Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/200

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"'No, no,' returned the widow, hastily.

"' And don't run out, and blow him up,' said Tom, ' because I'll do all that for you ; you had better not exert yourself.'

" ' Well, well/ said the widow, ' let me see it.'

" ' I will/ replied Tom Smart; and, with these words, he placed the,; letter in the widow's hand.

" Gentlemen, I have heard my uncle say, that Tom Smart said, the widow's lamentations when she heard the disclosure would have pierced a heart of stone. Tom was certainly very tender-hearteeil, but they pierced his, to the very core. The widow rocked herself to and fro, and wrung- her hands.

" ' Oh, the deception and villainy of the man ! ' said the widow.

" ' Frightful, my dear Ma'am; but compose yourself,' said Tom Smart.

" ' Oh, I can't compose myself,' shrieked the widow. ' I shall never find any one else I can love so much ! '

" ' Oh yes you will, my dear soul,' said Tom Smart, letting fall a shower of -the largest-sized tears, in pity for the widow's misfortunes. Tom Smart, in the energy of his compassion, had put his arm round the widow's waist ; and the widow, in a passion of grief, had clasped Tom's hand. She looked up in Tom's face, and smiled through her tears. Tom looked down in her's, and smiled through his.

" I never could find out, gentlemen, whether Tom did or did not kiss the widow at that particular moment. He used to tell my uncle he didn't, but I have my doubts about it. Between ourselves, gentlemen, I rather think he did.

" At all events, Tom kicked the very tall man out at the front door half an hour after, and married the widow a month after. And he used to drive about the country, with the clay-coloured gig with the red wheels, and the vixenish mare with the fast pace, till he gave up business many years afterwards, and went to France with his wife ; and then the old house was pulled down."

" Will you allow me to ask you," said the inquisitive old gentleman, " what became of the chair ? "

" Why," replied the one-eyed bagman, '"it was observed to creak very much on the day of the wedding ; but Tom Smart couldn't say for certain, whether it was with pleasure or bodily infirmity. He rather thought it was the latter, though, for it never spoke afterwards."

" Everybody believed the story, didn't they ? " said the dirty-faced man, re-filling his pipe.

" Except Tom's enemies," replied the bagman. " Some of 'em said Tom invented it altogether; and others said he was drunk, and fancied it, and got hold of the wrong trousers by mistake before he went to bed. But nobody ever minded what they said."

" Tom Smart said it was all true ? "

" Every word."

" And your uncle ? "

" Every letter."

" They must have been nice men, both of 'em;" said the dirty-faced man.

" Yes, they were," replied the bagman; " very nice men indeed !"