the two settles were
half pushed under the wide-mouthed chimney; and the grate, with its brick hobs,
massive iron crane, and various pothooks, suggested a generous plenty possibly
existent in all moods and tenses except the indicative present. One way of
getting an idea of our fellow-countrymen's miseries is to go and look at their
pleasures. The Cross-Keys had a fungous-featured landlord and a yellow sickly
landlady, with a napkin bound round her head like a resuscitated Lazarus; it had
doctored ale, an odour of bad tobacco, and remarkably strong cheese. It was not
what Astræa, when come back, might be expected to approve as the scene of
ecstatic enjoyment for the beings whose special prerogative it is to lift their
sublime faces towards heaven. Still, there was ample space on the hearth -
accommodation for narrative bagmen or boxmen - room for a man to stretch his
legs; his brain was not pressed upon by a white wall within a yard of him, and
the light did not stare in mercilessly on bare ugliness, turning the fire to
ashes. Compared with some beer-houses of this more advanced period, the
Cross-Keys of that day presented a high standard of pleasure.
    But though this venerable public had not failed to share in the recent
political excitement of drinking, the pleasures it offered were not at this
early hour of the evening sought by a numerous company. There were only three or
four pipes being smoked by the firelight, but it was enough for Christian when
he found that one of these was being smoked by the bill-sticker, whose large
flat basket stuffed with placards, leaned near him against the settle. So
splendid an apparition as Christian was not a little startling at the
Cross-Keys, and was gazed at in expectant silence; but he was a stranger in
Pollard's End, and was taken for the highest style of traveller when he declared
that he was deucedly thirsty, ordered six-pennyworth of gin and a large jug of
water, and, putting a few drops of the spirit into his own glass, invited Tommy
Trounsem, who sat next him, to help himself. Tommy was not slower than a shaking
hand obliged him to be in accepting this invitation. He was a tall
broad-shouldered old fellow, who had once been good-looking; but his cheeks and
chest were both hollow now, and his limbs were shrunken.
    »You've got some bills there, master, eh?« said Christian, pointing to the
basket. »Is there an auction coming on?«
    »