he German sausage-shop round the corner) was in
a similar predicament. However, there was plenty of porter in a tin
can; and the cheese went a great way, for it was very strong. So upon
the whole, perhaps, the supper was quite as good as such matters
usually are.

After supper another jug of punch was put upon the table, together
with a paper of cigars, and a couple of bottles of spirits. Then there
was an awful pause; and this awful pause was occasioned by a very
common occurrence in this sort of places, but a very embarrassing one
notwithstanding.

The fact is that the girl was washing the glasses. The establishment
boasted four; we do not record the circumstance as at all derogatory
to Mrs. Raddle, for there never was a lodging-house yet that was not
short of glasses.

The landlady's glasses were little thin blown-glass tumblers, and
those which had been borrowed from the public house were great,
dropsical, bloated articles, each supported on a huge gouty leg. This
would have been in itself sufficient to have possest the company with
the real state of affairs; but the young woman of all work had
prevented the possibility of any misconception arising in the mind of
any gentlemen on the subject, by forcibly dragging every man's glass
away, long before he had finished his beer, and audibly stating,
despite the winks and interruptions of Mr. Bob Sawyer, that it was to
be conveyed down-stairs, and washed forthwith.

It is a very ill wind that blows nobody any good. The prim man in the
cloth boots, who had been unsuccessfully attempting to make a joke
during the whole time the round game lasted, saw his opportunity, and
availed himself of it. The instant the glasses disappeared he
commenced a long story about a great public character, whose name he
had forgotten, making a particular happy reply to another eminent and
illustrious individual whom he had never been able to identify. He
enlarged at some length and with great minuteness upon divers
collateral circumstances, distantly connected with the anecdote in
hand, but for the life of him he couldn't recollect at that precise
moment what the anecdote was, altho he had been in the habit of
telling the story with great applause for the last ten years.

"Dear me," said the prim man in the cloth boots, "it is a very
extraordinary circumstance."

"I am sorry you have forgotten it," said Mr. Bob Sawyer, glancing
eagerly at the door, as he thought he heard the noise of gl