|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
 |
||||
|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
|
|
||||
782 shot into his present retreat by means of a kick, and complimented by having the slippers flung about his ears afterwards. The coffee-room customers, and the waiters, and the coachmen, and the helpers--not to mention a barmaid who was looking on from behind an open sash window--seemed at that moment, if a spectator might judge from their winks, nods, and muttered exclamations, strongly disposed to take part against the young gentleman in the stockings. Observing this, and that the young gentleman was nearly of his own age and had in nothing the appearance of an habitual brawler, Nicholas, impelled by such feelings as will influence young men sometimes, felt a very strong disposition to side with the weaker party, and so thrust himself at once into the centre of the group, and in a more emphatic tone, perhaps, than circumstances might seem to warrant, demanded what all that noise was about. ‘Hallo!’ said one of the men from the yard, ‘this is somebody in disguise, this is.’ ‘Room for the eldest son of the Emperor of Roosher, gen’l’men!’ cried another fellow. Disregarding these sallies, which were uncommonly well received, as sallies at the expense of the best-dressed persons in a crowd usually are, Nicholas glanced carelessly round, and addressing the young gentleman, who had by this time picked up his slippers and thrust his feet into them, repeated his inquiries with a courteous air. ‘A mere nothing!’ he replied. At this a murmur was raised by the lookers-on, and some of the boldest cried, ‘Oh, indeed!--Wasn’t it though?--Nothing, eh?--He called that nothing, did he? Lucky for him if he found it nothing.’ |
