sundry admonitions concerning the safety of his
limbs and neck, Sam mounted into the pear-tree, to wait until Arabella
should come into sight.

He waited so long without this anxiously-expected event occurring, that
he began to think it was not going to take place at all, when he heard
light footsteps upon the gravel, and immediately afterwards beheld
Arabella walking pensively down the garden. As soon as she came nearly
below the tree, Sam began, by way of gently indicating his presence, to
make sundry diabolical noises similar to those which would probably
be natural to a person of middle age who had been afflicted with a
combination of inflammatory sore throat, croup, and whooping-cough, from
his earliest infancy.

Upon this, the young lady cast a hurried glance towards the spot whence
the dreadful sounds proceeded; and her previous alarm being not at
all diminished when she saw a man among the branches, she would most
certainly have decamped, and alarmed the house, had not fear fortunately
deprived her of the power of moving, and caused her to sink down on a
garden seat, which happened by good luck to be near at hand.

'She's a-goin' off,' soliloquised Sam in great perplexity. 'Wot a thing
it is, as these here young creeturs will go a-faintin' avay just ven
they oughtn't to. Here, young 'ooman, Miss Sawbones, Mrs. Vinkle,
don't!'

Whether it was the magic of Mr. Winkle's name, or the coolness of the
open air, or some recollection of Mr. Weller's voice, that revived
Arabella, matters not. She raised her head and languidly inquired,
'Who's that, and what do you want?'

'Hush,' said Sam, swinging himself on to the wall, and crouching there
in as small a compass as he could reduce himself to, 'only me, miss,
only me.'

'Mr. Pickwick's servant!' said Arabella earnestly.

'The wery same, miss,' replied Sam. 'Here's Mr. Vinkle reg'larly sewed
up vith desperation, miss.'

'Ah!' said Arabella, drawing nearer the wall.

'Ah, indeed,' said Sam. 'Ve thought ve should ha' been obliged to
strait-veskit him last night; he's been a-ravin' all day; and he says
if he can't see you afore to-morrow night's over, he vishes he may be
somethin' unpleasanted if he don't drownd hisself.'

'Oh, no, no, Mr. Weller!' said Arabella, clasping her hands.

'That's wot he says, miss,' replied Sam coolly. 'He's a man of his word,
and it's my opinion he'll do it, miss. He's heerd all about you from the
sawbones in barnacles.'

'From m