David Copperfield

Chapter 67 Tom Traddles (1)
Chapter 27 Tom Traddles(1)
Perhaps because of Mrs. Crupp's reminder, or perhaps simply because of the slight resemblance in the pronunciation of Skettle and Traddles, I wanted to see Traddles the next day.The time he said in the past has long passed.He lives in a small street near Camden District Veterinary College.It is said that most of the male students rented there lived there, and those male students bought live donkeys and used those quadrupeds to conduct experiments in their residences.Now that I knew about the academic field, I went to visit my old classmate that afternoon.

Because of Traddles, I found the streets not so satisfactory as I had imagined, and the people who lived there seemed to have a penchant for throwing little things they didn't want into the streets.This makes the streets (because of those broccoli leaves) smelly, wet, and untidy.Not all of those wastes were vegetables.For when I was looking for the number I wanted, I saw a shoe, a soup-pot, a black chimney-hat, and an umbrella, all in varying degrees of tatters.

The atmosphere of the place reminded me strongly of my days when I lived with Mr. and Mrs. Micawber, and the dwelling I found was so uncharacteristically dilapidated that it was unlike any other dwelling in the street--though the dwellings They were all built according to a model, and the dwelling looked like the early sketches of a rash student who dared to build a house without knowing how to use brick and mortar--reminding me all the more of Mr. and Mrs. Micawber.It so happened that I arrived at the door when it was opened for the afternoon milkman, and this reminded me all the more strongly of Mr. and Mrs. Micawber.

"So," said the milkman to one of the maids, "is my little debt ready?"

"Oh, the master said, he will go to take care of it immediately." That's the answer.

"Because," went on the milkman as if he hadn't heard (as far as I can tell from his tone, he was speaking not to the maid but to someone in the house, the way he stared into the porch reinforces this impression), "Because this little arrears are so long overdue, I think it's all floated away and will never be repaid. Then I can't bear it, you see!" Milkman said, still sending his voice into the house, staring at the porch.

I think he is quite out of place for a soft milk business, and if he were a butcher or a brandy merchant, he would have a ferocious countenance.

The maid's voice was very low, but judging from the opening and closing of her lips, I felt that she seemed to be whispering again, and the debt would be settled immediately.

"I'm telling you the truth," the milkman said, starting to look at her hard and cupping her chin, "do you like milk?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Well," said the milkman, "then tomorrow, you won't have any. Do you know? There won't be a drop of milk."

But the fact that milk was available today seemed to reassure her on the whole.After the milkman shook his head bitterly at her, he opened the jar without a hint of good humor, and poured the normal amount into the bottle of that family.Then he walked away muttering, and uttered his vengeful shriek again at the door of the second house.

"Is Mr. Traddles here?" I asked then.

A mysterious voice answered "Yes" from the end of the corridor.So the maid answered "Yes."

"Is he there?" I asked.

The mysterious voice again answered in the affirmative, and the maid repeated it, and I went in and up the stairs.When I passed the back door of the living room, I noticed a mysterious look watching me, which probably belonged to the mysterious voice.

Traddles was already on the landing to welcome me when I reached the top of the stairs.He was delighted to see me, and took me into his little bedroom with great cordiality.This bedroom was at the front of the house, and although it was sparsely furnished, it was clean.I found out that this was the only room he had.Because there is a sofa bed inside, his shoe polish brush and shoes are in the middle of his books - on the top shelf, behind a dictionary.His desk was full of papers, and he was toiling away in an old coat, and I thought I wasn't looking at anything when I sat down, but I saw everything, even the inkwell on his china inkwell. Included is a scene of a chapel in the [-]s--a talent I had honed in old Micawber's days, too.He made all kinds of ingenious arrangements, made up his wardrobe, arranged his shoes, shaving cups, etc., reminding me especially of making nest-like models of writing paper to keep flies away, with the memorable Works of art to console myself, as did Traddles.

In one corner of the bedroom, something was covered by a large white cloth, I don't know what it was.

"Traddles," I said, shaking his hand again when I sat down, "I'm glad to see you."

"So am I, Copperfield," he went on, "because when we met in Ellie Lane I was overjoyed to see you, and I'm sure you were overjoyed to see me, so I give you this address."

"Oh, do you have a lawyer's apartment?" I said.

"Well, a quarter of a room and a corridor, and a quarter of a clerk," replied Traddles, "three other guys and I have jointly rented a group of lawyers' flats—seemingly —We have the clerk too. I give him half a crown a week."

I think there was something of his old simplicity, kindness, and old misfortune in his smile as he explained.

"I don't often give out the address of this place, Copperfield, you see," said Traddles, "not because I'm a little proud, but because those who come to see me don't like coming here. Personally, I am continuing to fight in the world, and it would be absurd for me to act otherwise."

"You're studying law, Mr. Waterbrook said," I said.

"Oh, yes," said Traddles, rubbing his hands over and over again, "but, actually, I put off doing it for a long time, some time after the engagement was made, but that hundred pounds was a lot of money. Difficult. Difficult!" said Traddles, as though a tooth had been pulled out.

"Traddles, do you know what I can't help thinking when I look at you?" I asked him.

"I don't know," he said.

"That sky blue dress you used to have."

"Ah, of course!" he laughed. "Clinging to arms and legs, you know? Well, well, those are some happy days, aren't they?"

"I believe it would have made those days happier if our principal had been less strict," I replied.

"Perhaps," he said, "but, well, do you remember that life in the dorm? When we used to have dinner? When we used to tell stories? Ha, ha, ha! You remember me crying over Michael When you're punished, sir? Old Crigul! I'd love to see him again!"

"He's been rude to you!" I said angrily, his delight making me feel as though I had seen him punished just yesterday.

"Do you think so?" went on Traddles. "Really? Perhaps so, but it was a long time ago. Old Crigulle!"

"You were living off an uncle, weren't you?" I asked.

"Yes!" said Traddles, "I used to write to him and couldn't, er, ha, ha! Yes, I had an uncle then, who died not long after I left school. gone."

"real!"

"Yes, he's a retired—what do you call him—clothman—a cloth merchant—and he used to make me his heir. But he hated me when I grew up."

"Is it true what you say?" I said, and he was so composed that I thought he must have said something else.

"Oh, really, Copperfield! I'm telling the truth," returned Traddles. "It's a sad thing, but he really hates me. He says I'm not at all what he wants." , so he married his housekeeper."

"And you?" I asked.

He said, "I lived with them, waiting to be cast out into society, until his gout had unfortunately spread to his stomach—and he died, and she remarried, and I was alone, and that was all. "

"After all, Traddles, have you got anything?"

He said: "I got fifty pounds. I never learned any talent, and at first I didn't know what to do. But with the help of the son of a specialist who went to Salem's school--Jaurel, nose Sideways. Do you remember him?"

"With his help I transcribed legal papers, and that was not enough for a living. Then I began to state events for them, and write summaries, and the like. For I worked hard, Copperfield, and had learned how to concentrate I've been doing that sort of thing for a long time, so I decided to study law, and I used up the fifty pounds left over, but Jaurer put me in a firm or two--I got a lot of work. I also Met a guy from a publishing house who was editing a kind of encyclopedia, and he gave me work, actually" (he looks at the table) "I'm working for him now, and I'm not bad at editing, Copperfield, said Traddles, with his usual cheerfulness, "but I'm not at all original. There's never been a young man less original than I."

As Traddles seemed to expect me to admit that it was a matter of course, I nodded.With the same vigorous perseverance--I can't put it better--he went on as before.

(End of this chapter)