Pickwick Abroad: or, The Tour in France — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

iG Pickwick Abroad. ler, in the contemplation of an English sovereign which Mr. Pickwick had administered to his especial comfort. In the meantime Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Winkle had finished their brandy-and-water, and had looked at their watches to ascertain the hour, and had come to the unanimous conclusion that it was three o’clock, p. m., after a shrewd suspicion, on the part of Mr. Winkle, that there was a difference of at least eight minutes between French and Eng- lish time. They then diseussed their plans as deliberately and business- like as they had before done their brandy-and-water, and resolved, with the conditional consent of Mr. Tupman, to depart for Paris early the fol- lowing morning by the diligence. The causes of their visit to the French capital—and, indeed, the motives which induced them to leave England after a state of quiescence that had lasted about four years— will be duly unfolded in the progress of these memoirs. The question now arose, How were they to dispose of their time till six o’clock, the hour at which dinner was ordered? Mr. Pickwick was averse to taking a little walk, a plan of diversion which Mr. Winkle had suggested, as he was in no way anxious to be paraded through the town on the shoulders of a mob; and, despite of his native mo- desty, he was well aware of the excitement his presence in the streets was calculated to produce. Mr. Winkle then proposed a \ game of chess or backgammon; but this suggestion was also declined by Mr. Pickwick, who fancied, as he beautifully expressed himself, that it was indecent to have even the appearance of gambling im a public coffee-room. Mr. Winkle, therefore, relapsed into silence, and looked at the fire, and then at the ceiling, and at length hit upon the happy expedient, by way of pass-time, of burning several slips of paper that he found on the mantel. Mr. Pickwick watched Mr. Winkle’s motions with a smile ; and while the world without fondly deemed those great men to be debating on weighty matters, the great men themselves did nothing more nor less important than divert themselves in a manner at once cheap, innocent, and far from uncommon, thus affording an example eminently calculated to illustrate the folly of speculation with regard to the proceedings of her majesty’s ministets in cabinet- council. A quarter of an hour had elapsed since Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Winkle had looked at their watches as above-mentioned, when the door of the coffee-room was suddenly thrown open, and a young gen- tleman of about two or three and twenty bounced into the apartment.. He was dressed in clothes somewhat the worse for wear; and his closely-buttoned double-waistcoat suffered not a vestige of linen to be seen, probably on account of the chilly weather, against the incle- mency of which his head was protected by an old black velvet cap. Without condescending to shut the door behind him, the stranger walked straight up to the fire-place, pulled the bell with extreme vio- lence, and then, turning his back to the fire, he put his hands behind him, pulled asunder his coat-tails, and whistled an opera air, ap- arently not having noticed the presence of Mr. Pickwick and Mr, inkle. The waiter answered the bell with the utmost alacrity; but when he saw that he was summoned by the young gentleman in ques- tion, he made a slight grimace, which was not unnoticed by Mr, Pick- wick, whose closely observing faculties nothing, however trivial, was known to escape. GOnnCOOOkKS (©) (c@