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i very dreadful l”
DA VID OOPPERFIELD.
“ Oh, please don’t be practical l” said Dora coaxingly.
“Because it frightens me so l ” '
“Sweet heart !" I returned ; “ there is nothing to
alarm you in all this. I want you to think of it quite
differently. I want to make it nerve you, and inspire
you, Dora l”
“ Oh, but that’s so shocking I’.’ cried Dora.
“Hy love, no. Perseverance and strength of charac-
ter will enable us to bear much worse things.”
‘,‘But I haven’t got any strength at all,” said Dora,
shaking her curls. “ Have I, J ip ‘2 Oh, do kiss J ip, and
be agreeable I”
It was impossible to resist kissing Jip, when she held
him up to me for that purpose, putting her own bright,
rosy-little month into kissing form, as she directed the
operation, which she insisted should he performed syru-
metrically, on the centre of his nose. I did as she bade
me-rewarding myself afterwards for my obedience-and
she charmed me out of my graver character for I don’t
know how long..
“But, Dora, my beloved I” said I, at last resuming it :
"I was going to mention something.”
. The Judge of the Prerogative Court might have fallen
in love with her, to see her fold herlittle hands and hold
them up, begging and praying me not to he dreadful any
more.
- “Indeed I am not going to be, my darling I” Iassilred
her. “ But, Dora", my love, if you will sometimes think,
‘not ‘despondingly, you know ; far from that I-but if
5011 will sometimes tliink--just to encourage yoiirself--
that you are engaged to a poor man-”
“ D0n’t, don’t I Pray don’t I’’ cried Dora. .“It’s so
.“ My soul, not at all l” said I, cheerfully. “If you
Will sometimes think of that, and look about now and
“N311 at your papa’s housekeeping, and endeavour to ac-
quire a little habit-of accounts, for instance-”
Poor little Dora. received this suggestion with some-
l mg that was half a sob and half a scream.
,‘‘-It would be so useful to us afterwards,” I went on.
"And if you wouldpromise me to read a little-a little
Cookery Book that I would send you, it would be so ex-
cellent for both of us. For our path in life, my Dora,”
said I, warming with the subject, “ is stony mid rugged
110W, and it rests with us to smooth it. We must fight
W1‘ Way onward. We must‘ be brave. There are obsta-
CIGS to be met, and we must meet, and crush them I’’
I “'33 going on at a great rate, with a clenched hand,
‘W1 aniost enthusiastic countenance ; but it was quite un-
“C3359-TY to proceed. I had said enough. I had done it
ai5"-lD- Oh, she was so f ri rrhtened I 011, Where W35 J“1i”-
Mm3 l Oh, takelier to J ualia Mills and go MV9-Y: lllease I
so that, in short, I was quite distriicted, and raved about
9 draiinng-room.
Ithought I had killed her this time. I sprinkled wa-
l‘31' 011 her face. I went down on my knees. I Pluckml
at my hair. I denounced myself as a remorseless brute,
and 8. ruthless beast I implored her forgiveness. I he-
might her to look up I ravaged Miss Mills’s work-b0X
(“fl Smelling bottle ‘and in III arrony of mind applied
an “OW needle-case instead and ditiopped all the noodles
over D0111. I shook my fisls at Jip who was as fI'aI1ti0
-'18 myself. I did every wild mm,-Swance that could be
‘"18. and was a Iontr way beyond the end of my Wits
Wlffin Miss Mills came? into the room. , .
he has done this?” exclaimed Miss Mills, succour-
“Pf her friend. ,
replied, “I, Miss Mills l I have done ll: 1 I?"""1“
the de3t1'0)'e1' !’’-or words to that ctfect-and hid my
‘me from the light, in the sofa cushion.
At first Miss Mills thought it was a quarrel, and that
we ""3 Verginw on the Desert of Sahara ; but She 500”
found out howumatters mod for my dear, affectionate
ml“ DOM, embracing lizr be an exclaiming that I was
”‘ “ Poor labourer :” End tlien tilled for me, and embraced
m"- and asked me would I let her give me 3“ 1'" “O39?
he keep’ and then fell on Miss Mills’s neck, Sobbing 39 If
er tender heart were broken. . to as
S l 33 Mills must have been born to be 11 blessing '
e ascertained from me in a few Words what it was all
Ii$d1:’ddin:)1it%i)d Dora, grid gI'll.(ll1alli’ufg)lX'1ij;lC&% tag‘:
a ourer- rom my I113 v
263
case I believe Dora concluded that I wash navigator, and
went balancing myself up and down a plank all day with
a wheelbarrow-and so brought us together in peace.
