Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/526

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breath, Mr. Roker mounted another flight of stairs, with Mr. Pickwick and Sam Weller following- at his heels.

These staircases received light from sundry windows placed at some little distance above the floor, and looking into a gravelled area hounded hy a high brick wall, with iron chevaux-de-frise at the top. This area, it appeared from Mr. Roker's statement, was the racket-ground ; and it further appeared, on the testimony of the same gentleman, that there was a smaller area in that portion of the prison which was nearest Farringdon-street, denominated and called " the Painted Ground," from the fact of its walls having once displayed the semblances of various men-of-war in full sail, and other artistical effects, achieved in bygone times by some imprisoned draughtsman in his leisure hours.

Having communicated this piece of information, apparently more for the purpose of discharging his bosom of an important fact, than with any specific view of enlightening Mr. Pickwick, the guide, having at length reached another gallery, led the way into a small passage at the extreme end ; opened a door, and disclosed an apartment of an appearance by no means inviting, containing eight or nine iron bedsteads.

umphantly round at Mr. Pickwick, " There 's a room ! "
 * ' There," said Mr. Roker, holding the door open, and looking tri-

Mr. Pickwick's face, however, betokened such a very trifling portion of satisfaction at the appearance of his lodging, that Mr. Roker looked for a reciprocity of feeling into the countenance of Samuel Weller, who, until now, had observed a dignified silence.

'^ There's a room, young man," observed Mr. Roker.


 * ' I see it," replied Sam, with a placid nod of the head.

" You wouldn't think to find such a room as this, in the Farringdon Hotel, would you?" said Mr. Roker, with a complacent smile.

To this Mr. Weller replied with an easy and unstudied closing of one eye ; which might be considered to mean, either that he would have thought it, or that he would not have thought it, or that he had never thought anything at all about it, just as the observer's imagination suggested. Having- executed this feat, and re-opened his eye, Mr. Weller proceeded to inquire which was the individual bedstead that Mr. Roker had so flatteringly described as an out-and-outer to sleep in.

" That's it," replied Mr. Roker, pointing to a very rusty one in a corner. " It would make any one go to sleep, that bedstead would, whether they wanted to or not."

" I should think," said Sam, eyeing the piece of furniture in question with a look of excessive disgust, " I should think poppies was nothin to it." I

" Nothing at all," said Mr. Roker.

" And I s'pose," said Sam, with a sidelong glance at his master, as if to see whether there were any symptoms of his determination being shaken by what passed, " I s'pose the other genTmen as sleeps here, are genTmen."

" Nothing but it," said Mr. Roker. " One of 'em takes his twelve pints of ale a-day, and never leaves off smoking, even at his meals."