Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/437

357 THE PICKWICK CLUB. 857

elsewhere for that repose and peace which a custom-house can never aiiord."

At this pathetic description of the decease of Mr. Bardell, who had been knocked on the head with a quart-pot in a public-house cellar, the learned sergeant's voice faltered, and he proceeded with great emotion —

" Some time before his death, he had stamped his likeness upon a little boy. With this little boy, the only pledge of her departed excise- man, Mrs. Bardell shrunk from the world, and courted the retirement and tranquillity of Goswell-street ; and here she placed in her front parlour-window a written placard, bearing this inscription — * Apart- ments furnished for a single gentleman. Enquire within.'" Here Sergeant Buzfuz paused, while several gentlemen of the jury took a note of the document.

" There is no date to that, is there, Sir ? " enquired a juror.

" There is no date, gentlemen," replied Sergeant Buzfuz ; " but I am instructed to say that it was put in the plaintiff's parlour-window just this time three years. I entreat the attention of the jury to the word- ing of this document — ' Apartments furnished for a single gentleman I * Mrs. Bardell's opinions of the opposite sex, gentlemen, were derived from a long contemplation of the inestimable qualities of her lost hus- band. She had no fear — she had no distrust — she had no suspicion — all was confidence and reliance. * Mr. Bardell,* said the widow ; * Mr. Bardell was a man of honour — Mr. Bardell was a man of his word — Mr. Bardell was no deceiver — Mr. Bardell was once a single gentleman himself ; to single gentlemen I look for protection, for assistance, for comfort, and for consolation — in single gentlemen I shall perpetually see something to remind me of what Mr. Bardell was, when he first won my young and untried affections ; to a single gentleman, then, shall my lodgings be let.' Actuated by this beautiful and touching im- pulse, (among the best impulses of our imperfect nature, gentlemen,) the lonely and desolate widow dried her tears, furnished her first floor, caught her innocent boy to her maternal bosom, and put the bill up in her parlour window. Did it remain there long ? No. The serpent was on the watch, the train was laid, the mine was preparing, the sap- per and miner was at work. Before the bill had been in the parJour- window three days — three days, gentlemen — a being, erect upon two legs, and bearing all the outward semblance of a man, and not of a monster, knocked at the door of Mrs. Bardell's house. He enquired within ; he took the lodgings ; and on the very next day he entered into possession of them. This man was Pickwick — Pickwick, the defendant."

Sergeant Buzfuz, who had proceeded with such volubility that his face was perfectly crimson, here paused for breath. The silence awoke Mr. Justice Stareleigh, who immediately wrote down something with a pen without any ink in it, and looked unusually profound, to impress the jury with the belief that he always thought most deeply with his eyes shut. Sergeant Buzfuz proceeded.

" Of this man Pickwick I will say little ; the subject presents but

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