; I knew quite
well he was looking at us both. As soon as I could creep away, I crept
upstairs, and cried myself to sleep.

A word of encouragement, of pity for my childish ignorance, of welcome
home, of reassurance to me that it _was_ home, might have made me
dutiful to him in my heart henceforth, instead of in my hypocritical
outside, and might have made me respect instead of hating him.

Miss Murdstone arrived next day; she was dark, like her brother, and
greatly resembled him in face and voice. Firmness was the grand quality
on which both of them took their stand.

I soon fell into disgrace over my lessons. I never could do them with my
mother satisfactorily with the Murdstones sitting by; their influence
upon me was like the fascination of two snakes on a wretched young bird.

One dreadful morning, when the lessons had turned out even more badly
than usual, Mr. Murdstone seized hold of me and twisted my head under
his arm preparatory to beating me with a cane. At the first stroke I
caught the hand with which he held me, in my mouth, between my teeth,
and bit it through. He beat me then as if he would have beaten me to
death. And when he had gone, I was kept a close prisoner in my room, and
was not allowed to see my mother, and was only permitted to walk in the
garden for half an hour every day. Miss Murdstone acted as gaoler, and
after five days of this confinement, she told me I was to be sent away
to school--to Salem House School, Blackheath.

I saw my mother before I left. They had persuaded her I was a wicked
fellow, and she was more sorry for that than for my going.

_II.--I Begin Life on My own Account_

I was doing my second term at school when I was told that my mother was
dead, and that I was to go home to the funeral.

I never returned to Salem House. Mr. Murdstone and his sister left me to
myself, and I could see that Mr. Murdstone liked me less than ever. At
odd times I speculated on the possibility of not being taught any more
or cared for any more, and growing up to be a shabby, moody man,
lounging an idle life away about the village.

Peggotty was under notice to quit, and thought of going to live with her
brother at Yarmouth; but as it turned out, she didn't do this, but
married the old carrier Barkis instead.

"Young or old, Davy dear, as long as I am alive, and have this house
over my head," said Peggotty to me on the day she was married, "you
shall find it as if I expected you here