'It is him,' said Mr Wegg, 'and he is capable of it. I am sorry, because
I could have wished to keep up a little lingering fragment of respect
for him.'

Here Mr Boffin was heard lustily calling at the yard gate, 'Halloa!
Wegg! Halloa!'

'Keep your seat, Mr Venus,' said Wegg. 'He may not stop.' And then
called out, 'Halloa, sir! Halloa! I'm with you directly, sir! Half a
minute, Mr Boffin. Coming, sir, as fast as my leg will bring me!' And
so with a show of much cheerful alacrity stumped out to the gate with
a light, and there, through the window of a cab, descried Mr Boffin
inside, blocked up with books.

'Here! lend a hand, Wegg,' said Mr Boffin excitedly, 'I can't get out
till the way is cleared for me. This is the Annual Register, Wegg, in a
cab-full of wollumes. Do you know him?'

'Know the Animal Register, sir?' returned the Impostor, who had caught
the name imperfectly. 'For a trifling wager, I think I could find any
Animal in him, blindfold, Mr Boffin.'

'And here's Kirby's Wonderful Museum,' said Mr Boffin, 'and Caulfield's
Characters, and Wilson's. Such Characters, Wegg, such Characters! I must
have one or two of the best of 'em to-night. It's amazing what places
they used to put the guineas in, wrapped up in rags. Catch hold of that
pile of wollumes, Wegg, or it'll bulge out and burst into the mud. Is
there anyone about, to help?'

'There's a friend of mine, sir, that had the intention of spending
the evening with me when I gave you up--much against my will--for the
night.'

'Call him out,' cried Mr Boffin in a bustle; 'get him to bear a hand.
Don't drop that one under your arm. It's Dancer. Him and his sister made
pies of a dead sheep they found when they were out a walking. Where's
your friend? Oh, here's your friend. Would you be so good as help Wegg
and myself with these books? But don't take Jemmy Taylor of Southwark,
nor yet Jemmy Wood of Gloucester. These are the two Jemmys. I'll carry
them myself.'

Not ceasing to talk and bustle, in a state of great excitement, Mr
Boffin directed the removal and arrangement of the books, appearing
to be in some sort beside himself until they were all deposited on the
floor, and the cab was dismissed.

'There!' said Mr Boffin, gloating over them. 'There they are, like the
four-and-twenty fiddlers--all of a row. Get on your spectacles, Wegg;
I know where to find the best of 'em, and we'll have a taste at once of
what we have got before us. What's your frien