Pickwick Abroad: or, The Tour in France — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

44 — Pickwick Abroad. ‘Not on no account!” cried a loud voice in the adjoining corridor. ‘** You don’t think to come that ’ere gammon over me, my fine feller —do you now? Vy, I should con-sider myself more wulgar than the beatesses in the field, if I vas to listen to your adwice, as the chimbley- sveep said ven they asked him to dine at a radical conwivial meetin’.”’ ‘‘Tupman, my dear fellow,” demanded Mr. Pickwick, holding a bottle of wine in one hand and a glass in the other, ‘‘ pray see what they are about now with my servant.” : ‘“¢ Yes—do,”’ echoed Mr. Crashem: and Mr. Tupman accordingly issued into the passage, where he found Mr. Weller disputing with a person who appeared to be the landlord of the hotel. ‘‘ Here’s von ’o my mas’ers, you perwokin’ French thief,” cried Mr. Weller, touching his hat as the sleek and oily countenance of Mr. ‘Tupman emerged to his view: ‘‘and now to the pint, my little cock- 1’-vax, as the patient schule-mas’er observed to the scollard vich tried to shuffle off vith a parcel o’ lies.”’ ‘* What is the matter, Sam ?” enquired Mr. Tupman. “‘ Just this, Sir,” replied Mr. Weller, ‘‘ that this chap is a-tryin’ to persuade me to grub vith my superiors, as if they vos my eq-vals.”’ ‘Perhaps itis the fashion in France, Sam,” mildly suggested Mr. Tupman; ‘‘and while I think of it, the conductor of the diligence is himself seated at the same table with us.”’ ‘Then, in that case,” exclaimed Mr. Weller, after a moment’s reflec-. tion, ‘“‘I may as vell do it as another, as the young prig observed to the old ’un ven he seed him filch a pocket-ankercher ;”—and with these words Mr. Weller followed Mr. Tupman into the table-d’hote — room, and seated himself at a respectable distance from his master. ‘‘’Very good spread, this,’ observed Mr. Winkle, casting an ap- proving glance up the long table; ‘‘ puts me in mind of a dinner on a race-course, or cricket-ground.” | ‘* Nothing to what you see in Turkey, my dear fellow,” ejaculated Mr. Crashem. “‘ ‘There, the very omnibuses have table-@hotes; and for a couple of francs you can dine, and go from one end of Constan- tinople to the other at the same time. Devilish convenient for the merchants, eh ?” | Mr. Winkle nodded assent; Mr. Pickwick looked incredulous; and the sporting characters at the other end of the table ee their astonishment at Mr. Crashem’s statement, through the medium of such expressive terms as ‘‘gammon,” ‘“‘blarney,” “gag,” &c. Mr. Crash- em’s lofty mind was not to be daunted by the conduct of that por- tion of his audience whose weak intellect could not comprehend the vastness of the enterprises undertaken by the Turks, and carried into effect by that very enlightened people; he accordingly assured the sporting characters ‘‘ that they were no gentlemen,” and hinted “ that if his respect for the great man with whom he had the honour to travel did not withhold him, he should proceed to take summary vengeance upon their carcasses, without any compunction or mercy.” ‘¢He’ll do that to-morrow,” cried one of the individuals thus me- naced. ‘“<When he gets up a little earlier,’ added a second. ‘*'Trust him,” exclaimed a third: ‘‘he’ll flare up about the same time that the Deccan prize-mcney 1s paid.”’ ? ECORNIELOO KS, (EO)