 pursued Uriah.
»Dear me, what a prophet you have proved yourself to be! Don't you remember
saying to me once, that perhaps I should be a partner in Mr. Wickfield's
business, and perhaps it might be Wickfield and Heep? You may not recollect it;
but when a person is umble, Master Copperfield, a person treasures such things
up!«
    »I recollect talking about it,« said I, »though I certainly did not think it
very likely then.«
    »Oh! who would have thought it likely, Mister Copperfield!« returned Uriah,
enthusiastically. »I am sure I didn't myself. I recollect saying with my own
lips that I was much too umble. So I considered myself really and truly.«
    He sat, with that carved grin on his face, looking at the fire, as I looked
at him.
    »But the umblest persons, Master Copperfield,« he presently resumed, »may be
the instruments of good. I am glad to think I have been the instrument of good
to Mr. Wickfield, and that I may be more so. Oh what a worthy man he is, Mister
Copperfield, but how imprudent he has been!«
    »I am sorry to hear it,« said I. I could not help adding, rather pointedly,
»on all accounts.«
    »Decidedly so, Mister Copperfield,« replied Uriah. »On all accounts. Miss
Agnes's above all! You don't remember your own eloquent expressions, Master
Copperfield; but I remember how you said one day that everybody must admire her,
and how I thanked you for it! You have forgot that, I have no doubt, Master
Copperfield?«
    »No,« said I, drily.
    »Oh how glad I am you have not!« exclaimed Uriah. »To think that you should
be the first to kindle the sparks of ambition in my umble breast, and that
you've not forgot it! Oh! - Would you excuse me asking for a cup more coffee?«
    Something in the emphasis he laid upon the kindling of those sparks, and
something in the glance he directed at me as he said it, had made me start as if
I had seen him illuminated by a blaze of light. Recalled by his request,
preferred in quite another tone of voice, I did the honours of the shaving-pot;
but I did them with an unsteadiness of hand, a sudden sense of being no match
for him, and a perplexed suspicious anxiety as to what
