Lincoln's Inn-Fields, London

Miss Betsey had been staying at a private lodgings in Lincoln's Inn-Fields waiting supper, when Trotwood Copperfield arrived there after his trip to Yarmouth. Betsey cried out as she embraced Trot and said that Clara would have shed tears if she had been alive.

Janet accompanied her and Mr Dick was left alone at home.  She worried that Mr Dick would not keep  donkeys off her lawns. But she could not reverse her action.

The rooms were upstairs, but the supper was served hot.  It consisted of roast fowls, steak and vegetables.  Betsey had her own ideas about London provision, and ate but little.

'I suppose this unfortunate fowl was born and brought up in a cellar,' said Miss Betsey, 'and never took the air except on a hackney coach-stand.  I hope the steak may be beef, but I don't believe it.  Nothing is genuine in the place, but the dirt.'

'Don't you think the fowl may have come out of the country, aunt?' Copperfield hinted.

'Certainly not,' returned Betsey.  'It would be no pleasure to a London tradesman to sell anything genuine.'

When the table was cleared, Janet assisted her to arrange her hair, to put on her smart night cap, and to fold her gown back over her knees, these being her usual preparations for warming herself before going to bed.  Copperfield then made a preparation of spicy wine, and a slice of toast cut into long thin strips.  With these, they sat to finish the evening. Betsey sitting opposite to Trot, drinking her wine; soaking her strips of toast in it, one by one, before eating them; and looking benignantly on him from among the boarders of her night cap.

'Well, Trot,' she began, 'what do you think of the proctor plan?  Or have you not begun to think about it yet?'

'I have thought a good deal about it, aunt, and I have talked a good deal about it to Steerforth.  I like it very much.' 

'Come!' said my aunt.  'That's cheering!'

'I have only one difficulty, aunt.'

'Say what it is, Trot,' she returned.

'Why, I want to ask, aunt, as this seems, from what I understand, to be a limited profession, whether my entrance into it would not be very expensive?'

'It will cost,' returned my aunt, 'to article you, just thousand pounds.'

'Now my dear aunt,' said Trot, drawing his chair nearer, 'I am uneasy about that.  It's a large sum of money.  You have spent a great deal on my education, and has always been very liberal to me.  Surely there are some ways in which I might begin life with hardly any outlay, and yet begin with hope of getting on.  Are you sure it would not be a better course?  Are you sure you can afford that much money, and that it should be so expended?  I only ask you, my second mother, to consider.'

Miss Betsey finished that piece of toast she was eating, looking her nephew full in the face, and then setting her glass on chimney-piece, and folding her hands upon her folded skirts, replied as follows:

'Trot, my child, if I have any object in my life, it is to provide for your being a good, sensible, and a happy man.  I am bent upon it - so is Dick.  I should like you to hear Dick's conversation on the subject.  His wisdom is wonderful.  No one knows it except myself!'

She stopped for a moment to take his hand between hers, and went on:

'It's in vain, Trot, to recall past, unless it works some influence upon the present.  Perhaps I might have been better friends with your poor father.  Perhaps I might have been better friends with that poor child your, your mother.  When you came to me, a little runaway boy, all dusty and way worn, 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 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 or conciliating as it might have been, than ever that old woman did for you.'

It was the first time Trot heard his aunt refer her past.  There was a magnanimity in her quiet way of doing so.

'All is understood, and agreed between us, now, Trot,' said Miss Betsey, 'and we need talk of this no more.  Give me a kiss, and we'll go to the Commons after breakfast tomorrow.'

They had a long chat by the fire before they went to bed.  Trotwood was a little disturbed during night by aunt's knocking at his door as she was agitated by a distant sound of hackney-coaches and market carts, and inquring whether he heard it.  But towards morning she slept well.

At about mid-day Miss Betsey and her nephew set out for the office of Messers Spenlow and Jorkins, in Doctors' Commons.  Since she was afraid of pickpockets of London, she gave Trot her purse to carry for her. Trotwood found that there were ten guineas and some silver in it.

They lingered in a toy shop in Fleet  Street to time out they catch the Giants strike the Bells of St Dustan, at twelve o'clock.

After Ludgate Hill, Trotwood found that his aunt was accelerating her speed, and she looked frightened.  An ill-dressed man who had stopped and stared at them in passing, was coming so close after them as to brush against her.

'Trot!, My dear Trot!' cried Miss Betsey, in a terrified whisper, and pressing his arm.

'Don't be alarmed,' said Trotwood.  'There's nothing to be afraid of.  Step into a shop.  I'll soon get rid of this fellow.'

'No, no, child,' she returned.  'Don't speak to him for the world.  I entreat, I order you!'

'Good Heaven, aunt!' said Trotwood.  'He is nothing but a sturdy beggar.'

'You don't know what he is!' replied his aunt.  'You don't know who he is!  You don't know what you say!'

They stopped in an empty doorway, while this was passing, and he had stopped too.

'Don't look at him!' said his aunt, 'but get me a coach, my dear, and wait for me in St Paul's Churchyard.'

