He is, sir, very right,' said Mr Trotter, 'and I will give way no longer.'

Very well,' said Mr Pickwick. 'Now, where is this boarding-school?'

It is a large, old, red brick house, just outside the town, Sir,' replied

Job Trotter.

And when,' said Mr Pickwick - 'when is this villainous design to be

carried into execution - when is this elopement to take place?'

To-night, Sir,' replied Job.

To-night!' exclaimed Mr Pickwick. 'This very night, sir,' replied Job

Trotter. 'That is what alarms me so much.'

'Instant measures must be taken,' said Mr Pickwick. 'I will see the

lady who keeps the establishment immediately.'

'I beg your pardon, Sir,' said Job, 'but that course of proceeding will

never do.'

Why not?' inquired Mr Pickwick.

My master, sir, is a very artful man.'

I know he is,' said Mr Pickwick.

And he has so wound himself round the old lady's heart, Sir,'

resumed Job, 'that she would believe nothing to his prejudice, if you

went down on your bare knees, and swore it; especially as you have

no proof but the word of a servant, who, for anything she knows (and

my master would be sure to say so), was discharged for some fault,

and does this in revenge.'

'What had better be done, then?' said Mr Pickwick.

'Nothing but taking him in the very act of eloping, will convince the old

lady, sir,' replied Job.

'All them old cats WILL run their heads agin milestones,' observed Mr

Weller, in a parenthesis.

But this taking him in the very act of elopement, would be a very

difficult thing to accomplish, I fear,' said Mr Pickwick.

'I don't know, sir,' said Mr Trotter, after a few moments' reflection. 'I

think it might be very easily done.'

How?' was Mr Pickwick's inquiry.

The Pickwick Papers