It was occasioned, I suppose,by the reverend nature of respectability in the abstract,but I felt particularly young in this man’s presence.How old he was himself,I could not guess--and that again went to his credit on the same score;for in the calmness of respectability he might have numbered fifty years as well as thirty.
Littimer was in my room in the morning before I was up,to bring me that reproachful shaving-water,and to put out my clothes.When I undrew the curtains and looked out of bed,I saw him, in an equable temperature of respectability,unaffected by the east wind of January,and not even breathing frostily,standing my boots right and left in the first dancing position,and blowing specks of dust off my coat as he laid it down like a baby.
I gave him good morning,and asked him what o’clock it was.He took out of his pocket the most respectable hunting-watch I ever saw,and preventing the spring with his thumb from opening far,looked in at the face as if he were consulting an oracular oyster,shut it up again, and said, if I pleased,it was half past eight.
‘Mr. Steerforth will be glad to hear how you have rested, sir.’
‘Thank you,’ said I, ‘very well indeed. Is Mr.Steerforth quite well?’
‘Thank you, sir, Mr. Steerforth is tolerably well.’ Another of his characteristics--no use of superlatives.A cool calm medium always.
‘Is there anything more I can have the honour of doing for you, sir?The warning-bell will ring at nine;the family take breakfast at half past nine.’
‘Nothing, I thank you.’
‘I thank YOU, sir, if you please’; and with that,and with a little inclination of his head when he passed the bed-side,as an apology for correcting me, he went out,shutting the door as delicately as if I had just fallen into a sweet sleep on which my life depended.
Every morning we held exactly this conversation:never any more, and never any less: and yet,invariably, however far I might have been lifted out of myself over-night,and advanced towards maturer years,by Steerforth’s companionship, or Mrs.Steerforth’s confidence, or Miss Dartle’s conversation,in the presence of this most respectable man I became,as our smaller poets sing, ‘a boy again’.
He got horses for us; and Steerforth,who knew everything, gave me lessons in riding.He provided foils for us,and Steerforth gave me lessons in fencing--gloves,and I began, of the same master, to improve in boxing.It gave me no manner of concern that Steerforth should find me a novice in these sciences, but I never could bear to show my want of skill before the respectable Littimer. I had no reason to believe that Littimer understood such arts himself; he never led me to suppose anything of the kind, by so much as the vibration of one of his respectable eyelashes; yet whenever he was by, while we were practising, I felt myself the greenest and most inexperienced of mortals.
I am particular about this man,because he made a particular effect on me at that time,and because of what took place thereafter.
The week passed away in a most delightful manner.It passed rapidly, as may be supposed,to one entranced as I was;and yet it gave me so many occasions for knowing Steerforth better,and admiring him more in a thousand respects,that at its close I seemed to have been with him for a much longer time.A dashing way he had of treating me like a plaything,was more agreeable to me than any behaviour he could have adopted.It reminded me of our old acquaintance;it seemed the natural sequel of it;it showed me that he was unchanged;it relieved me of any uneasiness I might have felt,in comparing my merits with his,and measuring my claims upon his friendship by any equal standard;above all, it was a familiar, unrestrained,affectionate demeanour that he used towards no one else.As he had treated me at school differently from all the rest,I joyfully believed that he treated me in life unlike any other friend he had.I believed that I was nearer to his heart than any other friend,and my own heart warmed with attachment to him.He made up his mind to go with me into the country,and the day arrived for our departure.He had been doubtful at first whether to take Littimer or not,but decided to leave him at home.The respectable creature,satisfied with his lot whatever it was,arranged our portmanteaux on the little carriage that was to take us into London, as if they were intended to defy the shocks of ages, and received my modestly proffered donation with perfect tranquillity.
We bade adieu to Mrs. Steerforth and Miss Dartle,with many thanks on my part,and much kindness on the devoted mother’s.The last thing I saw was Littimer’s unruffled eye;fraught, as I fancied,with the silent conviction that I was very young indeed.
What I felt, in returning so auspiciously to the old familiar places,I shall not endeavour to describe.We went down by the Mail. I was so concerned,I recollect, even for the honour of Yarmouth,that when Steerforth said,as we drove through its dark streets to the inn, that,as well as he could make out, it was a good, queer,out-of-the-way kind of hole, I was highly pleased.We went to bed on our arrival (I observed a pair of dirty shoes and gaiters in connexion with my old friend the Dolphin as we passed that door), and breakfasted late in the morning. Steerforth, who was in great spirits, had been strolling about the beach before I was up, and had made acquaintance, he said, with half the boatmen in the place. Moreover, he had seen, in the distance, what he was sure must be the identical house of Mr. Peggotty, with smoke coming out of the chimney; and had had a great mind, he told me, to walk in and swear he was myself grown out of knowledge.
‘When do you propose to introduce me there, Daisy?’ he said. ‘I am at your disposal.Make your own arrangements.’
‘Why, I was thinking that this evening would be a good time,Steerforth, when they are all sitting round the fire.I should like you to see it when it’s snug,it’s such a curious place.’
‘So be it!’ returned Steerforth. ‘This evening.’
‘I shall not give them any notice that we are here,you know,’ said I, delighted.‘We must take them by surprise.’
‘Oh, of course!It’s no fun,’ said Steerforth,‘unless we take them by surprise.Let us see the natives in their aboriginal condition.’
‘Though they ARE that sort of people that you mentioned, ’ I returned.
‘Aha!What!you recollect my skirmishes with Rosa, do you?’ he exclaimed with a quick look. ‘Confound the girl,I am half afraid of her. She’s like a goblin to me.But never mind her. Now what are you going to do?You are going to see your nurse, I suppose?’
‘Why, yes,’ I said, ‘I must see Peggotty first of all.’
‘Well,’ replied Steerforth, looking at his watch.‘Suppose I deliver you up to be cried over for a couple of hours.Is that long enough?’
I answered, laughing,that I thought we might get through it in that time,but that he must come also;for he would find that his renown had preceded him,and that he was almost as great a personage as I was.
‘I’ll come anywhere you like,’ said Steerforth,‘or do anything you like. Tell me where to come to;and in two hours I’ll produce myself in any state you please,sentimental or comical.’
I gave him minute directions for finding the residence of Mr.Barkis, carrier to Blunderstone and elsewhere; and,on this understanding, went out alone.There was a sharp bracing air; the ground was dry;the sea was crisp and clear;the sun was diffusing abundance of light,if not much warmth;and everything was fresh and lively.I was so fresh and lively myself,in the pleasure of being there,that I could have stopped the people in the streets and shaken hands with them.