Chapter XXXVIII

How Mr Winkle, When He Stepped Out Of The Frying-Pan, Walked

Gently And Comfortably Into The Fire

The ill-starred gentleman who had been the unfortunate cause of the

unusual noise and disturbance which alarmed the inhabitants of the

Royal Crescent in manner and form already described, after passing a

night of great confusion and anxiety, left the roof beneath which his

friends still slumbered, bound he knew not whither. The excellent and

considerate feelings which prompted Mr Winkle to take this step can

never be too highly appreciated or too warmly extolled. 'If,' reasoned

Mr Winkle with himself - 'if this Dowler attempts (as I have no doubt

he will) to carry into execution his threat of personal violence against

myself, it will be incumbent on me to call him out. He has a wife; that

wife is attached to, and dependent on him. Heavens! If I should kill

him in the blindness of my wrath, what would be my feelings ever

afterwards!' This painful consideration operated so powerfully on the

feelings of the humane young man, as to cause his knees to knock

together, and his countenance to exhibit alarming manifestations of

inward emotion. Impelled by such reflections, he grasped his carpet-

bag, and creeping stealthily downstairs, shut the detestable street

door with as little noise as possible, and walked off. Bending his steps

towards the Royal Hotel, he found a coach on the point of starting for

Bristol, and, thinking Bristol as good a place for his purpose as any

other he could go to, he mounted the box, and reached his place of

destination in such time as the pair of horses, who went the whole

stage and back again, twice a day or more, could be reasonably

supposed to arrive there. He took up his quarters at the Bush, and

designing to postpone any communication by letter with Mr Pickwick

until it was probable that Mr Dowler's wrath might have in some

degree evaporated, walked forth to view the city, which struck him as

being a shade more dirty than any place he had ever seen. Having

inspected the docks and shipping, and viewed the cathedral, he

inquired his way to Clifton, and being directed thither, took the route

which was pointed out to him. But as the pavements of Bristol are not

the widest or cleanest upon earth, so its streets are not altogether the

straightest or least intricate; and Mr Winkle, being greatly puzzled by

their manifold windings and twistings, looked about him for a decent

shop in which he could apply afresh for counsel and instruction.

His eye fell upon a newly-painted tenement which had been recently

converted into something between a shop and a private house, and

which a red lamp, projecting over the fanlight of the street door, would

have sufficiently announced as the residence of a medical practitioner,

even if the word 'Surgery' had not been inscribed in golden characters

on a wainscot ground, above the window of what, in times bygone,

had been the front parlour. Thinking this an eligible place wherein to

The Pickwick Papers