David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Chapter 19 Page 12

‘Oh! that was as a child, or a schoolboy,’ said I, laughing in my turn, not without being a little shame-faced.

‘Times are altering now, and I suppose I shall be in a terrible state of earnestness one day or other. My wonder is, that you are not in earnest yourself, by this time, Agnes.’

Agnes laughed again, and shook her head.

‘Oh, I know you are not!’ said I, ‘because if you had been you would have told me. Or at least’ — for I saw a faint blush in her face, ‘you would have let me find it out for myself.

But there is no one that I know of, who deserves to love you, Agnes. Someone of a nobler character, and more worthy altogether than anyone I have ever