“Now, I’m not a-going to let myself be run down, Copperfield,” he continued, raising that part of his countenance, where his red eyebrows would have been if he had had any, with malignant triumph, “and I shall do what I can to put a stop to this friendship. I don’t approve of it. I don’t mind acknowledging to you that I’ve got rather a grudging disposition, and want to keep off all intruders. I ain’t a-going, if I know it, to run the risk of being plotted against.”

“You are always plotting, and delude yourself into the belief that everybody else is doing the like, I think,” said I.

“Perhaps so, Master Copperfield,” he replied. “But I’ve got a motive, as my fellow-partner used to say; and I go at it tooth and nail. I mustn’t be put upon, as a numble person, too much. I can’t allow people in my way. Really they must come out of the cart, Master Copperfield!”

“I don’t understand you,” said I.