flowers; the identical Covent Garden Market purchase! I cannot
say that they were very like, or that they particularly resembled
any flowers that have ever come under my observation; but I knew
from the paper round them which was accurately copied, what the
composition was.
Miss Mills was very glad to see me, and very sorry her papa was
not at home: though I thought we all bore that with fortitude. Miss
Mills was conversational for a few minutes, and then, laying down
her pen upon ‘Affection’s Dirge’, got up, and left the room.
I began to think I would put it off till tomorrow.
‘I hope your poor horse was not tired, when he got home at
night,’ said Dora, lifting up her beautiful eyes. ‘It was a long way
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David Copperfield
for him.’
I began to think I would do it today.
‘It was a long way for him,’ said I, ‘for he had nothing to uphold
him on the journey.’
‘Wasn’t he fed, poor thing?’ asked Dora.
I began to think I would put it off till tomorrow.
‘Ye-yes,’ I said, ‘he was well taken care of. I mean he had not
the unutterable happiness that I had in being so near you.’
Dora bent her head over her drawing and said, after a little
while—I had sat, in the interval, in a burning fever, and with my
legs in a very rigid state—
‘You didn’t seem to be sensible of that happiness yourself, at
one time of the day.’
I saw now that I was in for it, and it must be done on the spot.
‘You didn’t care for that happiness in the least,’ said Dora,
slightly raising her eyebrows, and shaking her head, ‘when you
were sitting by Miss Kitt.’
Kitt, I should observe, was the name of the creature in pink,
with the little eyes.
‘Though certainly I don’t know why you should,’ said Dora, or
why you should call it a happiness at all. But of course you don’t
mean what you say. And I am sure no one doubts your being at
liberty to do whatever you like. Jip, you naughty boy, come here!’
I don’t know how I ** **n a moment. I intercepted Jip.
I had Dora in my arms. I was full of eloquence. I never stopped for
a word. I told her how I loved her. I told her I should die without
her. I told her that I idolized and worshipped her. Jip barked
madly all the time.
When Dora hung her head and cried, and trembled, my
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David Copperfield
eloquence increased so much the more. If she would like me to die
for her, she had but to say the word, and I was ready. Life without
Dora’s love was not a thing to have on any terms. I couldn’t bear it,
and I wouldn’t. I had loved her every minute, **d night, since
I first saw her. I loved her at that minute to distraction. I should
always love her, every minute, to distraction. Lovers had loved
before, and lovers would love again; but no lover had loved, might,
could, would, or should ever love, as I loved Dora. The more I
raved, the more Jip barked. Each of us, in his own way, got more
mad every moment.
Well, well! Dora and I were sitting on the sofa by and by, quiet
enough, and Jip was lying in her lap, winking peacefully at me. It
was off my mind. I was in a state of perfect raptu
