Our worthy host here« (Drummond, gravely smiling, undertook to elucidate
the case) »has a theory that the constitutions of the Postdiluvians have been
deranged, and their lives shortened, by the miasmas of the Deluge. I believe he
carries it so far as to say that Noah, in the light of a progenitor, is inferior
to Adam, owing to the shaking he had to endure in the ark, and which he
conceives to have damaged the patriarch and the nervous systems of his sons. It
's a theory, you know.«
    »They lived close on a thousand years, hale, hearty - and no water!« said
the chairman.
    »Well!« exclaimed one, some way down the table, a young farmer, red as a
cock's comb: »no fools they, eh, master? Where there 's ale, would you drink
water, my hearty?« and back he leaned to enjoy the tribute to his wit; a wit not
remarkable, but nevertheless sufficient in the noise it created to excite the
envy of Mr. Raikes, who, inveterately silly when not engaged in a contest, now
began to play on the names of the sons of Noah.
    The chairman lanced a keen light at him from beneath his bushy eyebrows.
    Before long he had again to call two parties to order. To Raikes, Laxley was
a puppy: to Laxley, Mr. Raikes was a snob. The antagonism was natural: ale did
but put the match to the magazine. But previous to an explosion, Laxley, who had
observed Evan's disgust at Jack's exhibition of himself, and had been led to
think, by his conduct and clothes in conjunction, that Evan was his own equal; -
a gentleman condescending to the society of a low-born acquaintance; - had
sought with sundry propitiations, intelligent glances, light shrugs, and such
like, to divide Evan from Jack. He did this, doubtless, because he partly
sympathized with Evan, and to assure him that he took a separate view of him.
Probably Evan was already offended, or he held to Jack, as a comrade should, or
else it was that Tailordom and the pride of his accepted humiliation bellowed in
his ears, every fresh minute: »Nothing assume!« I incline to think that the more
ale he drank the fiercer rebel he grew against conventional ideas of rank, and
those class-barriers which we scorn so vehemently when we find ourselves kicking
at them. Whatsoever the reason that prompted him, he did not respond to Laxley'