Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/317

251 THE PICKWICK CLUB. 251

fastened upon himself, and the other representative of His Majesty — the beadle — in the course of the morning-.

While these resolute and determined preparations for the conservation of the King's peace, were pending-, Mr. Pickwick and his friends, wholly unconscious of the mighty events in progress, had sat quietly down to dinner ; and very talkative and companionable they all were ; Mr. Pick- wick was in the very act of relating his adventure of the preceding- night, to the great amusement of his followers, Mr. Tupman especially, when the door opened, and a somewhat forbidding countenance peeped into the room. The eyes in the forbidding countenance looked very earnestly at Mr. Pickwick, for several seconds, and were to all appear- ance satisfied with their investigation ; for the body to which the forbid- ding countenance belonged, slowly brought itself into the apartment, and presented the form of an elderly individual in top-boots — not to keep the reader any longer in suspense, in short, the eyes were the wandering eyes of Mr. Grummer, and the body was the body of the same gentleman.

Mr. Grumraer's mode of proceeding was professional, but peculiar. His first act was to bolt the door on the inside ; his second, to polish his head and countenance very carefully with a cotton handkerchief; his third, to place his hat, with the cotton handkerchief in it, on the nearest chair ; and his fourth to produce from the breast-pocket of his coat, a short truncheon surmounted by a brazen crown, with which he beckoned to Mr. Pickwick with a grave and ghost-like air.

Mr. Snodgrass was the first to break the astonished silence. He looked steadily at Mr. Grummer for a brief space, and then said empha- tically — '* This is a private room. Sir — a private room."

Mr. Grummer shook his head, and replied — " No room's private to His Majesty when the street door's once passed. That's law. Some people maintains that an Englishman's house is his castle. That's gammon."

The Pickwickians gazed on each other, with wondering eyes.

" Which is Mr. Tupman ? " inquired Mr. Grummer. He had an intuitive perception of Mr. Pickwick ; he knew him at once.

" My name's Tupman," said that gentleman.

" My name's Law," said Mr. Grummer.

« What ? " said Mr. Tupman.

" Law," replied Mr. Grummer, "law, civil power, and exekative; them's my titles ; here's my authority. Blank Tupman, blank Pick- vick — against the peace of our sufferin Lord the King — stattit in that case made and purwided — and all regular. I apprehend you Pickvick, Tupman — the aforesaid."

" What do you mean by this insolence ? " said Mr. Tupman, starting up — " Leave the room, leave the room."

" Halloo," said Mr. Grummer, retreating very expeditiouslv to the door, and opening it an inch or two, " Dubbley."

" Well," said a deep voice from the passage.

" Come for'ard, Dubbley," said Mr. Grummer.

At the word of command, a dirty-faced man, something over six feet