'Certainly, Sir, certainly - hundred more anecdotes of the same

animal. - Fine girl, Sir' (to Mr Tracy Tupman, who had been bestowing

sundry anti-Pickwickian glances on a young lady by the roadside).

'Very!' said Mr Tupman.

'English girls not so fine as Spanish - noble creatures - jet hair -

black eyes - lovely forms - sweet creatures - beautiful.'

You have been in Spain, sir?' said Mr Tracy Tupman.

Lived there - ages.' 'Many conquests, sir?' inquired Mr Tupman.

Conquests! Thousands. Don Bolaro Fizzgig - grandee - only daughter

Donna Christina - splendid creature - loved me to distraction -

jealous father - high-souled daughter - handsome Englishman -

Donna Christina in despair - prussic acid - stomach pump in my

portmanteau - operation performed - old Bolaro in ecstasies - consent

to our union - join hands and floods of tears - romantic story - very.'

Is the lady in England now, sir?' inquired Mr Tupman, on whom the

description of her charms had produced a powerful impression.

Dead, sir - dead,' said the stranger, applying to his right eye the brief

remnant of a very old cambric handkerchief. 'Never recovered the

stomach pump - undermined constitution - fell a victim.'

'And her father?' inquired the poetic Snodgrass.

Remorse and misery,' replied the stranger. 'Sudden disappearance -

talk of the whole city - search made everywhere without success -

public fountain in the great square suddenly ceased playing - weeks

elapsed - still a stoppage - workmen employed to clean it - water

drawn off - father-in-law discovered sticking head first in the main

pipe, with a full confession in his right boot - took him out, and the

fountain played away again, as well as ever.'

Will you allow me to note that little romance down, Sir?' said Mr

Snodgrass, deeply affected.

Certainly, Sir, certainly - fifty more if you like to hear 'em - strange

life mine - rather curious history - not extraordinary, but singular.'

In this strain, with an occasional glass of ale, by way of parenthesis,

when the coach changed horses, did the stranger proceed, until they

reached Rochester bridge, by which time the note-books, both of Mr

Pickwick and Mr Snodgrass, were completely filled with selections

from his adventures.

The Pickwick Papers