Page 1264 - david-copperfield
P. 1264

jewelled  and  engine-turned,  and  possessed  of  the  hori-
       zontal lever- escape-movement, and all sorts of things, she
       would buy for me if she could afford it; and we pick out
       the spoons and forks, fish-slices, butter-knives, and sugar-
       tongs, we should both prefer if we could both afford it; and
       really we go away as if we had got them! Then, when we
       stroll into the squares, and great streets, and see a house to
       let, sometimes we look up at it, and say, how would THAT
       do, if I was made a judge? And we parcel it out - such a room
       for us, such rooms for the girls, and so forth; until we settle
       to our satisfaction that it would do, or it wouldn’t do, as the
       case may be. Sometimes, we go at half-price to the pit of the
       theatre - the very smell of which is cheap, in my opinion, at
       the money - and there we thoroughly enjoy the play: which
       Sophy believes every word of, and so do I. In walking home,
       perhaps we buy a little bit of something at a cook’s-shop,
       or a little lobster at the fishmongers, and bring it here, and
       make a splendid supper, chatting about what we have seen.
       Now, you know, Copperfield, if I was Lord Chancellor, we
       couldn’t do this!’
         ‘You would do something, whatever you were, my dear
       Traddles,’ thought I, ‘that would be pleasant and amiable.
       And by the way,’ I said aloud, ‘I suppose you never draw any
       skeletons now?’
         ‘Really,’  replied  Traddles,  laughing,  and  reddening,  ‘I
       can’t wholly deny that I do, my dear Copperfield. For being
       in one of the back rows of the King’s Bench the other day,
       with a pen in my hand, the fancy came into my head to try
       how I had preserved that accomplishment. And I am afraid

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