—“And I hope I should have improved, being very anxious to learn, and he very patient to teach me, if the great misfortune of his death”⁠—my mother broke down again here, and could get no farther.

“Well, well!” said Miss Betsey.

—“I kept my housekeeping-book regularly, and balanced it with Mr. Copperfield every night,” cried my mother in another burst of distress, and breaking down again.

“Well, well!” said Miss Betsey. “Don’t cry any more.”

—“And I am sure we never had a word of difference respecting it, except when Mr. Copperfield objected to my threes and fives being too much like each other, or to my putting curly tails to my sevens and nines,” resumed my mother in another burst, and breaking down again.