Chapter LIV

CONTAINING SOME PARTICULARS RELATIVE

TO THE DOUBLE KNOCK, AND OTHER

MATTERS: AMONG WHICH CERTAIN

INTERESTING DISCLOSURES RELATIVE TO

Mr. SNODGRASS AND A YOUNG LADY ARE BY

NO MEANS IRRELEVANT TO THIS HISTORY

he object that presented itself to the eyes of the

astonished clerk, was a boy―a wonderfully fat boy―

habited as a serving lad, standing upright on the mat,

with his eyes closed as if in sleep. He had never seen such a fat

boy, in or out of a travelling caravan; and this, coupled with the

calmness and repose of his appearance, so very different from

what was reasonably to have been expected of the inflicter of such

knocks, smote him with wonder.

‘What’s the matter?’ inquired the clerk.

The extraordinary boy replied not a word; but he nodded once,

and seemed, to the clerk’s imagination, to snore feebly.

‘Where do you come from?’ inquired the clerk.

The boy made no sign. He breathed heavily, but in all other

respects was motionless.

The clerk repeated the question thrice, and receiving no

answer, prepared to shut the door, when the boy suddenly opened

his eyes, winked several times, sneezed once, and raised his hand

as if to repeat the knocking. Finding the door open, he stared

about him with astonishment, and at length fixed his eyes on Mr.

Lowten’s face.

‘What the devil do you knock in that way for?’ inquired the

clerk angrily.

‘Which way?’ said the boy, in a slow and sleepy voice.

‘Why, like forty hackney-coachmen,’ replied the clerk.

‘Because master said, I wasn’t to leave off knocking till they

opened the door, for fear I should go to sleep,’ said the boy.

‘Well,’ said the clerk, ‘what message have you brought?’

‘He’s downstairs,’ rejoined the boy.

‘Who?’

‘Master. He wants to know whether you’re at home.’

Mr. Lowten bethought himself, at this juncture, of looking out

of the window. Seeing an open carriage with a hearty old

gentleman in it, looking up very anxiously, he ventured to beckon

him; on which, the old gentleman jumped out directly.

‘That’s your master in the carriage, I suppose?’ said Lowten.

The boy nodded.

All further inquiries were superseded by the appearance of old

Wardle, who, running upstairs and just recognising Lowten,

passed at once into Mr. Perker’s room.

‘Pickwick!’ said the old gentleman. ‘Your hand, my boy! Why

have I never heard until the day before yesterday of your suffering

yourself to be cooped up in jail? And why did you let him do it,

Perker?’

‘I couldn’t help it, my dear sir,’ replied Perker, with a smile and

a pinch of snuff; ‘you know how obstinate he is?’

‘Of course I do; of course I do,’ replied the old gentleman. ‘I am

heartily glad to see him, notwithstanding. I will not lose sight of

him again, in a hurry.’

With these words, Wardle shook Mr. Pickwick’s hand once

more, and, having done the same by Perker, threw himself into an

arm-chair, his jolly red face shining again with smiles and health.

‘Well!’ said Wardle. ‘Here are pretty goings on―a pinch of your

snuff, Perker, my boy―never were such times, eh?’

‘What do you mean?’ inquired Mr. Pickwick.

‘Mean!’ replied Wardle. ‘Why, I think the girls are all running

mad; that’s no news, you’ll say? Perhaps it’s not; but it’s true, for

all that.’

‘You have not come up to London, of all places in the world, to

tell us that, my dear sir, have you?’ inquired Perker.

‘No, not altogether,’ replied Wardle; ‘though it was the main

cause of my coming. How’s Arabella?’

‘Very well,’ replied Mr. Pickwick, ‘and will be delighted to see

you, I am sure.’

‘Black-eyed little jilt!’ replied Wardle. ‘I had a great idea of

marrying her myself, one of these odd days. But I am glad of it too,

very glad.’

‘How did the intelligence reach you?’ asked Mr. Pickwick.

