At a Reading in Bristol
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On occasions like the present, he said, there were always two remarks he addressed to his audience. First of all, he would inform them that he always allowed an interval of five minutes to elapse, as nearly as possible when half-way through the Carol as the natural divisions of the story would allow of. Secondly if, as they proceeded, any of his audience should feel disposed to give vent to any feeling of emotion, he would request them to do so in the most natural manner, without the slightest apprehension of disturbing him. Nothing could be more agreeable to him than the assurance of their being interested, and nothing would be more in accordance with his wishes than that they should all, for the next two hours, make themselves as much as possible like a group of friends, listening to a tale told by a winter fire, and forget all ceremony and forms in the manner of their coming together.
Dickens briefly replied, that they had heard so much of his voice already that night, that in acknowledging their handsome tribute he would only inflict on them one more sentence. All he would say was, that he could have given them no pleasure that evening which they had not most fully and handsomely repaid to him.