little man by the collar,--the tenderest of all places in
gentlemen similarly circumstanced with regard to the ways of life,--and
giving him a blow, which took effect on his other and hitherto undamaged
eye, cried out,--

"I'll teach you, you blood-sucker [that is, parasite], to sponge upon
those as has expectations! I'll teach you to cozen the heir of the Mug,
you snivelling, whey-faced ghost of a farthing rushlight! What! you'll
lend my Paul three crowns, will you, when you knows as how you told
me you could not pay me a pitiful tizzy? Oh, you're a queer one, I
warrants; but you won't queer Margery Lobkins. Out of my ken, you cur of
the mange!--out of my ken; and if ever I claps my sees on you again, or
if ever I knows as how you makes a flat of my Paul, blow me tight but
I'll weave you a hempen collar,--I'll hang you, you dog, I will. What!
you will answer me, will you? Oh, you viper, budge and begone!"

It was in vain that Dummie protested his innocence. A violent
coup-de-pied broke off all further parlance. He made a clear house of
the Mug; and the landlady thereof, tottering back to her elbow-chair,
sought out another pipe, and, like all imaginative persons when
the world goes wrong with them, consoled herself for the absence of
realities by the creations of smoke.

Meanwhile Dummie Dunnaker, muttering and murmuring bitter fancies,
overtook Paul, and accused that youth of having been the occasion of
the injuries he had just undergone. Paul was not at that moment in the
humour best adapted for the patient bearing of accusations. He answered
Mr. Dunnaker very shortly; and that respectable individual, still
smarting under his bruises, replied with equal tartness. Words grew
high, and at length Paul, desirous of concluding the conference,
clenched his fist, and told the redoubted Dummie that he would "knock
him down." There is something peculiarly harsh and stunning in those
three hard, wiry, sturdy, stubborn monosyllables. Their very sound
makes you double your fist if you are a hero, or your pace if you are
a peaceable man. They produced an instant effect upon Dummie Dunnaker,
aided as they were by the effect of an athletic and youthful figure,
already fast approaching to the height of six feet, a flushed cheek,
and an eye that bespoke both passion and resolution. The rag-merchant's
voice sank at once, and with the countenance of a wronged Cassius he
whimpered forth,--

"Knock me down? O leetle Paul, vot wicked