‘Oh, it came to my girls, of course,’ replied Wardle. ‘Arabella

wrote, the day before yesterday, to say she had made a stolen

match without her husband’s father’s consent, and so you had

gone down to get it when his refusing it couldn’t prevent the

match, and all the rest of it. I thought it a very good time to say

something serious to my girls; so I said what a dreadful thing it

was that children should marry without their parents’ consent,

and so forth; but, bless your hearts, I couldn’t make the least

impression upon them. They thought it such a much more

dreadful thing that there should have been a wedding without

bridesmaids, that I might as well have preached to Joe himself.’

Here the old gentleman stopped to laugh; and having done so to

his heart’s content, presently resumed―

‘But this is not the best of it, it seems. This is only half the love-

making and plotting that have been going forward. We have been

walking on mines for the last six months, and they’re sprung at

last.’

‘What do you mean?’ exclaimed Mr. Pickwick, turning pale; ‘no

other secret marriage, I hope?’

‘No, no,’ replied old Wardle; ‘not so bad as that; no.’

‘What then?’ inquired Mr. Pickwick; ‘am I interested in it?’

‘Shall I answer that question, Perker?’ said Wardle.

‘If you don’t commit yourself by doing so, my dear sir.’

‘Well then, you are,’ said Wardle.

‘How?’ asked Mr. Pickwick anxiously. ‘In what way?’

‘Really,’ replied Wardle, ‘you’re such a fiery sort of a young

fellow that I am almost afraid to tell you; but, however, if Perker

will sit between us to prevent mischief, I’ll venture.’

Having closed the room door, and fortified himself with another

application to Perker’s snuff-box, the old gentleman proceeded

with his great disclosure in these words―

‘The fact is, that my daughter Bella―Bella, who married young

Trundle, you know.’

‘Yes, yes, we know,’ said Mr. Pickwick impatiently.

‘Don’t alarm me at the very beginning. My daughter Bella―

Emily having gone to bed with a headache after she had read

Arabella’s letter to me―sat herself down by my side the other

evening, and began to talk over this marriage affair. “Well, pa,”

she says, “what do you think of it?” “Why, my dear,” I said, “I

suppose it’s all very well; I hope it’s for the best.” I answered in

this way because I was sitting before the fire at the time, drinking

my grog rather thoughtfully, and I knew my throwing in an

undecided word now and then, would induce her to continue

talking. Both my girls are pictures of their dear mother, and as I

grow old I like to sit with only them by me; for their voices and

looks carry me back to the happiest period of my life, and make

me, for the moment, as young as I used to be then, though not

quite so light-hearted. “It’s quite a marriage of affection, pa,” said

Bella, after a short silence. “Yes, my dear,” said I, “but such

marriages do not always turn out the happiest.”’

‘I question that, mind!’ interposed Mr. Pickwick warmly. ‘Very

good,’ responded Wardle, ‘question anything you like when it’s

your turn to speak, but don’t interrupt me.’

‘I beg your pardon,’ said Mr. Pickwick.

‘Granted,’ replied Wardle. ‘“I am sorry to hear you express your

opinion against marriages of affection, pa,” said Bella, colouring a

little. “I was wrong; I ought not to have said so, my dear, either,”

said I, patting her cheek as kindly as a rough old fellow like me

could pat it, “for your mother’s was one, and so was yours.” “It’s

not that I meant, pa,” said Bella. “The fact is, pa, I wanted to speak

to you about Emily.”’

Mr. Pickwick started.

‘What’s the matter now?’ inquired Wardle, stopping in his

narrative.

‘Nothing,’ replied Mr. Pickwick. ‘Pray go on.’

‘I never could spin out a story,’ said Wardle abruptly. ‘It must

come out, sooner or later, and it’ll save us all a great deal of time if

it comes at once. The long and the short of it is, then, that Bella at

last mustered up courage to tell me that Emily was very unhappy;

that she and your young friend Snodgrass had been in constant

correspondence and communication ever since last Christmas;

that she had very dutifully made up her mind to run away with

him, in laudable imitation of her old friend and school-fellow; but

that having some compunctions of conscience on the subject,

inasmuch as I had always been rather kindly disposed to both of

them, they had thought it better in the first instance to pay me the

compliment of asking whether I would have any objection to their

being married in the usual matter-of-fact manner. There now, Mr.

