would have bestowed upon her malady, Mrs. Gamp was perfectly acquainted with the way home again; and arriving at the house of Anthony Chuzzlewit & Son, lay down to rest. Remaining there until seven o'clock in the evening, and then persuading poor old Chuffey to betake himself to bed, she sallied forth upon her new engagement. First, she went to her private lodgings in Kingsgate-street, for a bundle of robes and wrappings comfortable in the night season; and then repaired to the Bull in Holborn, which she reached as the clocks were striking eight.
As she turned into the yard, she stopped; for the landlord, landlady, and head chambermaid, were all on the threshold together, talking earnestly with a young gentleman who seemed to have just come or to be just going away. The first words that struck upon Mrs. Gamp's ear obviously bore reference to the patient; and it being expedient that all good attendants should know as much as possible about the case on which their skill is brought to bear, Mrs. Gamp listened as a matter of duty.
"No better, then?" observed the gentleman.
"Worse!" said the landlord.
"Much worse," added the landlady.
"Oh! a deal badder," cried the chambermaid from the back-ground, opening her eyes very wide, and shaking her head.
"Poor fellow!" said the gentleman, "I am sorry to hear it. The worst of it is, that I have no idea what friends or relations he has, or where they live, except that it certainly is not in London."
The landlord looked at the landlady; the landlady looked at the landlord; and the chambermaid remarked, hysterically, "that of all the many wague directions she had ever seen or heerd of (and they wasn't few in an hotel), that was the waguest."
"The fact is, you see," pursued the gentleman, "as I told you yesterday when you sent to me, I really know very little about him. We were schoolfellows together; but since that time I have only met him twice. On both occasions I was in London for a boy's holiday (having come up for a week or so from Wiltshire), and lost sight of him again, directly. The letter bearing my name and address which you found upon his table, and which led to your applying to me, is in answer, you will observe, to one he wrote from this house the very day he was taken ill, making an appointment with him at his own request. Here is his letter, if you wish to see it."
The landlord read it: the landlady looked over him. The chambermaid, in the back-ground, made out as much of it as she could, and invented the rest; believing it all from that time forth as a positive piece of evidence.
"He has very little luggage, you say?" observed the gentleman, who was no other than our old friend, John Westlock.
"Nothing but a portmanteau," said the landlord; "and very little in it."
"A few pounds in his purse, though?"
"Yes. It's sealed up, and in the cash-box. I made a memorandum of the amount, which you 're welcome to see."
"Well!" said John, "as the medical gentleman says the fever must
