To my shame, I must say that I am perfectly serious,' rejoined Mr

Pickwick. 'I really never was here before.'

Oh, I see,' exclaimed the Grand Master, looking extremely pleased;

yes, yes - good, good - better and better. You are the gentleman of

whom we have heard. Yes; we know you, Mr Pickwick; we know you.'

The reports of the trial in those confounded papers,' thought Mr

Pickwick. 'They have heard all about me.' 'You are the gentleman

residing on Clapham Green,' resumed Bantam, 'who lost the use of his

limbs from imprudently taking cold after port wine; who could not be

moved in consequence of acute suffering, and who had the water from

the king's bath bottled at one hundred and three degrees, and sent by

wagon to his bedroom in town, where he bathed, sneezed, and the

same day recovered. Very remarkable!'

Mr Pickwick acknowledged the compliment which the supposition

implied, but had the self-denial to repudiate it, notwithstanding; and

taking advantage of a moment's silence on the part of the M.C.,

begged to introduce his friends, Mr Tupman, Mr Winkle, and Mr

Snodgrass. An introduction which overwhelmed the M.C. with delight

and honour.

Bantam,' said Mr Dowler, 'Mr Pickwick and his friends are strangers.

They must put their names down. Where's the book?'

'The register of the distinguished visitors in Ba-ath will be at the

Pump Room this morning at two o'clock,' replied the M.C. 'Will you

guide our friends to that splendid building, and enable me to procure

their autographs?'

I will,' rejoined Dowler. 'This is a long call. It's time to go. I shall be

here again in an hour. Come.'

'This is a ball-night,' said the M.C., again taking Mr Pickwick's hand,

as he rose to go. 'The ball-nights in Ba-ath are moments snatched

from paradise; rendered bewitching by music, beauty, elegance,

fashion, etiquette, and - and - above all, by the absence of

tradespeople, who are quite inconsistent with paradise, and who have

an amalgamation of themselves at the Guildhall every fortnight, which

is, to say the least, remarkable. Good-bye, good-bye!' and protesting

all the way downstairs that he was most satisfied, and most delighted,

and most overpowered, and most flattered, Angelo Cyrus Bantam,

Esquire, M.C., stepped into a very elegant chariot that waited at the

door, and rattled off.

At the appointed hour, Mr Pickwick and his friends, escorted by

Dowler, repaired to the Assembly Rooms, and wrote their names down

The Pickwick Papers