David Copperfield
told her I should like it very much, I hoped; but I was a little
strange to it at first.
‘You have never been to school,’ I said, ‘have you?’ ‘Oh
yes! Every day.’
‘Ah, but you mean here, at your own home?’
‘Papa couldn’t spare me to go anywhere else,’ she an-
swered, smiling and shaking her head. ‘His housekeeper
must be in his house, you know.’
‘He is very fond of you, I am sure,’ I said.
She nodded ‘Yes,’ and went to the door to listen for his
coming up, that she might meet him on the stairs. But, as he
was not there, she came back again.
‘Mama has been dead ever since I was born,’ she said, in
her quiet way. ‘I only know her picture, downstairs. I saw
you looking at it yesterday. Did you think whose it was?’
I told her yes, because it was so like herself.
‘Papa says so, too,’ said Agnes, pleased. ‘Hark! That’s
papa now!’
Her bright calm face lighted up with pleasure as she went
to meet him, and as they came in, hand in hand. He greeted
me cordially; and told me I should certainly be happy under
Doctor Strong, who was one of the gentlest of men.
‘There may be some, perhaps - I don’t know that there are
- who abuse his kindness,’ said Mr. Wickfield. ‘Never be one
of those, Trotwood, in anything. He is the least suspicious
of mankind; and whether that’s a merit, or whether it’s a
blemish, it deserves consideration in all dealings with the
Doctor, great or small.’
He spoke, I thought, as if he were weary, or dissatisfied