Pickwick, if you can make it convenient to reduce your eyes to

their usual size again, and to let me hear what you think we ought

to do, I shall feel rather obliged to you!’

The testy manner in which the hearty old gentleman uttered

this last sentence was not wholly unwarranted; for Mr. Pickwick’s

face had settled down into an expression of blank amazement and

perplexity, quite curious to behold.

‘Snodgrass!―since last Christmas!’ were the first broken words

that issued from the lips of the confounded gentleman.

‘Since last Christmas,’ replied Wardle; ‘that’s plain enough, and

very bad spectacles we must have worn, not to have discovered it

before.’

‘I don’t understand it,’ said Mr. Pickwick, ruminating; ‘I cannot

really understand it.’

‘It’s easy enough to understand it,’ replied the choleric old

gentleman. ‘If you had been a younger man, you would have been

in the secret long ago; and besides,’ added Wardle, after a

moment’s hesitation, ‘the truth is, that, knowing nothing of this

matter, I have rather pressed Emily for four or five months past, to

receive favourably (if she could; I would never attempt to force a

girl’s inclinations) the addresses of a young gentleman down in

our neighbourhood. I have no doubt that, girl-like, to enhance her

own value and increase the ardour of Mr. Snodgrass, she has

represented this matter in very glowing colours, and that they

have both arrived at the conclusion that they are a terribly-

persecuted pair of unfortunates, and have no resource but

clandestine matrimony, or charcoal. Now the question is, what’s to

be done?’

‘What have you done?’ inquired Mr. Pickwick.

‘I!’

‘I mean what did you do when your married daughter told you

this?’

‘Oh, I made a fool of myself of course,’ rejoined Wardle.

‘Just so,’ interposed Perker, who had accompanied this

dialogue with sundry twitchings of his watch-chain, vindictive

rubbings of his nose, and other symptoms of impatience. ‘That’s

very natural; but how?’

‘I went into a great passion and frightened my mother into a fit,’

said Wardle.

‘That was judicious,’ remarked Perker; ‘and what else?’

‘I fretted and fumed all next day, and raised a great

disturbance,’ rejoined the old gentleman. ‘At last I got tired of

rendering myself unpleasant and making everybody miserable; so

I hired a carriage at Muggleton, and, putting my own horses in it,

came up to town, under pretence of bringing Emily to see

Arabella.’

‘Miss Wardle is with you, then?’ said Mr. Pickwick.

‘To be sure she is,’ replied Wardle. ‘She is at Osborne’s Hotel in

the Adelphi at this moment, unless your enterprising friend has

run away with her since I came out this morning.’

‘You are reconciled then?’ said Perker.

‘Not a bit of it,’ answered Wardle; ‘she has been crying and

moping ever since, except last night, between tea and supper,

when she made a great parade of writing a letter that I pretended

to take no notice of.’

‘You want my advice in this matter, I suppose?’ said Perker,

looking from the musing face of Mr. Pickwick to the eager

countenance of Wardle, and taking several consecutive pinches of

his favourite stimulant.

‘I suppose so,’ said Wardle, looking at Mr. Pickwick.

‘Certainly,’ replied that gentleman.

‘Well then,’ said Perker, rising and pushing his chair back, ‘my

advice is, that you both walk away together, or ride away, or get

away by some means or other, for I’m tired of you, and just talk

this matter over between you. If you have not settled it by the next

time I see you, I’ll tell you what to do.’

‘This is satisfactory,’ said Wardle, hardly knowing whether to

smile or be offended.

‘Pooh, pooh, my dear sir,’ returned Perker. ‘I know you both a

great deal better than you know yourselves. You have settled it

already, to all intents and purposes.’

Thus expressing himself, the little gentleman poked his snuff-

box first into the chest of Mr. Pickwick, and then into the

waistcoat of Mr. Wardle, upon which they all three laughed,

especially the two last-named gentlemen, who at once shook

hands again, without any obvious or particular reason.

