With this the parties separated, very much to their common

satisfaction; Mr Pickwick once more retracing his steps to the lodge,

and the three companions adjourning to the coffee-room, there to

spend the five shillings which the clerical gentleman had, with

admirable prudence and foresight, borrowed of him for the purpose.

I knowed it!' said Mr Roker, with a chuckle, when Mr Pickwick stated

the object with which he had returned. 'Didn't I say so, Neddy?'

The philosophical owner of the universal penknife growled an

affirmative.

I knowed you'd want a room for yourself, bless you!' said Mr Roker.

Let me see. You'll want some furniture. You'll hire that of me, I

suppose? That's the reg'lar thing.'

With great pleasure,' replied Mr Pickwick.

There's a capital room up in the coffee-room flight, that belongs to a

Chancery prisoner,' said Mr Roker. 'It'll stand you in a pound a week.

I suppose you don't mind that?'

'Not at all,' said Mr Pickwick.

'Just step there with me,' said Roker, taking up his hat with great

alacrity; 'the matter's settled in five minutes. Lord! why didn't you say

at first that you was willing to come down handsome?'

The matter was soon arranged, as the turnkey had foretold. The

Chancery prisoner had been there long enough to have lost his

friends, fortune, home, and happiness, and to have acquired the right

of having a room to himself. As he laboured, however, under the

inconvenience of often wanting a morsel of bread, he eagerly listened

to Mr Pickwick's proposal to rent the apartment, and readily

covenanted and agreed to yield him up the sole and undisturbed

possession thereof, in consideration of the weekly payment of twenty

shillings; from which fund he furthermore contracted to pay out any

person or persons that might be chummed upon it.

As they struck the bargain, Mr Pickwick surveyed him with a painful

interest. He was a tall, gaunt, cadaverous man, in an old greatcoat

and slippers, with sunken cheeks, and a restless, eager eye. His lips

were bloodless, and his bones sharp and thin. God help him! the iron

teeth of confinement and privation had been slowly filing him down for

twenty years.

And where will you live meanwhile, Sir?' said Mr Pickwick, as he laid

the amount of the first week's rent, in advance, on the tottering table.

The Pickwick Papers