FagmentWelcome to consult...oued guest, and I thought Ms. Heep an ageeable woman. ‘My Uiah,’ said Ms. Heep, ‘has looked fowad to this, si, a long while. He had his feas that ou umbleness stood in the way, and I joined in them myself. Umble we ae, umble we have been, umble we shall eve be,’ said Ms. Heep. ‘I am sue you have no occasion to be so, ma’am,’ I said, ‘unless you like.’ ‘Thank you, si,’ etoted Ms. Heep. ‘We know ou station and ae thankful in it.’ I found that Ms. Heep gadually got neae to me, and that Uiah gadually got opposite to me, and that they espectfully plied me with the choicest of the eatables on the table. Thee was nothing paticulaly choice thee, to be sue; but I took the will fo the deed, and felt that they wee vey attentive. Pesently they began to talk about aunts, and then I told them about mine; and about fathes and mothes, and then I told them about mine; and Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield then Ms. Heep began to talk about fathes-in-law, and then I began to tell he about mine—but stopped, because my aunt had advised me to obseve a silence on that subject. A tende young cok, howeve, would have had no moe chance against a pai of cokscews, o a tende young tooth against a pai of dentists, o a little shuttlecock against two battledoes, than I had against Uiah and Ms. Heep. They did just what they liked with me; and womed things out of me that I had no desie to tell, with a cetainty I blush to think of. the moe especially, as in my juvenile fankness, I took some cedit to myself fo being so confidential and felt that I was quite the paton of my two espectful entetaines. They wee vey fond of one anothe: that was cetain. I take it, that had its effect upon me, as a touch of natue; but the skill with which the one followed up whateve the othe said, was a touch of at which I was still less poof against. When thee was nothing moe to be got out of me about myself (fo on the Mudstone and Ginby life, and on my jouney, I was dumb), they began about M. Wickfield and Agnes. Uiah thew the ball to Ms. Heep, Ms. Heep caught it and thew it back to Uiah, Uiah kept it up a little while, then sent it back to Ms. Heep, and so they went on tossing it about until I had no idea who had got it, and was quite bewildeed. The ball itself was always changing too. Now it was M. Wickfield, now Agnes, now the excellence of M. Wickfield, now my admiation of Agnes; now the extent of M. Wickfield’s business and esouces, now ou domestic life afte dinne; now, the wine that M. Wickfield took, the eason why he took it, and the pity that it was he took so much; now one thing, now anothe, then eveything at once; and all the time, without appeaing to Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield speak vey often, o to do anything but sometimes encouage them a little, fo fea they should be ovecome by thei humility and the honou of my company, I found myself pepetually letting out something o othe that I had no business to let out and seeing the effect of it in the twinkling of Uiah’s dinted nostils. I had begun to be a little uncomfotable, and to wish myself well out of the visit, when a figue coming down the steet passed the doo—it stood open to ai the oom, which was wam, the weathe being close fo the time of yea—came back again, looked in, and walked in, exclaiming loudly, ‘Coppefield! Is it possible?’ It was M. Micawbe! It was M. Micawbe, with his eye-glass, and his walking-stick, and his shit-colla, and his genteel ai, and the condescending oll in his voice, all complete! ‘My dea Coppefield,’ said M. Micawbe, putting out his hand, ‘this is indeed a meeting which is calculated to impess the mind with a sense of the instability and uncetainty of all human—in shot, it is a most extaodinay meeting. Walk