‘You dine with me to-day,’ said Wardle to Perker, as he showed

them out.

‘Can’t promise, my dear sir, can’t promise,’ replied Perker. ‘I’ll

look in, in the evening, at all events.’

‘I shall expect you at five,’ said Wardle. ‘Now, Joe!’ And Joe

having been at length awakened, the two friends departed in Mr.

Wardle’s carriage, which in common humanity had a dickey

behind for the fat boy, who, if there had been a footboard instead,

would have rolled off and killed himself in his very first nap.

Driving to the George and Vulture, they found that Arabella

and her maid had sent for a hackney-coach immediately on the

receipt of a short note from Emily announcing her arrival in town,

and had proceeded straight to the Adelphi. As Wardle had

business to transact in the city, they sent the carriage and the fat

boy to his hotel, with the information that he and Mr. Pickwick

would return together to dinner at five o’clock.

Charged with this message, the fat boy returned, slumbering as

peaceably in his dickey, over the stones, as if it had been a down

bed on watch springs. By some extraordinary miracle he awoke of

his own accord, when the coach stopped, and giving himself a

good shake to stir up his faculties, went upstairs to execute his

commission.

Now, whether the shake had jumbled the fat boy’s faculties

together, instead of arranging them in proper order, or had roused

such a quantity of new ideas within him as to render him oblivious

of ordinary forms and ceremonies, or (which is also possible) had

proved unsuccessful in preventing his falling asleep as he

ascended the stairs, it is an undoubted fact that he walked into the

sitting-room without previously knocking at the door; and so

beheld a gentleman with his arms clasping his young mistress’s

waist, sitting very lovingly by her side on a sofa, while Arabella

and her pretty handmaid feigned to be absorbed in looking out of

a window at the other end of the room. At the sight of this

phenomenon, the fat boy uttered an interjection, the ladies a

scream, and the gentleman an oath, almost simultaneously.

‘Wretched creature, what do you want here?’ said the

gentleman, who it is needless to say was Mr. Snodgrass.

To this the fat boy, considerably terrified, briefly responded,

‘Missis.’

‘What do you want me for,’ inquired Emily, turning her head

aside, ‘you stupid creature?’

‘Master and Mr. Pickwick is a-going to dine here at five,’ replied

the fat boy.

‘Leave the room!’ said Mr. Snodgrass, glaring upon the

bewildered youth.

‘No, no, no,’ added Emily hastily. ‘Bella, dear, advise me.’

Upon this, Emily and Mr. Snodgrass, and Arabella and Mary,

crowded into a corner, and conversed earnestly in whispers for

some minutes, during which the fat boy dozed.

‘Joe,’ said Arabella, at length, looking round with a most

bewitching smile, ‘how do you do, Joe?’

‘Joe,’ said Emily, ‘you’re a very good boy; I won’t forget you,

Joe.’

‘Joe,’ said Mr. Snodgrass, advancing to the astonished youth,

and seizing his hand, ‘I didn’t know you before. There’s five

shillings for you, Joe!”

‘I’ll owe you five, Joe,’ said Arabella, ‘for old acquaintance sake,

you know;’ and another most captivating smile was bestowed upon

the corpulent intruder.

The fat boy’s perception being slow, he looked rather puzzled at

first to account for this sudden prepossession in his favour, and

stared about him in a very alarming manner. At length his broad

face began to show symptoms of a grin of proportionately broad

dimensions; and then, thrusting half-a-crown into each of his

pockets, and a hand and wrist after it, he burst into a horse laugh:

being for the first and only time in his existence.

‘He understands us, I see,’ said Arabella. ‘He had better have

something to eat, immediately,’ remarked Emily.

The fat boy almost laughed again when he heard this

suggestion. Mary, after a little more whispering, tripped forth from

the group and said―

‘I am going to dine with you to-day, sir, if you have no

objection.’

‘This way,’ said the fat boy eagerly. ‘There is such a jolly meat-

pie!’

With these words, the fat boy led the way downstairs; his pretty

companion captivating all the waiters and angering all the

chambermaids as she followed him to the eating-room.

