Pickwick Abroad: or, The Tour in France — page 190: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

18u PICh WICH ABROAD. ength, to use his father’s own expressive language, ‘‘ he was biewn,” énd obliged to shift his quarters to the cool and tranquil retreat afforded by a garret in the Lanthorn and Cat itself. Mr. William Sugden’s talents were, however, of too brilliant a mature to be concealed in the unsentimental abode their proprietor had now chosen; and a farther supply of coin, to which he prudently helpec: himself from his parent’s ull, enabled him to make a short tour in the West of England, accompanied by sundry packs of cards and pairs of dice which he had previously arranged to suit his own pecu- lar purposes. It is uncertain in what manner this extraordi young man availed himself, during his tour, of those means whic nature and a little art had placed at his disposal. There was, how- ever, a strange story afloat-at the time, relative to a certain individual of a certain description having been detected in certain nefarious practices with the dice, at a certain mess-table in a certain town; and a few other little circumstances, that bore collateral reference to this rumour, at once established in Mr. Sugden senior’s mind, the con- viction of the identity of his son and heir with the individual alluded to. Be that as it may, it is a well-known and indisputable fact, that Mr. William Sugden returned to London with a few hundred pounds in his pocket, and became a regular visitor to the various gambling- houses with which the West End of the English Metropolis is so eminently adorned. Malicious people have ventured to assert that the young gentleman himself became “a bonnet” or decoy at one of the principal establishments he was thus pleased to honour with his pre- sence; but as to the truth of so gross an assertion there exists no real evidence. Suffice it to say, that in a very short period Mr.- Sugden amassed the sum of a thousand pounds, or thereabouts, and that he had created for himself a snug and quiet little circle of ac- quaintance, the chief members of which were the proprietors and fre- quenters of the pandemonia where money may be lost in 80 speerly and highly satisfactory a manner. Mr. William Sugden now set up in business as a “ young man about town,” and dropping his own hereditary patronymic, adopted the more aristocratic one of Adolphus Crashem. But in every instance was the extraordinary family failing with which he wasatiicted, more and more developed. He not only forgot to pay the stipulated price for the various articles he profusely ordered from about sixteen di terent jewellers resident at the West End of London; but, in a state of uncer- tainty as to the real owner of the goods thus supplied, and with a view to their security which speaks volumes for his prudence anc} fore- thought, he conveyed them to the safe and assured custody of the aearest pawnbroker. Indeed, to do him full justice, he subset uently nanded over the duplicates to the aforesaid jewellers, when i nterro- gated as to the manner in which the property had been dispose d of. Virtue seldom meets with its reward in this life. The sixteen jew- ellers, aided by Messieurs Stickemin and Nagsflesh—the two indivi- duals before alluded to, concocted a base and Catiline-like con spiracy against the peace and well-being of Mr. Adolphus Crashem. These misguided men, in a moment of opaqueness not easily conceive iby the intelligent reader, ventured to accuse their victim of a variety of ue- 6)(0)(6) a S 5} a Ss (COIN