Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/234

176 17(J POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF

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tliut nobody could be insensible to Mr. Pipkin's merits. As all tlrs was said with much gravity, and as Nathaniel Pipkin walked home with Maria Lobbs, and struggled for a kiss at parting, he went to bed a happy man, and dreamed all night long, of softening old Lobbs, opening the strong box, and marrying Maria.

'* The next day, Nathaniel Pipkin saw old Lobbs go out upon his old grey poney, and after a great many signs at the window from the wicked little cousin, the object and meaning of which he cotild by no means understand, the bony apprentice with the thin legs came over to say that his master wasn't coming home all night, and that the ladies expected Mr. Pipkin to tea, at six o'clock precisely. How the lessons were got through that day, neither Nathaniel Pipkin nor liis pupils knew any more than you do ; but they were got through somehow, and, after the boys had gone, Nathaniel Pipkin took till full six o'clock to dress himself to his satisfaction ; not that it took long to select the garments he should wear, inasmuch as he had no choice about the matter, but the putting them on to the best advantage, and touching them up previously, was a task of no inconsiderable difficulty or importance.

" There was a very snug little party, consisting of Maria Lobbs and her cousin Kate, and three or four romping, good-humoured, rosy-- cheeked girls. Nathaniel Pipkin had ocular demonstration of the fact, thiit even the rumours of old Lobbs's treasures were not exaggerated. Tiiere were the real solid silver tea-pot, cream-ewer, and sugar-basin, on the table, and real silver spoons to stir the tea with, and real china cups to drink it out of, and plates of the same, to hold the cakes and toast in. The only eye-sore in the whole place, was alTother cousin of Maria Lobbs's, and brother of Kate, whom Maria Lobbs called * Henry,* and who seemed to keep Maria Lobbs all to himself, up in one corner of the table. It's a delightful thing to see affection in families, but it may be carried rather too far, and Nathaniel Pipkin could not help thinking that Maria Lobbs must be very particularly fond of her relations, if she paid as much attention to all of them as to this individual cousin. After tea, too, when the wicked little cousin proposed a game at blind man's buff, it somehow or other happened that Nathaniel Pipkin was nearly always blind, and whenever he laid his hand upon the male cousin, he was sure to find that Maria Lobbs was not far off. And though the wicked little cousin and the other girls pinched him, and pulled his hair, and pushed chairs in his way, and all sorts of things, P^Iaria Lobbs never seemed to come near him at all; and once — once — • Nathaniel Pipkin could have sworn he heard the sound of a kiss, fol- lowed by a faint remonstrance from Maria Lobbs, and a half-suppressed laugh from her female friends. All this was odd — very odd — and there is no saying what Nathaniel Pipkin might or might not have done, in consequence, if his thoughts had not been suddenly directed into a new channel.

" The circumstance which directed his thoughts into a new channel was a loud knocking at the street- door, and the person who made this loud knocking at the street-door, was no other than old Lobbs himself, who had unexpectedly returned, and was hammering away, like a coffin- maker : for ho v.anted his supper. 'J'he alarming intelligence was iiQ