That evening Steerforth and I went to see Mr. Peggotty and my other friends in the boat, and we were so warmly received that it was nearly midnight when we took our leave.  We stayed in Yarmouth for more than a fortnight, and I made many pilgrimages to the dear haunts of my childhood, particularly to that place where my mother and father lay, and mingled with my sad thoughts were brighter ones, about my future—­and of how in it I was to become a man of whom they might have been proud.

At the end of the fortnight came a letter from Aunt Betsey, saying that she had taken lodgings for a week in London, and that if I would join her, we could discuss her latest plan for me, which was that I become a proctor in Doctors’ Commons.

I mentioned the plan to Steerforth, and he advised me to take kindly to it, and by the time that I reached London I had made up my mind to do so.  My aunt was greatly pleased when I told her this, whereupon I proceeded to add that my only objection to the plan lay in the great expense it would be to article me,—­a thousand pounds at least.  I spoke of her past liberality to me, and asked her whether I had not better choose some work which required less expensive preliminaries.

For a time my aunt was deep in thought.  Then she replied: 

“Trot, my child, if I have any object in life, it is to provide for your being a good, sensible, and happy man.  I am bent upon it.  It’s in vain, Trot, to recall the past, unless it has some influence upon the present.  Perhaps I might have been better friends with your father and mother.  When you came to me, a little runaway boy, perhaps I thought so.  From that time until now, Trot, you have ever been a credit to me, and a pride and pleasure.  I have no other claim upon my means,—­and you are my adopted child.  Only be a loving child to me in my old age, and bear with my whims and fancies, and you will do more for an old woman whose prime of life was not so happy as it might have been, than ever that old woman did for you.”

It was the first time I had heard my aunt refer to her past history.  Her quiet way of doing it would have exalted her in my respect and affection, if anything could.

“All is agreed and understood between us now, Trot,” she said, “and we need talk of this no more.  Give me a kiss, and we’ll go to the Commons in the morning.”

And accordingly at noon the next day we made our way to Doctors’ Commons, interviewed Mr. Spenlow, of the firm of Spenlow and Jorkins, and I was accepted on a month’s probation as an articled clerk.  Mr. Spenlow then conducted me through the Court, that I might see what sort of a place it was.  Then my aunt and I set off in search of lodgings for me, and before night I was the proud and happy owner of the key to a little set of chambers in the Adelphi, conveniently situated near the Court, and to my taste in all ways.  Seeing how enraptured I was with them, my aunt took them for a month, with the privilege of a year, made arrangements with the landlady about meals and linen, and I was to take possession in two days; during which time I saw Aunt Betsey safely started on her homeward journey towards Dover, dreading to leave me, but exulting in the coming discomfiture of the vagrant donkeys.