David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Chapter 3 Page 46

down, and began to pant, and said I had given her a turn.

I gave her a hug to take away the turn, or to give her another turn in the right direction, and then stood before her, looking at her in anxious inquiry.

‘You see, dear, I should have told you before now,’ said Peggotty, ‘but I hadn’t an opportunity.

I ought to have made it, perhaps, but I couldn’t azackly’ — that was always the substitute for exactly, in Peggotty’s militia of words — ‘bring my mind to it.’

‘Go on, Peggotty,’ said I, more frightened than before.

‘Master Davy,’ said Peggotty, untying her bonnet with a shaking hand, and speaking in a breathless sort of way.