Waiter service at dinner at an inn
Excerpt: "'What should you--what should I--how much ought I to--what would it be right to pay the waiter, if you please?' I stammered, blushing. 'If I hadn't a family, and that family hadn't the cowpock,' said the waiter, 'I wouldn't take a sixpence. If I didn't support a aged pairint, and a lovely sister,'--here the waiter was greatly agitated--'I wouldn't take a farthing. If I had a good place, and was treated well here, I should beg acceptance of a trifle, instead of taking of it. But I live on broken wittles--and I sleep on the coals'--here the waiter burst into tears. I was very much concerned for his misfortunes, and felt that any recognition short of ninepence would be mere brutality and hardness of heart. Therefore I gave him one of my three bright shillings, which he received with much humility and veneration, and spun up with his thumb, directly afterwards, to try the goodness of."
Bibliographic Data
Contained in: The Personal History of David Copperfield
Location: p. 51