第233章

`No, my boy; I hope I've somethin' better behind here,' says the little man; and as he said it he hit his little veskit wery hard, and then a tear started out o' each eye, which wos wery extraordinary, for it wos supposed as water never touched his face.He shook the turnkey by the hand; out he vent--""And never came back again," said Mr.Pickwick.

"Wrong for vunce, sir," replied Mr.Weller, "for back he come, two minits afore the time, a bilin' with rage: sayin' how he'd been nearly run over by a hackney-coach: that he warn't used to it: and he was blowed if he wouldn't write to the Lord Mayor.They got him pacified at last; and for five years arter that, he never even so much as peeped out o' the lodge-gate.""At the expiration of that time he died, I suppose," said Mr.Pickwick.

"No he didn't, sir," replied Sam."He got a curiosity to go and taste the beer at a new public-house over the way, and it wos such a wery nice parlour, that he took it into his head to go there every night, wich he did for a long time, always comin' back reg'lar about a quarter of an hour afore the gate shut, wich wos all wery snug and comfortable.At last he began to get so precious jolly, that he used to forget how the time vent, or care nothin' at all about it, and he vent on gettin' later and later, till vun night his old friend wos just a shuttin' the gate--had turned the key in fact--wen he come up.`Hold hard, Bill,' he says.`Wot, ain't you come home yet, Tventy?' says the turnkey, `I thought you wos in, long ago.' `No I wasn't,' says the little man, vith a smile.`Well then, I'll tell you wot it is, my friend,' says the turnkey, openin' the gate wery slow and sulky, `it's my 'pinion as you've got into bad company o' late, wich I'm wery sorry to see.Now, I don't wish to do nothing harsh,' he says, `but if you can't confine yourself to steady circles, and find your vay back at reg'lar hours, as sure as you're a standin' there, I'll shut you out altogether!' The little man was seized vith a wiolent fit o' tremblin', and never vent outside the prison walls artervards!"As Sam concluded, Mr.Pickwick slowly retraced his steps down-stairs.

After a few thoughtful turns in the Painted Ground, which, as it was now dark, was nearly deserted, he intimated to Mr.Weller that he thought it high time for him to withdraw for the night; requesting him to seek a bed in some adjacent public-house, and return early in the morning, to make arrangements for the removal of his master's wardrobe from the George and Vulture.This request Mr.Samuel Weller prepared to obey, with as good a grace as he could but with a very considerable show of reluctance nevertheless.

He even went so far as to essay sundry ineffectual hints regarding the expediency of stretching himself on the gravel for that night; but finding Mr.Pickwick obstinately deaf to any such suggestions, finally withdrew.

There is no disguising the fact that Mr.Pickwick felt very low-spirited and uncomfortable; not for lack of society, for the prison was very full, and a bottle of wine would at once have purchased the utmost good-fellowship of a few choice spirits, without any more formal ceremony of introduction;but he was alone in the coarse vulgar crowd, and felt the depression of spirit and sinking of heart, naturally consequent on the reflection that he was cooped and caged up, without a prospect of liberation.As to the idea of releasing himself by ministering to the sharpness of Dodson and Fogg, it never for an instant entered his thoughts.

In this frame of mind he turned again into the coffee-room gallery, and walked slowly to and fro.The place was intolerably dirty, and the smell of tobacco-smoke perfectly suffocating.There was a perpetual slamming and banging of doors as the people went in and out; and the noise of their voices and footsteps echoed and re-echoed through the passages constantly.

A young woman, with a child in her arms, who seemed scarcely able to crawl, from emaciation and misery, was walking up and down the passage in conversation with her husband, who had no other place to see her in.As they passed Mr.Pickwick, he could hear the female sob; and once she burst into such a passion of grief, that she was compelled to lean against the wall for support, while the man took the child in his arms, and tried to soothe her.

Mr.Pickwick's heart was really too full to bear it, and he went up-stairs to bed.

Now, although the warden's room was a very uncomfortable one (being, in every point of decoration and convenience, several hundred degrees inferior to the common infirmary of a county gaol), it had at present the merit of being wholly deserted save by Mr.Pickwick himself.So, he sat down at the foot of his little iron bedstead, and began to wonder how much a year the warden made out of the dirty room.Having satisfied himself, by mathematical calculation, that the apartment was about equal in annual value to the freehold of a small street in the suburbs of London, he took to wondering what possible temptation could have induced a dingy-looking fly that was crawling over his pantaloons, to come into a close prison, when he had the choice of so many airy situations--a course of meditation which led him to the irresistible conclusion that the insect was mad.After settling this point, he began to be conscious that he was getting sleepy;whereupon he took his nightcap out of the pocket in which he had had the precaution to stow it in the morning, and, leisurely undressing himself, got into bed, and fell asleep.

"Bravo! Heel over toe--cut and shuffle--pay away at it, Zephyr! I'm smothered if the Opera House isn't your proper hemisphere.Keep it up!

Hooray!" These expressions, delivered in a most boisterous tone, and accompanied with loud peals of laughter, roused Mr.Pickwick from one of those sound slumbers which, lasting in reality some half hour, seem to the sleeper to have been protracted for three weeks or a month.