Compare with this “Oliver Twist”:
“Who are you?” said Mr. Fang.
“Before I am sworn, I must beg to say one word, and that is I really never, without actual experience, could have believed—”
“Hold your tongue, sir,” said Mr. Fang, peremptorily.
“I will not, sir.”
“Hold your tongue this instant, or I’ll have you turned out of the office.”
Mr. Pickwick, it will be remembered, made a communication to Mr. Nupkins which changed the whole state of affairs. Mr. Nupkins, with all his insolent despotism, was held in check by conference with his clerk, Jinks, who kept him from making mistakes by judicious hints.
Fang’s clerk, like Mr. Jinks, interposed:
“How do you propose to deal with the case, sir?” inquired the clerk, in a low voice.
Mr. Jinks pulled him by the sleeve and whispered something. He was evidently remonstrating. At length the magistrate, gulping down with a very bad grace his disinclination to hear anything more, said sharply, “What do you want to say?”
When Mr. Fang was about to commit Oliver, the Bookstall-keeper rushed in, and insisted on being heard, and, like Mr. Nupkins, Mr. Fang had to listen:
“I demand to be sworn,” said the man, “I will not be put down.”
“Swear the man,” growled Mr. Fang, with a very ill grace. “Now, what have you got to say?”
Again, Mr. Nupkins said of Sam:
“He is evidently a desperate ruffian.”
“He is my servant, sir,” said Mr. Pickwick, angrily.
“Oh, he is your servant, is he. A conspiracy to defeat the ends of justice.”
Compare Fang and the Bookseller: