374 POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF
" I hope I shall have the pleasure of judging," said Mr. Pickwick with a smile.
" You shall," replied Dowler. *' She shall know you. She shall esteem you. I courted her under singular circumstances. I won her through a rash vow. Thus. I saw her ; I loved her , I proposed ; she refused me. — ' You love another ?* — * Spare my blushes.' — ' I know him. — * You do.' * Very good, if he remains here^ I'll skin him.* "
"Lord bless me!" exclaimed Mr. Pickwick involuntarily,
" Did you skin the gentleman, Sir ? " inquired Mr. Winkle, with a very pale face.
" I wrote him a note. I said it was a painful thing. And so it was."
" Certainly/' interposed Mr. Winkle.
- ^ I said I had pledged my word as a gentleman to skin him. My
character was at stake. I had no alternative. As an officer in His Majesty's service, I was bound to do it. I regretted the necessity, but it must be done. He was open to conviction. He saw that the rules of the service were imperative. He fled. I married her. Here's the coach. That's her head."
As Mr. Dowler concluded, he pointed to a stage which had just driven up : from the open window of which, a rather pretty face in a bright blue bonnet was looking among the crowd on the pavement, most probably for the rash man himselK Mr. Dowler paid his bill and hurried out with his travelling-cap, coat, and cloak ; and Mr. Pickwick and his friends followed to secure their places.
Mr. Tupman and Mr. Snodgrass had seated themselves at the back part of the coach ; Mr. Winkle had got inside, and Mr. Pickwick was preparing to follow him, when Sam Weller came up to his master, and whispering in his ear, begged to speak to him, with an air of the deepest mystery.
Well, Sam/' said Mr. Pickwick, " What's the matter now ? "
" Here's rayther a rum go, Sir," replied Sam.
« What ? " inquired Mr. Pickwick.
" This here, Sir," rejoined Sam, " I'm wery much afeerd, Sir, that the properiator o* this here coach is a playin' some imperence vith us."
" How is that, Sam ? " said Mr. Pickwick ; " aren't the names down
on the way-bill ? "
" The names is not only down on the vay-bill. Sir," replied Sara,
- ' but they've painted vun on 'em up, on the door o' the coach." As
Sam spoke, he pointed to that part of the coach door on which the pro- prietor's name usually appears ; and there sure enough, in gilt letters of a goodly size, was the magic name of Pickwick !
" Dear me," exclaimed Mr. Pickwick, quite staggered by the coiiv cidence; " what a very extraordinary thing ! "
" Yes, but that ain't all," said Sam, again directing his master's atten- tion to the coach door ; " not content vith writin' up Pickwick, they puts ' Moses ' afore it, vich I call addin' insult to injury, as the parrot said ven they not only took him from his native ]and> but made him talk the English langvidge artervards."
