“Oh,” said Mr. Winkle the elder, looking rather grimly at Bob. “I hope you are well, sir.”

“Right as a trivet, sir,” replied Bob Sawyer.

“This other gentleman,” cried Mr. Pickwick, “is, as you will see when you have read the letter with which I am entrusted, a very near relative, or I should rather say a very particular friend of your son’s. His name is Allen.”

“ That gentleman?” inquired Mr. Winkle, pointing with the card towards Ben Allen, who had fallen asleep in an attitude which left nothing of him visible but his spine and his coat collar.