lor told me "he had a great respect for my
whole family, and would, with my leave, place himself next to Sir Harry,
at whose right hand he had sat at every quarter-sessions these thirty
years, unless he was sick." The steward in the rear whispered the young
templar, "That is true to my knowledge." I had the misfortune, as
they stood cheek by jowl, to desire the esquire to sit down before the
justice of the quorum, to the no small satisfaction of the former, and
resentment of the latter. But I saw my error too late, and got them as
soon as I could into their seats. "Well," said I, "gentlemen, after I
have told you how glad I am of this great honour, I am to desire you to
drink a dish of tea." They answered one and all, "that they never drank
tea in a morning." "Not in a morning!" said I, staring round me; upon
which the pert jackanapes, Nic Doubt, tipped me the wink, and put out
his tongue at his grandfather. Here followed a profound silence, when
the steward in his boots and whip proposed, "that we should adjourn to
some public house, where everybody might call for what they pleased, and
enter upon the business." We all stood up in an instant, and Sir Harry
filed off from the left, very discreetly, countermarching behind the
chairs towards the door. After him Sir Giles in the same manner. The
simple esquire made a sudden start to follow, but the justice of the
quorum whipped between upon the stand of the stairs. A maid, going up
with coals, made us halt, and put us into such confusion that we stood
all in a heap, without any visible possibility of recovering our order;
for the young jackanapes seemed to make a jest of this matter, and had
so contrived, by pressing amongst us under pretence of making way,
that his grandfather was got into the middle, and he knew nobody was of
quality to stir a step till Sir Harry moved first. We were fixed in this
perplexity for some time, till we heard a very loud noise in the street,
and Sir Harry asking what it was, I, to make them move, said it was
fire. Upon this, all ran down as fast as they could, without order or
ceremony, till we got into the street, where we drew up in very good
order, and filed off down Sheer Lane; the impertinent templar driving us
before him as in a string, and pointing to his acquaintance who passed
by.

I must confess I love to use people according to their own sense of good
breeding, and therefore whipped in between the justice and the simple
esquire. He