MR.SAMUEL WELLER, BEING ENTRUSTED WITH A MISSIONOF LOVE, PROCEEDS TO EXECUTE IT; WITH WHAT SUCCESS WILL HEREINAFTER APPEARDURING the whole of next day, Sam kept Mr.Winkle steadily in sight, fully determined not to take his eye off him for one instant, until he should receive express instructions from the fountain-head.
However disagreeable Sam's very close watch and great vigilance were to Mr.Winkle, he thought it better to bear with them, than, by any act of violent opposition, to hazard being carried away by force, which Mr.Weller more than once strongly hinted was the line of conduct that a strict sense of duty prompted him to pursue.There is little reason to doubt that Sam would very speedily have quieted his scruples, by bearing Mr.Winkle back to Bath, bound hand and foot, had not Mr.Pickwick's prompt attention to the note, which Dowler had undertaken to deliver, forestalled any such proceeding.In short, at eight o'clock in the evening, Mr.Pickwick himself walked into the coffee-room of the Bush tavern, and told Sam with a smile, to his very great relief, that he had done quite right, and it was unnecessary for him to mount guard any longer.
"I thought it better to come myself," said Mr.Pickwick, addressing Mr.Winkle, as Sam disencumbered him of his great-coat and travelling shawl, "to ascertain, before I gave my consent to Sam's employment in this matter, that you are quite in earnest and serious, with respect to this young lady.""Serious, from my heart--from my soul!" returned Mr.Winkle, with great energy.
"Remember," said Mr.Pickwick, with beaming eyes, "we met her at our excellent and hospitable friend's, Winkle.It would be an ill return to tamper lightly, and without due consideration with this young lady's affections.
I'll not allow that, sir.I'll not allow it.""I have no such intention, indeed," exclaimed Mr.Winkle, warmly."Ihave considered the matter well, for a long time, and I feel that my happiness is bound up in her.""That's wot we call tying it up in a small parcel, sir," interposed Mr.Weller, with an agreeable smile.
Mr.Winkle looked somewhat stern at this interruption, and Mr.Pickwick angrily requested his attendant not to jest with one of the best feelings of our nature; to which Sam replied, "That he wouldn't, if he was aware on it; but there were so many on 'em, that he hardly know'd which was the best ones wen he heerd 'em mentioned."Mr.Winkle then recounted what had passed between himself and Mr.Ben Allen, relative to Arabella; stated that his object was to gain an interview with the young lady, and make a formal disclosure of his passion; and declared his conviction, founded on certain dark hints and mutterings of the aforesaid Ben, that, wherever she was at present immured, it was somewhere near the Downs.And this was his whole stock of knowledge or suspicion on the subject.
With this very slight clue to guide him, it was determined that Mr.
Weller should start next morning on an expedition of discovery; it was also arranged that Mr.Pickwick and Mr.Winkle, who were less confident of their powers, should parade the town meanwhile, and accidentally drop in upon Mr.Bob Sawyer in the course of the day, in the hope of seeing or hearing something of the young lady's whereabout.
Accordingly, next morning, Sam Weller issued forth upon his quest, in no way daunted by the very discouraging prospect before him; and away he walked, up one street and down another--we were going to say, up one hill and down another, only it's all uphill at Clifton--without meeting with anything or anybody that tended to throw the faintest light on the matter in hand.Many were the colloquies into which Sam entered with grooms who were airing horses on roads, and nursemaids who were airing children in lanes; but nothing could Sam elicit from either the first-mentioned or the last, which bore the slightest reference to the object of his artfully-prosecuted inquiries.There were a great many young ladies in a great many houses, the greater part whereof were shrewdly suspected by the male and female domestics to be deeply attached to somebody, or perfectly ready to become so, if opportunity offered.But as none among these young ladies was Miss Arabella Allen, the information left Sam at exactly the old point of wisdom at which he had stood before.
Sam struggled across the Downs against a good high wind wondering whether it was always necessary to hold your hat on with both hands in that part of the country, and came to a shady by-place about which were sprinkled several little villas of quiet and secluded appearance.Outside a stable-door at the bottom of a long back lane without a thoroughfare, a groom in undress was idling about, apparently persuading himself that he was doing something with a spade and a wheelbarrow.We may remark, in this place, that we have scarcely ever seen a groom near a stable, in his lazy moments, who has not been, to a greater or less extent, the victim of this singular delusion.
Sam thought he might as well talk to this groom as to any one else, especially as he was very tired with walking, and there was a good large stone just opposite the wheelbarrow; so he strolled down the lane, and, seating himself on the stone, opened a conversation with the ease and ******* for which he was remarkable.
"Mornin', old friend," said Sam.
"Arternoon, you mean," replied the groom, casting a surly look at Sam.
"You're wery right, old friend," said Sam; "I do mean arternoon.
How are you?"
"Why, I don't find myself much the better for seeing of you," replied the ill-tempered groom.
"That's wery odd--that is," said Sam, "for you look so uncommon cheerful, and seem altogether so lively, that it does vun's heart good to see you."The surly groom looked surlier still at this, but not sufficiently so to produce any effect upon Sam, who immediately inquired, with a countenance of great anxiety, whether his master's name was not Walker.
"No, it ain't," said the groom.
"Nor Brown, I s'pose?" said Sam.