'Wait for you?'

'Yes, I must go alone.  I must go with him.'

'With him aunt? This man?'

'I am in my senses,' she replied, 'and I tell you must.  Get me a coach, and give me my purse!'

Though astonished, minding the words of his aunt, Trotwood hurried a few paces and called a hackney-coach.  Miss Betsey sprang into the the coach and the man followed.

While waiting for his aunt in the Churchyard, Trotwood recollected what Mr Dick said once about a stranger following Miss Betsey.  After half an hour cooling in the Churchyard, Trotwood saw the hackney-coach coming back. The driver stopped beside, and Trotwood got inside, and asked the coachman to drive up and down a little while, as desired by Miss Betsey.  She was very much agitated, thought Trotwood.  After a little while she regained her composure, they got out of the coach.  She gave her purse to Trotwood to pay the coachman.  He found that all the guineas were gone and only loose silver remained.

Doctors'Commons stood in a quiet place, away from the city.  A few dull courts and narrow ways brought them to the sky-lighted offices of Spenlow and Jorkins.  Three or four clerks were at work as copyists.  One of these, a little dry man, sitting by himself, who wore a stiff brown wig that looked as if it were made of gingerbread, rose to receive them and show them into Mr Spenlow's room.  It was Arches Day, and Mr Spenlow had gone to attend it.

The furniture of the room was old fashioned and dusty.  The green baize on the top of the writing table had lost its colour, and was withered. There were a great bundles of paper on it, some endorsed as allegations, some libels, and so on.

Mr Spenlow, his black gown trimmed with white fur, taking off his hat, as he came hurrying in.  He was a light haired gentleman, with heavy boots,  stiff white cravats and shirt collars.  He was buttoned up, trim and tight, and must have taken a great deal of pains with his whiskers, which were accurately curled.  He wore a massive gold watch chain.  With all these attires and embellishments, he was so stiff that he could hardly bend himself.

'And so Mr Copperfield,' he said, 'you think of entering into our profession?  I casually mentioned to Miss Trotwood, when I had the pleasure of an interview with her the other day.' 

Trotwood said that he liked the proposal but he did not know anything about the profession, but would like to study about it.

With the firm Spenlow and Jorkins, Jorkins was always in the background, and Spenlow projected him a ruthless disciplinerian who was strict in getting clients' bills settled and keeping its employees salries at minimum.  In this Spenlow and Jorkins were not exceptional Most firms used this tactics.

Trotwood was inducted as an articled clerk with Spenlow and Jerkins at a premium of one thousand pounds.  Mr Spenlow took him into Court then and there; and showed him what sort of place it was.

After that, Trotwood joined Miss Betsey and they returned to Lincoln's Inn-Fields.  Trotwood knew that his aunt was anxious to get home, and that she was not at her ease in London.  He asked her not to be uncomfortable on his account, and that he would take care of himself.

'I have not been here a week tomorrow, without considering that too, my dear,' she returned. 'There is a furnished little set of chambers to be let in the Adelphi, Trot, which ought to suit you to a marvel.'

She took out a news paper clipping from her pocket, and showed it to her nephew: -- in Buckingham street in the Adelphi, a furnished set of chambers with a view of river suitable for a young gentleman with immediate possession, available to let. Terms moderate.

'Why, this is the very thing, aunt,' said Trot flushed with possible dignity of living in chambers.

'Then come,' replied his aunt, immediately resuming the bonnet, she had a minute before laid aside.

'We'll go and look at them.'

Mrs Crupp was the contact person as given in the advertisement.  When they reached the site, they rung the area bell which they supposed, to communicate Mrs Crupp.  Only after their fourth chime of the bell, a stout lady with a flounce of flannel petticoat below a namkeen gown, appeared.

Let us see these chambers of yours, ma'am,' said Miss Betsey 

'For this gentleman?' said Mrs Crupp, feeling in her pocket for her keys.

'Yes, for my nephew,' said Miss Betsey.

'A sweet set they are for such!' said Mrs Crupp.

They went upstairs.

They were on the top of the house, and consisted of a little half- blind entry, where you could see nothing at all, a sitting room and a bedroom.  The furniture was rather faded, but quite good enough, the Thames was outside the windows.

As Trotwood was delighted by the place, both Miss Betsey and Mrs Crupp withdrew to discuss the terms while he remained in the chamber.

Miss Betsey took them for a month, with a leave to remain for twelve months when that time was out,  Mrs Crupp was to find linen, and to cook; every other necessary was already provided.  Mrs Crupp expressly intimated that she should always yearn towards Mr Trotwood as her own son.  Trotwood was to take possession the day after tomorrow and Mrs Crupp said, thank Heaven she had now found someone she could care for.

Steerforth did not come to Lincoln's Inn-Fields as he promised. It was a disappointment to both Trotwood and his aunt.  Trotwood saw her safely seated in the Dover coach, with Janet beside her side, and when the coach was gone, Trotwood turned his face to the Adelphi, pondering over the old days when he used to roam about its subterranean arches, and the happy days which had brought him to the surface.

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