I had perception enough to know that my mother was the victim always; that she was afraid to speak to me or to be kind to me, lest she should give them some offence by her manner of doing so, and receive a lecture afterwards; that she was not only ceaselessly afraid of her own offending, but of my offending, and uneasily watched their looks if I only moved.

Therefore I resolved to keep myself as much out of their way as I could; and many a wintry hour did I hear the church clock strike, when I was sitting in my cheerless bedroom, wrapped in my little great-coat, poring over a book.
In the evening, sometimes, I went and sat with Peggotty in the kitchen.
There I was comfortable, and not afraid of being myself.

But neither of these resources was approved of in the parlour.

The tormenting humour which was dominant there stopped them both.

I was still held to be necessary to my poor mother's training, and, as one of her trials, could not be suffered to absent myself.
'David,' said Mr.Murdstone, one day after dinner when I was going to leave the room as usual; 'I am sorry to observe that you are of a sullen disposition.' 'As sulky as a bear!' said Miss Murdstone.
I stood still, and hung my head.
'Now, David,' said Mr.Murdstone, 'a sullen obdurate disposition is, of all tempers, the worst.' 'And the boy's is, of all such dispositions that ever I have seen,' remarked his sister, 'the most confirmed and stubborn.