I had got on so fast of late, that I had even started a boy in boots, – top boots, – in bondage and slavery to whom I might have been said to pass my days.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 27. Pip uses irony and hyperbole in describing his new financial situation in which he becomes a slave to the new servant boy he hires. A servant for an aspiring gentleman costs money and Pip has to purchase for the boy a coat, waistcoat, cravat, breeches and boots.