"We must make a night on 't, eh?" quoth Mr. Quirk, with an excited air.
His partners assented to it, as did Mr. Titmouse; and cold beef,
sausages, fowl, ham, beefsteaks, and mutton-chops, were ordered to be in
readiness in half an hour's time. Soon afterwards Mr. Titmouse followed
the chambermaid to his new bedroom.
"This is the room we always give to quality folk--when we get them,"
said she, as she set his candle on the drawers, and looked round the
apartment with a little triumph.
"Ah--yes!--'pon my soul--quite right--always do your best for
quality!--Lovely gal--eh?" Here he chucked her under the chin, and
seemed disposed to imprint a kiss upon her cheek; but, with a "Lord
sir--that's not the way quality folks behave!" she modestly withdrew.
Titmouse, left alone, first threw himself on the bed; then started off,
and walked about; then sat down; then danced about; then took off his
coat; then threw himself on the bed again; hummed, whistled, and jumped
up again--in a sort of wild ecstasy, or delirium. In short, it was plain
that he was not master of himself. In fact, his little mind was agitated
by the day's event, like as would be a small green puddle by the
road-side, for a while, on a stone being suddenly flung into it by a
child. While Messrs. Quirk and Snap were, after their sort, as excited
as was even Mr. Titmouse himself, Gammon, retiring to his bedroom, and
ordering thither pens, ink, and paper, sat down and wrote the following
letter:--
"York, 5th April, 18--.
"MY DEAR SIR,--The very first leisure moment I have, I devote to
informing you, as one of the most intimate friends of our highly
respected client, Mr. Titmouse, of the brilliant event which has
just occurred. After a most severe and protracted struggle of two
days, (the Attorney-General having come down special on the other
side,) the jury, many of them the chief gentlemen of the county,
have within this last hour returned a verdict in favor of our
friend, Mr. Titmouse--thereby declaring him entitled to the whole
of the estates at Yatton, (ten thousand a-year rent-roll, at least,)
and, by consequence, to an immense accumulation of bygone rents,
which must be made up to him by his predecessor, who, with all his
powerful party, and in spite of the unscrupulous means resorted to
to defeat the ends of justice, is dismayed beyond expression at
the result of this grand struggle--unprecedented in the annals of
modern litigation. The result has given lively satisfaction in
these parts--it is plain that our friend Mr. Titmouse will very
soon become a great _lion_ in society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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