"Driving to the George and Vulture, they found that Arabella and her maid had sent for a hackney-coach immediately on the receipt of a short note from Emily announcing her arrival in town, and had proceeded straight to the Adelphi.As Wardle had business to transact in the city, they sent the carriage and the fat boy to his hotel, with the information that he and Mr.Pickwick would return together to dinner at five o'clock.
Charged with this message, the fat boy returned, slumbering as peaceably in his dickey, over the stones, as if it had been a down bed on watch-springs.
By some extraordinary miracle he awoke of his own accord, when the coach stopped, and giving himself a good shake to stir up his faculties, went up-stairs to execute his commission.
Now, whether the shake had jumbled the fat boy's faculties together, instead of arranging them in proper order, or had roused such a quantity of new ideas within him as to render him oblivious of ordinary forms and ceremonies, or (which is also possible) had proved unsuccessful in preventing his falling asleep as he ascended the stairs, it is an undoubted fact that he walked into the sitting-room without previously knocking at the door;and so beheld a gentleman with his arms clasping his young mistress's waist, sitting very lovingly by her side on a sofa, while Arabella and her pretty handmaid feigned to be absorbed in looking out of a window at the other end of the room.At sight of this phenomenon, the fat boy uttered an interjection, the ladies a scream, and the gentleman an oath, almost simultaneously.
"Wretched creature, what do you want here?" said the gentleman, who it is needless to say was Mr.Snodgrass.
To this the fat boy, considerably terrified, briefly responded, "Missis.""What do you want me for?" inquired Emily, turning her head aside, "you stupid creature!""Master and Mr.Pickwick is a going to dine here at five," replied the fat boy.
"Leave the room!" said Mr.Snodgrass, glaring upon the bewildered youth.
"No, no, no," added Emily hastily."Bella, dear, advise me."Upon this, Emily and Mr.Snodgrass, and Arabella and Mary, crowded into a corner, and conversed earnestly in whispers for some minutes, during which the fat boy dozed.
"Joe," said Arabella, at length, looking round with a most bewitching smile, "how do you do, Joe?""Joe," said Emily, "you're a very good boy; I won't forget you, Joe.""Joe," said Mr.Snodgrass, advancing to the astonished youth, and seizing his hand, "I didn't know you before.There's five shillings for you, Joe!""I'll owe you five, Joe," said Arabella, "for old acquaintance sake, you know;" and another most captivating smile was bestowed upon the corpulent intruder.
The fat boy's perception being slow, he looked rather puzzled at first to account for this sudden prepossession in his favour, and stared about him in a very alarming manner.At length his broad face began to show symptoms of a grin of pr'oportionately broad dimensions; and then, thrusting half-a-crown into each of his pockets, and a hand and wrist after it, he burst into a hoarse laugh: being for the first and only time in his existence.
"He understands us, I see," said Arabella.
"He had better have something to eat, immediately," remarked Emily.
The fat boy almost laughed again when he heard this suggestion.Mary, after a little more whispering, tripped forth from the group, and said:
"I am going to dine with you to-day, sir, if you have no objection.""This way," said the fat boy, eagerly."There is such a jolly meat pie!"With these words, the fat boy led the way down-stairs; his pretty companion captivating all the waiters and angering all the chambermaids as she followed him to the eating-room.
There was the meat-pie of which the youth had spoken so feelingly, and there were, moreover, a steak, and a dish of potatoes, and a pot of porter.
"Sit down," said the fat boy."Oh, my eye, how prime! I am so hungry."Having apostrophised his eye, in a species of rapture, five or six times, the youth took the head of the little table, and Mary seated herself at the bottom.
"Will you have some of this?" said the fat boy, plunging into the pie up to the very ferules of the knife and fork.
"A little, if you please," replied Mary.
The fat boy assisted Mary to a little, and himself to a great deal, and was just going to begin eating when he suddenly laid down his knife and fork, leant forward in his chair, and letting his hands, with the knife and fork in them, fall on his knees, said, very slowly:
"I say! How nice you look!"
This was said in an admiring manner, and was, so far, gratifying; but still there was enough of the cannibal in the young gentleman's eyes to render the compliment a double one.
"Dear me, Joseph," said Mary, affecting to blush, "what do you mean?"The fat boy gradually recovering his former position, replied with a heavy sigh, and remaining thoughtful for a few moments, drank a long draught of the porter.Having achieved this feat he sighed again, and applied himself assiduously to the pie.
"What a nice young lady Miss Emily is!" said Mary, after a long silence.
The fat boy had by this time finished the pie.He fixed his eyes on Mary, and replied:
"I knows a nicerer."
"Indeed!" said Mary.
"Yes, indeed!" replied the fat boy, with unwonted vivacity.
"What's her name?" inquired Mary.
"What's yours?"
"Mary."
"So's hers," said the fat boy."You're her." The boy grinned to add point to the compliment, and put his eyes into something between a squint and a cast, which there is reason to believe he intended for an ogle.
"You mustn't talk to me in that way," said Mary; "you don't mean it.""Don't I, though?" replied the fat boy; "I say!""Well."
"Are you going to come here regular?"
"No," rejoined Mary, shaking her head, "I'm going away again to-night.
Why?"