David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Chapter 39 Page 10

old house; and that Mrs. Micawber would be delighted to receive me, once more, under her own roof.

‘It is humble,’ said Mr. Micawber, ‘ — to quote a favourite expression of my friend Heep; but it may prove the stepping-stone to more ambitious domiciliary accommodation.’

I asked him whether he had reason, so far, to be satisfied with his friend Heep’s treatment of him? He got up to ascertain if the door were close shut, before he replied, in a lower voice:

‘My dear Copperfield, a man who labours under the pressure of pecuniary embarrassments, is, with the generality of people, at a disadvantage.

That disadvantage is not diminished, when that pressure necessitates the