Pickwick Abroad: A Companion to the Pickwick Papers — page 63: what you’re looking at

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persons; the latter have less expensive ap- parel, but it becomes them as if they had made it for themselves with their own hands.” “Indeed,” said Mr. Pickwick, with a smile of satisfaction, while Mr. Tupman was ogling a middle-aged lady at a little distance. . “You admire that wall-flower, do you, sir?” inquired Mr. Scuttle, addressing his question to Mr. ‘Tupman, who laughed fee- bly, and looked around to discover the gar- den-production in question, but sought in vain. __ absent gentleman, after a pause: “I allude PICKWICK “You do not understand,” said the 53 fd } ad senses, or rather recollection, by the on- slaught which a fierce tom-cat immediately commenced upon me. Singular—was it not ?” | “Very,” returned Mr. Pickwick, who be- gan to think that he had done well to visit foreign parts, as he daily encountered new characters, and on each occasion was mate- rially edified by all he heard and saw. In the meantime Mr. Tnpman had screw- ed up his courage to the proper and neces- sary pitch, and had invited a young lady to honor him with her hand in the ensuing quadrille. Mr. Winkle, with a pleasing variety of blushes, followed his friend’s ex- ample; and Mr. Boozie regretted that he es to the lady you were just now admiring. We call all those ‘ wall flowers, who do not dance.” had not pinned the cambric-handkerchiefs to his coat-tails, as he might then have “Ah! I comprehend,” cried Mr. Tup- man, triumphantly. “ Yes—I admire the sex in genera] ; indeed, I adore it, I may say ;—and Mr. Tupman looked at the mo- ment as if he experienced a reciprocal feel- ing in return. “Where are you staying, gentlemen ?” asked Mr. Scuttle, suddenly awaking from a deep reverie. “I hope we shall have the pleasure of meeting again.” “ At Meurice’s,” ar wered Mr. Winkle; and then he also expressed a similar wish, in which his companions immediately and cordially joined. | . Well, that is curious,” said the absent man ; “for I am also located there, and my apartments are on the fifth floor, in the front part of the building.” “Precisely over ours,” exclaimed Mr. Pickwick. “ How: very convenient !” “So convenient,” said Mr. Scuttle, “ that I invariably mistake the staircase, in a fit of absence, and do not discover my error till I am ringing at some person’s bell up five flights of stairs in another part of the hotel... Absence of mind is a dreadful ca- lamity, sir.” “So I should imagine,” Pickwick ; /“and somewhat dangerous at tines, I should think.” “You are tolerably correct in your opin- ion,” continued Mr. Scuttle. “The other morning 1 awoke at an early hour, and fan- cied myself a chimney-sweep. The im- woes was so strong upon my mind, that seized the hearth-brush and shovel, and forthwith clambered up the chimney of my _bed-room like a madman. Arrived at the top, I commenced a dismal howling in the usual style, and was only recalled to my observed Mr. | danced also. While Mr. Tupman and Mr. Winkle wer¢ thus engaged in “doing the agreeable” to their fair partners, the absent gentleman proggeed to entertain Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Boozie with a variety of amusing anec- dotes, either illustrative and descriptive of Parisian habits and manners, or relative to the personages that crowded the splendid salons of the ancient palace of the family of Borghese—for such is the present abode of the English Ambassador in Paris. Mr. Scuttle paused to gather breath, and Mr. Pickwick glanced around him with a _ countenance wreathed into smiles of the most interesting philanthropy. That great man knew that he was in the society of many of his fellow-country'nen, even in a strange land; he was alse aware that he himself was no inconsideral le ornament. to the nation whose Ambassador had honored — him with his notice ; and 11 every whisper that passed between the various knots into which the guests were co’ iected, during the interval of leisure succeeding a quadrille, he felt convinced that the words which were breathed announced a ¢ sciousness of the presence of Samuel Pi kwick, Tracy Tup- man, and Nathaniel Vinkle, His honest heart leapt at the idea and, in the pride of the moment, he thc ight within himself, “Even Boozie is now mdebted to us for a certain tributary lus re which surrounds. him !” | The current of the e grand ideas was in- terrupted by a tray vhich an over-obsequi- ous waiter thrust ir o Mr. Pickwick’s some- what corpulent st mach; so that in the momentary anguis) caused by the servant's negligence, that t: aly immortal man, with MICOOO® KS (SO)