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country? And that I thus became immeshed in the web he
had spun for my reception?‘‘
Mr. Micawber’s enjoyment of his epistolary powers, in
describing this unfortunate state of things, really seemed
to outweigh any pain or anxiety that the reality could have
caused him. He read on:
‘’Then it was that - HEEP - began to favour me with just
so much of his confidence, as was necessary to the discharge
of his infernal business. Then it was that I began, if I may so
Shakespearianly express myself, to dwindle, peak, and pine.
I found that my services were constantly called into requisi-
tion for the falsification of business, and the mystification of
an individual whom I will designate as Mr. W. That Mr. W.
was imposed upon, kept in ignorance, and deluded, in ev-
ery possible way; yet, that all this while, the ruffian - HEEP
- was professing unbounded gratitude to, and unbounded
friendship for, that much-abused gentleman. This was bad
enough; but, as the philosophic Dane observes, with that
universal applicability which distinguishes the illustrious
ornament of the Elizabethan Era, worse remains behind!‘‘
Mr. Micawber was so very much struck by this happy
rounding off with a quotation, that he indulged himself,
and us, with a second reading of the sentence, under pre-
tence of having lost his place.
‘’It is not my intention,‘‘ he continued reading on, ‘“to
enter on a detailed list, within the compass of the present
epistle (though it is ready elsewhere), of the various mal-
practices of a minor nature, affecting the individual whom
I have denominated Mr. W., to which I have been a tacitly

111 David Copperfield