without overbalancing himself, endeavouring, with great
perseverance, to spit upon the crown of the hat of a personal friend on the
parade below. As neither speaking, coughing, sneezing, knocking, nor any other
ordinary mode of attracting attention, made this person aware of the presence of
a visitor, Mr. Pickwick, after some delay, stepped up to the window, and pulled
him gently by the coat-tail. The individual brought in his head and shoulders
with great swiftness, and surveying Mr. Pickwick from head to foot, demanded in
a surly tone what the - something beginning with a capital H - he wanted.
    »I believe,« said Mr. Pickwick, consulting his ticket, »I believe this is
twenty-seven in the third?«
    »Well?« replied the gentleman.
    »I have come here in consequence of receiving this bit of paper,« rejoined
Mr. Pickwick.
    »Hand it over,« said the gentleman.
    Mr. Pickwick complied.
    »I think Roker might have chummed you somewhere else,« said Mr. Simpson (for
it was the leg), after a very discontented sort of a pause.
    Mr. Pickwick thought so also; but, under all the circumstances, he
considered it a matter of sound policy to be silent.
    Mr. Simpson mused for a few moments after this, and then, thrusting his head
out of the window, gave a shrill whistle, and pronounced some word aloud,
several times. What the word was, Mr. Pickwick could not distinguish; but he
rather inferred that it must be some nickname which distinguished Mr. Martin:
from the fact of a great number of gentlemen on the ground below, immediately
proceeding to cry »Butcher!« in imitation of the tone in which that useful class
of society are wont, diurnally, to make their presence known at area railings.
    Subsequent occurrences confirmed the accuracy of Mr. Pickwick's impression;
for, in a few seconds, a gentleman, prematurely broad for his years: clothed in
a professional blue jean frock, and top-boots with circular toes: entered the
room nearly out of breath, closely followed by another gentleman in very shabby
black, and a seal-skin cap. The latter gentleman, who fastened his coat all the
way up to his chin by means of a pin and a button alternately, had a very coarse
red face, and looked like a drunken chaplain; which, indeed, he was.
    These two gentlemen having by turns perused Mr. Pickwick's billet, the one
expressed his opinion that it was