David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Chapter 20 Page 16

‘Really!’ said Miss Dartle. ‘Well, I don’t know, now, when I have been better pleased than to hear that.

It’s so consoling! It’s such a delight to know that, when they suffer, they don’t feel! Sometimes I have been quite uneasy for that sort of people; but now I shall just dismiss the idea of them, altogether. Live and learn. I had my doubts, I confess, but now they’re cleared up. I didn’t know, and now I do know, and that shows the advantage of asking — don’t it?’

I believed that Steerforth had said what he had, in jest, or to draw Miss Dartle out; and I expected him to say as much when she was gone, and we two were sitting before the fire.

But he merely asked me what I thought of her.