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Stories of Achievement, Volume IV (of 6) - Authors and Journalists by Various
page 43 of 145 (29%)
sort of cousin by marriage) told me he was very much insulted about me;
and that it was impossible to keep me after that. I cried very much,
partly because it was so sudden, and partly because in his anger he was
violent about my father, though gentle to me. Thomas, the old soldier,
comforted me, and said he was sure it was for the best. With a relief
so strange that it was like oppression, I went home.

My mother set herself to accommodate the quarrel, and did so next day.
She brought home a request for me to return next morning, and a high
character of me, which I am very sure I deserved. My father said I
should go back no more, and should go to school. I do not write
resentfully or angrily, for I know how all these things have worked
together to make me what I am, but I never afterward forgot, I never
shall forget, I never can forget, that my mother was warm for my being
sent back.

From that hour until this at which I write no word of that part of my
childhood, which I have now gladly brought to a close, has passed my
lips to any human being. I have no idea how long it lasted; whether
for a year, or much more, or less. From that hour until this, my
father and my mother have been stricken dumb upon it. I have never
heard the least allusion to it, however far off and remote, from either
of them. I have never, until I now impart it to this paper, in any
burst of confidence with any one, my own wife not excepted, raised the
curtain I then dropped, thank God.


Dickens sent the following sketch of his early career to Wilkie
Collins. It will be noted that he omits all reference to his
experiences in the blacking factory. The _naïve_ touches of
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