Oh, you use the word in that sense. I see,' said Mr Pickwick. 'Damme!

A gentleman must expect reverses,' said Smangle. 'What of that? Here

am I in the Fleet Prison. Well; good. What then? I'm none the worse for

that, am I?'

Not a bit,' replied Mr Mivins. And he was quite right; for, so far from

Mr Smangle being any the worse for it, he was something the better,

inasmuch as to qualify himself for the place, he had attained

gratuitous possession of certain articles of jewellery, which, long

before that, had found their way to the pawnbroker's.

Well; but come,' said Mr Smangle; 'this is dry work. Let's rinse our

mouths with a drop of burnt sherry; the last-comer shall stand it,

Mivins shall fetch it, and I'll help to drink it. That's a fair and

gentlemanlike division of labour, anyhow. Curse me!'

Unwilling to hazard another quarrel, Mr Pickwick gladly assented to

the proposition, and consigned the money to Mr Mivins, who, as it was

nearly eleven o'clock, lost no time in repairing to the coffee-room on

his errand.

I say,' whispered Smangle, the moment his friend had left the room;

what did you give him?'

'Half a sovereign,' said Mr Pickwick.

He's a devilish pleasant gentlemanly dog,' said Mr Smangle; -

infernal pleasant. I don't know anybody more so; but - ' Here Mr

Smangle stopped short, and shook his head dubiously.

You don't think there is any probability of his appropriating the

money to his own use?' said Mr Pickwick.

'Oh, no! Mind, I don't say that; I expressly say that he's a devilish

gentlemanly fellow,' said Mr Smangle. 'But I think, perhaps, if

somebody went down, just to see that he didn't dip his beak into the

jug by accident, or make some confounded mistake in losing the

money as he came upstairs, it would be as well. Here, you sir, just run

downstairs, and look after that gentleman, will you?'

This request was addressed to a little timid-looking, nervous man,

whose appearance bespoke great poverty, and who had been

crouching on his bedstead all this while, apparently stupefied by the

novelty of his situation.

You know where the coffee-room is,' said Smangle; 'just run down,

and tell that gentleman you've come to help him up with the jug. Or -

The Pickwick Papers