Ferret, whose curiosity was rather more eager than that of any other
person in this audience, being provoked by this preamble, dashed the pipe
he had just filled in pieces against the grate; and after having
pronounced the interjection pish! with an acrimony of aspect altogether
peculiar to himself, "If," said he, "impertinence and folly were felony
by the statute, there would be no warrant of unexceptionable evidence to
hang such an eternal babbler." "Anan, babbler!" cried Tom, reddening
with passion, and starting up; "I'd have you to know, sir, that I can
bite as well as babble; and that, if I am so minded, I can run upon the
foot after my game without being in fault, as the saying is; and, which
is more, I can shake an old fox by the collar."

How far this young lawyer might have proceeded to prove himself staunch
on the person of the misanthrope, if he had not been prevented, we shall
not determine; but the whole company were alarmed at his looks and
expressions. Dolly's rosy cheeks assumed an ash colour, while she ran
between the disputants, crying, "Naay, naay--vor the love of God doan't
then, doan't then!" But Captain Crowe exerted a parental authority over
his nephew, saying, "Avast, Tom, avast!--Snug's the word--we'll have no
boarding, d'ye see.--Haul forward thy chair again, take thy berth, and
proceed with thy story in a direct course, without yawing like a Dutch
yanky."

Tom, thus tutored, recollected himself, resumed his seat, and, after some
pause, plunged at once into the current of narration. "I told you
before, gemmen, that the gentleman in armour was the only son of Sir
Everhard Greaves, who possessed a free estate of five thousand a year in
our country, and was respected by all his neighbours as much for his
personal merit as for his family fortune. With respect to his son