[Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens]@TWC D-Link book
Our Mutual Friend

CHAPTER 5
29/31

DO my eyes deceive me, or is that object up there a--a pie?
It can't be a pie.' 'Yes, it's a pie, Wegg,' replied Mr Boffin, with a glance of some little discomfiture at the Decline and Fall.
'HAVE I lost my smell for fruits, or is it a apple pie, sir ?' asked Wegg.
'It's a veal and ham pie,' said Mr Boffin.
'Is it indeed, sir?
And it would be hard, sir, to name the pie that is a better pie than a weal and hammer,' said Mr Wegg, nodding his head emotionally.
'Have some, Wegg ?' 'Thank you, Mr Boffin, I think I will, at your invitation.

I wouldn't at any other party's, at the present juncture; but at yours, sir!--And meaty jelly too, especially when a little salt, which is the case where there's ham, is mellering to the organ, is very mellering to the organ.' Mr Wegg did not say what organ, but spoke with a cheerful generality.
So, the pie was brought down, and the worthy Mr Boffin exercised his patience until Wegg, in the exercise of his knife and fork, had finished the dish: only profiting by the opportunity to inform Wegg that although it was not strictly Fashionable to keep the contents of a larder thus exposed to view, he (Mr Boffin) considered it hospitable; for the reason, that instead of saying, in a comparatively unmeaning manner, to a visitor, 'There are such and such edibles down stairs; will you have anything up ?' you took the bold practical course of saying, 'Cast your eye along the shelves, and, if you see anything you like there, have it down.' And now, Mr Wegg at length pushed away his plate and put on his spectacles, and Mr Boffin lighted his pipe and looked with beaming eyes into the opening world before him, and Mrs Boffin reclined in a fashionable manner on her sofa: as one who would be part of the audience if she found she could, and would go to sleep if she found she couldn't.
'Hem!' began Wegg, 'This, Mr Boffin and Lady, is the first chapter of the first wollume of the Decline and Fall off--' here he looked hard at the book, and stopped.
'What's the matter, Wegg ?' 'Why, it comes into my mind, do you know, sir,' said Wegg with an air of insinuating frankness (having first again looked hard at the book), 'that you made a little mistake this morning, which I had meant to set you right in, only something put it out of my head.

I think you said Rooshan Empire, sir ?' 'It is Rooshan; ain't it, Wegg ?' 'No, sir.Roman.

Roman.' 'What's the difference, Wegg ?' 'The difference, sir ?' Mr Wegg was faltering and in danger of breaking down, when a bright thought flashed upon him.

'The difference, sir?
There you place me in a difficulty, Mr Boffin.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books