Mr Phunky bowed. He HAD had the pleasure of seeing the Serjeant,

and of envying him too, with all a poor man's envy, for eight years and

a quarter.

You are with me in this case, I understand?' said the Serjeant.

If Mr Phunky had been a rich man, he would have instantly sent for

his clerk to remind him; if he had been a wise one, he would have

applied his forefinger to his forehead, and endeavoured to recollect,

whether, in the multiplicity of his engagements, he had undertaken

this one or not; but as he was neither rich nor wise (in this sense, at

all events) he turned red, and bowed.

Have you read the papers, Mr Phunky?' inquired the Serjeant.

Here again, Mr Phunky should have professed to have forgotten all

about the merits of the case; but as he had read such papers as had

been laid before him in the course of the action, and had thought of

nothing else, waking or sleeping, throughout the two months during

which he had been retained as Mr Serjeant Snubbin's junior, he

turned a deeper red and bowed again.

This is Mr Pickwick,' said the Serjeant, waving his pen in the direction

in which that gentleman was standing.

Mr Phunky bowed to Mr Pickwick, with a reverence which a first client

must ever awaken; and again inclined his head towards his leader.

Perhaps you will take Mr Pickwick away,' said the Serjeant, 'and - and

and - hear anything Mr Pickwick may wish to communicate. We

shall have a consultation, of course.' With that hint that he had been

interrupted quite long enough, Mr Serjeant Snubbin, who had been

gradually growing more and more abstracted, applied his glass to his

eyes for an instant, bowed slightly round, and was once more deeply

immersed in the case before him, which arose out of an interminable

lawsuit, originating in the act of an individual, deceased a century or

so ago, who had stopped up a pathway leading from some place which

nobody ever came from, to some other place which nobody ever went

to.

Mr Phunky would not hear of passing through any door until Mr

Pickwick and his solicitor had passed through before him, so it was

some time before they got into the Square; and when they did reach it,

they walked up and down, and held a long conference, the result of

which was, that it was a very difficult matter to say how the verdict

would go; that nobody could presume to calculate on the issue of an

action; that it was very lucky they had prevented the other party from

The Pickwick Papers