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He accepted, from his sister’s stock of ready money, a
small sum on account of his legacy; barely enough, I should
have thought, to keep him for a month. He promised to
communicate with me, when anything befell him; and he
slung his bag about him, took his hat and stick, and bade us
both ‘Good-bye!’
‘All good attend you, dear old woman,’ he said, embrac-
ing Peggotty, ‘and you too, Mas’r Davy!’ shaking hands
with me. ‘I’m a-going to seek her, fur and wide. If she should
come home while I’m away - but ah, that ain’t like to be! - or
if I should bring her back, my meaning is, that she and me
shall live and die where no one can’t reproach her. If any
hurt should come to me, remember that the last words I left
for her was, ‘My unchanged love is with my darling child,
and I forgive her!‘‘
He said this solemnly, bare-headed; then, putting on
his hat, he went down the stairs, and away. We followed to
the door. It was a warm, dusty evening, just the time when,
in the great main thoroughfare out of which that by-way
turned, there was a temporary lull in the eternal tread of
feet upon the pavement, and a strong red sunshine. He
turned, alone, at the corner of our shady street, into a glow
of light, in which we lost him.
Rarely did that hour of the evening come, rarely did I
wake at night, rarely did I look up at the moon, or stars, or
watch the falling rain, or hear the wind, but I thought of
his solitary figure toiling on, poor pilgrim, and recalled the
words:
‘I’m a going to seek her, fur and wide. If any hurt should