There was the meat-pie of which the youth had spoken so

feelingly, and there were, moreover, a steak, and a dish of

potatoes, and a pot of porter.

‘Sit down,’ said the fat boy. ‘Oh, my eye, how prime! I am so

hungry.’

Having apostrophised his eye, in a species of rapture, five or six

times, the youth took the head of the little table, and Mary seated

herself at the bottom.

‘Will you have some of this?’ said the fat boy, plunging into the

pie up to the very ferules of the knife and fork.

‘A little, if you please,’ replied Mary.

The fat boy assisted Mary to a little, and himself to a great deal,

and was just going to begin eating when he suddenly laid down his

knife and fork, leaned forward in his chair, and letting his hands,

with the knife and fork in them, fall on his knees, said, very

slowly―

‘I say! How nice you look!’

This was said in an admiring manner, and was, so far,

gratifying; but still there was enough of the cannibal in the young

gentleman’s eyes to render the compliment a double one.

‘Dear me, Joseph,’ said Mary, affecting to blush, ‘what do you

mean?’

The fat boy, gradually recovering his former position, replied

with a heavy sigh, and, remaining thoughtful for a few moments,

drank a long draught of the porter. Having achieved this feat, he

sighed again, and applied himself assiduously to the pie.

‘What a nice young lady Miss Emily is!’ said Mary, after a long

silence.

The fat boy had by this time finished the pie. He fixed his eyes

on Mary, and replied―‘I knows a nicerer.’

‘Indeed!’ said Mary.

‘Yes, indeed!’ replied the fat boy, with unwonted vivacity.

‘What’s her name?’ inquired Mary.

‘What’s yours?’

‘Mary.’

‘So’s hers,’ said the fat boy. ‘You’re her.’ The boy grinned to add

point to the compliment, and put his eyes into something between

a squint and a cast, which there is reason to believe he intended

for an ogle.

‘You mustn’t talk to me in that way,’ said Mary; ‘you don’t mean

it.’

‘Don’t I, though?’ replied the fat boy. ‘I say?’

‘Well?’

‘Are you going to come here regular?’

‘No,’ rejoined Mary, shaking her head, ‘I’m going away again to-

night. Why?’

‘Oh,’ said the fat boy, in a tone of strong feeling; ‘how we should

have enjoyed ourselves at meals, if you had been!’

‘I might come here sometimes, perhaps, to see you,’ said Mary,

plaiting the table-cloth in assumed coyness, ‘if you would do me a

favour.’

The fat boy looked from the pie-dish to the steak, as if he

thought a favour must be in a manner connected with something

to eat; and then took out one of the half-crowns and glanced at it

nervously.

‘Don’t you understand me?’ said Mary, looking slyly in his fat

face.

Again he looked at the half-crown, and said faintly, ‘No.’

‘The ladies want you not to say anything to the old gentleman

about the young gentleman having been upstairs; and I want you

too.’

‘Is that all?’ said the fat boy, evidently very much relieved, as he

pocketed the half-crown again. ‘Of course I ain’t a-going to.’

‘You see,’ said Mary, ‘Mr. Snodgrass is very fond of Miss Emily,

and Miss Emily’s very fond of him, and if you were to tell about it,

the old gentleman would carry you all away miles into the country,

where you’d see nobody.’

‘No, no, I won’t tell,’ said the fat boy stoutly.

‘That’s a dear,’ said Mary. ‘Now it’s time I went upstairs, and

got my lady ready for dinner.’

‘Don’t go yet,’ urged the fat boy.

‘I must,’ replied Mary. ‘Good-bye, for the present.’

The fat boy, with elephantine playfulness, stretched out his

arms to ravish a kiss; but as it required no great agility to elude

him, his fair enslaver had vanished before he closed them again;

upon which the apathetic youth ate a pound or so of steak with a

sentimental countenance, and fell fast asleep.

