n,' replied Brass, in a very grave manner,
'he'll not serve his case this way, and really, if you feel any
interest in him, you had better advise him to go upon some other tack.
Did I, sir? Of course I never did.'

'Gentlemen,' cried Kit, on whom a light broke suddenly, 'Master, Mr
Abel, Mr Witherden, every one of you--he did it! What I have done to
offend him, I don't know, but this is a plot to ruin me. Mind,
gentlemen, it's a plot, and whatever comes of it, I will say with my
dying breath that he put that note in my hat himself! Look at him,
gentlemen! see how he changes colour. Which of us looks the guilty
person--he, or I?'

'You hear him, gentlemen?' said Brass, smiling, 'you hear him. Now,
does this case strike you as assuming rather a black complexion, or
does it not? Is it at all a treacherous case, do you think, or is it
one of mere ordinary guilt? Perhaps, gentlemen, if he had not said
this in your presence and I had reported it, you'd have held this to be
impossible likewise, eh?'

With such pacific and bantering remarks did Mr Brass refute the foul
aspersion on his character; but the virtuous Sarah, moved by stronger
feelings, and having at heart, perhaps, a more jealous regard for the
honour of her family, flew from her brother's side, without any
previous intimation of her design, and darted at the prisoner with the
utmost fury. It would undoubtedly have gone hard with Kit's face, but
that the wary constable, foreseeing her design, drew him aside at the
critical moment, and thus placed Mr Chuckster in circumstances of some
jeopardy; for that gentleman happening to be next the object of Miss
Brass's wrath; and rage being, like love and fortune, blind; was
pounced upon by the fair enslaver, and had a false collar plucked up by
the roots, and his hair very much dishevelled, before the exertions of
the company could make her sensible of her mistake.

The constable, taking warning by this desperate attack, and thinking
perhaps that it would be more satisfactory to the ends of justice if
the prisoner were taken before a magistrate, whole, rather than in
small pieces, led him back to the hackney-coach without more ado, and
moreover insisted on Miss Brass becoming an outside passenger; to which
proposal the charming creature, after a little angry discussion,
yielded her consent; and so took her brother Sampson's place upon the
box: Mr Brass with some reluctance agreeing to occupy her seat inside.
Th