The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

22 THE STEAM PACKET, At that moment Mr. Pifpaf entered the room. ‘“¢ My dear Pentonville, how are you this afternoon?” said the re- tired pork-butcher, squeezing his guest’s hand with most cordial and hospitable violence. : ‘¢ Quite well, I thank you,’ answered the captain in his blandest tones. ‘‘And you, my dear sir, are actually looking younger and better than ever.” “Well, I don’t know,” said Mr. Pifpaf, stroking his ehin compla- cently, and casting a furtive glance into the mirror; ‘‘ they all tell me that I wear pretty well.” ‘“‘T am sure, Mr. Pifpaf, I, for one, never told you any such thing,” cried Mrs. Pifpaf. ‘*Didn’t you, my dear?” said her obsequious husband. ‘‘ Well— I’m sure I thought you did.” ** For my part,” observed Captain Pentonville, ““I never saw you look better in your life. Where, by the by, did you walk this morning?” ) ‘< All round by the Elephant and Castle,” replied Mr. Pifpaf. ‘‘ Ah! I thought so,” ejaculated the captam. ‘‘ What time was it 2” ‘* Why—about twelve, I should say,” was the answer. ‘¢ Just the hour!” cried the captain. ‘‘ Well, I and my friend Lord Noodleton were riding by there at the time, and we saw you walking along the right—no, the left hand “ No-—the right-hand side of the causeway,” said Mr, Pifpaf. ‘“‘ Ah! soit was—I remember now !” continued the captain. ‘‘ How- ever—I saw you, and hallooed after you as. loud as I could bawl. But I was riding a very high-spirited horse—one of Noodleton’s— and I couldn’t rein him in at the moment. But Noodleton said, * Pentonville, my dear fellow, what makes you call after that very re- spectable, and aristocratic-looking gentleman—that gentleman, I mean,’ he added, ‘ with the very robust appearance and firm step—— ’” “Did Lord Noodleton really say that?’ cried Mr. Pifpaf, quite delighted, at the notice which had been thus taken of him by nobility, all chairman of the Honourable and Independent Club of Luminaries though he were. ‘* Yes—he said all that,” abisiaign Captain Pentonville; ‘‘ and I flat- termyself, that his lordship is as good a judge of health and good looks as any one [ know. His lordship, moreover, expressed his great anxiety 93 to make your acquaintance—and that of your amiable family— *“ Well, we shall be most happy to see his lordship—shan’t we, my dear ?”’ a Mr. Pifpaf, the latter part of the sentence being a respect- ful appeal to his. wife, Gomichooks:.co