先生没有动

他冷冷地盯着他的

雇主你听到我说的话了吗米考伯

说 uriah 愤怒地他的小眼睛

变得更红了，而他的长脸变得

非常苍白

是的

micawber 但我不会选择

离开

希望不再

为英格兰最邪恶的人工作

uriah 震惊地向后退去

科波菲尔，

你嫉妒我的新职位，不是

吗，

但我知道你们所有人的事情，

我可以用来对付你，例如，我

知道你父亲的商业错误

艾格尼丝小姐

，我知道你在

仓库科波菲尔的过去，

所以要 小心，

我警告你们所有人，

米考伯先生，我平静地说，请告诉我们

你会对这个人说些什么

，然后几分钟前消失的

traddles 和小姐的一堆东西一起重新出现，

uriah 之前没有注意到

你是谁，他生气地问

我' 威克菲尔德先生的一位律师和朋友

说，他以一种

商业化的方式跨界，他要求我从现在开始

执行他的所有业务安排

，

这对我和乌利亚来说都是一个惊喜

老傻瓜

又喝多了 说乌利亚看起来比

以往任何时候都难看 你不能相信他说的任何话

你贿赂了我的助手 我

想和我说话

是你不诚实 说

我们会从米考伯先生那里听到

我们都满怀期待地

看着那位高大的绅士，

他显然很高兴有这么

感兴趣的听众

，清了清嗓子几次，

然后开始说话

，他说话时

声音变得越来越响亮，

直到他几乎要喊

女士们先生们 他

从非常贫穷和绝望的工作开始我

来到坎特伯雷作为这个

邪恶人猿的助手

我很遗憾地说

我很快就参与了他所有的邪恶

计划

我可能很穷但我不能接受他的

谎言他欺骗他 贿赂

等等，所以今天我把你们带到这里，女士

们先生们，听我公开指责一堆

他经常混淆和欺骗他的伴侣的人

，以至于便便 r wickfield 先生现在

认为他自己不诚实

二

他有时将 wickfield 先生的

签名复制到虚假文件上并

检查

三年 他一直

从 whitfield 先生和公司窃取大量资金，

你永远无法证明它

疯狂地哭泣 uriah 我' 我已经复印了所有

必要的文件，米考伯先生

在担任你的职员时自信地说

，只是为了确保

我已经把它们交给特拉德尔先生以确保

安全 uriah 我亲爱的男孩哭着他的

母亲痛苦地抽泣告诉他们

你是多么谦虚

所以你 不是故意伤害任何人

说对不起

和这些先生们安排

事情 亲爱的男孩兄弟 安静点 他

生气地低声说 不要帮助我的敌人

铜田会给你

一百英镑来说出你突然说的话

我的 姑姑袭击了 uriah

用她的雨伞打他的头 还给

我我的投资 她哭

了

现在我知道你已经控制了

公司而且你偷了我的钱

我设法

在她严重伤害他之前把她从他身边带走了

然后堆太太跪在所有

办公室里求我们原谅她亲爱的

男孩 为了记住他总是那么谦虚 保持

沉默 母亲说她的儿子

他转而不愉快地

问你要我做什么

不问

要求堆

你会给我们所有

箱子和抽屉的钥匙 你所有的文件和

支票簿 所有被感染的东西都属于

这家公司你会一直待在这所房子里直到我们

检查了所有文件

如果我不同意他皱着眉头问

科波菲尔

也许你会找几个

警察

法庭上的事情进展缓慢

但最后先生 威克菲尔德会拿回他的

生意，你

会在监狱里待很长时间，

乌利亚意识到他必须做我们

想做的事，他

带着迪克先生

在门口

拿着他最黑的米去取文件 ost 邪恶的表情

他转身对我说

我一直讨厌你科波菲尔

然后他

在接下来的几天里被带走了 traddles 和

micawber 非常努力

地纠正了 uriah 所做的事情

他们发现了我姑妈的钱并把

它还给了 她并偿还了公司的所有

债务

维克菲尔德先生决定出售他的

业务并

退休 维克菲尔德先生不会有太多钱，

但至少他们最终没有欠任何东西

uriah heap 和他的母亲

离开了坎特伯雷，

但我们都认为他太邪恶了

长期远离麻烦

我姑姑对米科巴家族有一个绝妙的主意

你有没有想过去

澳大利亚生活 她建议这是

一个充满商机的新国家 米

考伯先生很感兴趣

那里很容易出现一些事情 他

同意

我的阿姨慷慨地提出借给

他必要的钱来支付

旅行费用，当我回到伦敦时，整个 mikorba 家庭

立即开始计划和收拾行李

我意识到我可怜的女儿

更糟了，

她现在一直呆在楼上

，客厅看起来很安静

恐怕我太年轻了

别说那个朵拉 我

低声说她是在说

她过去

我是一个愚蠢的小女孩 大卫 你

知道我不会活太久