. »Know him to be what,
sir?«
    »An unprincipled adventurer - a dishonourable character - a man who preys
upon society, and makes easily-deceived people his dupes, sir; his absurd, his
foolish, his wretched dupes, sir,« said the excited Mr. Pickwick.
    »Dear me,« said Mr. Nupkins, turning very red, and altering his whole manner
directly. »Dear me, Mr. -«
    »Pickvick,« said Sam.
    »Pickwick,« said the magistrate, »dear me, Mr. Pickwick - pray take a seat -
you cannot mean this? Captain Fitz-Marshall?«
    »Don't call him a cap'en,« said Sam, »nor Fitz-Marshall neither; he ain't
neither one nor t'other. He's a strolling actor, he is, and his name's Jingle;
and if ever there was a wolf in a mulberry suit, that ere Job Trotter 's him.«
    »It is very true, sir,« said Mr. Pickwick, replying to the magistrate's look
of amazement; »my only business in this town, is to expose the person of whom we
now speak.«
    Mr. Pickwick proceeded to pour into the horror-stricken ear of Mr. Nupkins,
an abridged account of Mr. Jingle's atrocities. He related how he had first met
him; how he had eloped with Miss Wardle; how he had cheerfully resigned the lady
for a pecuniary consideration; how he had entrapped himself into a lady's
boarding-school at midnight; and how he (Mr. Pickwick) now felt it his duty to
expose his assumption of his present name and rank.
    As the narrative proceeded, all the warm blood in the body of Mr. Nupkins
tingled up into the very tips of his ears. He had picked up the captain at a
neighbouring race-course. Charmed with his long list of aristocratic
acquaintance, his extensive travel, and his fashionable demeanour, Mrs. Nupkins
and Miss Nupkins had exhibited Captain Fitz-Marshall, and quoted Captain
Fitz-Marshall, and hurled Captain Fitz-Marshall at the devoted heads of their
select circle of acquaintance, until their bosom friends, Mrs. Porkenham and the
Miss Porkenhams, and Mr. Sidney Porkenham, were ready to burst with jealousy and
despair. And now, to hear, after all, that he was a needy adventurer, a
strolling player, and if not a swindler, something so very like it, that it was
hard to tell the difference
