“Pray hear me,” urged Mr. Pickwick, as Mr. Ben Allen fell into a chair that patients were bled in, and gave way to his pocket-handkerchief. “I have rendered no assistance in this matter, beyond being present at one interview between the young people which I could not prevent, and from which I conceived my presence would remove any slight colouring of impropriety that it might otherwise have had; this is the whole share I have had in the transaction, and I had no suspicion that an immediate marriage was even contemplated. Though, mind,” added Mr. Pickwick, hastily checking himself⁠—“mind, I do not say I should have prevented it, if I had known that it was intended.”

“You hear that, all of you; you hear that?” said Mr. Benjamin Allen.