The look of penetration with which Mrs. Micawber announced this discovery, as if no one had ever thought of it before, seemed rather to astonish my aunt; who abruptly replied, “Well, ma’am, upon the whole, I shouldn’t wonder if you were right!”
“ Mr. Micawber being now on the eve of casting off the pecuniary shackles that have so long enthralled him,” said Mrs. Micawber, “and of commencing a new career in a country where there is sufficient range for his abilities—which, in my opinion, is exceedingly important; Mr. Micawber’s abilities peculiarly requiring space—it seems to me that my family should signalize the occasion by coming forward. What I could wish to see, would be a meeting between Mr. Micawber and my family at a festive entertainment, to be given at my family’s expense; where Mr. Micawber’s health and prosperity being proposed, by some leading member of my family, Mr. Micawber might have an opportunity of developing his views.”
“My dear,” said Mr. Micawber, with some heat, “it may be better for me to state distinctly, at once, that if I were to develop my views to that assembled group, they would possibly be found of an offensive nature: my impression being that your family are, in the aggregate, impertinent snobs; and, in detail, unmitigated ruffians.”
“Micawber,” said Mrs. Micawber, shaking her head, “no! You have never understood them, and they have never understood you.”
Mr. Micawber coughed.
“They have never understood you, Micawber,” said his wife. “They may be incapable of it. If so, that is their misfortune. I can pity their misfortune.”
“I am extremely sorry, my dear Emma,” said Mr. Micawber, relenting, “to have been betrayed into any expressions that might, even remotely,