Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/608

508 508 POSTHUMOUS PAPEflS OF

CHAPTER XLVIL

RELATES HOW Mil. PICKWICK, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF SAMUEL WELLER, ESSAYED TO SOFTEN THE HEART OF MR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, AND TO MOLLIFY THE WRATH OF MR. ROBERT SAWYER.

Mr. Ben Allen and Mr. Bob Sawyer sat together in the little surgery behind the shop, discussing minced veal and future prospects, when the discourse, not unnaturally, turned upon the practice acquired by Bob the aforesaid, and his present chances of deriving a competent independence from the honourable profession to which he had devoted himself.

thread of the subject, " which I think, Ben, are rather dubious."
 * ' — Which, I think," observed Mr. Bob Sawyer, pursuing the

time sharpening his intellects with a draught of beer. *^ What's dubious ? "
 * ' What's rather dubious?" enquired Mr. Ben Allen, at the same

" Why, the chances," responded Mr. Bob Sawyer.

"I forgot," said IMr. Ben Allen. *^The beer has reminded me that I forgot. Bob — yes ; they are dubious."

" it's wonderful how the poor people patronise me," said Mr. Bob Sawyer, reflectively. " They knock me up at all hours of the night, take medicine to an extent which I should have conceived impossible, put on blisters and leeches with a perseverance worthy of a better cause, and make additions to their families in a manner which is quite awful. Six of those last-named little promissory notes, all due on the same day Ben, and all entrusted to me."

''It's very gratifying, isn't it?" said Mr. Ben Allen, holding his plate for some more minced veal.

" Oh, very," replied Bob ; " only not quite so much so as the confidence of patients, with a shilling or two to spare, would be. This business was capitally described in the advertisement, Ben. It is a practice, a very extensive practice — and that's all."

" Bob," said Mr. Ben Allen, laying down his knife and fork, and fixing his eyes on the visage of his friend — ''Bob, I'll tell you what it is.

" What is it ? " enquired Mr. Bob Sawyer.

" You must make yourself, with as little delay as possible, master of Arabella's one thousand pounds."

" Three per cent, consolidated Bank annuities, now standing in her name in the book or books of the Gove-nor and Company of the Bank of England," added Bob Sawyer, in legal phraseology.

" Exactly so," said Ben. " She has it when she comes of age, or marries. She wants a year of coming of age, and if you plucked up a spirit she needn't want a month of being married."

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