 and a dish of
kidneys - from the pastry-cook's; a tart, and (if I liked) a shape of jelly -
from the pastry-cook's. This, Mrs. Crupp said, would leave her at full liberty
to concentrate her mind on the potatoes, and to serve up the cheese and celery
as she could wish to see it done.
    I acted on Mrs. Crupp's opinion, and gave the order at the pastry-cook's
myself. Walking along the Strand, afterwards, and observing a hard mottled
substance in the window of a ham and beef shop, which resembled marble, but was
labelled Mock Turtle, I went in and bought a slab of it, which I have since seen
reason to believe would have sufficed for fifteen people. This preparation, Mrs.
Crupp, after some difficulty, consented to warm up; and it shrunk so much in a
liquid state, that we found it what Steerforth called rather a tight fit for
four.
    These preparations happily completed, I bought a little dessert in Covent
Garden Market, and gave a rather extensive order at a retail wine-merchant's in
that vicinity. When I came home in the afternoon, and saw the bottles drawn up
in a square on the pantry-floor, they looked so numerous (though there were two
missing, which made Mrs. Crupp very uncomfortable), that I was absolutely
frightened at them.
    One of Steerforth's friends was named Grainger, and the other Markham. They
were both very gay and lively fellows; Grainger, something older than
Steerforth; Markham, youthful-looking, and I should say not more than twenty. I
observed that the latter always spoke of himself indefinitely, as a man, and
seldom or never in the first person singular.
    »A man might get on very well here, Mr. Copperfield,« said Markham - meaning
himself.
    »It's not a bad situation,« said I, »and the rooms are really commodious.«
    »I hope you have both brought appetites with you?« said Steerforth.
    »Upon my honour,« returned Markham, »town seems to sharpen a man's appetite.
A man is hungry all day long. A man is perpetually eating.«
    Being a little embarrassed at first, and feeling much too young to preside,
I made Steerforth take the head of the table when dinner was announced, and
seated myself opposite to him. Everything was very good; we did not spare the
wine; and he exerted himself so brilliantly to make the
