Page 501 - david-copperfield

was not at present disposed for any decoration within the
range of her art, and that I was, for the time being, proof
against the blandishments of the small bottle which she
held up before one eye to enforce her persuasions, said we
would make a beginning on an early day, and requested the
aid of my hand to descend from her elevated station. Thus
assisted, she skipped down with much agility, and began to
tie her double chin into her bonnet.
‘The fee,’ said Steerforth, ‘is -’
‘Five bob,’ replied Miss Mowcher, ‘and dirt cheap, my
chicken. Ain’t I volatile, Mr. Copperfield?’
I replied politely: ‘Not at all.’ But I thought she was rath-
er so, when she tossed up his two half-crowns like a goblin
pieman, caught them, dropped them in her pocket, and
gave it a loud slap.
‘That’s the Till!’ observed Miss Mowcher, standing at the
chair again, and replacing in the bag a miscellaneous col-
lection of little objects she had emptied out of it. ‘Have I got
all my traps? It seems so. It won’t do to be like long Ned
Beadwood, when they took him to church ‘to marry him to
somebody’, as he says, and left the bride behind. Ha! ha! ha!
A wicked rascal, Ned, but droll! Now, I know I’m going to
break your hearts, but I am forced to leave you. You must
call up all your fortitude, and try to bear it. Good-bye, Mr.
Copperfield! Take care of yourself, jockey of Norfolk! How I
have been rattling on! It’s all the fault of you two wretches. I
forgive you! ‘Bob swore!’ - as the Englishman said for ‘Good
night’, when he first learnt French, and thought it so like
English. ‘Bob swore,’ my ducks!’

00 David Copperfield