Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/406

328 Q'2S POSTHUMOUS papers of

CHAPTER XXXI.

DESCRIBES, FAR MORE FULLY THAN THE COURT NEWSMAN EVER DID, A bachelor's PARTY, GIVEN BY MR. BOB SAWYER AT HIS LODGINGS IN THE BOROUGH.

There is a repose about Lant Street, in the Borough, which sheds a gentle melancholy upon the soul. There are always a good many houses to let in the street : it is a bye-street too, and its dulness is soothing. A house in Lant Street would not come within the deno- mination of a first-rate residence, in the strict acceptation of the term ; but it is a most desirable spot nevertheless. If a man wished to abstract himself from the world ; to remove himself from within the reach of temptation ; to place himself beyond the possibility of any inducement to look out of the window, we should recommend him by all means to go to Lant Street.

In this happy retreat are colonised a few clear-starchers, a sprinkling of journeymen bookbinders, one or two prison agents for the Insolvent Court, several small housekeepers who are employed in the Docks, a handful of mantua-makers, and a seasoning of jobbing tailors. The majority of the inhabitants either direct their energies to the letting ot furnished apartments, or devote themselves to the healthful and invigo- rating pursuit of mangling. The chief features in the still life of the street, are green shutters, lorlging-bills, brass door-plates, and bell- handles ; the principal specimens of animated nature, the pot-boy, the muffin youth, and the baked-potato man. The population is migratory, urually disappearing on the verge of quarter-day, and generally by night. His Majesty's revenues are seldom collected in this happy valley, the rents are dubious, and the water communication is very frequently cut off.

Mr. Bob Sawyer embellished one side of the fire, in his first-floor front, early on the evening for which he had invited Mr. Pickwick ; and Mr. Ben Allen the other. The preparations for the reception of visiters appeared to be completed. The umbrellas in the passage had been heaped into the little corner outside the back-parlour door ; the bonnet and shawl of the landlady's servant had been removed from the bannis- ters ; there were not more than two pair of pattens on the street-door mat ; and a kitchen candle, with a very long snuff, burnt cheerfully on the ledge of the staircase window. Mr. Bob Sawyer had himself pur- chased the spirits at a wine vaults in High Street, and had returned home preceding the bearer thereof, to preclude the possibility of their delivery at the wrong house. The punch was ready-made in a red pan in the bed-room ; a little table, covered with a green baize cloth, had been borrowed from the parlour, to play at cards on ; and the glasses of the establishment, together with those which had been borrowed for the