told him Jingle's
real character. He was terribly afraid the story would get out and that
the town would laugh at him, so he became all at once tremendously
polite, declared their arrest had been all a mistake and begged the
Pickwickians to make themselves at home. Sam Weller was sent down to the
kitchen to get his dinner, where he met a pretty housemaid named Mary,
with whom he proceeded to fall very much in love for the first time in
his life.

Jingle and Job walked into the trap a little later, not expecting the
kind of reception they were to find there. But even before the combined
scorn of Nupkins, Mrs. Nupkins, Miss Nupkins and the Pickwickians,
Jingle showed a brazen front. He knew pride would prevent the mayor from
exposing him, and when finally shown the door, he left with a mocking
jeer, followed by the chuckling Job.

In spite of his own troubles Mr. Pickwick left Ipswich comforted by the
defeat of Jingle. As for Sam, he kissed the pretty housemaid behind the
door and they parted with mutual regrets.

To atone for these difficult adventures, the Pickwickians prepared for a
long visit to Dingley Dell, where they spent an old-fashioned Merry
Christmas; where they found the fat boy even fatter and Mr. Wardle even
jollier; where Tupman was not saddened by the sight of his lost love,
the spinster aunt, who had been sent to live with another relative;
where Snodgrass came more than ever to admire Emily, the pretty
daughter; where Winkle fell head over ears in love with a black-eyed
young lady visitor named Arabella Allen, who wore a nice little pair of
boots with fur around the top; where they went skating and Mr. Pickwick
broke through, and had to be carried home and put to bed; where they
hung mistletoe and told stories, and altogether enjoyed themselves in a
hundred ways.

Ben Allen, Arabella's brother, reached Dingley Dell on Christmas Day--a
thick-set, mildewy young man, with short black hair, a long white face
and spectacles. He was a medical student, and brought with him his chum,
Bob Sawyer, a slovenly, smart, swaggering young gentleman, who smelled
strongly of tobacco smoke and looked like a dissipated Robinson Crusoe.
Ben intended that his chum should marry his sister Arabella, and Bob
Sawyer paid her so much attention that Winkle began to hate him on the
spot.

The Christmas merrymaking was all too soon over, and as Mrs. Bardell's
lawsuit against Mr. Pickwick was shortly to be tried, the Pickwickia