As to the Commons, I had no great occasion to be particular about my duties in that quarter. To say the truth, we were getting in no very good odour among the tip-top proctors, and were rapidly sliding down to but a doubtful position. The business had been indifferent under Mr. Jorkins, before Mr. Spenlow’s time; and although it had been quickened by the infusion of new blood, and by the display which Mr. Spenlow made, still it was not established on a sufficiently strong basis to bear, without being shaken, such a blow as the sudden loss of its active manager. It fell off very much. Mr. Jorkins, notwithstanding his reputation in the firm, was an easy-going, incapable sort of man, whose reputation out of doors was not calculated to back it up. I was turned over to him now, and when I saw him take his snuff and let the business go, I regretted my aunt’s thousand pounds more than ever.
But this was not the worst of it.There were a number of hangers-on and outsiders about the Commons,who, without being proctors themselves,dabbled in common-form business,and got it done by real proctors,who lent their names in consideration of a share in the spoil;--and there were a good many of these too.As our house now wanted business on any terms,we joined this noble band;and threw out lures to the hangers-on and outsiders,to bring their business to us.Marriage licences and small probates were what we all looked for,and what paid us best;and the competition for these ran very high indeed.Kidnappers and inveiglers were planted in all the avenues of entrance to the Commons, with instructions to do their utmost to cut off all persons in mourning, and all gentlemen with anything bashful in their appearance, and entice them to the offices in which their respective employers were interested; which instructions were so well observed, that I myself, before I was known by sight, was twice hustled into the premises of our principal opponent. The conflicting interests of these touting gentlemen being of a nature to irritate their feelings, personal collisions took place; and the Commons was even scandalized by our principal inveigler (who had formerly been in the wine trade, and afterwards in the sworn brokery line) walking about for some days with a black eye. Any one of these scouts used to think nothing of politely assisting an old lady in black out of a vehicle, killing any proctor whom she inquired for, representing his employer as the lawful successor and representative of that proctor, and bearing the old lady off (sometimes greatly affected) to his employer’s office. Many captives were brought to me in this way. As to marriage licences, the competition rose to such a pitch, that a shy gentleman in want of one, had nothing to do but submit himself to the first inveigler, or be fought for, and become the prey of the strongest. One of our clerks, who was an outsider, used, in the height of this contest, to sit with his hat on, that he might be ready to rush out and swear before a surrogate any victim who was brought in. The system of inveigling continues, I believe, to this day. The last time I was in the Commons, a civil able-bodied person in a white apron pounced out upon me from a doorway, and whispering the word ‘Marriage-licence’ in my ear, was with great difficulty prevented from taking me up in his arms and lifting me into a proctor’s. From this digression, let me proceed to Dover.
I found everything in a satisfactory state at the cottage;and was enabled to gratify my aunt exceedingly by reporting that the tenant inherited her feud, and waged incessant war against donkeys. Having settled the little business I had to transact there, and slept there one night, I walked on to Canterbury early in the morning. It was now winter again; and the fresh, cold windy day, and the sweeping downland, brightened up my hopes a little.
Coming into Canterbury,I loitered through the old streets with a sober pleasure that calmed my spirits, and eased my heart. There were the old signs, the old names over the shops, the old people serving in them. It appeared so long, since I had been a schoolboy there, that I wondered the place was so little changed, until I reflected how little I was changed myself. Strange to say, that quiet influence which was inseparable in my mind from Agnes, seemed to pervade even the city where she dwelt. The venerable cathedral towers, and the old jackdaws and rooks whose airy voices made them more retired than perfect silence would have done; the battered gateways, one stuck full with statues, long thrown down, and crumbled away, like the reverential pilgrims who had gazed upon them; the still nooks, where the ivied growth of centuries crept over gabled ends and ruined walls; the ancient houses, the pastoral landscape of field, orchard, and garden; everywhere--on everything--I felt the same serener air, the same calm, thoughtful, softening spirit.
Arrived at Mr. Wickfield’s house, I found,in the little lower room on the ground floor,where Uriah Heep had been of old accustomed to sit, Mr.Micawber plying his pen with great assiduity.He was dressed in a legal-looking suit of black,and loomed, burly and large, in that small office.
Mr. Micawber was extremely glad to see me,but a little confused too.He would have conducted me immediately into the presence of Uriah, but I declined.
‘I know the house of old, you recollect,’ said I,‘and will find my way upstairs.How do you like the law, Mr. Micawber?’
‘My dear Copperfield,’ he replied.‘To a man possessed of the higher imaginative powers,the objection to legal studies is the amount of detail which they involve.Even in our professional correspondence,’ said Mr.Micawber, glancing at some letters he was writing,‘the mind is not at liberty to soar to any exalted form of expression.Still, it is a great pursuit. A great pursuit!’
He then told me that he had become the tenant of Uriah Heep’s old house;and that Mrs. Micawber would be delighted to receive me,once more, under her own roof.
‘It is humble,’ said Mr. Micawber,‘--to quote a favourite expression of my friend Heep;but it may prove the stepping-stone to more ambitious domiciliary accommodation.’
I asked him whether he had reason, so far,to be satisfied with his friend Heep’s treatment of him?He got up to ascertain if the door were close shut,before he replied, in a lower voice:
‘My dear Copperfield,a man who labours under the pressure of pecuniary embarrassments,is, with the generality of people, at a disadvantage.That disadvantage is not diminished,when that pressure necessitates the drawing of stipendiary emoluments,before those emoluments are strictly due and payable.All I can say is, that my friend Heep has responded to appeals to which I need not more particularly refer, in a manner calculated to redound equally to the honour of his head, and of his heart.’
‘I should not have supposed him to be very free with his money either, ’ I observed.
‘Pardon me!’ said Mr. Micawber, with an air of constraint,‘I speak of my friend Heep as I have experience.’
‘I am glad your experience is so favourable, ’ I returned.
‘You are very obliging, my dear Copperfield,’ said Mr.Micawber; and hummed a tune.
‘Do you see much of Mr. Wickfield?’ I asked, to change the subject.
‘Not much,’ said Mr. Micawber, slightingly. ‘Mr.Wickfield is, I dare say,a man of very excellent intentions;but he is--in short, he is obsolete.’
‘I am afraid his partner seeks to make him so,’ said I.