Pickwick Abroad; or, The Tour in France — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

PICKWICK ABROAD. 75 jaunty, and debonnaire air, swinging himself from side to side, and playing with the single curl that hung beneath the front of his hat,~ “T once knew a lady—” “Devil take your lady,’ interrupted Mr. Tupman, somewhat hastily : “don’t you see I’m losing mene ?”’—and with these words, the: two gentlemen redoubled their pace. It is impossible to ascertain whether the young lady looked round by accident, or whether she had a motive in scanning the persons o¢ the two individuals that followed her so closely. One thing is, how- ever, certain, that she did turn her head round for a moment, and iy. so doing discovered the most beautiful features Mr. ‘Tupman’s eyes had ever yet glanced upon. He stopped short, as if transfixed by the sudden stroke of an arrow; involuntarily placed his hand upon his heart, and was about to sink on one knee, when Mr. Boozie gave him a most unsentimental tap on his back, and thus recalled his presence of mind, which had nearly been lost in the first whirlwind of ardent passion. ‘“‘ Lovely creature!” cried Mr. Tupman. ‘‘ Let us see where she lives ;’-—and the two gentlemen hastened their pace accordingly, the amatory Mr. Tupman swinging himself from side to side in a manner that would have been perfectly wxeqgue and interesting if it had not appeared most especially ludicrous and laughable. ‘Thank God! she’s dropped her handkerchief!” exclaimed Mr. Tupman, as the volatile cambric met his anxious eyes; and almost at the same instant the young lady, perceiving her loss, turned hastily round to pick it up. Buta gentle zephyr sprung up at the moment, and wafted the handkerchief on its wings across the Garden of the Palais Royal. Mr. Tupman did not hesitate—hkow could he ?—what course to pursue: he resigned his Jaunty swing for the urgent nature of the occasion, and relapsing into a more vulgar attitude, took to his heels as fast as his fat person would allow him, and scoured after the fugitive cambric with all the agility and airiness of limb usually dis- covered in the movements of an old elephant. It is but fair to add that ie was not a little encouraged by the smiles—which very much verged into boisterous laughter—of the young lady, and by the pecu- liarly stimulating and exciting shouts of Mr. Boozie, who cried, ‘* Cut away, Mike! more pudding in the pot!” in a tone and with a manner exactly suited to the gentility of the ejaculation. Having overturned a nurse and two small children, who were taking an airing in the garden, and knocked down an old gentleman very busily employed in perusing a murder in the Constitutionel news- paper—having fallen and picked himself up three times in a fashion exceedingly novel and amusing, and having expelled, by over-exertion, every particle of breath he was proprietor of for the moment, Mr. Tracy Tupman, whose ardour in the cause of love was only equalled by his perseverance at the dinner-table, succeeded in overtaking and arresting the fugitive handkerchief, after a pleasant and healthy run of about three hundred and fifty yards, the sameness of which had been agreeably diversified by a number of tacks and turnings caused by the eccentric movements of the malicious cambric in question. With the perspiration standing on his expressive countenance, as if he had just been anointed with the oil cf gladness, or ducked in a re , EORNICLOOKS.€O© =)