do you think it a much greater expense to keep
two people than one?"

"La, Mr. Pickwick!" answered Mrs. Bardell, fancying she saw matrimony in
his eye. "That depends on whether it's a saving person."

"Very true," said Mr. Pickwick, "but the person I have in my eye"--here
he looked at Mrs. Bardell--"has this quality. And to tell you the truth,
I have made up my mind."

Mrs. Bardell blushed to her cap border. Her lodger was going to propose!
"Oh, Mr. Pickwick!" she said, "you're very kind, sir. I'm sure I ought
to be a very happy woman."

"It'll save you a deal of trouble," Mr. Pickwick went on, "and when I'm
in town you'll always have somebody to sit with you."

"Oh, you dear--" said Mrs. Bardell.

Mr. Pickwick started.

"Oh, you kind, good, playful dear!" said Mrs. Bardell, and flung herself
on his neck with a cataract of tears.

The astonished Mr. Pickwick struggled violently, pleading and reproving,
but in vain. Mrs. Bardell clung the tighter, and exclaiming frantically
that she would never leave him, fainted away in his arms. At the same
moment Tupman, Winkle and Snodgrass entered the room. Mr. Pickwick tried
to explain, but in their faces he read that they suspected him of making
love to the widow.

This reflection made him miserable and ill at ease. He lost no time in
taking Sam Weller into his service, on condition that he travel with the
Pickwickians in their further search for adventures, and at once
proposed to his three comrades another journey.

Next day, therefore, found them on the road for Eatanswill, a town near
London which was then on the eve of a political election. This was a
very exciting struggle and interested them greatly.

Here, one morning soon after their arrival, a fancy dress breakfast was
given by Mrs. Leo Hunter, a lady who had once written an _Ode to an
Expiring Frog_ and who made a great point of knowing everybody who was
at all celebrated for anything. All of the Pickwickians attended the
breakfast. Mr. Pickwick's dignity was too great for him to don a fancy
costume, but the rest wore them, Tupman going as a bandit in a green
velvet coat with a two-inch tail.

Mrs. Leo Hunter herself, in the character of Minerva, insisted on
presenting Mr. Pickwick to all the guests.

In the midst of the gaiety Mrs. Leo Hunter's husband called out: "My
dear, here comes Mr. Fitz-Marshall," and, to his astonishment, Mr.
Pickwick heard a well-known voice exclaiming: "Coming, my dear
ma'am-