The meeting with the elder Weller proved a fortunate one, for when Sam
told of their experiences with Jingle and Job Trotter, his father
declared that he himself had driven the pair to the town of Ipswich,
where they were then living. Nothing would satisfy Mr. Pickwick, when he
heard this, but pursuit, and he and Sam set out next morning by coach,
Mr. Pickwick having written to the other Pickwickians to follow him.
On the coach was a red-haired man with an inquisitive nose and blue
spectacles, whose name was Mr. Peter Magnus, and with whom (since they
stopped at the same inn) Mr. Pickwick dined on his arrival. Mr. Magnus,
before they parted for the night, grew confidential and informed him
that he had come there to propose to a lady who was in the inn at that
very moment.
For some time after he retired, Mr. Pickwick sat in his bedroom
thinking. At length he rose to undress, when he remembered he had left
his watch down stairs, and taking a candle he went to get it. He found
it easily, but to retrace his steps proved more difficult. A dozen doors
he thought his own, and a dozen times he turned a door-knob only to
hear a gruff voice within. At last he found what he thought was his own
room, the door ajar. The wind had blown out his candle, but the fire was
bright, and Mr. Pickwick, as he retired behind the bed curtains to
undress, smiled till he almost cracked his nightcap strings as he
thought of his wanderings.
Suddenly the smile faded--some one had entered the room and locked the
door. "Robbers!" thought Mr. Pickwick. He peered out between the
curtains and almost fainted with horror. Standing before the mirror was
a middle-aged lady in yellow curl papers, brushing her back-hair.
"Bless my soul!" thought Mr. Pickwick. "I must be in the wrong room.
This is fearful!"
He waited a while, then coughed, first gently, then more loudly.
"Gracious Heaven!" said the middle-aged lady. "What's that?"
"It's--it's only a gentleman, ma'am," said Mr. Pickwick.
"A strange man!" exclaimed the lady with a terrific scream.
Mr. Pickwick put out his head in desperation.
"Wretch!" she said, covering her face with her hands. "What do you want
here?"
"Nothing, ma'am--nothing whatever, ma'am," said Mr. Pickwick earnestly.
"I am almost ready to sink, ma'am, beneath the confusion of addressing
a lady in my nightcap (here the lady snatched off hers) but I can't get
it off, ma'am! (here Mr. Pickwick gave it a tremendous tug). It is
evident to me now that I have mistaken this bedroom for my own."
"If this be true," said the lady sobbing violently, "you will leave it
instantly."
"Certainly, ma'am," answered Mr. Pickwick appearing, "I--I--am very
sorry, ma'am."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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