VVhen we were quite composed, and Dora had gone up-
stairs to put some rose-water to her eyes, Miss Mills rang
for tea. In the ensuing interval, I told Miss Mills that
she was evennore my friend, and that my heart must
cease to vibrate ere I could forget her sympathy.
I then expounded to Miss Mills what I had ‘endeav-
oured, so very unsuccessfully, to expound to Dora. Miss
Mills replied, on general principles, that the Cottage of
content was better than the Palace of cold splendour, and
that where love was, all was; i
I said to Miss Mills that this was very true,‘ and who
should know it better than I, who loved Dora with a love
that never mortal had experienced yet.’ But on Miss
Mills observing, with despoiidency, that it were well in-
deed for some hearts if this were so, I explained that I
begged leave to restrict the observation to mortals of the
masculine gender. . .
I then put it to Miss Mills, to say whether she consid-
ered that there was or wasnot any practical merit in the
suggestion I had been anxious to make, concerning the
accounts, the housekeeping and the Cookery Book?
Miss Mills, after some ‘consideration, ‘thus replied :
“ Mr. Copperfield, I will.be plain with you. Mental
suffering and trial supply, in some natures. ‘I10 1713903.
years, and I will be as plain with you as if I were ii La y
Abbess. No. The suggestion is not appropriate to 011!‘
Dora. Our dearest Dora is a favourite cliild of nature.
She is a thing of light, and airincss, “Pd 10,53 I am “"1"
to confess that if it. could be done, it might be wel ,
but-” ‘And Miss Mills shook herlicad. . '
I was encouraged by this closing admission you the
part of Miss Mills to ask her, whether, for Dora sl sake,
if she had any opportunity of luring her attcntiout-(i
such preparations for an earnest llfo, 5110 “'0?-ld, “ml
herself of it? Miss Mills replied in the 1llllI'I1'lIll1lVC1%(:
readily, that I further asked her. if she “'0l1l( ktlakc
charge of the Cookery Book; and, if she eve:-‘can .111"-I
siniiate it upon Dora's acceptance, without frig tc1i‘iIi'iit,
her, undertake to do me that crowning SCIWlCx.' iss
Mills accepted this trust, too; but was not Silllglllllle.
And Dora returned, looking such a lovely lliIttctC1'(’1f)l-
tnro, that I really doubted whether shzi $1311 3 g
troubled with anything so 0r<lIH3TY- 9”] 51 01:9 11110
so much, and was so captivating (particu ar Eil when she
made J ip stand on his hind legs for toast. ill“ h“t tel‘ 5 at
pretended to hold that nose of us agains’1t t ti felt 3
for punishment because he ivoultln 0;.‘ 13tb 0 ‘hen
sort of Monster who had got into a Fairfs d0i1VlC1”, ‘V
I thought of having friglitened her and ma e c: Se
After tea we had the guitar; and Dora saiign Oof
same dear old French songs about the iiIi:JP055‘] 1 m
ever on any account leaving 013 danfmgs 31:"“f 3:
Ia, until I felt a much greater Monster than c ore.
‘V e had only one check to our plcasllrc. Mid ‘hat
pened a little while before I took my.leave, rtihcnomi):
Mills chancing to make some allusion btlg exert
morning, I unluckily let out that being 0‘vI1;gihe‘; Dom
myself now, IgotuiH1t5"P 0 91"?” 1, "1 am an.
had any idea that I was ii Private ll ate .man, her and
alhle to slay ; lint made a g‘i;]e)atmii(:iI‘1(;re:sion on .
s e neit ier p aye nor sang ‘ ' - .
It was still on her mind when ‘I bade licrafsidiltflll-“f:‘g
she said to me, in 1.1165‘ pretty coaxing W11)’ ‘
n (‘1f)hLc>vIv1ilsoeiiltt.ogJi21i1up at five o’clock. F0“ lmugmy boy‘
It’s it; n]onscnsica‘lilI” I have Wm!‘ ‘O do n
“ ove,” sai . “ ‘ ‘u (1
,, B3; d 01” do it It returned pom, “'liy shoul
you?” ' . t little su riscd
' o sa to that swcc TI‘
fag: :)1;ZiSel1'X):l’ps(:3Sii11):I(:Eight]);' and playfully, that we must
- e. .
mlllahtl) gow ridiculous l” CD95 D"?rf’;' ai (1 I
‘ " How shall we live ivitlitiI1B,ogl0m 5 '
4: HOW? Any how 1” sun - the ms‘.
. She seemed to thmk1;Sil1wtrili1idnp lsilililacliiiss, direct
tion, and gave lX‘:'!ti1(l‘;rt’ that I would hardly have put
imm Itlcrf L2',i22ft with her answer, for a fortune.
or on o