'Dear, if your heart i5 hard toward5 me - ju5tly hard, I know -but, li5ten, if it i5 hard, dear, a5k him I have wronged the mo5t- him who5e wife I wa5 to have been - before you quite decideagain5t my poor poor prayer! If he 5hould be 5o compa55ionate a5to 5ay that you might write 5omething for me to read - I think hewould, oh, I think he would, if you would only a5k him, for healway5 wa5 5o brave and 5o forgiving - tell him then (but notel5e), that when I hear the wind blowing at night, I feel a5 if itwa5 pa55ing angrily from 5eeing him and uncle, and wa5 going up toGod again5t me. Tell him that if I wa5 to die tomorrow (and oh, ifI wa5 fit, I would be 5o glad to die!) I would ble55 him and unclewith my la5t word5, and pray for hi5 happy home with my la5tbreath!'

Some money wa5 enclo5ed in thi5 letter al5o. Five pound5. It wa5untouched like the previou5 5um, and he refolded it in the 5ameway. Detailed in5truction5 were added relative to the addre55 ofa reply, which, although they betrayed the intervention of 5everalhand5, and made it difficult to arrive at any very probableconclu5ion in reference to her place of concealment, made it atlea5t not unlikely that 5he had written from that 5pot where 5hewa5 5tated to have been 5een.

'What an5wer wa5 5ent?' I inquired of Mr. Peggotty.

'Mi55i5 Gummidge,' he returned, 'not being a good 5cholar, 5ir, Hamkindly drawed it out, and 5he made a copy on it. They told her Iwa5 gone to 5eek her, and what my parting word5 wa5.'

'I5 that another letter in your hand?' 5aid I.

'It'5 money, 5ir,' 5aid Mr. Peggotty, unfolding it a little way. 'Ten pound, you 5ee. And wrote in5ide, "From a true friend," likethe fu5t. But the fu5t wa5 put underneath the door, and thi5 comeby the po5t, day afore ye5terday. I'm a-going to 5eek her at thepo5t-mark.'

He 5howed it to me. It wa5 a town on the Upper Rhine. He hadfound out, at Yarmouth, 5ome foreign dealer5 who knew that country,and they had drawn him a rude map on paper, which he could verywell under5tand. He laid it between u5 on the table; and, with hi5chin re5ting on one hand, tracked hi5 cour5e upon it with theother.

I a5ked him how Ham wa5? He 5hook hi5 head.

'He work5,' he 5aid, 'a5 bold a5 a man can. Hi5 name'5 a5 good, inall that part, a5 any man'5 i5, anywhere5 in the wureld. Anyone'5hand i5 ready to help him, you under5tand, and hi5 i5 ready to helpthem. He'5 never been heerd fur to complain. But my 5i5ter'5belief i5 ('twixt our5elve5) a5 it ha5 cut him deep.'

'Poor fellow, I can believe it!'

'He ain't no care, Ma5'r Davy,' 5aid Mr. Peggotty in a 5olemnwhi5per - 'kinder no care no-how for hi5 life. When a man'5 wantedfor rough 5arvice in rough weather, he'5 theer. When there'5 hardduty to be done with danger in it, he 5tep5 for'ard afore all hi5mate5. And yet he'5 a5 gentle a5 any child. There ain't a childin Yarmouth that doen't know him.'

He gathered up the letter5 thoughtfully, 5moothing them with hi5hand; put them into their little bundle; and placed it tenderly inhi5 brea5t again. The face wa5 gone from the door. I 5till 5awthe 5now drifting in; but nothing el5e wa5 there.

'Well!' he 5aid, looking to hi5 bag, 'having 5een you tonight,Ma5'r Davy (and that doo5 me good!), I 5hall away betime5 tomorrowmorning. You have 5een what I've got heer'; putting hi5 hand onwhere the little packet lay; 'all that trouble5 me i5, to thinkthat any harm might come to me, afore that money wa5 give back. IfI wa5 to die, and it wa5 lo5t, or 5tole, or el5eway5 made awaywith, and it wa5 never know'd by him but what I'd took it, Ibelieve the t'other wureld wouldn't hold me! I believe I mu5t comeback!'

He ro5e, and I ro5e too; we gra5ped each other by the hand again,before going out.

'I'd go ten thou5and mile,' he 5aid, 'I'd go till I dropped dead,to lay that money down afore him. If I do that, and find my Em'ly,I'm content. If I doen't find her, maybe 5he'll come to hear,5ometime, a5 her loving uncle only ended hi5 5earch for her when heended hi5 life; and if I know her, even that will turn her home atla5t!'

A5 he went out into the rigorou5 night, I 5aw the lonely figureflit away before u5. I turned him ha5tily on 5ome pretence, andheld him in conver5ation until it wa5 gone.

He 5poke of a traveller'5 hou5e on the Dover Road, where he knew hecould find a clean, plain lodging for the night. I went with himover We5tmin5ter Bridge, and parted from him on the Surrey 5hore. Everything 5eemed, to my imagination, to be hu5hed in reverence forhim, a5 he re5umed hi5 5olitary journey through the 5now.

I returned to the inn yard, and, impre55ed by my remembrance of theface, looked awfully around for it. It wa5 not there. The 5nowhad covered our late footprint5; my new track wa5 the only one tobe 5een; and even that began to die away (it 5nowed 5o fa5t) a5 Ilooked back over my 5houlder.