There was so much to say upstairs, and there were so many

plans to concert for elopement and matrimony in the event of old

Wardle continuing to be cruel, that it wanted only half an hour of

dinner when Mr. Snodgrass took his final adieu. The ladies ran to

Emily’s bedroom to dress, and the lover, taking up his hat, walked

out of the room. He had scarcely got outside the door, when he

heard Wardle’s voice talking loudly, and looking over the banisters

beheld him, followed by some other gentlemen, coming straight

upstairs. Knowing nothing of the house, Mr. Snodgrass in his

confusion stepped hastily back into the room he had just quitted,

and passing thence into an inner apartment (Mr. Wardle’s

bedchamber), closed the door softly, just as the persons he had

caught a glimpse of entered the sitting-room. These were Mr.

Wardle, Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Nathaniel Winkle, and Mr. Benjamin

Allen, whom he had no difficulty in recognising by their voices.

‘Very lucky I had the presence of mind to avoid them,’ thought

Mr. Snodgrass with a smile, and walking on tiptoe to another door

near the bedside; ‘this opens into the same passage, and I can walk

quietly and comfortably away.’

There was only one obstacle to his walking quietly and

comfortably away, which was that the door was locked and the key

gone.

‘Let us have some of your best wine to-day, waiter,’ said old

Wardle, rubbing his hands.

‘You shall have some of the very best, sir,’ replied the waiter.

‘Let the ladies know we have come in.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Devoutly and ardently did Mr. Snodgrass wish that the ladies

could know he had come in. He ventured once to whisper,

‘Waiter!’ through the keyhole, but the probability of the wrong

waiter coming to his relief, flashed upon his mind, together with a

sense of the strong resemblance between his own situation and

that in which another gentleman had been recently found in a

neighbouring hotel (an account of whose misfortunes had

appeared under the head of ‘Police’ in that morning’s paper), he

sat himself on a portmanteau, and trembled violently.

‘We won’t wait a minute for Perker,’ said Wardle, looking at his

watch; ‘he is always exact. He will be here, in time, if he means to

come; and if he does not, it’s of no use waiting. Ha! Arabella!’

‘My sister!’ exclaimed Mr. Benjamin Allen, folding her in a most

romantic embrace.

‘Oh, Ben, dear, how you do smell of tobacco,’ said Arabella,

rather overcome by this mark of affection.

‘Do I?’ said Mr. Benjamin Allen. ‘Do I, Bella? Well, perhaps I

do.’

Perhaps he did, having just left a pleasant little smoking-party

of twelve medical students, in a small back parlour with a large

fire.

‘But I am delighted to see you,’ said Mr. Ben Allen. ‘Bless you,

Bella!’

‘There,’ said Arabella, bending forward to kiss her brother;

‘don’t take hold of me again, Ben, dear, because you tumble me

so.’

At this point of the reconciliation, Mr. Ben Allen allowed his

feelings and the cigars and porter to overcome him, and looked

round upon the beholders with damp spectacles.

‘Is nothing to be said to me?’ cried Wardle, with open arms.

‘A great deal,’ whispered Arabella, as she received the old

gentleman’s hearty caress and congratulation. ‘You are a hard-

hearted, unfeeling, cruel monster.’

‘You are a little rebel,’ replied Wardle, in the same tone, ‘and I

am afraid I shall be obliged to forbid you the house. People like

you, who get married in spite of everybody, ought not to be let

loose on society. But come!’ added the old gentleman aloud,

‘here’s the dinner; you shall sit by me. Joe; why, damn the boy,

he’s awake!’

To the great distress of his master, the fat boy was indeed in a

state of remarkable vigilance, his eyes being wide open, and

looking as if they intended to remain so. There was an alacrity in

his manner, too, which was equally unaccountable; every time his

eyes met those of Emily or Arabella, he smirked and grinned;

once, Wardle could have sworn, he saw him wink.

This alteration in the fat boy’s demeanour originated in his

increased sense of his own importance, and the dignity he

acquired from having been taken into the confidence of the young

ladies; and the smirks, and grins, and winks were so many

condescending assurances that they might depend upon his

fidelity. As these tokens were rather calculated to awaken

suspicion than allay it, and were somewhat embarrassing besides,

they were occasionally answered by a frown or shake of the head

from Arabella, which the fat boy, considering as hints to be on his

guard, expressed his perfect understanding of, by smirking,

grinning, and winking, with redoubled assiduity.

