He was a tall,
corpulent man, with a soft face--as we see him in his picture. As Mr.
Pickwick speaks, it is remarkable that both Vice-President and
Secretary--the two officers--have each one arm raised as if in ecstatic
rapture--clear proof of their subservience to Pickwick. On Smiggers'
right is a "doddering" old fellow of between seventy and eighty--clearly
a "nullity"--on his left, another member nearly as old, but with a
glimmer of intelligence. Down the side of the table, facing the orator,
are some odd faces--one clearly a Jew; one for whom the present Mr.
Edward Terry might have sat. Blotton is at the bottom, half turned away
in disgust. His neighbour looks at him with wonder, as who should say,
"How can you be so insensible?" Odd to say--and significant, too--Blotton
has brought into the club his _dog_, a ferocious looking "bull," which
sits at his feet under the table. We should say, on the whole, that
Blotton could only count on--and that, with but a limited sympathy--the
Terry-faced and Jew-faced men--if he _could_ count on them. The
Secretary was like a clerk--a perky fellow--and had a pen behind his ear;
probably in some Bank or Counting House, so strong is habit. One member
of the Club alone is invisible--the one beyond Tupman--all that is seen
of him is a hand holding a tumbler as if about to drink. The Dodderer is
applauding; so are the Jew, Blotton and Tupman; so is the round-faced
man, just beyond the invisible one.

Mr. Pickwick and his three friends being removed or absent, and Blotton
expelled, out of the fourteen members there were left but nine, whereof
we reckon four or five as Pickwickians and the rest as _Blottonites_.

And how easily can we imagine the acrimonious discussions that went on!

"This 'ere Pickwick, who was always making the club a hend to his own
glorification, had gone off on his touring to get more grist for his
mill." It was really, a "mutual admiration society," and as for the
reports, notes, &c., he was sending back "they 'ad 'ad enough of it." The
club didn't meet to be listening to long-winded yarns to be read out by
their worthy secretary, but for a glass and social intercourse. As for
the "travels and preambulations," what were they more than visits to
genteel 'ouses where Pickwick was "showing oft" at their expense? Then
where were the "Sportin' transactions?" The whole thing was "rot." Then
the Cobham stone business, at which the whole town was laughing