Chapter-6
Mr. Pickwick’s presence in Mr. Lowten’s company had sobering effect on the party. No one was willing to sing lest he should embarrass himself before a stranger. So to put them at ease, Mr. Pickwick mentioned his temporary lodgings at a London inn, compelling Jack Bamber, who was an old man of Mr. Lowten’s company and whose modus operandi was perpetual silence, to break his silence and speak at length.
Jack Bamber began with a couple of anecdotes about men whose penury drove them to despair and suicide. Then he related a tale of a man who rents a cheap room in an unpromising looking inn only to found that it was haunted by a ghost. Subsequently, the man and the ghost carry on a conversation in which the man persuades the ghost to haunt a more cheerful place, after all the limitations of space were hardly issues for a ghost, were they?
When one of Mr. Lowten’s friends expressed his doubts about the last tale, Jack Bamber began a story about the queer client which he stated occurred while he was an attorney.
“The Old Man’s Tale About The Queer Client” revolves around a man named Heyling who is languishing in debtor’s prison while his wife and son are doing worse outside. Indeed, it is not long before his son dies. When his wife dies soon thereafter, Heyling resolves to exact revenge on the man who is responsible. Indeed, his thirst for revenge is so all-consuming that he falls into a delirium during which he witnesses the death of a ship’s crew which capsizes before a furious storm only to see one lone survivor, an old man, rise to the surface and struggle for survival. Determined to deny the old man his salvation, Heyling, who is on a trailing ship, dives into the water and drowns the old man.
Heyling’s delirium continues with him trudging through a desert on the verge of death when he comes across a water spring. Heyling is thus revitalized when an old man in a similar plight tries to revitalize himself on the water spring. Alas, Heyling prevents the old man from revitalizing himself and the old man dies. When Heyling’s fever breaks and he awakes from his delirium, he learns that his father, who was willing to leave his own son Heyling languishing in debtor’s prison, has died. Moreover, he learns that he has inherited his father’s wealth. Thus Heyling retires himself to a house in a seacoast to convalesce. He hopes to convalesce to get back the strength to exact revenge on his father-in-law, who was the man who had incarcerated Heyling in a debtor’s prison in the first place and who could have easily saved his wife and son but didn’t.
One evening, Heyling goes out on the beach when he hears the shouts of distress. There is a man drowning. Heyling prepares to plunge into the water to save the man when an old man urges Heyling to hurry. Suddenly, Heyling stops, and despite the old man’s entreaties, Heyling allows the man in distress to drown to death. As it turns out, the old man is Heyling’s father-in-law, and the drowning man is his father-in-law’s son.
Three years later, a stranger walked into an attorney’s office and commissioned an attorney to do all he could to punish a man, who was defaulted on his debts, to the utmost which the law allowed. When the attorney wondered if this wise, considering the costs involved, the stranger assured the attorney not to spare any expense as he—the stranger—would cover the costs no matter how high. Thus the attorney did all he could to make the debtor’s life miserable only to inform the stranger of bad news, the debtor had fled and was nowhere to be found.
A half year passes when the stranger, Heyling, came to tell the attorney that he himself had found the debtor, Heyling’s father-in-law. Together they arrived at a course of action that would imprison the debtor in a debtor’s prison. Heyling himself did the honour of informing the debtor. Alas, when the Heyling confronted his father-in-law, the debtor was so dispirited that he died there and then.
Mr. Weller senior was relating to his son the environment at the tea party that he had attended at his second wife’s behest when Mr. Pickwick arrived to join the Wellers on a journey to Ipswich where, with Mr. Weller senior’s help, they would seek Alfred Jingle. There was an additional passenger: a red-haired man named Peter Magnus who was obsessed with the security of his luggage. Indeed, throughout the journey, Mr. Magnus made repeated references to the security of his luggage. Between Mr. Magnus’ obsession and the Wellers’ colloquialisms the meaning of which Mr. Pickwick must ask for clarifications, the long tedious journey passed pleasantly enough.
When they arrived at the Great White Horse at Ipswich, Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Magnus shared a drink. By and by, Mr. Pickwick learnt that Mr. Magnus intended to propose to a lady who was to rendezvous with him at this very inn. However, when Mr. Pickwick tried to explain the object of his visit, Mr. Magnus assumed that the person who had betrayed Mr. Pickwick was a woman, and before Mr. Pickwick could clarify his story, Mr. Magnus retired for the night. Subsequently, Mr. Pickwick was led to his room when he realized that he had left a prized watch downstairs.
Determined to retrieve his fob watch, with a candle in hand, Mr. Pickwick navigated his way downstairs through the maze- like stairways and passageways. With great difficulty he found the room where he and Mr. Magnus shared a drink, and there he found his watch. He made his way back up to his room. Again he found himself groping up the stairways and through the passages.
Eventually, Mr. Pickwick entered an empty room. There he undressed, put on his nightcap, and was about to go to bed when a stranger entered his room. It’s a woman with yellow curl papers. Realizing that he had entered the wrong room, Mr. Pickwick, who had found temporary cover behind the curtains, summoned the courage to announce his presence. Needless to say, the lady was plunged in state of fright. Mr. Pickwick assured her that he meant her no harm and that his presence in the room was a great mistake. She urged him to leave, and Mr. Pickwick obliged.
