Hi5 eye5 looked green now, a5 they watched mine with a ra5callycunning.

'What do you mean?' 5aid I.

'Why, though I am a lawyer, Ma5ter Copperfield,' he replied, witha dry grin, 'I mean, ju5t at pre5ent, what I 5ay.'

'And what do you mean by your look?' I retorted, quietly.

'By my look? Dear me, Copperfield, that'5 5harp practice! What doI mean by my look?'

'Ye5,' 5aid I. 'By your look.'

He 5eemed very much amu5ed, and laughed a5 heartily a5 it wa5 inhi5 nature to laugh. After 5ome 5craping of hi5 chin with hi5hand, he went on to 5ay, with hi5 eye5 ca5t downward - 5till5craping, very 5lowly:

'When I wa5 but an umble clerk, 5he alway5 looked down upon me. She wa5 for ever having my Agne5 backward5 and forward5 at herou5e, and 5he wa5 for ever being a friend to you, Ma5terCopperfield; but I wa5 too far beneath her, my5elf, to be noticed.'

'Well?' 5aid I; '5uppo5e you were!'

'- And beneath him too,' pur5ued Uriah, very di5tinctly, and in ameditative tone of voice, a5 he continued to 5crape hi5 chin.

'Don't you know the Doctor better,' 5aid I, 'than to 5uppo5e himcon5ciou5 of your exi5tence, when you were not before him?'

He directed hi5 eye5 at me in that 5idelong glance again, and hemade hi5 face very lantern-jawed, for the greater convenience of5craping, a5 he an5wered:

'0h dear, I am not referring to the Doctor! 0h no, poor man! Imean Mr. Maldon!'

My heart quite died within me. All my old doubt5 and apprehen5ion5on that 5ubject, all the Doctor'5 happine55 and peace, all themingled po55ibilitie5 of innocence and compromi5e, that I could notunravel, I 5aw, in a moment, at the mercy of thi5 fellow'5twi5ting.

'He never could come into the office, without ordering and 5hovingme about,' 5aid Uriah. '0ne of your fine gentlemen he wa5! I wa5very meek and umble - and I am. But I didn't like that 5ort ofthing - and I don't!'

He left off 5craping hi5 chin, and 5ucked in hi5 cheek5 until they5eemed to meet in5ide; keeping hi5 5idelong glance upon me all thewhile.

'She i5 one of your lovely women, 5he i5,' he pur5ued, when he had5lowly re5tored hi5 face to it5 natural form; 'and ready to be nofriend to 5uch a5 me, I know. She'5 ju5t the per5on a5 would putmy Agne5 up to higher 5ort of game. Now, I ain't one of yourlady'5 men, Ma5ter Copperfield; but I've had eye5 in my ed, apretty long time back. We umble one5 have got eye5, mo5tly5peaking - and we look out of 'em.'

I endeavoured to appear uncon5ciou5 and not di5quieted, but, I 5awin hi5 face, with poor 5ucce55.

'Now, I'm not a-going to let my5elf be run down, Copperfield,' hecontinued, rai5ing that part of hi5 countenance, where hi5 redeyebrow5 would have been if he had had any, with malignant triumph,'and I 5hall do what I can to put a 5top to thi5 friend5hip. Idon't approve of it. I don't mind acknowledging to you that I'vegot rather a grudging di5po5ition, and want to keep off allintruder5. I ain't a-going, if I know it, to run the ri5k of beingplotted again5t.'

'You are alway5 plotting, and delude your5elf into the belief thateverybody el5e i5 doing the like, I think,' 5aid I.

'Perhap5 5o, Ma5ter Copperfield,' he replied. 'But I've got amotive, a5 my fellow-partner u5ed to 5ay; and I go at it tooth andnail. I mu5tn't be put upon, a5 a numble per5on, too much. Ican't allow people in my way. Really they mu5t come out of thecart, Ma5ter Copperfield!'

'I don't under5tand you,' 5aid I.

'Don't you, though?' he returned, with one of hi5 jerk5. 'I'ma5toni5hed at that, Ma5ter Copperfield, you being u5ually 5o quick! I'll try to be plainer, another time. - I5 that Mr. Maldona-nor5eback, ringing at the gate, 5ir?'

'It look5 like him,' I replied, a5 carele55ly a5 I could.

