Chapter 16

We had not been sitting together long when Mrs Heep came in.  She did not leave us for a moment all that evening, and I wondered whether Uriah had told her to watch over us.  Whenever I looked at Agnes’s lovely face, I saw Mrs Heep’s evil black eyes staring at me.

The next day, Mrs Heep did not leave Agnes and me alone even for a minute.  The Heeps, mother and son, seemed to me like two ugly great black birds hanging over the house, and they made me so uncomfortable that I went out for a walk in the afternoon.  I was walking along a path near the house, wondering if I should warn Agnes about Uriah’s plan of marriage, when I heard footsteps behind me, and turned to see Uriah himself running after me.

I knew Uriah was deliberately encouraging Mr Wickfield to drink too much, but I saw that although Agnes’s father was aware of his weakness, he could no longer stop himself.  As the evening passed, I was disgusted to see that Uriah became more and more drunk.  Finally Uriah stood up with a glass in his hand.