rejoined Mr. Pickwick. 'Say I am
sorry to trouble him at so late an hour; but I am anxious to see him
to-night, and have only just arrived.' The girl looked timidly at Mr.
Bob Sawyer, who was expressing his admiration of her personal charms
by a variety of wonderful grimaces; and casting an eye at the hats and
greatcoats which hung in the passage, called another girl to mind the
door while she went upstairs. The sentinel was speedily relieved; for
the girl returned immediately, and begging pardon of the gentlemen
for leaving them in the street, ushered them into a floor-clothed back
parlour, half office and half dressing room, in which the principal
useful and ornamental articles of furniture were a desk, a wash-hand
stand and shaving-glass, a boot-rack and boot-jack, a high stool, four
chairs, a table, and an old eight-day clock. Over the mantelpiece were
the sunken doors of an iron safe, while a couple of hanging shelves
for books, an almanac, and several files of dusty papers, decorated the
walls.

'Very sorry to leave you standing at the door, Sir,' said the girl,
lighting a lamp, and addressing Mr. Pickwick with a winning smile, 'but
you was quite strangers to me; and we have such a many trampers that
only come to see what they can lay their hands on, that really--'

'There is not the least occasion for any apology, my dear,' said Mr.
Pickwick good-humouredly.

'Not the slightest, my love,' said Bob Sawyer, playfully stretching
forth his arms, and skipping from side to side, as if to prevent the
young lady's leaving the room.

The young lady was not at all softened by these allurements, for she at
once expressed her opinion, that Mr. Bob Sawyer was an 'odous creetur;'
and, on his becoming rather more pressing in his attentions, imprinted
her fair fingers upon his face, and bounced out of the room with many
expressions of aversion and contempt.

Deprived of the young lady's society, Mr. Bob Sawyer proceeded to divert
himself by peeping into the desk, looking into all the table drawers,
feigning to pick the lock of the iron safe, turning the almanac with its
face to the wall, trying on the boots of Mr. Winkle, senior, over his
own, and making several other humorous experiments upon the furniture,
all of which afforded Mr. Pickwick unspeakable horror and agony, and
yielded Mr. Bob Sawyer proportionate delight.

At length the door opened, and a little old gentleman in a
snuff-coloured suit, with a head and face