Then came the dessert. Then also, and before the broaching of the rum and water, came Mr
Pancks's note-book. The ensuing business proceedings were brief but
curious, and rather in the nature of a conspiracy. Mr Pancks looked over
his note-book, which was now getting full, studiously; and picked out
little extracts, which he wrote on separate slips of paper on the table;
Mr Rugg, in the meanwhile, looking at him with close attention, and
Young John losing his uncollected eye in mists of meditation. When Mr
Pancks, who supported the character of chief conspirator, had completed
his extracts, he looked them over, corrected them, put up his note-book,
and held them like a hand at cards. '
Now, there's a churchyard in Bedfordshire,' said Pancks. 'Who takes
it?' 'I'll take it, sir,' returned Mr Rugg, 'if no one bids.' Mr Pancks dealt him his card, and looked at his hand again. 'Now, there's an Enquiry in York,' said Pancks. 'Who takes it?' 'I'm not good for York,' said Mr Rugg. 'Then perhaps,' pursued Pancks, 'you'll be so obliging, John Chivery?'
Young John assenting, Pancks dealt him his card, and consulted his hand
again.
'There's a Church in London; I may as well take that. And a Family
Bible; I may as well take that, too. That's two to me. Two to me,'
repeated Pancks, breathing hard over his cards. 'Here's a Clerk at
Durham for you, John, and an old seafaring gentleman at Dunstable for
you, Mr Rugg. Two to me, was it? Yes, two to me. Here's a Stone; three
to me. And a Still-born Baby; four to me. And all, for the present,
told.' When he had thus disposed of his cards, all being done very
quietly and in a suppressed tone, Mr Pancks puffed his way into his own
breast-pocket and tugged out a canvas bag; from which, with a sparing
hand, he told forth money for travelling expenses in two little
portions. 'Cash goes out fast,' he said anxiously, as he pushed a
portion to each of his male companions, 'very fast.'
'I can only assure you, Mr Pancks,' said Young John, 'that I deeply
regret my circumstances being such that I can't afford to pay my own
charges, or that it's not advisable to allow me the time necessary for
my doing the distances on foot; because nothing would give me greater
satisfaction than to walk myself off my legs without fee or reward.'
This young man's disinterestedness appeared so very ludicrous in
the eyes of Miss Rugg, that she was obliged to effect a precipitate
retirement from the company, and to sit upon the stairs until she had
had her laugh out. Meanwhile Mr Pancks, looking, not without some pity,
at Young John, slowly and thoughtfully twisted up his canvas bag as if
he were wringing its neck.