Faith Moore

But if I'm reading all your many letters correctly, it seems like a lot of you feel that actually that's just puppy love, and the deeper things that he feels for Agnes are real love.

And you are all, or a lot of you anyway, you are just waiting for him to figure that out and hoping that it's not too late when he does.

And interestingly,

there are a couple of characters in the book at the moment who agree with you.

One is Mr. McCobber, right?

Mr. McCobber says, if you had not assured us, my dear Copperfield, on the occasion of that agreeable afternoon, we had the happiness of passing with you that D was your favorite letter.

I should unquestionably have supposed that A had been so.

Meaning, if he didn't already know that David was in love with Dora, he might have thought that Agnes would have been the girl for him.

Now, Mr. McCobber doesn't actually know Dora, so he can't say that Agnes is better, but he is saying that Agnes would make a good wife for David.

So that's one person who seems to think that perhaps they should get together.

And interestingly, David has this weird reaction to hearing Mr. McCobber say that.

He gets deja vu, essentially.

Here's what he says.

We have all some experience of a feeling that comes over us occasionally of what we are saying and doing, having been said and done before in a remote time, of our having been surrounded dim ages ago,

by the same faces, objects, and circumstances, of our knowing perfectly what will be said next as if we suddenly remembered it.

I never had this mysterious impression more strongly in my life than before he uttered those words.

So it's almost like Mr. McCobber saying that David should marry Agnes is something that David already knew, but didn't know he knew, or something.

But he doesn't take it that way at the time at all.

He just thinks a weird thing is happening.

But the other person...