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and a prevailing greasiness of appearance) Mr Swiveller leant back in
his chair with his eyes fixed on the ceiling, and occasionally pitching
his voice to the needful key, obliged the company with a few bars of an
intensely dismal air, and then, in the middle of a note, relapsed into
his former silence.
The old man sat himself down in a chair, and with folded hands,
looked sometimes at his grandson and sometimes at his strange
companion, as if he were utterly powerless and had no resource but to
leave them to do as they pleased. The young man reclined against a
table at no great distance from his friend, in apparent indifference to
everything that had passed; and I - who felt the difficulty of any
interference, notwithstanding that the old man had appealed to me,
both by words and looks - made the best feint I could of being
occupied in examining some of the goods that were disposed for sale,
and paying very little attention to a person before me.
The silence was not of long duration, for Mr Swiveller, after favouring
us with several melodious assurances that his heart was in the
Highlands, and that he wanted but his Arab steed as a preliminary to
the achievement of great feats of valour and loyalty, removed his eyes
from the ceiling and subsided into prose again.
'
Fred,' said Mr Swiveller stopping short, as if the idea had suddenly
occurred to him, and speaking in the same audible whisper as before,
'
'
'
'
is the old min friendly?'
What does it matter?' returned his friend peevishly.
No, but IS he?' said Dick.
Yes, of course. What do I care whether he is or not?'
Emboldened as it seemed by this reply to enter into a more general
conversation, Mr Swiveller plainly laid himself out to captivate our
attention.
He began by remarking that soda-water, though a good thing in the
abstract, was apt to lie cold upon the stomach unless qualified with
ginger, or a small infusion of brandy, which latter article he held to be
preferable in all cases, saving for the one consideration of expense.
Nobody venturing to dispute these positions, he proceeded to observe
that the human hair was a great retainer of tobacco-smoke, and that
the young gentlemen of Westminster and Eton, after eating vast
quantities of apples to conceal any scent of cigars from their anxious
friends, were usually detected in consequence of their heads
possessing this remarkable property; when he concluded that if the
Royal Society would turn their attention to the circumstance, and
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