Everything at that time, however, was
much more "in the rough" and coarser. This was his first case; and the
poor creature is thus described:

Although an infant barrister, he was a full-grown man. He had a very
nervous manner, and a painful hesitation in his speech; it did not
appear to be a natural defect, but seemed rather the result of
timidity, arising from the consciousness of being "kept down" by want
of means, or interest, or connection, or impudence, as the case might
be. He was overawed by the Serjeant, and profoundly courteous to the
attorney.

'I have not had the pleasure of seeing you before, Mr. Phunky,' said
Serjeant Snubbin, with haughty condescension.

Mr. Phunky bowed. He _had_ had the pleasure of seeing the Serjeant,
and of envying him too, with all a poor man's envy, for eight years
and a quarter.

'You are with me in this case, I understand?' said the Serjeant.

If Mr. Phunky had been a rich man, he would have instantly sent for
his clerk to remind him; if he had been a wise one, he would have
applied his fore-finger to his forehead, and endeavoured to
recollect, whether, in the multiplicity of his engagements he had
undertaken this one, or not; but as he was neither rich nor wise (in
this sense at all events) he turned red, and bowed.

'Have you read the papers, Mr. Phunky?' inquired the Serjeant.

Here again, Mr. Phunky should have professed to have forgotten all
about the merits of the case; but as he had read such papers as had
been laid before him in the course of the action, and had thought of
nothing else, waking or sleeping, throughout the two months during
which he had been retained as Mr. Serjeant Snubbin's junior, he
turned a deeper red, and bowed again.

'This is Mr. Pickwick,' said the Serjeant, waving his pen in the
direction in which that gentleman was standing.

Mr. Phunky bowed to Mr. Pickwick with a reverence which a first
client must ever awaken; and again inclined his head towards his
leader.

'Perhaps you will take Mr. Pickwick away,' said the Serjeant,
'and--and--and--hear anything Mr. Pickwick may wish to communicate.
We shall have a consultation, of course.' With this hint that he had
been interrupted quite long enough, Mr. Serjeant Snubbin, who had
been gradually growing more and more abstracted, applied his glass to