 any high road,
and was approachable only by a dark and narrow lane; so that Hugh was much
surprised to find several people drinking there, and great merriment going on.
He was still more surprised to find among them almost every face that had caught
his attention in the crowd; but his companion having whispered him outside the
door, that it was not considered good manners at The Boot to appear at all
curious about the company, he kept his own counsel, and made no show of
recognition.
    Before putting his lips to the liquor which was brought for them, Dennis
drank in a loud voice the health of Lord George Gordon, President of the Great
Protestant Association; which toast Hugh pledged likewise, with corresponding
enthusiasm. A fiddler who was present, and who appeared to act as the appointed
minstrel of the company, forthwith struck up a Scotch reel; and that in tones so
invigorating, that Hugh and his friend (who had both been drinking before) rose
from their seats as by previous concert, and, to the great admiration of the
assembled guests, performed an extemporaneous No-Popery Dance.
 

                                 Chapter XXXIX

The applause which the performance of Hugh and his new friend elicited from the
company at The Boot, had not yet subsided, and the two dancers were still
panting from their exertions, which had been of a rather extreme and violent
character, when the party was reinforced by the arrival of some more guests,
who, being a detachment of United Bull-dogs, were received with very flattering
marks of distinction and respect.
    The leader of this small party - for, including himself, they were but three
in number - was our old acquaintance, Mr. Tappertit, who seemed, physically
speaking, to have grown smaller with years (particularly as to his legs, which
were stupendously little), but who, in a moral point of view, in personal
dignity and self-esteem, had swelled into a giant. Nor was it by any means
difficult for the most unobservant person to detect this state of feeling in the
quondam 'prentice, for it not only proclaimed itself impressively and beyond
mistake in his majestic walk and kindling eye, but found a striking means of
revelation in his turned-up nose, which scouted all things of earth with deep
disdain, and sought communion with its kindred skies.
    Mr. Tappertit, as chief or captain of the Bull-dogs, was attended by his two
lieutenants; one, the tall comrade of his younger life; the other, a 'Prentice
Knight in days of yore - Mark Gilbert, bound in the olden time to
