'Nothing else, my dear Sir!' observed that warm-hearted person in

indignant amazement. 'Nothing else! Have you no opinion to express

on this momentous event in our young friend's life? No assurance to

convey to him, through me, of the continuance of your affection and

protection? Nothing to say which will cheer and sustain him, and the

anxious girl who looks to him for comfort and support? My dear Sir,

consider.'

'I will consider,' replied the old gentleman. 'I have nothing to say just

now. I am a man of business, Mr Pickwick. I never commit myself

hastily in any affair, and from what I see of this, I by no means like

the appearance of it. A thousand pounds is not much, Mr Pickwick.'

You're very right, Sir,' interposed Ben Allen, just awake enough to

know that he had spent his thousand pounds without the smallest

difficulty. 'You're an intelligent man. Bob, he's a very knowing fellow

this.'

I am very happy to find that you do me the justice to make the

admission, sir,' said Mr Winkle, senior, looking contemptuously at

Ben Allen, who was shaking his head profoundly. 'The fact is, Mr

Pickwick, that when I gave my son a roving license for a year or so, to

see something of men and manners (which he has done under your

auspices), so that he might not enter life a mere boarding-school milk-

sop to be gulled by everybody, I never bargained for this. He knows

that very well, so if I withdraw my countenance from him on this

account, he has no call to be surprised. He shall hear from me, Mr

Pickwick. Good-night, sir. - Margaret, open the door.'

All this time, Bob Sawyer had been nudging Mr Ben Allen to say

something on the right side; Ben accordingly now burst, without the

slightest preliminary notice, into a brief but impassioned piece of

eloquence.

Sir,' said Mr Ben Allen, staring at the old gentleman, out of a pair of

very dim and languid eyes, and working his right arm vehemently up

and down, 'you - you ought to be ashamed of yourself.'

As the lady's brother, of course you are an excellent judge of the

question,' retorted Mr Winkle, senior. 'There; that's enough. Pray say

no more, Mr Pickwick. Good-night, gentlemen!'

With these words the old gentleman took up the candle-stick and

opening the room door, politely motioned towards the passage.

'You will regret this, Sir,' said Mr Pickwick, setting his teeth close

together to keep down his choler; for he felt how important the effect

might prove to his young friend.

The Pickwick Papers