'FagmentWelcome to consult...and was supposed to have been enamoued of he. My pivate opinion is, that this was entiely a gatuitous assumption, and that Pidge was altogethe Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield innocent of any such sentiments—to which he had neve given any sot of that I could eve hea of. Both Miss Lavinia and Miss Claissa had a supestition, howeve, that he would have declaed his passion, if he had not been cut shot in his youth (at about sixty) by ove-dinking his constitution, and ove-doing an attempt to set it ight again by swilling Bath wate. They had a luking suspicion even, that he died of secet love; though I must say thee was a pictue of him in the house with a damask nose, which concealment did not appea to have eve peyed upon. ‘We will not,’ said Miss Lavinia, ‘ente on the past histoy of this matte. Ou poo bothe Fancis’s death has cancelled that.’ ‘We had not,’ said Miss Claissa, ‘been in the habit of fequent association with ou bothe Fancis; but thee was no decided division o disunion between us. Fancis took his oad; we took ous. We consideed it conducive to the happiness of all paties that it should be so. And it was so.’ Each of the sistes leaned a little fowad to speak, shook he head afte speaking, and became upight again when silent. Miss Claissa neve moved he ams. She sometimes played tunes upon them with he finges—minuets and maches I should think—but neve moved them. ‘Ou niece’s position, o supposed position, is much changed by ou bothe Fancis’s death,’ said Miss Lavinia; ‘and theefoe we conside ou bothe’s opinions as egaded he position as being changed too. We have no eason to doubt, M. Coppefield, that you ae a young gentleman possessed of good qualities and honouable chaacte; o that you have an affection—o ae fully pesuaded that you have an affection—fo ou niece.’ I eplied, as I usually did wheneve I had a chance, that nobody Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield had eve loved anybody else as I loved Doa. Taddles came to my assistance with a confimatoy mumu. Miss Lavinia was going on to make some ejoinde, when Miss Claissa, who appeaed to be incessantly beset by a desie to efe to he bothe Fancis, stuck in again: ‘If Doa’s mama,’ she said, ‘when she maied ou bothe Fancis, had at once said that thee was not oom fo the family at the dinne-table, it would have been bette fo the happiness of all paties.’ ‘Siste Claissa,’ said Miss Lavinia. ‘Pehaps we needn’t mind that now.’ ‘Siste Lavinia,’ said Miss Claissa, ‘it belongs to the subject. With you banch of the subject, on which alone you ae competent to speak, I should not think of intefeing. On this banch of the subject I have a voice and an opinion. It would have been bette fo the happiness of all paties, if Doa’s mama, when she maied ou bothe Fancis, had mentioned plainly what he intentions wee. We should then have known what we had to expect. We should have said “Pay do not invite us, at any time”; and all possibility of misundestanding would have been avoided.’ When Miss Claissa had shaken he head, Miss Lavinia esumed: again efeing to my lette though he eye-glass. They both had little bight ound twinkling eyes, by the way, which wee like bids’ eyes. They wee not unlike bids, altogethe; having a shap, bisk, sudden manne, and a little shot, spuce way of adjusting themselves, like canaies. Miss Lavinia, as I have said, esumed: ‘You ask pemission of my siste Claissa and myself, M. Coppefield, to visit hee, as the accepted suito of ou niece.’ Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield ‘If ou bothe