With his candle all burnt out, and having no confidence that he would ever in his way back to his room, Mr. Pickwick decided to curl up in a recess and waited for the light of day. He had just curled up when his servant Sam Weller came by. Grateful, Mr. Pickwick greeted Sam. Though puzzled by the state his master was in, Sam didn’t cry and lead Mr. Pickwick to his room. Mr. Pickwick effusively thanked Sam.
Mr. Weller senior was enjoying a meal before having to prepare his coach for a lengthy journey when his son joined him and partook of his meal. They spoke of various things. Mr. Weller senior could not believe that his son could have allowed himself to be hoodwinked by Job trotter and urged him to make amends for their family name’s sake. The son mentioned the father’s wisdom or the lack thereof of having tied the knot with a widow. Consequently, before leaving, the father offered this advice. When old and Sam Weller had a notion to marry a widow, he would best confine himself to a room and poisoned himself (anything but hanging himself which was not so dignified).
Having parted with his father and with feeling somewhat melancholy, Sam Weller went for a walk when he noticed someone familiar, in the distant, walking out of a servant’s quarter. As the figure approached, it did all it could to distort its facial features (so as not to be recognized). Sam Weller was having none of it, however, as he confronted the figure and identified it as Mr. Job Trotter. To Sam’s disgust, Mr. Trotter hugged him while copiously weeping. Then Mr. Trotter offered the following alibi as to why Mr. Pickwick had failed to catch Mr. Alfred Jingle in the act of committing his swindle.Mr. Jingle, having got wind of the trap laid out for him, had bribed the ladies of the boarding house to be mum about the affair and had dragged Trotter to Ipswich where he was once again in the act of swindling someone. Trotter, however, had determined to part with his master and his evil ways once and for all, for he intended to start a business with a servant-girl with whom he had fallen in love.
All the while Mr. Totter was explaining himself, Sam had a mind to deck him. But he restrained himself. Presently, Sam told Trotter to meet him at the Great White Horse tonight. Failure to do so would jeopardize Trotter’s plan to start a new life with the servant-girl, Sam assured Trotter.
While helping Mr. Pickwick dress, Sam Weller informed his master that the object of their goal—to bring Alfred Jingle to justice—was within sight.
When Mr. Pickwick joined Mr. Peter Magnus for breakfast, the latter was dressed in his finest array and was in a state of nervous agitation as he was on the verge of proposing to his lady. Consequently, Mr. Pickwick did all he could to calm Mr. Magnus’ nerves to the extent of advising him on how to go about the affair. Presently, as Mr. Magnus went to propose with Mr. Pickwick’s advice in mind, Mr. Snodgrass, Mr. Tupman, and Mr. Winkle, who had just arrived at Ipswich, joined Mr. Pickwick.
It wasn’t long before Mr. Magnus returned to inform Mr. Pickwick of the good news: Miss Witherfield had agreed to marry him. Then, exchanging greetings with the rest of the Pickwickians, Mr. Magnus invited Mr. Pickwick to meet Miss Witherfield. They retired to another room when things took an unexpected turn. Both Mr. Pickwick and Miss Witherfield recoiled from each other. Though Mr. Magnus demanded an explanation, both Mr. Pickwick and Miss Witherfield refused to say a word. (Miss Witherfield was the lady with the yellow curl-papers whom Mr. Pickwick had inadvertently confronted the previous night.) Consequently, Mr. Magnus assumed that Miss Witherfield was the woman who had betrayed Mr. Pickwick. Mr. Pickwick summoned Mr. Tupman to dispel Mr. Magnus’ assumption but to no avail. Mr. Magnus railed against Mr. Pickwick as did Mr. Pickwick against Mr. Magnus. Mr. Tupman draged Mr. Pickwick from the scene lest the latter should do something he might regret later. Meanwhile, Miss Witherfield, worried that Mr. Pickwick was going to challenge her husband-to-be to a duel of honour, applied to the principal magistrate of Ipswich Mr. George Nupkins. She made a formal request for the arrests of Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Tupman. Determined to prevent a duel, Mr. Nupkins commissioned a Mr. Grummer to arrest Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Tupman.
Thus the Pickwickians were peacefully at dinner at the Great White Horse when a stranger intruded and informed Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Tupman that they were under arrest. The Pickwickians objected, compelling Grummer to summon his associates whose number exceeded the Pickwickians by a fair margin. Seeing that Mr. Grummer had an official warrant and that it would be fruitless to resist, Mr. Pickwick consented to be escorted to the magistrate, provided that he and Mr. Tupman weren’t paraded through the streets in full sight of the locals. There was much debate about this when Grummer arrived at an expedient: He would convey Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Tupman on a sedan which would preserve the Pickwickians’ anonymity.
Regardless, the locals of Ipswich flocked to the scene and create an uproar. Presently, Sam Weller, who had failed to make heads vis-à-vis Job Trotter, arrived at the scene and joined in the cheering if only to dispel his despondency. He spotted Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Winkle. When they informed Sam of what’s happening, Sam confronted Mr. Grummer. Mr. Grummer beat Sam, but Sam fought back. Alas, Sam was overpowered by Mr. Grummer’s associates and was taken into custody along with Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Tupman.
