This will be no bad way of trying the
company's breeding.'
'I will abide by that experiment (cried my uncle) and if I could
find a place to stand secure, without the vortex of the tumult,
which I know will ensue, I would certainly go thither and enjoy
the scene.' Quin proposed that we should take our station in the
music-gallery, and we took his advice. Holder had got thither
before us, with his horns perdue, but we were admitted. The tea-drinking
passed as usual, and the company having risen from the
tables, were sauntering in groupes, in expectation of the signal
for attack, when the bell beginning to ring, they flew with
eagerness to the dessert, and the whole place was instantly in
commotion. There was nothing but justling, scrambling, pulling,
snatching, struggling, scolding, and screaming. The nosegays were
torn from one another's hands and bosoms; the glasses and china
went to wreck; the tables and floors were strewed with comfits.
Some cried; some swore; and the tropes and figures of
Billingsgate were used without reserve in all their native zest
and flavour; nor were those flowers of rhetoric unattended with
significant gesticulation.
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