's Meadows,' observed the fat man solemnly. 'Mullins's
Meadows!' ejaculated the other, with profound contempt.

'Ah, Mullins's Meadows,' repeated the fat man.

'Reg'lar good land that,' interposed another fat man.

'And so it is, sure-ly,' said a third fat man.

'Everybody knows that,' said the corpulent host.

The hard-headed man looked dubiously round, but finding himself in a
minority, assumed a compassionate air and said no more. 'What are they
talking about?' inquired the old lady of one of her granddaughters, in
a very audible voice; for, like many deaf people, she never seemed to
calculate on the possibility of other persons hearing what she said
herself.

'About the land, grandma.'

'What about the land?--Nothing the matter, is there?'

'No, no. Mr. Miller was saying our land was better than Mullins's
Meadows.'

'How should he know anything about it?'inquired the old lady
indignantly. 'Miller's a conceited coxcomb, and you may tell him I said
so.' Saying which, the old lady, quite unconscious that she had spoken
above a whisper, drew herself up, and looked carving-knives at the
hard-headed delinquent.

'Come, come,' said the bustling host, with a natural anxiety to change
the conversation, 'what say you to a rubber, Mr. Pickwick?'

'I should like it of all things,' replied that gentleman; 'but pray
don't make up one on my account.'

'Oh, I assure you, mother's very fond of a rubber,' said Mr. Wardle;
'ain't you, mother?'

The old lady, who was much less deaf on this subject than on any other,
replied in the affirmative.

'Joe, Joe!' said the gentleman; 'Joe--damn that--oh, here he is; put out
the card--tables.'

The lethargic youth contrived without any additional rousing to set out
two card-tables; the one for Pope Joan, and the other for whist. The
whist-players were Mr. Pickwick and the old lady, Mr. Miller and the fat
gentleman. The round game comprised the rest of the company.

The rubber was conducted with all that gravity of deportment and
sedateness of demeanour which befit the pursuit entitled 'whist'--a
solemn observance, to which, as it appears to us, the title of 'game'
has been very irreverently and ignominiously applied. The round-game
table, on the other hand, was so boisterously merry as materially to
interrupt the contemplations of Mr. Miller, who, not being quite so
much absorbed as he ought to have been, contrived to commit various high
crimes and misdemeanours, which exci