Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/697

589 THE PICKWICK CLUB. 589

men wish to go through the court ? We require an arrest, a friendly- arrest will do, you know; we are all friends here, I suppose ?"

" Give me the dockyment, Sammy," said Mr, Weller, taking the will from his son, who appeared to enjoy the interview amazingly. " Wot we rek-vire, Sir, is a probe o' this here."


 * ' Probate, my dear Sir, probate," said Pell.

wery much the same ; if you don't understand wot I mean. Sir, I des- say I can find them as does."
 * ' Veil, Sir," replied ISIr. Weller sharply, " probe and probe it, is

" No offence I hope, Mr. Weller," said Pell, meekly. " You are the executor I see," he added, casting his eyes over the paper.

" I am, Sir," replied Mr. Weller.

'•' These other gentlemen, I presume, are legatees, are they ? " enquired Pell with a congratulatory smile.

'' Sammy is a leg-at-ease," replied Mr. Weller ; " these other gen'l'men is friends o' mine, just come to see fair ; — a kind of umpires."

'^ Oh!" said Pell, "very good. I have no objections, I'm sure. I shall want a matter of five pound of you before I begin, ha ! ha ! ha !"

It being decided by the committee that the five pounds might be advanced, Mr. AV^eller produced that sum, after which a long consul- tation, about nothing particular, took place, in the course whereof Mr. Pell demonstrated, to the perfect satisfaction of the gentlemen who saw fair, that unless the management of the business had been entrusted to him, it must all have gone wrong, for reasons not clearly made out, but no doubt sufficient. This important point being dispatched, ^Ir. Pell refreshed^himself with three chops, and liquids both malt and spirituous, at the expense of the estate, and then they all went away to Doctors' Commons.

The next day there was another visit to Doctors' Commons, and a great to-do with an attesting ostler, who, being inebriated, declined swearing anything but profane oaths, to the great scandal of a proctor and surrogate. Next week there were more visits to Doctors' Com- mons, and a visit to the Legacy Duty Office besides, and treaties en- tered into for the disposal of the lease and business, and ratifications of the same, and inventories to be made out, and lunches to be taken, and dinners to be eaten, and so many profitable things to be done, and such a mass of papers accumulated, that Mr. Solomon Pell and the boy, and the blue bag to boot, all got so stout that scarcely anybody would have known them for the same man, boy, and bag, that had loitered about Portugal Street a few days before.

At length all these weighty matters being arranged, a day was fixed for selling out and transferring the stock, and of waiting with that riew upon Wilkins Flasher, Esq., stock-broker, of somewhere near the Bank, who had been recommended by Mr. Solomon Pell for the pur- pose.

It was a kind of festive occasion, and the parties were attired accor- dingly. Mr. Weller's tops were newly cleaned, and his dress was arranged with peculiar care : the mottled-faced gentleman wore at his button hole a full sized dahlia with several leaves, and the coats of his two friends were adorned with nosegays of laurel and other evergreens.