? ? ? ? 'Before I can advise you properly,' said Mr. Wickfield - 'the old question, you know. What's your motive in this?'
? ? ? ? 'Deuce take the man!' exclaimed my aunt. 'Always fishing for motives, when they're on the surface! Why, to make the child happy and useful.'
? ? ? ? 'It must be a mixed motive, I think,' said Mr. Wickfield, shaking his head and smiling incredulously.
? ? ? ? 'A mixed fiddlestick,' returned my aunt. 'You claim to have one plain motive in all you do yourself. You don't suppose, I hope, that you are the only plain dealer in the world?'
? ? ? ? 'Ay, but I have only one motive in life, Miss Trotwood,' he rejoined, smiling. 'Other people have dozens, scores, hundreds. I have only one. There's the difference. However, that's beside the question. The best school? Whatever the motive, you want the best?'
? ? ? ? My aunt nodded assent.
? ? ? ? 'At the best we have,' said Mr. Wickfield, considering, 'your nephew couldn't board just now.'
? ? ? ? 'But he could board somewhere else, I suppose?' suggested my aunt.
? ? ? ? Mr. Wickfield thought I could. After a little discussion, he proposed to take my aunt to the school, that she might see it and judge for herself; also, to take her, with the same object, to two or three houses where he thought I could be boarded.
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