he leering eyes, the familiar diminutives with which the
various parties addressed each other, and the frequent locking of hands
together in a grasp the force of which was meant to express an ardour of
social friendship which words were too weak to convey--all showed that
the symposiasts had cleared the fences which prudence or selfishness set
up in the sober intercourse of life, and were now, with loosened reins,
spurring away over the free wild fields of fancy and fun. An immense
quantity of walnut-shells--which the mercurial compotators had been
amusing themselves by throwing at each other--lay scattered about the
table and on the floor; two or three shivered wine glasses had been
shoved into the centre of the table, the fragments glittering upon a
pile of glorious Woodvilles, all speckled over, like Jacob's sheep; each
man had one of the weeds stuck rakishly in the corner of his mouth, and
was knocking off the ashes upon his deviled biscuits; and, to the right
of the president's chair, a long straggling regiment of empty bottles
gave dumb but eloquent proof of the bibulous capabilities of the
company. Each man was talking vehemently to his neighbour, and every one
for himself; in order, as a wag among them said, to get through the
work quickly, and jump at once to a conclusion. They were, as Sheridan
has it, "arguing in platoons." There was one exception, however, to the
boisterous mirth of the convivialists, in the person of Frank Elliot, in
celebration of whose obtaining his medical degree the feast had been
given. He was leaning back in his chair, gazing, with a slight curl
of contempt on his lip, at the rude glee of his associates. He had
distinguished himself so highly among his fellow-students, that one of
the professors had, in the ceremony of the morning, singled him out,
before all his contemporaries, with the highest eulogiums, and had
predicted, in the most flattering manner, his certain celebrity in his
profession. Perhaps the natural vanity which these public honours had
created, the bright prospect which lay before him, and his being less
excited than his companions--caused him to turn, with disgust, from the
silly ribaldry and weak witticisms which circled round his table. Amid
the uproar his silence was for some time unheeded; but at length Harry
Whitaker, his old college chum, now lieutenant in his Majesty's navy,
and with a considerable portion of broad sailor's humour and slang,
observed it, and sla