inquiry, inclining his head on one side and
listening with great sharpness for the answer, "as if to imply that he
rather thought Mr. Winkle's natural taste for perjury would induce him
to give some name which did not belong to him." Giving in, absurdly, his
surname only; and being asked immediately afterwards, if possible still
more absurdly, by the Judge, "Have you any Christian name, sir?" the
witness, in the Reading, more naturally and yet more confusedly even
it seemed than in the book, got that eminent functionary into a great
bewilderment as to whether he (Mr. Winkle) were called Nathaniel Daniel,
or Daniel Nathaniel. Bewildered himself, in his turn, and that
too almost hopelessly, came Mr. Winkle's reply, "No, my lord; only
Nathaniel--not Daniel at all." Irascibly, the Judge's, "What did you
tell me it was Daniel for, then, sir?" Shamefaced and yet irritably,
"I didn't, my lord." "You did, sir!"--with great indignation, topped by
this cogent reasoning,--"How could I have got Daniel on my notes, unless
you told me so, sir?" Nothing at all was said about it in the Reading;
but, again and again, Mr. Winkle, as there impersonated, while
endeavouring to feign an easiness of manner, was made to assume, in his
then state of confusion, "rather the air of a disconcerted pickpocket."

Better almost than Mr. Winkle himself, however, as an impersonation,
was, in look, voice, manner, Mr. Skimpin, the junior barrister, under
whose cheerful but ruthless interrogations that unfortunate gentleman
was stretched upon the rack of examination. His (Mr. Skimpin's) cheery
echoing--upon every occasion when it was at last extorted from his
victim--of the latter's answer (followed instantly by his own taunts and
insinuations), remains as vividly as anything at all about this Reading
in our recollection. When at length Mr. Winkle, with no reluctance in
the world, but only seemingly with reluctance, answers the inquiry as to
whether he is a particular friend of Pickwick, "Yes, I am!"--"Yes, you
are!" said Mr. Skimpin (audibly to the court, but as if it were only to
himself). "And why couldn't you say that at once, sir? Perhaps you know
the plaintiff, too--eh, Mr. Winkle?" "I don't know her; I've seen her!"
"Oh, _you don't know her, but you've seen her!_ Now have the goodness to
tell the gentlemen of the jury what you mean by _that_, Mr. Winkle." As
to how this unfortunate witness, after being driven to the confines of
desperation, on being