stop - I'll tell you what - I'll tell you how we'll do him,' said Smangle,

with a cunning look.

How?' said Mr Pickwick.

'Send down word that he's to spend the change in cigars. Capital

thought. Run and tell him that; d'ye hear? They shan't be wasted,'

continued Smangle, turning to Mr Pickwick. 'I'LL smoke 'em.'

This manoeuvring was so exceedingly ingenious and, withal,

performed with such immovable composure and coolness, that Mr

Pickwick would have had no wish to disturb it, even if he had had the

power. In a short time Mr Mivins returned, bearing the sherry, which

Mr Smangle dispensed in two little cracked mugs; considerately

remarking, with reference to himself, that a gentleman must not be

particular under such circumstances, and that, for his part, he was

not too proud to drink out of the jug. In which, to show his sincerity,

he forthwith pledged the company in a draught which half emptied it.

An excellent understanding having been by these means promoted, Mr

Smangle proceeded to entertain his hearers with a relation of divers

romantic adventures in which he had been from time to time engaged,

involving various interesting anecdotes of a thoroughbred horse, and a

magnificent Jewess, both of surpassing beauty, and much coveted by

the nobility and gentry of these kingdoms.

Long before these elegant extracts from the biography of a gentleman

were concluded, Mr Mivins had betaken himself to bed, and had set in

snoring for the night, leaving the timid stranger and Mr Pickwick to

the full benefit of Mr Smangle's experiences.

Nor were the two last-named gentlemen as much edified as they might

have been by the moving passages narrated. Mr Pickwick had been in

a state of slumber for some time, when he had a faint perception of

the drunken man bursting out afresh with the comic song, and

receiving from Mr Smangle a gentle intimation, through the medium of

the water-jug, that his audience was not musically disposed. Mr

Pickwick then once again dropped off to sleep, with a confused

consciousness that Mr Smangle was still engaged in relating a long

story, the chief point of which appeared to be that, on some occasion

particularly stated and set forth, he had 'done' a bill and a gentleman

at the same time.

The Pickwick Papers