‘Joe,’ said Mr. Wardle, after an unsuccessful search in all his

pockets, ‘is my snuff-box on the sofa?’

‘No, sir,’ replied the fat boy.

‘Oh, I recollect; I left it on my dressing-table this morning,’ said

Wardle. ‘Run into the next room and fetch it.’

The fat boy went into the next room; and, having been absent

about a minute, returned with the snuff-box, and the palest face

that ever a fat boy wore.

‘What’s the matter with the boy?’ exclaimed Wardle.

‘Nothen’s the matter with me,’ replied Joe nervously.

‘Have you been seeing any spirits?’ inquired the old gentleman.

‘Or taking any?’ added Ben Allen.

‘I think you’re right,’ whispered Wardle across the table. ‘He is

intoxicated, I’m sure.’

Ben Allen replied that he thought he was; and, as that

gentleman had seen a vast deal of the disease in question, Wardle

was confirmed in an impression which had been hovering about

his mind for half an hour, and at once arrived at the conclusion

that the fat boy was drunk.

‘Just keep your eye upon him for a few minutes,’ murmured

Wardle. ‘We shall soon find out whether he is or not.’

The unfortunate youth had only interchanged a dozen words

with Mr. Snodgrass, that gentleman having implored him to make

a private appeal to some friend to release him, and then pushed

him out with the snuff-box, lest his prolonged absence should lead

to a discovery. He ruminated a little with a most disturbed

expression of face, and left the room in search of Mary.

But Mary had gone home after dressing her mistress, and the

fat boy came back again more disturbed than before.

Wardle and Mr. Ben Allen exchanged glances. ‘Joe!’ said

Wardle.

‘Yes, sir.’

‘What did you go away for?’

The fat boy looked hopelessly in the face of everybody at table,

and stammered out that he didn’t know.

‘Oh,’ said Wardle, ‘you don’t know, eh? Take this cheese to Mr.

Pickwick.’

Now, Mr. Pickwick being in the very best health and spirits,

had been making himself perfectly delightful all dinner-time, and

was at this moment engaged in an energetic conversation with

Emily and Mr. Winkle; bowing his head, courteously, in the

emphasis of his discourse, gently waving his left hand to lend force

to his observations, and all glowing with placid smiles. He took a

piece of cheese from the plate, and was on the point of turning

round to renew the conversation, when the fat boy, stooping so as

to bring his head on a level with that of Mr. Pickwick, pointed with

his thumb over his shoulder, and made the most horrible and

hideous face that was ever seen out of a Christmas pantomime.

‘Dear me!’ said Mr. Pickwick, starting, ‘what a very―Eh?’ He

stopped, for the fat boy had drawn himself up, and was, or

pretended to be, fast asleep.

‘What’s the matter?’ inquired Wardle.

‘This is such an extremely singular lad!’ replied Mr. Pickwick,

looking uneasily at the boy. ‘It seems an odd thing to say, but upon

my word I am afraid that, at times, he is a little deranged.’

‘Oh! Mr. Pickwick, pray don’t say so,’ cried Emily and Arabella,

both at once.

‘I am not certain, of course,’ said Mr. Pickwick, amidst profound

silence and looks of general dismay; ‘but his manner to me this

moment really was very alarming. Oh!’ ejaculated Mr. Pickwick,

suddenly jumping up with a short scream. ‘I beg your pardon,

ladies, but at that moment he ran some sharp instrument into my

leg. Really, he is not safe.’

‘He’s drunk,’ roared old Wardle passionately. ‘Ring the bell!

Call the waiters! He’s drunk.’

‘I ain’t,’ said the fat boy, falling on his knees as his master

seized him by the collar. ‘I ain’t drunk.’

‘Then you’re mad; that’s worse. Call the waiters,’ said the old

gentleman.

‘I ain’t mad; I’m sensible,’ rejoined the fat boy, beginning to cry.

