Pickwick Abroad; or, The Tour in France — page 399: what you’re looking at

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

356 PICKWICK ABROAD. “‘ wery narrer indeed. Blow’d if I didn’t think yesterday that by this time you'd a-been spliced in indissyllable bondage, as they say in fashionable langvidge, cos it’s more politer on account o’ the hard vords. A wery near go it where, as the minister observed to old George the Third, ven Bonaparte vos a-goin’ to Inwade England.” ‘“‘ My foolish conduct in reference to that woman,” said Mr. Pick- wick, ‘‘ will be the only thing in my lite I shail ever have real cause to regret.” ‘My father, Sir,” observed Mr. Weller, “ alvays svore as how aman vos a great idiot if so be he married a vidder. But that there feller, Siffkin, as he calls his-self, vill find out his mistake afore long. He’s made a old curiosity of his-self, an’ ina year or so ve'll jist see vot he ’d take for his bargain.” ‘‘T hope that they will make a happy couple, Sam,” said the kind- | hearted Mr. Pickwick. ‘‘A friend o’ mine, as vos a huxter in Cambervell,” retumed Mr. Weller, ‘‘used to recite these lines venever any von talked to him o’ marriage :— ‘Till the honey-moon is gone, Happy does the days glide on. Ven the honey-moon is over, Then you doesn’t lie in clover.’ I don’t know vether he made ’em his-self,’’ added Mr. Weller: ‘* but wery pretty they air.” ‘Very, indeed, Sam,” answered Mr. Pickwick, somewhat abruptly. ‘¢ But I still maintain that Mrs. Siffkin, as we must now call her, 1s a very amiable, although a weak, woman.” ‘* A amiable ’ooman!”’ ejaculated Mr. Weller; ‘* so they all is afore marriage. Butter ain’t nothin’ to the softness o’ their dis-positions, nor mild ale to their tempers.” “Let us now drop the subject of my late matrimonial views for ever,”’ said Mr. Pickwick, in an authoritative tone of voice. “The lesson has been a salutary one to me; and 1 am not too proud to ac- knowledge that I shall profit by it. At all events, we will drink to the happiness of the bride and the husband of her choice in a glass of Madeira.” The toast was accordingly drunk; and Mr. Tupman, who had sate uneasily on his chair during the previous half-hour, looked at his watch and declared that he had an appointment to which he was com- pelled tc pay immediate attention. He accordingly left his frends to enjoy themselves in each other's society, while he hastened to. transact a little private business of his cwn. | dist Ps' Geographers have thus traced the path pursued by the immortal Tracy Tupman on this occasion. He walked up the right-hand side of the Boulevards till he arrived at the Rue Neuve Sait Augustin, into which he turned; he then walked straight on to the Rue des Filles Saint Thomas, and continued his way till he arrived in the Place de la Bourse, where he halted for a moment to admire the splendid building which forms the Exchange of Paris. This grand structure is an oblong parallelogram, about 250 feet in length, and 100 mm breadth. . Eomichbooks.com ~ —.s a a an ee pi.