Chapter XII

Descriptive Of A Very Important Proceeding On The Part Of Mr

Pickwick; No Less An Epoch In His Life, Than In This History

Mr Pickwick's apartments in Goswell Street, although on a limited

scale, were not only of a very neat and comfortable description, but

peculiarly adapted for the residence of a man of his genius and

observation. His sitting-room was the first-floor front, his bedroom the

second-floor front; and thus, whether he were sitting at his desk in his

parlour, or standing before the dressing- glass in his dormitory, he

had an equal opportunity of contemplating human nature in all the

numerous phases it exhibits, in that not more populous than popular

thoroughfare. His landlady, Mrs. Bardell -

the relict and sole

executrix of a deceased custom-house officer - was a comely woman of

bustling manners and agreeable appearance, with a natural genius for

cooking, improved by study and long practice, into an exquisite talent.

There were no children, no servants, no fowls. The only other inmates

of the house were a large man and a small boy; the first a lodger, the

second a production of Mrs. Bardell's. The large man was always

home precisely at ten o'clock at night, at which hour he regularly

condensed himself into the limits of a dwarfish French bedstead in the

back parlour; and the infantine sports and gymnastic exercises of

Master Bardell were exclusively confined to the neighbouring

pavements and gutters. Cleanliness and quiet reigned throughout the

house; and in it Mr Pickwick's will was law.

To any one acquainted with these points of the domestic economy of

the establishment, and conversant with the admirable regulation of

Mr Pickwick's mind, his appearance and behaviour on the morning

previous to that which had been fixed upon for the journey to

Eatanswill would have been most mysterious and unaccountable. He

paced the room to and fro with hurried steps, popped his head out of

the window at intervals of about three minutes each, constantly

referred to his watch, and exhibited many other manifestations of

impatience very unusual with him. It was evident that something of

great importance was in contemplation, but what that something was,

not even Mrs. Bardell had been enabled to discover.

'Mrs. Bardell,' said Mr Pickwick, at last, as that amiable female

approached the termination of a prolonged dusting of the apartment.

Sir,' said Mrs. Bardell.

Your little boy is a very long time gone.'

Why it's a good long way to the Borough, sir,' remonstrated Mrs.

Bardell.

The Pickwick Papers