‘Then, what the devil did you run sharp instruments into Mr.

Pickwick’s legs for?’ inquired Wardle angrily.

‘He wouldn’t look at me,’ replied the boy. ‘I wanted to speak to

him.’

‘What did you want to say?’ asked half a dozen voices at once.

The fat boy gasped, looked at the bedroom door, gasped again,

and wiped two tears away with the knuckle of each of his

forefingers.

‘What did you want to say?’ demanded Wardle, shaking him.

‘Stop!’ said Mr. Pickwick; ‘allow me. What did you wish to

communicate to me, my poor boy?’

‘I want to whisper to you,’ replied the fat boy.

‘You want to bite his ear off, I suppose,’ said Wardle. ‘Don’t

come near him; he’s vicious; ring the bell, and let him be taken

downstairs.’

Just as Mr. Winkle caught the bell-rope in his hand, it was

arrested by a general expression of astonishment; the captive

lover, his face burning with confusion, suddenly walked in from

the bedroom, and made a comprehensive bow to the company.

‘Hollo!’ cried Wardle, releasing the fat boy’s collar, and

staggering back. ‘What’s this?’

‘I have been concealed in the next room, sir, since you

returned,’ explained Mr. Snodgrass.

‘Emily, my girl,’ said Wardle reproachfully, ‘I detest meanness

and deceit; this is unjustifiable and indelicate in the highest

degree. I don’t deserve this at your hands, Emily, indeed!’

‘Dear papa,’ said Emily, ‘Arabella knows―everybody here

knows―Joe knows―that I was no party to this concealment.

Augustus, for He aven’s sake, explain it!’

Mr. Snodgrass, who had only waited for a hearing, at once

recounted how he had been placed in his then distressing

predicament; how the fear of giving rise to domestic dissensions

had alone prompted him to avoid Mr. Wardle on his entrance; how

he merely meant to depart by another door, but, finding it locked,

had been compelled to stay against his will. It was a painful

situation to be placed in; but he now regretted it the less,

inasmuch as it afforded him an opportunity of acknowledging,

before their mutual friends, that he loved Mr. Wardle’s daughter

deeply and sincerely; that he was proud to avow that the feeling

was mutual; and that if thousands of miles were placed between

them, or oceans rolled their waters, he could never for an instant

forget those happy days, when first―et cetera, et cetera.

Having delivered himself to this effect, Mr. Snodgrass bowed

again, looked into the crown of his hat, and stepped towards the

door.

‘Stop!’ shouted Wardle. ‘Why, in the name of all that’s―’

‘Inflammable,’ mildly suggested Mr. Pickwick, who thought

something worse was coming.

‘Well―that’s inflammable,’ said Wardle, adopting the

substitute; ‘couldn’t you say all this to me in the first instance?’

‘Or confide in me?’ added Mr. Pickwick.

‘Dear, dear,’ said Arabella, taking up the defence, ‘what is the

use of asking all that now, especially when you know you had set

your covetous old heart on a richer son-in-law, and are so wild and

fierce besides, that everybody is afraid of you, except me? Shake

hands with him, and order him some dinner, for goodness

gracious’ sake, for he looks half starved; and pray have your wine

up at once, for you’ll not be tolerable until you have taken two

bottles at least.’

The worthy old gentleman pulled Arabella’s ear, kissed her

without the smallest scruple, kissed his daughter also with great

affection, and shook Mr. Snodgrass warmly by the hand.

‘She is right on one point at all events,’ said the old gentleman

cheerfully. ‘Ring for the wine!’

The wine came, and Perker came upstairs at the same moment.

Mr. Snodgrass had dinner at a side table, and, when he had

despatched it, drew his chair next Emily, without the smallest

opposition on the old gentleman’s part.

The evening was excellent. Little Mr. Perker came out

wonderfully, told various comic stories, and sang a serious song

which was almost as funny as the anecdotes. Arabella was very

charming, Mr. Wardle very jovial, Mr. Pickwick very harmonious,

Mr. Ben Allen very uproarious, the lovers very silent, Mr. Winkle

very talkative, and all of them very happy.

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