ress him in a great hurry, when the
house-door opened without any warning, and a footman very nearly put his
foot in the tripe.

"Out of the vays here, will you! You must always go and be a-settin on
our steps, must you! You can't go and give a turn to none of the
neighbors never, can't you? _Will_ you clear the road, or won't you?"

Strictly speaking, the last question was irrelevant, as they had already
done it.

"What's the matter, what's the matter?" said the gentleman for whom the
door was opened; coming out of the house at that kind of light, heavy
pace--that peculiar compromise between a walk and jog-trot--with which a
gentleman upon the smooth down-hill of life, wearing creaking boots, a
watch-chain, and clean linen, _may_ come out of his house: not only
without any abatement of his dignity, but with an expression of having
important and wealthy engagements elsewhere. "What's the matter? What's
the matter?"

"You're always a-being begged, and prayed, upon your bended knees, you
are," said the footman with great emphasis to Trotty Veck, "to let our
door-steps be. Why don't you let 'em be? CAN'T you let 'em be?"

"There! That'll do, that'll do!" said the gentleman, "Halloa there!
Porter!" beckoning with his head to Trotty Veck, "Come here. What's
that? Your dinner?"

"Yes, sir," said Trotty, leaving it behind him in a corner.

"Don't leave it there!" exclaimed the gentleman. "Bring it here, bring
it here! So! this is your dinner, is it?"

"Yes, sir," repeated Trotty, looking with a fixed eye and a watery mouth
at the piece of tripe he had reserved for a last delicious tit-bit,
which the gentleman was now turning over and over on the end of a fork.

Two other gentlemen had come out with him. One was a low-spirited
gentleman of middle age, of a meagre habit, and a disconsolate face; who
kept his hands continually in the pockets of his scanty pepper-and-salt
trousers, very large and dog's-eared from that custom; and was not
particularly well brushed or washed. The other, a full sized, sleek,
well-conditioned gentleman, in a blue coat, with bright buttons, and a
white cravat. This gentleman had a very red face, as if an undue
proportion of the blood in his body were squeezed up into his head,
which perhaps accounted for his having also the appearance of being
rather cold about the heart.

He who had Toby's meat upon the fork called to the first one by the name
of Filer, and they both drew near together. Mr