David Copperfield

Chapter 76 A loss (2)
Chapter 30 A Loss(2)
"As a result," continued Mr. Omer, "Emily is still a little depressed, and a little restless, or rather, she is more so than ever. She seems to love her uncle more and more each day, and to want to be with her uncle more and more every day. We all parted. One of my kind words brought tears to her eyes, and if you ever saw her with my daughter Minnie's little girl, you'd never forget it. Ouch!" said Mr. Omer thoughtfully, "How much she loves that child!"

On such a suitable occasion, I thought of asking Mr. Omer if he knew anything about Martha before our conversation was interrupted by the return of his daughter and son-in-law.

"Ah!" he replied, shaking his head, very discouraged, "no, a sad story, sir, no matter how you look at it. I never thought the girl was guilty. I don't want to bring it up in front of my daughter Minnie— —because she'd stop me right away—but I never mentioned it."

Before I could hear his daughter's footsteps, Mr. Omer heard it, and touched me with his pipe, and closed one eye to signal me.His daughter and son-in-law came in immediately.

Mr. Barkis, they said, was in a "worse condition than could be worse"; , also to no avail.Mr. Qillpool said that neither society was good for him, and that one only made him sicker still.

On hearing this report, and knowing that Mr. Peggotty was there, I resolved to go at once.I said good-bye to Mr. Omer, and to Mr. and Mrs. Yoland, and went thither with a feeling of sorrow.

I knocked softly at the door, and Mr Peggotty came out and opened it.He was not as surprised when he saw me as I had expected.She was like that when Peggotty came down, and I have seen the same expression since, and all other changes and surprises vanished, I think, in anticipation of something quite astonishing.

I shook hands with Mr. Peggotty, went in, and closed the door softly.Little Emily sat by the fire with her face in her hands, and Ham stood beside her.

We talked in low tones, stopping now and then to listen for the slightest sound upstairs.I now have a feeling that I didn't have on my last visit, how strange it is not to see Mr Bagis in the kitchen!

"You are too kind, Master Wei," said Mr. Peggotty.

"Very kind," said Ham.

"Emily, my dear," cried Mr Peggotty, "look! here comes Master Wei! Come on, cheer up, my boy! Won't you say a word to Master Wei?"

Until now, I can still see her body tremble a bit, and I can feel the coldness when she touches my hand.Her mere gesture of movement was to let her hand out of mine, then get down from the chair, sneak over to her uncle's other side, and lay trembling quietly on his chest.

"A heart as tender as this," said Mr. Peggotty, stroking her fair hair with his large hands, "could not bear such pain. It is reasonable in young men, Master Weiss, who are not used to the conditions here." This annoyance, as timid as my little bird—is quite justified."

She hugged him even tighter, without looking up, and without speaking.

"It's getting late, my dear," said Mr Peggotty, "and Ham has come to take you home. Say! Go back with another tender heart! Emily! Well, good boy!"

I did not hear her voice, but he bent his head as if listening to her, and said:

"Let you stay with your uncle? Well, how can you make such a request to me! Didn't your future husband come to fetch you back? Well, look at this little thing relying on a stormy man like me , who would have guessed," said Mr Peggotty, looking at us both with boundless pride, "but there is not so much salt in the sea as there is in her heart for her uncle—a foolish little Emily!"

"Perhaps Emily was right to do it, Master Wright!" said Ham. "Look! Since Emily likes it, and she looks so anxious and flustered, I can let her stay. I'll stay too Bar!"

"No, no," said Mr. Peggotty, "a married man—or almost married—as you are should not waste a day's work. You can't keep watch and work. That's wrong. It is possible. You go home. You needn't be afraid that Emily is not cared about, I understand."

Ham obeyed his advice, took his hat and went to the door.When he kissed her—whenever I saw him near her, I always felt that nature endowed him with a civilized soul—she seemed to cling more tightly to her uncle, and even to escape from her chosen husband. .Then I went to close the door so as not to disturb the peace of the whole house.When I came back, I found Mr. Peggotty still talking to her.

"Then, I'm going downstairs and tell your aunt that Master Wei is here. She will be happier to hear that," he said, "you sit by the fire for a while, my dear, and warm your cold eyes." You don't have to be so frightened, so sad. What? You want to come with me?—Yes! Come with me—come! If her uncle is thrown out of the house and thrown into the gutter, Wei Sir," said Mr Peggotty, with no less pride than he had ever done, "there will be others,—and soon there will be others, Emily!"

Later, when I went upstairs, as I passed the door of my cubicle (it was dark inside), it seemed to me that she was inside, lying on the floor.However, whether it is she herself or the shadow in the room, I am not sure now.

In front of the kitchen fire I had occasion to think of pretty little Emily's terror of death--to which I added Mr. Omer's reasons for thinking her so--and I even An opportunity to think more sympathetically about the frailties of the mood: sitting there counting the ticks of the clock while thinking this way deepened my sense of the solemnity around me.Peggotty took me in her arms, and she took me as a great comfort (so she said).Then she took me upstairs, and whimpered that Mr. Barkis had always loved me, praised me a lot, and talked about me a lot before he fell into a coma.She thought that if he woke up again, he would be happy to see me, as long as he could be happy.

When I saw him, I thought his chances of being happy again were slim.He lay there in an uncomfortable position, head and shoulders out of the bed, leaning against the box that had given him so much distress and difficulty.I've heard that when he couldn't get out of the bed to open it, or check it with the bougie I used to see him use, he taught someone to put the box on the chair by the bed, and from then on , he just held it all day.Now his arm was on it, and time was slipping away, but the box was still there, and his last words were (in an explanatory tone): "Old clothes!"

"Baggis, my dear!" said Peggotty excitedly, leaning over Mr. Peggotty, when we were both standing at the foot of the bed, "my dear boy has come to bring us together." Here comes my dear boy, Master Wei, Bagis! Your messenger, won't you speak to Master Wei?"

He couldn't speak, he couldn't feel, and his shape got its only expression from that box.

"He's going," said Mr Peggotty to me, covering his mouth with his hand.

My eyes were moistened, and Mr. Peggotty's were clouded.

"The people of the sea," said Mr. Peggotty, "don't die till the tide is nearly out. They don't give birth until the tide is nearly full—not until it's high. 03:30 Ebb tide, average The tide for half an hour. If he lives till the tide comes up again, he'll live a little longer and go back with the next tide."

We stayed there and waited for him for several hours.I do not wish to say what mystifying effect my presence had on him in that state of mind.But when he finally started speaking weakly, what he said was absolutely true about sending me to school.

"He's awake," said Peggotty.

Mr Peggotty touched me, and whispered, with great sanctity, "He's going with the tide."

"Baggis, my dear!" said Peggotty.

"C. Poe Bagis," he cried weakly, "there's no kinder woman in the world!"

"Look! Master Wei is coming!" said Peggotty.Because he finally opened his eyes.

I was about to ask him if he recognized me, when he stretched out his arm, and with a happy smile on his face, he said to me clearly:

"Baggis is willing!"

Just when the tide was ebbing, he went with the tide.

(End of this chapter)