, and called out
very loudly:
    »Ha - hum!«
    That the lady started at this unexpected sound was evident, by her falling
up against the rushlight shade; that she persuaded herself it must have been the
effect of imagination was equally clear, for when Mr. Pickwick, under the
impression that she had fainted away stone-dead from fright, ventured to peep
out again, she was gazing pensively on the fire as before.
    »Most extraordinary female this,« thought Mr. Pickwick, popping in again.
»Ha - hum!«
    These last sounds, so like those in which, as legends inform us, the
ferocious giant Blunderbore was in the habit of expressing his opinion that it
was time to lay the cloth, were too distinctly audible to be again mistaken for
the workings of fancy.
    »Gracious Heaven!« said the middle-aged lady, »what's that?«
    »It's - it's - only a gentleman, Ma'am,« said Mr. Pickwick from behind the
curtains.
    »A gentleman!« said the lady with a terrific scream.
    »It's all over!« thought Mr. Pickwick.
    »A strange man!« shrieked the lady. Another instant and the house would be
alarmed. Her garments rustled as she rushed towards the door.
    »Ma'am,« said Mr. Pickwick, thrusting out his head, in the extremity of his
desperation, »Ma'am!«
    Now, although Mr. Pickwick was not actuated by any definite object in
putting out his head, it was instantaneously productive of a good effect. The
lady, as we have already stated, was near the door. She must pass it, to reach
the staircase, and she would most undoubtedly have done so by this time, had not
the sudden apparition of Mr. Pickwick's night-cap driven her back into the
remotest corner of the apartment, where she stood staring wildly at Mr.
Pickwick, while Mr. Pickwick in his turn stared wildly at her.
    »Wretch,« said the lady, covering her eyes with her hands, »what do you want
here?«
    »Nothing, Ma'am; nothing, whatever, Ma'am;« said Mr. Pickwick earnestly.
    »Nothing!« said the lady, looking up.
    »Nothing, Ma'am, upon my honour,« said Mr. Pickwick, nodding his head so
energetically that the tassel of his night-cap danced again. »I am almost ready
to sink, Ma'am, beneath