s about that, I believe.«
    »Barkis, do you mean?«
    »Yes!« still feeling in his pockets, and looking over their contents: »it's
all over with poor Barkis, I am afraid. I saw a little apothecary there -
surgeon, or whatever he is - who brought your worship into the world. He was
mighty learned about the case, to me; but the upshot of his opinion was, that
the carrier was making his last journey rather fast. - Put your hand into the
breast pocket of my great-coat on the chair yonder, and I think you'll find the
letter. Is it there?«
    »Here it is!« said I.
    »That's right!«
    It was from Peggotty; something less legible than usual, and brief. It
informed me of her husband's hopeless state, and hinted at his being a little
nearer than heretofore, and consequently more difficult to manage for his own
comfort. It said nothing of her weariness and watching, and praised him highly.
It was written with a plain, unaffected, homely piety that I knew to be genuine,
and ended with my duty to my ever darling - meaning myself.
    While I deciphered it, Steerforth continued to eat and drink.
    »It's a bad job,« he said, when I had done; »but the sun sets every day, and
people die every minute, and we mustn't be scared by the common lot. If we
failed to hold our own, because that equal foot at all men's doors was heard
knocking somewhere, every object in this world would slip from us. No! Ride on!
Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on over
all obstacles, and win the race!«
    »And win what race?« said I.
    »The race that one has started in,« said he. »Ride on!«
    I noticed, I remember, as he paused, looking at me with his handsome head a
little thrown back, and his glass raised in his hand, that, though the freshness
of the sea-wind was on his face, and it was ruddy, there were traces in it, made
since I last saw it, as if he had applied himself to some habitual strain of the
fervent energy which, when roused, was so passionately roused within him. I had
it in my thoughts to remonstrate with him upon his desperate way of pursuing any
fancy that he
