‘I should very much like to go,’ said Mr Tupman, resuming the subject of the ball, ‘very much.’

‘Tickets at the bar, Sir,’ interposed the waiter, ‘half-a-guinea each, Sir.’

Mr Tupman again expressed an earnest wish to be present at the festivity; but meeting with no response in the darkened eye of Mr Snodgrass, or the abstracted gaze of Mr Pickwick, he applied himself with great interest to the port wine and dessert which had just been placed on the table. The waiter withdrew, and the party were left to enjoy the cosy couple of hours succeeding dinner.

‘Beg your pardon, Sir,’ said the stranger, ‘Bottle stands – pass it round – way of the sun – through the button-hole – no heeltaps,’¹³and he emptied his glass, which he had filled about two minutes before; and poured out another, with the air of a man who was used to it.

The wine was passed, and a fresh supply ordered. The visitor talked, the Pickwickians listened. Mr Tupman felt every moment more disposed for the ball. Mr Pickwick’s countenance glowed with an expression of universal philanthropy; and Mr Winkle, and Mr Snodgrass, fell fast asleep.

‘They’re beginning up stairs,’ said the stranger – ‘hear the company – fiddles tuning – now the harp – there they go.’ The various sounds which found their way down stairs, announced the commencement of the first quadrille.

‘How I should like to go,’ said Mr Tupman, again.

‘So should I,’ said the stranger, – ‘confounded luggage – heavy smacks¹⁴– nothing to go in – odd, an’t it?’

Now general benevolence was one of the leading features of the Pickwickian theory, and no one was more remarkable for the zealous manner in which he observed so noble a principle, than Mr Tracy Tupman. The number of instances, recorded on the transactions of the Society, in which that excellent man referred objects of charity to the houses of other members for left-off garments, or pecuniary relief, is almost incredible.

‘I should be very happy to lend you a change of apparel for the purpose,’ said Mr Tracy Tupman, ‘but you are rather slim, and I am – ’

‘Rather fat – grown up Bacchus – cut the leaves – dismounted from the tub, and adopted kersey, eh? – not double distilled, but double milled¹⁵– ha! ha! – pass the wine.’

Whether Mr Tupman was somewhat indignant at the peremptory tone in which he was desired to pass the wine which the stranger passed so quickly away; or whether he felt very properly scandalized, at an influential member of the Pickwick club being ignominously compared to a dismounted Bacchus, is a fact not yet completely ascertained. He passed the wine, coughed twice, and looked at the stranger for several seconds with a stern intensity; as that individual, however, appeared perfectly collected, and quite calm under his searching glance, he gradually relaxed, and reverted to the subject of the ball.

‘I was about to observe, Sir,’ he said, ‘that though my apparel would be too large, a suit of my friend Mr Winkle’s would, perhaps, fit you better.’

The stranger took Mr Winkle’s measure with his eye; and that feature glistened with satisfaction as he said – ‘Just the thing!’

Mr Tupman looked round him. The wine which had exerted its somniferous influence over Mr Snodgrass, and Mr Winkle, had stolen upon the senses of Mr Pickwick. That gentleman had gradually passed through the various stages which precede the lethargy produced by dinner, and its consequences. He had undergone the ordinary transitions from the height of conviviality, to the depth of misery, and from the depth of misery, to the height of conviviality. Like a gas lamp in the street, with the wind in the pipe, he had exhibited for a moment an unnatural brilliancy: then sunk so low as to be scarcely discernible: after a short interval, he had burst out again, to enlighten for a moment, then flickered with an uncertain, staggering sort of light, and then gone out altogether. His head was sunk upon his bosom; and perpetual snoring, with a partial choke, occasionally, were the only audible indications of the great man’s presence.

The temptation to be present at the ball, and to form his first impressions of the beauty of the Kentish ladies, was strong upon Mr Tupman. The temptation to take the stranger with him, was equally great. He was wholly unacquainted with the place, and its inhabitants; and the stranger seemed to possess as great a knowledge of both, as if he had lived there from his infancy.

Painful so