Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
'Mr. and Mrs. Micawber!' I repeated. 'Why, I am intimately acquainted with them!' An opportune double knock at the door, which I knew well from old experience in Windsor Terrace, and which nobody but Mr. Micawber could ever have knocked at that door, resolved any doubt in my mind as to their being my old friends. I begged Traddles to ask his landlord to walk up. Traddles accordingly did so, over the banister; and Mr. Micawber, not a bit changed - his tights, his stick, his shirt-collar, and his eye-glass, all the same as ever - came into the room with a genteel and youthful air. 'I beg your pardon, Mr. Traddles,' said Mr. Micawber, with the old roll in his voice, as he checked himself in humming a soft tune. 'I was not aware that there was any individual, alien to this tenement, in your sanctum.' Mr. Micawber slightly bowed to me, and pulled up his shirt-collar. 'How do you do, Mr. Micawber?' said I. 'Sir,' said Mr. Micawber, 'you are exceedingly obliging. I am in statu quo.' 'And Mrs. Micawber?' I pursued. 'Sir,' said Mr. Micawber, 'she is also, thank God, in statu quo.' 'And the children, Mr. Micawber?' 'Sir,' said Mr. Micawber, 'I rejoice to reply that they are, likewise, in the enjoyment of salubrity.' All this time, Mr. Micawber had not known me in the least, though he had stood face to face with me. But now, seeing me smile, he examined my features with more attention, fell back, cried, 'Is it possible! Have I the pleasure of again beholding Copperfield!' and shook me by both hands with the utmost fervour. 'Good Heaven, Mr. Traddles!' said Mr. Micawber, 'to think that I should find you acquainted with the friend of my youth, the companion of earlier days! My dear!' calling over the banisters to Mrs. Micawber, while Traddles looked (with reason) not a little amazed at this description of me. 'Here is a gentleman in Mr. |