?« - »Never
mind, sir?« »Do you want your head knocked up against that wall, sir?« - »Never
mind, sir.« It is observable, too, that there would appear to be some hidden
taunt in this universal Never mind, which rouses more indignation in the bosom
of the individual addressed, than the most lavish abuse could possibly awaken.
    We do not mean to assert that the application of this brevity to himself,
struck exactly that indignation to Mr. Pickwick's soul, which it would
infallibly have roused in a vulgar breast. We merely record the fact that Mr.
Pickwick opened the room door, and abruptly called out, »Tupman, come here!«
    Mr. Tupman immediately presented himself, with a look of very considerable
surprise.
    »Tupman,« said Mr. Pickwick, »a secret of some delicacy, in which that lady
is concerned, is the cause of a difference which has just arisen between this
gentleman and myself. When I assure him, in your presence, that it has no
relation to himself, and is not in any way connected with his affairs, I need
hardly beg you to take notice that if he continue to dispute it, he expresses a
doubt of my veracity, which I shall consider extremely insulting.« As Mr.
Pickwick said this, he looked encyclopædias at Mr. Peter Magnus.
    Mr. Pickwick's upright and honourable bearing, coupled with that force and
energy of speech which so eminently distinguished him, would have carried
conviction to any reasonable mind; but unfortunately at that particular moment,
the mind of Mr. Peter Magnus was in anything but reasonable order. Consequently,
instead of receiving Mr. Pickwick's explanation as he ought to have done, he
forthwith proceeded to work himself into a red-hot, scorching, consuming,
passion, and to talk about what was due to his own feelings, and all that sort
of thing: adding force to his declamation by striding to and fro, and pulling
his hair - amusements which he would vary occasionally, by shaking his fist in
Mr. Pickwick's philanthropic countenance.
    Mr. Pickwick, in his turn, conscious of his own innocence and rectitude, and
irritated by having unfortunately involved the middle-aged lady in such an
unpleasant affair, was not so quietly disposed as was his wont. The consequence
was, that words ran high, and voices higher; and at length Mr. Magnus told Mr.
Pickwick he should hear from him; to which Mr. Pickwick replied, with laudable
politeness, that the sooner
