stairs--"Compose
yourself my dear creature, for consider if any one were to come," etc.
But what could be the value of evidence heard in this way? Would a jury
believe it? "Not only," as Sam said, "is 'wision limited,'" but hearing
also.

In short, the delicate subtleties of the conversation between Mr.
Pickwick and Mrs. Bardell would be wholly lost in her hands. Persons of
her class know nothing of suggestion or double meanings or reserved
intention, everything for them must be in black and white. How unlikely,
therefore, that through the panels of a door or through the half opened
door, ("she said on the jar,") could she catch the phrases and their
meanings, and, above all, retain them in her memory? No doubt, as the
counsel put it bluntly, she listened, and with all her ears.

However this may be, here is what Mrs. Cluppins deposed to:

'Mrs. Cluppins,' said Serjeant Buzfuz, 'pray compose yoursel, ma'am;'
and, of course, directly Mrs. Cluppins was desired to compose herself
she sobbed with increased violence, and gave divers alarming
manifestations of an approaching fainting fit, or, as she afterwards
said, of her feelings being too many for her.

'Do you recollect, Mrs. Cluppins?' said Serjeant Buzfuz, after a few
unimportant questions--'do you recollect being in Mrs. Bardell's back
one pair of stairs, on one particular morning in July last, when she
was dusting Mr. Pickwick's apartment?'

'Yes, my Lord and jury, I do,' replied Mrs. Cluppins.

'Mr. Pickwick's sitting-room was the first floor front, I believe?'

'Yes it were, sir,' replied Mrs. Cluppins.

'What were you doing in the back room, ma'am?' inquired the little
judge.

'My Lord and jury,' said Mrs. Cluppins, with interesting agitation,
'I will not deceive you.'

'You had better not, ma'am,' said the little judge.

'I was there,' resumed Mrs. Cluppins, 'unbeknown to Mrs. Bardell; I
had been out with a little basket, gentlemen, to buy three pounds of
red kidney pertaties, which was three pound, tuppense ha'penny, when
I see Mrs. Bardell's street door on the jar.'

'On the what?' exclaimed the little judge.

'Partly open, my Lord,' said Serjeant Snubbin.

'She _said_ on the jar,' said the little judge with a cunning look.

'It's all the same, my lord,' said Serjeant Snubbin. The little
judge looked doubtful, and said he'd make a note