? ? ? ? 'Do you think so?' returned Traddles. 'Really? Perhaps he was rather. But it's all over, a long while. Old Creakle!'
? ? ? ? 'You were brought up by an uncle, then?' said I.
? ? ? ? 'Of course I was!' said Traddles. 'The one I was always going to write to. And always didn't, eh! Ha, ha, ha! Yes, I had an uncle then. He died soon after I left school.'
? ? ? ? 'Indeed!'
? ? ? ? 'Yes. He was a retired - what do you call it! - draper - cloth-merchant - and had made me his heir. But he didn't like me when I grew up.'
? ? ? ? 'Do you really mean that?' said I. He was so composed, that I fancied he must have some other meaning.
? ? ? ? 'Oh dear, yes, Copperfield! I mean it,' replied Traddles. 'It was an unfortunate thing, but he didn't like me at all. He said I wasn't at all what he expected, and so he married his housekeeper.'
? ? ? ? 'And what did you do?' I asked.
? ? ? ? 'I didn't do anything in particular,' said Traddles. 'I lived with them, waiting to be put out in the world, until his gout unfortunately flew to his stomach - and so he died, and so she married a young man, and so I wasn't provided for.'
? ? ? ? 'Did you get nothing, Traddles, after all?'
? ? ? ? 'Oh dear, yes!' said Traddles.
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