"Restless, sir," said Mrs. Gamp.
"Talk much?"
"Middling, sir," said Mrs. Gamp.
"Nothing to the purpose, I suppose?"
"Oh bless you no, sir. Only jargon."
"Well!" said the doctor, "we must keep him quiet; keep the room cool; give him his draughts regularly; and see that he's carefully looked to. That's all!"
"And as long as Mrs. Prig and me waits upon him, sir, no fear of that," said Mrs. Gamp.
"I suppose," observed Mrs. Prig, when they had curtsied the doctor out: "there's nothin' new?"
"Nothin' at all, my. dear," said Mrs. Gamp. "He's rather wearin' in his talk from making up a lot of names; elseways you needn't mind him."
"Oh, I shan't mind him," Mrs. Prig returned. "I have somethin' else to think of."
"I pays my debts to-night, you know, my dear, and comes afore my time," said Mrs. Gamp. "But Betsey Prig"—speaking with great feeling, and laying her hand upon her arm—"try the cowcumbers, God bless you!"
CHAPTER XXVI.
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING, AND A PROMISING PROSPECT.
The laws of sympathy between beards and birds, and the secret source of that attraction which frequently impels a shaver of the one to be a dealer in the other, are questions for the subtle reasoning of scientific bodies: not the less so, because their investigation would seem calculated to lead to no particular result. It is enough to know that the artist who had the honour of entertaining Mrs. Gamp as his first-floor lodger, united the two pursuits of barbering and bird-fancying; and that it was not an original idea of his, but one in which he had, dispersed about the bye-streets and suburbs of the town, a host of rivals.
The name of this householder was Paul Sweedlepipe. But he was commonly called Poll Sweedlepipe; and was not uncommonly believed to have been so christened, among his friends and neighbours.
With the exception of the staircase, and his lodger's private apartment. Poll Sweedlepipe's house was one great bird's nest. Game-cocks resided in the kitchen; pheasants wasted the brightness of their golden plumage on the garret; bantams roosted in the cellar; owls had possession of the bed-room; and specimens of all the smaller fry of birds chirrupped and twittered in the shop. The staircase was sacred to rabbits. There, in hutches of all shapes and kinds, made from old packing-cases, boxes, drawers, and tea-chests, they increased in a prodigious degree, and contributed their share towards that complicated
