Mr Dodson ain't at home, and Mr Fogg's particularly engaged,' said

the man to whom the head belonged.

'When will Mr Dodson be back, sir?' inquired Mr Pickwick. 'Can't say.'

'Will it be long before Mr Fogg is disengaged, Sir?'

'Don't know.'

Here the man proceeded to mend his pen with great deliberation,

while another clerk, who was mixing a Seidlitz powder, under cover of

the lid of his desk, laughed approvingly.

I think I'll wait,' said Mr Pickwick. There was no reply; so Mr Pickwick

sat down unbidden, and listened to the loud ticking of the clock and

the murmured conversation of the clerks.

That was a game, wasn't it?' said one of the gentlemen, in a brown

coat and brass buttons, inky drabs, and bluchers, at the conclusion of

some inaudible relation of his previous evening's adventures.

Devilish good - devilish good,' said the Seidlitz-powder man. 'Tom

Cummins was in the chair,' said the man with the brown coat. 'It was

half-past four when I got to Somers Town, and then I was so

uncommon lushy, that I couldn't find the place where the latch-key

went in, and was obliged to knock up the old 'ooman. I say, I wonder

what old Fogg 'ud say, if he knew it. I should get the sack, I s'pose -

eh?'

At this humorous notion, all the clerks laughed in concert.

There was such a game with Fogg here, this mornin',' said the man in

the brown coat, 'while Jack was upstairs sorting the papers, and you

two were gone to the stamp-office. Fogg was down here, opening the

letters when that chap as we issued the writ against at Camberwell,

you know, came in - what's his name again?'

'Ramsey,' said the clerk who had spoken to Mr Pickwick.

'Ah, Ramsey - a precious seedy-looking customer. ‘Well, sir,’ says old

Fogg, looking at him very fierce - you know his way - ‘well, Sir, have

you come to settle?’ ‘Yes, I have, sir,’ said Ramsey, putting his hand in

his pocket, and bringing out the money, ‘the debt's two pound ten,

and the costs three pound five, and here it is, Sir;’ and he sighed like

bricks, as he lugged out the money, done up in a bit of blotting-paper.

Old Fogg looked first at the money, and then at him, and then he

coughed in his rum way, so that I knew something was coming. ‘You

don't know there's a declaration filed, which increases the costs

The Pickwick Papers