king the japanned
candlestick in his hand, walked quietly down stairs.

The more stairs Mr. Pickwick went down, the more stairs there seemed
to be to descend, and again and again, when Mr. Pickwick got into
some narrow passage, and began to congratulate himself on having
gained the ground-floor, did another flight of stairs appear before
his astonished eyes. At last he reached a stone hall, which he
remembered to have seen when he entered the house. Passage after
passage did he explore; room after room did he peep into; at length,
just as he was on the point of giving up the search in despair, he
opened the door of the identical room in which he had spent the
evening, and beheld his missing property on the table.

Mr. Pickwick seized the watch in triumph, and proceeded to retrace
his steps to his bed-chamber. If his progress downwards had been
attended with difficulties and uncertainty, his journey back, was
infinitely more perplexing. Rows of doors, garnished with boots of
every shape, make, and size, branched off in every possible
direction. A dozen times did he softly turn the handle of some
bedroom door, which resembled his own, when a gruff cry from within
of "Who the devil's that?" or "What do want here?" caused him to
steal away on tiptoe, with a perfectly marvellous celerity. He was
reduced to the verge of despair, when an open door attracted his
attention. He peeped in--right at last. There were the two beds,
whose situation he perfectly remembered, and the fire still burning.
His candle, not a long one when he first received it, had flickered
away in the drafts of air through which he had passed, and sunk into
the socket, just as he had closed the door after him. 'No matter,'
said Mr. Pickwick, 'I can undress myself just as well by the light of
the fire.'

The bedsteads stood, one each side of the door; and on the inner side
of each, was a little path, terminating in a rush-bottomed chair,
just wide enough to admit of a person's getting into, or out of bed,
on that side if he or she thought proper. Having carefully drawn the
curtains of his bed on the outside, Mr. Pickwick sat down on the
rush-bottomed chair, and leisurely divested himself of his shoes and
gaiters. He then took off and folded up, his coat, waistcoat, and
neck-cloth, and slowly drawing on h