? Let them be brought forward. They
are mine!«
    Mr. Micawber, glancing at us all, seemed to think there was a good deal in
this idea.
    »I wish Mr. Micawber, if I make myself understood,« said Mrs. Micawber, in
her argumentative tone, »to be the Cæsar of his own fortunes. That, my dear Mr.
Copperfield, appears to me to be his true position. From the first moment of
this voyage, I wish Mr. Micawber to stand upon that vessel's prow and say,
Enough of delay: enough of disappointment: enough of limited means. That was in
the old country. This is the new. Produce your reparation. Bring it forward!«
    Mr. Micawber folded his arms in a resolute manner, as if he were then
stationed on the figure-head.
    »And doing that,« said Mrs. Micawber, »- feeling his position - am I not
right in saying that Mr. Micawber will strengthen, and not weaken, his connexion
with Britain? An important public character arising in that hemisphere, shall I
be told that its influence will not be felt at home? Can I be so weak as to
imagine that Mr. Micawber, wielding the rod of talent and of power in Australia,
will be nothing in England? I am but a woman; but I should be unworthy of
myself, and of my papa, if I were guilty of such absurd weakness.«
    Mrs. Micawber's conviction that her arguments were unanswerable, gave a
moral elevation to her tone which I think I had never heard in it before.
    »And therefore it is,« said Mrs. Micawber, »that I the more wish, that, at a
future period, we may live again on the parent soil. Mr. Micawber may be - I
cannot disguise from myself that the probability is, Mr. Micawber will be - a
page of History; and he ought then to be represented in the country which gave
him birth, and did not give him employment!«
    »My love,« observed Mr. Micawber, »it is impossible for me not to be touched
by your affection. I am always willing to defer to your good sense. What will be
- will be. Heaven forbid that I should grudge my native country any portion of
the wealth that may be accumulated by our descendants!«
    »That's well,« said my aunt, nodding towards Mr. Peggotty, »and I drink my
love to you all, and every blessing and success attend you
