 Bardell.
    »Amen to that,« replied Sam, »and a fat and happy livin' they'd get out of
it! Wish you good night, ladies.«
    To the great relief of Mrs. Sanders, Sam was allowed to depart without any
reference, on the part of the hostess, to the pettitoes and toasted cheese: to
which the ladies, with such juvenile assistance as Master Bardell could afford,
soon afterwards rendered the amplest justice - indeed they wholly vanished
before their strenuous exertions.
    Mr. Weller went his way back to the George and Vulture, and faithfully
recounted to his master, such indications of the sharp practice of Dodson and
Fogg, as he had contrived to pick up in his visit to Mrs. Bardell's. An
interview with Mr. Perker, next day, more than confirmed Mr. Weller's statement;
and Mr. Pickwick was fain to prepare for his Christmas visit to Dingley Dell,
with the pleasant anticipation that some two or three months afterwards, an
action brought against him for damages sustained by reason of a breach of
promise of marriage, would be publicly tried in the Court of Common Pleas: the
plaintiff having all the advantages derivable, not only from the force of
circumstances, but from the sharp practice of Dodson and Fogg to boot.
 

                                 Chapter XXVII

  Samuel Weller Makes a Pilgrimage to Dorking, and Beholds His Mother-in-Law.

There still remaining an interval of two days before the time agreed upon for
the departure of the Pickwickians to Dingley Dell, Mr. Weller sat himself down
in a back room at the George and Vulture, after eating an early dinner, to muse
on the best way of disposing of his time. It was a remarkably fine day; and he
had not turned the matter over in his mind ten minutes, when he was suddenly
stricken filial and affectionate; and it occurred to him so strongly that he
ought to go down and see his father, and pay his duty to his mother-in-law, that
he was lost in astonishment at his own remissness in never thinking of this
moral obligation before. Anxious to atone for his past neglect without another
hour's delay, he straightway walked up stairs to Mr. Pickwick, and requested
leave of absence for this laudable purpose.
    »Certainly, Sam, certainly,« said Mr. Pickwick, his eyes glistening with
delight at this manifestation of filial feeling on the part of his attendant;
»certainly, Sam.«
    Mr. Weller made a grateful bow.
    »I am very glad to see that you have so high a sense of
