David Copperfield Chapter 24

My First Dissipation

• Now that David's off living like a real adult on his own, he's feeling very grand.
• At the same time, it's kind of lonely – he doesn't have a particularly tight relationship with Mrs. Crupp, and he misses Agnes.
• David goes over to Highgate, to Mrs. Steerforth's house, to see if Steerforth is around. But he's not – he's hanging out with his Oxford friends.
• Mrs. Steerforth asks David to dinner, and he is so pleased to have company again that he starts to fall for Miss Dartle a little bit.
• The next day, Steerforth surprises David with a visit at Mrs. Crupp's.
• David is overjoyed, and invites Steerforth to dinner.
• Steerforth can't: he's got plans with these two Oxford friends of his.
• David suggests that Steerforth bring the two Oxfordians along.
• Steerforth agrees, and David makes arrangements with Mrs. Crupp for dinner for four.
• Once Steerforth and his two friends, Grainger and Markham, arrive, David's excited to have them but also a bit nervous – he feels very young and unprepared for a dinner party.
• Luckily, Steerforth steps up and plays host (at David's table).
• David gets very, very drunk very, very quickly.
• There's a lot of singing and laughter and smoking and confusion.
• Eventually, someone suggests that they should all go to the theater.
• Steerforth asks if David is all right, to which David replies, "Neverberrer" (24.36). David is very drunk indeed.
• At the theater, David is stumbling all around the audience and making noise. The other playgoers shush him, but he keeps making a scene.
• Suddenly, David spots Agnes sitting in a private box. She looks embarrassed and ashamed of David, and tells him to be quiet and watch the play.
• Agnes tells David that she is absolutely serious: David has to go away and tell his friends to take him home.
• Even though David is annoyed that Agnes is being mean to him, he respects her enough that he does, in fact, go away.
• Steerforth follows David and helps him into his house and into bed.
• The next morning, David wakes up completely embarrassed about what he did the night before.
• David is haunted by the awful sense that he has done many shameful things without being able to remember them.
• Also, he feels incredibly sick.
• When he sees Mrs. Crupp, he wants to confess to her that he feels very miserable, but Mrs. Crupp doesn't seem like the cozy sort of woman one confides in.