 motives, the poverty of my family, the general
moral (or rather immoral) resemblance between myself and - HEEP. Need I say,
that it soon became necessary for me to solicit from - HEEP - pecuniary advances
towards the support of Mrs. Micawber, and our blighted but rising family? Need I
say that this necessity had been foreseen by - HEEP? That those advances were
secured by I. O. U.'s and other similar acknowledgments, known to the legal
institutions of this country? And that I thus became immeshed in the web he had
spun for my reception?«
    Mr. Micawber's enjoyment of his epistolary powers, in describing this
unfortunate state of things, really seemed to outweigh any pain or anxiety that
the reality could have caused him. He read on:
    »Then it was that - HEEP - began to favour me with just so much of his
confidence, as was necessary to the discharge of his infernal business. Then it
was that I began, if I may so Shakespearingly express myself, to dwindle, peak,
and pine. I found that my services were constantly called into requisition for
the falsification of business, and the mystification of an individual whom I
will designate as Mr. W. That Mr. W. was imposed upon, kept in ignorance, and
deluded, in every possible way; yet, that all this while, the ruffian - HEEP -
was professing unbounded gratitude to, and unbounded friendship for, that
much-abused gentleman. This was bad enough; but, as the philosophic Dane
observes, with that universal applicability which distinguishes the illustrious
ornament of the Elizabethan Era, worse remains behind!«
    Mr. Micawber was so very much struck by this happy rounding off with a
quotation, that he indulged himself, and us, with a second reading of the
sentence, under pretence of having lost his place.
    »It is not my intention,« he continued, reading on, »to enter on a detailed
list, within the compass of the present epistle (though it is ready elsewhere),
of the various malpractices of a minor nature, affecting the individual whom I
have denominated Mr. W., to which I have been a tacitly consenting party. My
object, when the contest within myself between stipend and no stipend, baker and
no baker, existence and non-existence, ceased, was to take advantage of my
opportunities to discover and expose the major malpractices committed, to that
gentleman's grievous wrong and injury, by - HEEP. Stimulated by the silent
monitor within, and by a no less touching
