The Old House in Crosby Square (Volume 2) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1863. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. Seated at the far end of a long, low-roofed, illassorted room, and surrounding an equally long, narrow, and dilapidated table, placed lengthways, so as to fit the better within the contracted walls, were ranged a group of men, ill-conditioned as the room in which they sat, equally disreputable, and partaking of the same unpleasant aspect. There were some ten or twelve of them, all differently dressed, yet each with a look of the same character, the same individuality of expression, and no one exceptional from the other but in the texture and mode of his habiliments, and the variety of his attitude or manner. Some of them wore fine laced coats, smart waistcoats, and cravats, a profusion of jewellery, watch chains, and rings; while others, meanly and shabbily attired, were yet upon an equal footing with their more fortunate companions, and hobbed and nobbed from the same bowl, drank to each, other, shook hands across the table with uproarious-good will, and clasped in their dirty palms the jewelled fingers of their more distinguished and dainty acquaintances, who showed their superiority by lolling a little more, swearing a little more, drinking a little less, and now and then perhaps speaking with a certain air of decision, to which the sound of a few jingling guineas in his pockets inclines a man, when able to call for another bowl of punch and pay for it, as though the cost were a matter of no consequence to him, and he could pitch his coin upon the table with an air of monetary repletion. Elevated above the rest and at the end of the long table, an arm-chair was placed on a low platform, and in this greasy, worn, and dingy throne sat the presiding genius of the night, whose dignity as chairman could not be interfered with, but as with most ...