‘Have you been studying much law lately?’ I asked, to change the subject.

‘Oh, Master Copperfield,’ he said, with an air of self-denial, ‘my reading is hardly to be called study. I have passed an hour or two in the evening, sometimes, with Mr. Tidd.’

‘Rather hard, I suppose?’ said I.

‘He is hard to me sometimes,’ returned Uriah. ‘But I don’t know what he might be to a gifted person.’

After beating a little tune on his chin as he walked on, with the two forefingers of his skeleton right hand, he added:

‘There are expressions, you see, Master Copperfield — Latin words and terms — in Mr. Tidd, that are trying to a reader of my umble attainments.’