Charles Dickens

“ First of all we had Prince, who in his hurried intervals of teaching used to come softly in and sit softly down, with a face of loving anxiety for Caddy and the very little child. Whatever Caddy’s condition really was, she never failed to declare to Prince that she was all but well—which I, heaven forgive me, never failed to confirm. This would put Prince in such good spirits that he would sometimes take the kit from his pocket and play a chord or two to astonish the baby, which I never knew it to do in the least degree, for my tiny namesake never noticed it at all. ”

“ Mr. Woodcourt dined with us to celebrate my darling’s birthday, and we were as pleasant as we could be with the great blank among us that Richard’s absence naturally made on such an occasion. After that day I was for some weeks—eight or nine as I remember—very much with Caddy, and thus it fell out that I saw less of Ada at this time than any other since we had first come together, except the time of my own illness. ”

“ Woodcourt will make another voyage?” I asked him when I had hummed it quietly all through.
“I don’t quite know what to think, my dear, but I should say it was likely at present that he will give a long trip to another country.”
“I am sure he will take the best wishes of all our hearts with him wherever he goes,” said I; “and though they are not riches, he will never be the poorer for them, guardian, at least.” ”

“ Constant dropping will wear away a stone, and constant coaching will wear out a Dame Durden. We will go to London for a while and take possession of our old lodgings.”
“Not for me, dear guardian,” said I, “for I never feel tired,” which was strictly true. I was only too happy to be in such request.
“For me then,” returned my guardian, “or for Ada, or for both of us. It is somebody’s birthday to-morrow, I think.”
“Truly I think it is,” said I, kissing my darling, who would be twenty-one to-morrow. ”

“ In return for this consideration he would come into the room once a day, all but blessing it—showing a condescension, and a patronage, and a grace of manner in dispensing the light of his high- shouldered presence from which I might have supposed him (if I had not known better) to have been the benefactor of Caddy’s life.
“My Caroline,” he would say, making the nearest approach that he could to bending over her. “Tell me that you are better to-day.” ”