? ? ? ? '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, my dear aunt, and I have talked a good deal about it with Steerforth. I like it very much indeed. I like it exceedingly.'
? ? ? ? '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 a thousand pounds.'
? ? ? ? 'Now, my dear aunt,' said I, drawing my chair nearer, 'I am uneasy in my mind about that. It's a large sum of money. You have expended a great deal on my education, and have always been as liberal to me in all things as it was possible to be. You have been the soul of generosity. Surely there are some ways in which I might begin life with hardly any outlay, and yet begin with a good hope of getting on by resolution and exertion. Are you sure that it would not be better to try that course? Are you certain that you can afford to part with so much money, and that it is right that it should be so expended? I only ask you, my second mother, to consider.
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