“Bless my soul, how remarkable⁠—I am going outside, too,” said the red-haired man; “we are positively going together.” And the red-haired man, who was an important-looking, sharp-nosed, mysterious-spoken personage, with a birdlike habit of giving his head a jerk every time he said anything, smiled as if he had made one of the strangest discoveries that ever fell to the lot of human wisdom.

“I am happy in the prospect of your company, Sir,” said Mr. Pickwick.

“Ah,” said the newcomer, “it’s a good thing for both of us, isn’t it? Company, you see⁠—company⁠—is⁠—is⁠—it’s a very different thing from solitude⁠—ain’t it?”

“There’s no denying that ’ere,” said Mr. Weller, joining in the conversation, with an affable smile. “That’s what I call a self-evident proposition, as the dog’s-meat man said, when the housemaid told him he warn’t a gentleman.”