Faith Moore

who thinks that David might actually have feelings for Agnes, is Uriah.

The other really slimy thing that Uriah does in this chapter is essentially turn his mother into a spy, such that David and Agnes can never be alone together.

And he does this because he's worried that David plans to propose to Agnes one day, and he's trying to prevent him from doing that.

And Uriah has also clearly set his mother the task of talking him up to Agnes in the hopes that Agnes will start to develop feelings for him, right?

David says, this is a quote, once she asked for a particular ballad, she being Mrs. Heap, right?

She asked for a particular ballad.

which she said her uri who was yawning in a great chair doted on and at intervals she looked round at him and reported to agnes that he was in raptures with the music but she hardly ever spoke i question if she ever did without making some mention of him it was evident to me that this was the duty assigned to her

So Uriah clearly feels that it would be only natural for David to want to marry Agnes, and he also obviously feels that there's a danger that Agnes would say yes if David asked her.

And because of this, Uriah has made the whole house kind of incredibly oppressive because he can't bear the closeness that David and Agnes share.

Here's what David says.

"'To have seen the mother and son like two great bats hanging over the whole house and darkening it with their ugly forms,'

made me so uncomfortable that I would rather have remained downstairs knitting and all than gone to bed."

I mean, that is a real villain, right?

He has taken over the Wickfields' lives, and he's after the one last thing he doesn't have, which is Agnes' hand in marriage.

And he's not even subtle about it.

He's very clear with David that he's trying to keep David away from Agnes, that he sees David as a rival.

Because when David reveals that he's not going to marry Agnes and he's engaged to somebody else, this is what Uriah says.

I'm sure I'll take off mother directly and only to happy.

I know you'll excuse the precautions of affection, won't you?

Okay, so he's admitting it.