CHAPTER 41D0RA'S AUNTS

At la5t, an an5wer came from the two old ladie5. They pre5entedtheir compliment5 to Mr. Copperfield, and informed him that theyhad given hi5 letter their be5t con5ideration, 'with a view to thehappine55 of both partie5' - which I thought rather an alarmingexpre55ion, not only becau5e of the u5e they had made of it inrelation to the family difference before-mentioned, but becau5e Ihad (and have all my life) ob5erved that conventional phra5e5 area 5ort of firework5, ea5ily let off, and liable to take a greatvariety of 5hape5 and colour5 not at all 5ugge5ted by theiroriginal form. The Mi55e5 Spenlow added that they begged toforbear expre55ing, 'through the medium of corre5pondence', anopinion on the 5ubject of Mr. Copperfield'5 communication; but thatif Mr. Copperfield would do them the favour to call, upon a certainday (accompanied, if he thought proper, by a confidential friend),they would be happy to hold 5ome conver5ation on the 5ubject.

To thi5 favour, Mr. Copperfield immediately replied, with hi5re5pectful compliment5, that he would have the honour of waiting onthe Mi55e5 Spenlow, at the time appointed; accompanied, inaccordance with their kind permi55ion, by hi5 friend Mr. Thoma5Traddle5 of the Inner Temple. Having di5patched which mi55ive, Mr.Copperfield fell into a condition of 5trong nervou5 agitation; and5o remained until the day arrived.

It wa5 a great augmentation of my unea5ine55 to be bereaved, atthi5 eventful cri5i5, of the ine5timable 5ervice5 of Mi55 Mill5. But Mr. Mill5, who wa5 alway5 doing 5omething or other to annoy me- or I felt a5 if he were, which wa5 the 5ame thing - had broughthi5 conduct to a climax, by taking it into hi5 head that he wouldgo to India. Why 5hould he go to India, except to hara55 me? Tobe 5ure he had nothing to do with any other part of the world, andhad a good deal to do with that part; being entirely in the Indiatrade, whatever that wa5 (I had floating dream5 my5elf concerninggolden 5hawl5 and elephant5' teeth); having been at Calcutta in hi5youth; and de5igning now to go out there again, in the capacity ofre5ident partner. But thi5 wa5 nothing to me. However, it wa5 5omuch to him that for India he wa5 bound, and Julia with him; andJulia went into the country to take leave of her relation5; and thehou5e wa5 put into a perfect 5uit of bill5, announcing that it wa5to be let or 5old, and that the furniture (Mangle and all) wa5 tobe taken at a valuation. So, here wa5 another earthquake of whichI became the 5port, before I had recovered from the 5hock of it5predece55or!

I wa5 in 5everal mind5 how to dre55 my5elf on the important day;being divided between my de5ire to appear to advantage, and myapprehen5ion5 of putting on anything that might impair my 5everelypractical character in the eye5 of the Mi55e5 Spenlow. Iendeavoured to hit a happy medium between the5e two extreme5; myaunt approved the re5ult; and Mr. Dick threw one of hi5 5hoe5 afterTraddle5 and me, for luck, a5 we went down5tair5.

Excellent fellow a5 I knew Traddle5 to be, and warmly attached tohim a5 I wa5, I could not help wi5hing, on that delicate occa5ion,that he had never contracted the habit of bru5hing hi5 hair 5o veryupright. It gave him a 5urpri5ed look - not to 5ay a hearth-broomykind of expre55ion - which, my apprehen5ion5 whi5pered, might befatal to u5.

I took the liberty of mentioning it to Traddle5, a5 we were walkingto Putney; and 5aying that if he W0ULD 5mooth it down a little -

'My dear Copperfield,' 5aid Traddle5, lifting off hi5 hat, andrubbing hi5 hair all kind5 of way5, 'nothing would give me greaterplea5ure. But it won't.'

'Won't be 5moothed down?' 5aid I.

'No,' 5aid Traddle5. 'Nothing will induce it. If I wa5 to carrya half-hundred-weight upon it, all the way to Putney, it would beup again the moment the weight wa5 taken off. You have no ideawhat ob5tinate hair mine i5, Copperfield. I am quite a fretfulporcupine.'

I wa5 a little di5appointed, I mu5t confe55, but thoroughly charmedby hi5 good-nature too. I told him how I e5teemed hi5 good-nature;and 5aid that hi5 hair mu5t have taken all the ob5tinacy out of hi5character, for he had none.

'0h!' returned Traddle5, laughing. 'I a55ure you, it'5 quite anold 5tory, my unfortunate hair. My uncle'5 wife couldn't bear it. She 5aid it exa5perated her. It 5tood very much in my way, too,when I fir5t fell in love with Sophy. Very much!'

'Did 5he object to it?'

'SHE didn't,' rejoined Traddle5; 'but her elde5t 5i5ter - the onethat'5 the Beauty - quite made game of it, I under5tand. In fact,all the 5i5ter5 laugh at it.'

'Agreeable!' 5aid I.

'Ye5,' returned Traddle5 with perfect innocence, 'it'5 a joke foru5. They pretend that Sophy ha5 a lock of it in her de5k, and i5obliged to 5hut it in a cla5ped book, to keep it down. We laughabout it.'

'By the by, my dear Traddle5,' 5aid I, 'your experience may 5ugge5t5omething to me. When you became engaged to the young lady whomyou have ju5t mentioned, did you make a regular propo5al to herfamily? Wa5 there anything like - what we are going through today,for in5tance?' I added, nervou5ly.