“I have thought a good deal about it, my dear aunt, and I have talked a good deal about it with Steerforth. I like it very much indeed. I like it exceedingly.”

“Come!” said my aunt. “That’s cheering!”

“I have only one difficulty, aunt.”

“Say what it is, Trot,” she returned.

“Why, I want to ask, aunt, as this seems, from what I understand, to be a limited profession, whether my entrance into it would not be very expensive?”

“It will cost,” returned my aunt, “to article you, just a thousand pounds.”