ry unnecessary display of excitement. I have only taken
places inside for two.'

'I am glad to hear it,' said the fierce man. 'I withdraw my expressions.
I tender an apology. There's my card. Give me your acquaintance.'

'With great pleasure, Sir,' replied Mr. Pickwick. 'We are to be
fellow-travellers, and I hope we shall find each other's society
mutually agreeable.'

'I hope we shall,' said the fierce gentleman. 'I know we shall. I like
your looks; they please me. Gentlemen, your hands and names. Know me.'

Of course, an interchange of friendly salutations followed this gracious
speech; and the fierce gentleman immediately proceeded to inform the
friends, in the same short, abrupt, jerking sentences, that his name was
Dowler; that he was going to Bath on pleasure; that he was formerly in
the army; that he had now set up in business as a gentleman; that he
lived upon the profits; and that the individual for whom the second
place was taken, was a personage no less illustrious than Mrs. Dowler,
his lady wife.

'She's a fine woman,' said Mr. Dowler. 'I am proud of her. I have
reason.'

'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 skin him. 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 himself. Mr. Dowler paid his bill, and hurried out with
his travelling cap, coat, and cloak; and Mr. Pickwick and hi