“I don’t think he’ll escape us quite so easily the next time, Sam?” said Mr. Pickwick.
“I don’t think he will, sir.”
“Whenever I meet that Jingle again, wherever it is,” said Mr. Pickwick, raising himself in bed, and indenting his pillow with a tremendous blow, “I’ll inflict personal chastisement on him, in addition to the exposure he so richly merits. I will, or my name is not Pickwick.”
“And venever I catches hold o’ that there melan-cholly chap with the black hair,” said Sam, “if I don’t bring some real water into his eyes, for once in a way, my name an’t Veller. Good night, sir!”
CHAPTER XVII
Showing that an Attack of Rheumatism, in some cases, acts as a Quickener to Inventive Genius
The constitution of Mr. Pickwick, though able to sustain a very considerable amount of exertion and fatigue, was not proof against such a combination of attacks as he had undergone on the memorable night, recorded in the last chapter. The process of being washed in the night air, and rough-dried in a closet, is as dangerous as it is peculiar. Mr. Pickwick was laid up with an attack of rheumatism.