They all paint tables, cover screens, andnet purses.
( Dickens The Pickwick papers ) Full of reflections upon this important decision, he crept from hisplace of concealment, and, under cover of the shrubs before mentioned,approached the house.
Here the man proceeded to mend his pen with great deliberation, whileanother clerk, who was mixing a Seidlitz powder, under cover of the lidof his desk, laughed approvingly.
The snow lay hardand crisp upon the ground; and spread over the thickly-strewn moundsof earth, so white and smooth a cover that it seemed as if corpses laythere, hidden only by their winding sheets.
The little table with the green baize cover was wheeled out;the first instalment of punch was brought in, in a white jug; and thesucceeding three hours were devoted to VINGT-ET-UN at sixpence adozen, which was only once interrupted by a slight dispute between thescorbutic youth and the gentleman with the pink anchors; in the courseof which, the scorbutic youth intimated a burning desire to pull thenose of the gentleman with the emblems of hope; in reply to which, thatindividual expressed his decided unwillingness to accept of any 'sauce'on gratuitous terms, either from the irascible young gentleman with thescorbutic countenance, or any other person who was ornamented with ahead.
The crockery having been removed, the tablewith the green baize cover was carried out into the centre of the room,and the business of the evening was commenced by a little emphatic man,with a bald head and drab shorts, who suddenly rushed up the ladder, atthe imminent peril of snapping the two little legs incased in the drabshorts, and said--'Ladies and gentlemen, I move our excellent brother, Mr. Anthony Humm,into the chair.
Bardell so earnestly entreated not to agitate herself about thiswarming-pan, unless (as is no doubt the case) it is a mere cover forhidden fire--a mere substitute for some endearing word or promise,agreeably to a preconcerted system of correspondence, artfully contrivedby Pickwick with a view to his contemplated desertion, and which I amnot in a condition to explain?
So snug, that at the end of a few yearsyou might put all the profits in a wine-glass, and cover 'em over witha gooseberry leaf.