Jack  Beaupeep  favoured  him  with  a  glance  of  inquiry
which,  if  it  had  been  framed  in  words,  would  have  run  thus —
'  Are  you  a  knave  or  a  fool  ? '  Apparently  deciding  in  favour
of  the  former  hypothesis,  he  resumed, —

'  The  additional  attraction  to  which  you  so  perspicuously
allude,  my  dear  sir,  involves  yet  another  striking  peculiarity —
viz.,  this  driver,  who  so  carefully  conducts  you  through  the
crowded  thoroughfares  of  our  colossal  metropolis,  is  no  servile
hireling,  no  parasitical  serf  to  crouch  at  your  feet,  but  a  man,
sir — a  freeborn  Briton — with  as  much  vested  right  in  "  Rule
Britannia  "  as  yourself.  Sir  !  when  a  dissatisfied  cabman  alludes
to  my  eyes  and  limbs,  I  open  widely  those  aspersed  optics,
proudly  draw  up  those  vituperated  limbs,  and  rejoice  that  he
and  I  are  fellow-countrymen  ! '

'  My  dear  Jack,  we're  not  upon  the  hustings ;  we  have
none  of  us  the  slightest  intention  of  coming  in  for  anywhere  ;
and  dinner  has  been  served  for  the  last  five  minutes,'  suggested
his  host,  mildly.
Favouring  him  with  a  melodramatic  scowl,  which,  at  '  Sad-
ler's Wells '  or  the  '  Victoria,'  would,  in  theatrical  parlance,  have
'brought  down  the  house,'  jack  exclaimed, —

'  Is  it  thus  a  haughty  aristocracy  strives  to  trample  on  the
honest  poor  man  !  it  is  not  well  in  ye,  my  lord,  and  before  an
illustrious  foreigner,  too ;  alas,  my  country  ! ' — then  perceiving
that  Guillemard  was  regarding  him  with  a  glance  which  evinced
extreme  doubts  as  to  his  sanity,  that  D'Almayne  was  looking
supercilious,  and  Lord  Alfred  annoyed  at  his  absurdity.  Jack
experienced  the  proud  conviction  that  he  had  attained  his  ob-
ject— viz.,  to  astonish,  confuse,  and  discomfit  everybody.
