 is our
umbleness, I hope you won't mind owning to it, Master Copperfield; for we are
all well aware of our condition.«
    I said I would mention it to Mr. Wickfield, and if he approved, as I had no
doubt he would, I would come with pleasure. So, at six o'clock that evening,
which was one of the early office evenings, I announced myself as ready, to
Uriah.
    »Mother will be proud, indeed,« he said, as we walked away together. »Or she
would be proud, if it wasn't sinful, Master Copperfield.«
    »Yet you didn't mind supposing I was proud this morning,« I returned.
    »Oh dear, no, Master Copperfield!« returned Uriah. »Oh, believe me, no! Such
a thought never came into my head! I shouldn't have deemed it at all proud if
you had thought us too umble for you. Because we are so very umble.«
    »Have you been studying much law lately?« I asked, to change the subject.
    »Oh, Master Copperfield,« he said, with an air of self-denial, »my reading
is hardly to be called study. I have passed an hour or two in the evening,
sometimes, with Mr. Tidd.«
    »Rather hard, I suppose?« said I.
    »He is hard to me sometimes,« returned Uriah. »But I don't know what he
might be to a gifted person.«
    After beating a little tune on his chin as he walked on, with the two
forefingers of his skeleton right hand, he added:
    »There are expressions, you see, Master Copperfield - Latin words and terms
- in Mr. Tidd, that are trying to a reader of my umble attainments.«
    »Would you like to be taught Latin?« I said, briskly. »I will teach it you
with pleasure, as I learn it.«
    »Oh, thank you, Master Copperfield,« he answered, shaking his head. »I am
sure it's very kind of you to make the offer, but I am much too umble to accept
it.«
    »What nonsense, Uriah!«
    »Oh, indeed you must excuse me, Master Copperfield! I am greatly obliged,
and I should like it of all things, I assure you; but I am far too umble. There
are people enough to tread upon me in my lowly state, without my doing outrage
to their
