'Yes!' roared Hugh.
'You speak like a man,' said Mr Tappertit, 'and I'll shake hands with
you.' With these conciliatory expressions he suited the action to the
word; and Hugh meeting his advances readily, they performed the ceremony
with a show of great heartiness.
'I find,' said Mr Tappertit, looking round on the assembled guests,
'that brother What's-his-name and I are old acquaintance.--You never
heard anything more of that rascal, I suppose, eh?'
'Not a syllable,' replied Hugh. 'I never want to. I don't believe I ever
shall. He's dead long ago, I hope.'
'It's to be hoped, for the sake of mankind in general and the happiness
of society, that he is,' said Mr Tappertit, rubbing his palm upon his
legs, and looking at it between whiles. 'Is your other hand at all
cleaner? Much the same. Well, I'll owe you another shake. We'll suppose
it done, if you've no objection.'
Hugh laughed again, and with such thorough abandonment to his mad
humour, that his limbs seemed dislocated, and his whole frame in danger
of tumbling to pieces; but Mr Tappertit, so far from receiving this
extreme merriment with any irritation, was pleased to regard it with the
utmost favour, and even to join in it, so far as one of his gravity and
station could, with any regard to that decency and decorum which men in
high places are expected to maintain.
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