chanting conversational powers, was rendered a decidedly
unpleasant companion in a limited space, by the physical weakness to
which we have elsewhere adverted.

The coach having turned into a very narrow and dark street, stopped
before a house with iron bars to all the windows; the door-posts of
which were graced by the name and title of 'Namby, Officer to the
Sheriffs of London'; the inner gate having been opened by a gentleman
who might have passed for a neglected twin-brother of Mr. Smouch, and
who was endowed with a large key for the purpose, Mr. Pickwick was shown
into the 'coffee-room.'

This coffee-room was a front parlour, the principal features of which
were fresh sand and stale tobacco smoke. Mr. Pickwick bowed to the three
persons who were seated in it when he entered; and having despatched Sam
for Perker, withdrew into an obscure corner, and looked thence with some
curiosity upon his new companions.

One of these was a mere boy of nineteen or twenty, who, though it
was yet barely ten o'clock, was drinking gin-and-water, and smoking a
cigar--amusements to which, judging from his inflamed countenance, he
had devoted himself pretty constantly for the last year or two of his
life. Opposite him, engaged in stirring the fire with the toe of his
right boot, was a coarse, vulgar young man of about thirty, with a
sallow face and harsh voice; evidently possessed of that knowledge of
the world, and captivating freedom of manner, which is to be acquired in
public-house parlours, and at low billiard tables. The third tenant of
the apartment was a middle-aged man in a very old suit of black, who
looked pale and haggard, and paced up and down the room incessantly;
stopping, now and then, to look with great anxiety out of the window as
if he expected somebody, and then resuming his walk.

'You'd better have the loan of my razor this morning, Mr. Ayresleigh,'
said the man who was stirring the fire, tipping the wink to his friend
the boy.

'Thank you, no, I shan't want it; I expect I shall be out, in the course
of an hour or so,' replied the other in a hurried manner. Then, walking
again up to the window, and once more returning disappointed, he sighed
deeply, and left the room; upon which the other two burst into a loud
laugh.

'Well, I never saw such a game as that,' said the gentleman who had
offered the razor, whose name appeared to be Price. 'Never!' Mr. Price
confirmed the assertion with an oath, and then laughed