'Yes, ma'am,' said Bob, all impatience; for the old lady, although much

agitated, spoke with the most tantalising deliberation, as old ladies

often do. 'Yes, ma'am.'

'Left my home, Mr Sawyer, three days ago, on a pretended visit to my

sister, another aunt of hers, who keeps the large boarding-school, just

beyond the third mile-stone, where there is a very large laburnum-tree

and an oak gate,' said the old lady, stopping in this place to dry her

eyes.

Oh, devil take the laburnum-tree, ma'am!' said Bob, quite forgetting

his professional dignity in his anxiety. 'Get on a little faster; put a little

more steam on, ma'am, pray.'

This morning,' said the old lady slowly - 'this morning, she - '

She came back, ma'am, I suppose,' said Bob, with great animation.

Did she come back?'

No, she did not; she wrote,' replied the old lady.

What did she say?' inquired Bob eagerly.

She said, Mr Sawyer,' replied the old lady - 'and it is this I want to

prepare Benjamin's mind for, gently and by degrees; she said that she

was - I have got the letter in my pocket, Mr Sawyer, but my glasses

are in the carriage, and I should only waste your time if I attempted to

point out the passage to you, without them; she said, in short, Mr

Sawyer, that she was married.' 'What!' said, or rather shouted, Mr Bob

Sawyer.

Married,' repeated the old lady.

Mr Bob Sawyer stopped to hear no more; but darting from the surgery

into the outer shop, cried in a stentorian voice, 'Ben, my boy, she's

bolted!'

Mr Ben Allen, who had been slumbering behind the counter, with his

head half a foot or so below his knees, no sooner heard this appalling

communication, than he made a precipitate rush at Mr Martin, and,

twisting his hand in the neck-cloth of that taciturn servitor, expressed

an obliging intention of choking him where he stood. This intention,

with a promptitude often the effect of desperation, he at once

commenced carrying into execution, with much vigour and surgical

skill.

Mr Martin, who was a man of few words and possessed but little

power of eloquence or persuasion, submitted to this operation with a

The Pickwick Papers