Chapter 20: In Which Everything Grows but the Plot

⁠​​​‌​​​​‌​‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​‌‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌⁠You will remember, if you have not put this book upon the table meanwhile, that in the last paragraph of the last chapter, we left an unfortunate individual swinging in a basket hard by the roof of a barn. He was hoisted by a pulley amid the acclamations of the mob because he was unable to fulfil an obligation so small that half a guinea would have covered it. There he swung amid cobwebs and bats,