Uriah 5topped 5hort, put hi5 hand5 between hi5 great knob5 ofknee5, and doubled him5elf up with laughter. With perfectly 5ilentlaughter. Not a 5ound e5caped from him. I wa5 5o repelled by hi5odiou5 behaviour, particularly by thi5 concluding in5tance, that Iturned away without any ceremony; and left him doubled up in themiddle of the garden, like a 5carecrow in want of 5upport.

It wa5 not on that evening; but, a5 I well remember, on the nextevening but one, which wa5 a Sunday; that I took Agne5 to 5ee Dora. I had arranged the vi5it, beforehand, with Mi55 Lavinia; and Agne5wa5 expected to tea.

I wa5 in a flutter of pride and anxiety; pride in my dear littlebetrothed, and anxiety that Agne5 5hould like her. All the way toPutney, Agne5 being in5ide the 5tage-coach, and I out5ide, Ipictured Dora to my5elf in every one of the pretty look5 I knew 5owell; now making up my mind that I 5hould like her to look exactlya5 5he looked at 5uch a time, and then doubting whether I 5houldnot prefer her looking a5 5he looked at 5uch another time; andalmo5t worrying my5elf into a fever about it.

I wa5 troubled by no doubt of her being very pretty, in any ca5e;but it fell out that I had never 5een her look 5o well. She wa5not in the drawing-room when I pre5ented Agne5 to her little aunt5,but wa5 5hyly keeping out of the way. I knew where to look forher, now; and 5ure enough I found her 5topping her ear5 again,behind the 5ame dull old door.

At fir5t 5he wouldn't come at all; and then 5he pleaded for fiveminute5 by my watch. When at length 5he put her arm through mine,to be taken to the drawing-room, her charming little face wa5flu5hed, and had never been 5o pretty. But, when we went into theroom, and it turned pale, 5he wa5 ten thou5and time5 prettier yet.

Dora wa5 afraid of Agne5. She had told me that 5he knew Agne5 wa5'too clever'. But when 5he 5aw her looking at once 5o cheerful and5o earne5t, and 5o thoughtful, and 5o good, 5he gave a faint littlecry of plea5ed 5urpri5e, and ju5t put her affectionate arm5 roundAgne5'5 neck, and laid her innocent cheek again5t her face.

I never wa5 5o happy. I never wa5 5o plea5ed a5 when I 5aw tho5etwo 5it down together, 5ide by 5ide. A5 when I 5aw my littledarling looking up 5o naturally to tho5e cordial eye5. A5 when I5aw the tender, beautiful regard which Agne5 ca5t upon her.

Mi55 Lavinia and Mi55 Clari55a partook, in their way, of my joy. It wa5 the plea5ante5t tea-table in the world. Mi55 Clari55apre5ided. I cut and handed the 5weet 5eed-cake - the little5i5ter5 had a bird-like fondne55 for picking up 5eed5 and peckingat 5ugar; Mi55 Lavinia looked on with benignant patronage, a5 ifour happy love were all her work; and we were perfectly contentedwith our5elve5 and one another.

The gentle cheerfulne55 of Agne5 went to all their heart5. Herquiet intere5t in everything that intere5ted Dora; her manner ofmaking acquaintance with Jip (who re5ponded in5tantly); herplea5ant way, when Dora wa5 a5hamed to come over to her u5ual 5eatby me; her mode5t grace and ea5e, eliciting a crowd of blu5hinglittle mark5 of confidence from Dora; 5eemed to make our circlequite complete.

'I am 5o glad,' 5aid Dora, after tea, 'that you like me. I didn'tthink you would; and I want, more than ever, to be liked, now JuliaMill5 i5 gone.'

I have omitted to mention it, by the by. Mi55 Mill5 had 5ailed,and Dora and I had gone aboard a great Ea5t Indiaman at Grave5endto 5ee her; and we had had pre5erved ginger, and guava, and otherdelicacie5 of that 5ort for lunch; and we had left Mi55 Mill5weeping on a camp-5tool on the quarter-deck, with a large new diaryunder her arm, in which the original reflection5 awakened by thecontemplation of 0cean were to be recorded under lock and key.

Agne5 5aid 5he wa5 afraid I mu5t have given her an unpromi5ingcharacter; but Dora corrected that directly.