David Copperfield, Charles Dickens [best historical fiction books of all time TXT] 📗

this house, until one’s eyes are literally falling out of one’s head with being stretched to read the paper. And that there is not a chair in this house, in which a paper can be what I call, read, except one in the study. This took me to the study, where I saw a light. I opened the door. In company with the dear Doctor were two professional people, evidently connected with the law, and they were all three standing at the table: the darling Doctor pen in hand. ‘This simply expresses then,’ said the Doctor⁠—Annie, my love, attend to the very words⁠—‘this simply expresses then, gentlemen, the confidence I have in Mrs. Strong, and gives her all unconditionally?’ One of the professional people replied, ‘And gives her all unconditionally.’ Upon that, with the natural feelings of a mother, I said, ‘Good God, I beg your pardon!’ fell over the doorstep, and came away through the little back passage where the pantry is.”

Mrs. Strong opened the window, and went out into the verandah, where she stood leaning against a pillar.

“But now isn’t it, Miss Trotwood, isn’t it, David, invigorating,” said Mrs. Markleham, mechanically following her with her eyes, “to find a man at Doctor Strong’s time of life, with the strength of mind to do this kind of thing? It only shows how right I was. I said to Annie, when Doctor Strong paid a very flattering visit to myself, and made her the subject of a declaration and an offer, I said, ‘My dear, there is no doubt whatever, in my opinion, with reference to a suitable provision for you, that Doctor Strong will do more than he binds himself to do.’ ”

Here the bell rang, and we heard the sound of the visitors’ feet as they went out.

“It’s all over, no doubt,” said the Old Soldier, after listening; “the dear creature has signed, sealed, and delivered, and his mind’s at rest. Well it may be! What a mind! Annie, my love, I am going to the study with my paper, for I am a poor creature without news. Miss Trotwood, David, pray come and see the Doctor.”

I was conscious of Mr. Dick’s standing in the shadow of the room, shutting up his knife, when we accompanied her to the study; and of my aunt’s rubbing her nose violently, by the way, as a mild vent for her intolerance of our military friend; but who got first into the study, or how Mrs. Markleham settled herself in a moment in her easy-chair, or how my aunt and I came to be left together near the door (unless her eyes were quicker than mine, and she held me back), I have forgotten, if I ever knew. But this I know⁠—that we saw the Doctor before he saw us, sitting at his table, among the folio volumes in which he delighted, resting his head calmly on his hand. That, in the same moment, we saw Mrs. Strong glide in, pale and trembling. That Mr. Dick supported her on his arm. That he laid his other hand upon the Doctor’s arm, causing him to look up with an abstracted air. That, as the Doctor moved his head, his wife dropped down on one knee at his feet, and, with her hands imploringly lifted, fixed upon his face the memorable look I had never forgotten. That at this sight Mrs. Markleham dropped the newspaper, and stared more like a figurehead intended for a ship to be called the Astonishment, than anything else I can think of.

The gentleness of the Doctor’s manner and surprise, the dignity that mingled with the supplicating attitude of his wife, the amiable concern of Mr. Dick, and the earnestness with which my aunt said to herself, “That man mad!” (triumphantly expressive of the misery from which she had saved him)⁠—I see and hear, rather than remember, as I write about it.

“Doctor!” said Mr. Dick. “What is it that’s amiss? Look here!”

“Annie!” cried the Doctor. “Not at my feet, my dear!”

“Yes!” she said. “I beg and pray that no one will leave the room! Oh, my husband and father, break this long silence. Let us both know what it is that has come between us!”

Mrs. Markleham, by this time recovering the power of speech, and seeming to swell with family pride and motherly indignation, here exclaimed, “Annie, get up immediately, and don’t disgrace everybody belonging to you by humbling yourself like that, unless you wish to see me go out of my mind on the spot!”

“Mama!” returned Annie. “Waste no words on me, for my appeal is to my husband, and even you are nothing here.”

“Nothing!” exclaimed Mrs. Markleham. “Me, nothing! The child has taken leave of her senses. Please to get me a glass of water!”

I was too attentive to the Doctor and his wife, to give any heed to this request; and it made no impression on anybody else; so Mrs. Markleham panted, stared, and fanned herself.

“Annie!” said the Doctor, tenderly taking her in his hands. “My dear! If any unavoidable change has come, in the sequence of time, upon our married life, you are not to blame. The fault is mine, and only mine. There is no change in my affection, admiration, and respect. I wish to make you happy. I truly love and honour you. Rise, Annie, pray!”

But she did not rise. After looking at him for a little while, she sank down closer to him, laid her arm across his knee, and dropping her head upon it, said:

“If I have any friend here, who can speak one word for me, or for my husband in this matter; if I have any friend here, who can give a voice to any suspicion that my heart has sometimes whispered to me; if I have any friend here, who honours my husband, or has ever cared for me, and has anything within his knowledge, no matter what it is, that may help to mediate between us, I implore that friend to speak!”

There was a profound silence. After a few moments of