was to be painfully awakened. He was sitting with his friends after dinner at the “Angel,” in his happiest mood. Winkle had related his quarrel with p. 10Pott in re Mrs. Pott, in a humorous fashion when one of the most delightful of humorous scenes followed. p. 10 Mr. Pickwick was proceeding with his scathing rebuke, when Sam enters with a letter. CONTENTS ‘I don’t know this hand,’ said Mr. Pickwick, opening the letter. ‘Mercy on us! what’s this? It must be a jest; it—it—can’t be true.’ ‘What’s the matter?’ was the general inquiry. ‘Nobody dead, is there?’ said Wardle, alarmed at the horror in Mr. Pickwick’s countenance. Mr. Pickwick made no reply, but, pushing the letter across the table, and desiring Mr. Tupman to read it aloud, fell back in his chair with a look of vacant astonishment quite alarming to behold. Mr. Tupman, with a trembling voice, read the letter, of which the following is a copy:— ‘Freeman’s Court, Cornhill, August 28th, 1827. Bardell against Pickwick. Sir, Having been instructed by Mrs. Martha Bardell to commence an action against you for a breach of promise of marriage, for which the plaintiff lays her damages at fifteen hundred pounds, we beg to inform you that a writ has been issued against you in this suit in the Court of Common Pleas; and request to know, by return of post, the name of your attorney in London, who will accept service thereof. We are, Sir, Your obedient servants, DODSON & FOGG. Mr. Samuel Pickwick.’ So Mr. Pickwick, the general mentor, the philosopher and friend—the man of high moral tone, “born to set the world aright”—the general lecturer of his “followers,” was now in for an action at law of the most awkward and unpleasant kind. To be philandering p. 11with one’s landlady! rather low form this. But what would they say down at Manor Farm? How Isabella Wardle and her sister—and all the girls—would laugh! And the spinster aunt—she would enjoy it! But there was no help for it. It must be faced. p. 11 Naturally Mr. Pickwick felt uncomfortable, and his first idea was to arrange the matter. This was a sensible course, and he
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