This done, Sir Jacob Clancing pushed aside all his bottles, and turned towards us with a smiling face and a lighter air.
'We shall see what my poor larder can furnish forth,' said he.
'Meanwhile, this odour may be offensive to your untrained nostrils, so we shall away with it.

He threw a few grains of some balsamic resin into the brazier, which at once filled the chamber with a most agreeable perfume.

He then laid a white cloth upon the table, and taking from a cupboard a dish of cold trout and a large meat pasty, he placed them upon it, and invited us to draw up our settles and set to work.
'I would that I had more toothsome fare to offer ye,' said he.

'Were we at Snellaby Hall, ye should not be put off in this scurvy fashion, I promise ye.

This may serve, however, for hungry men, and I can still lay my hands upon a brace of bottles of the old Alicant.' So saying, he brought a pair of flasks out from a recess, and having seen us served and our glasses filled, he seated himself in a high-backed oaken chair and presided with old-fashioned courtesy over our feast.