Page 324 - david-copperfield

of David’s son.’
‘Very good,’ returned my aunt, ‘that’s settled. I have been
thinking, do you know, Mr. Dick, that I might call him
Trotwood?’
‘Certainly, certainly. Call him Trotwood, certainly,’ said
Mr. Dick. ‘David’s son’s Trotwood.’
‘Trotwood Copperfield, you mean,’ returned my aunt.
‘Yes, to be sure. Yes. Trotwood Copperfield,’ said Mr.
Dick, a little abashed.
My aunt took so kindly to the notion, that some ready-
made clothes, which were purchased for me that afternoon,
were marked ‘Trotwood Copperfield’, in her own handwrit-
ing, and in indelible marking-ink, before I put them on; and
it was settled that all the other clothes which were ordered
to be made for me (a complete outfit was bespoke that after-
noon) should be marked in the same way.
Thus I began my new life, in a new name, and with every-
thing new about me. Now that the state of doubt was over,
I felt, for many days, like one in a dream. I never thought
that I had a curious couple of guardians, in my aunt and Mr.
Dick. I never thought of anything about myself, distinctly.
The two things clearest in my mind were, that a remoteness
had come upon the old Blunderstone life - which seemed
to lie in the haze of an immeasurable distance; and that
a curtain had for ever fallen on my life at Murdstone and
Grinby’s. No one has ever raised that curtain since. I have
lifted it for a moment, even in this narrative, with a reluc-
tant hand, and dropped it gladly. The remembrance of that
life is fraught with so much pain to me, with so much men-