“I think I’ve seen you before.”
“I don’t recollect you,” rejoined Mr. Pickwick.
“I daresay not,” said the one-eyed man. “You didn’t know me, but I knew two friends of yours that were stopping at the Peacock at Eatanswill, at the time of the Election.”
“Oh, indeed!” exclaimed Mr. Pickwick.
“Yes,” rejoined the one-eyed man. “I mentioned a little circumstance to them about a friend of mine of the name of Tom Smart. Perhaps you have heard them speaking of it.”
“Often,” rejoined Mr. Pickwick, smiling. “He was your uncle, I think?”
“No, no; only a friend of my uncle’s,” replied the one-eyed man.
“He was a wonderful man, that uncle of yours, though,” remarked the landlord, shaking his head.
“Well, I think he was, I think I may say he was,” answered the one-eyed man. “I could tell you a story about that same uncle, gentlemen, that would rather surprise you.”
“Could you?” said Mr. Pickwick. “Let us hear it, by all means.”