"Vair and zoft, let ev'ry man ha' his zay!" ...

"There's vary gude rason in it!" ...

"I didn't think of that avore;"-- and so forth; till in a quarter of an hour the whole question has to be discussed over again, through the fog of a dozen fresh fallacies, and the miserable earnest man finds himself considerably worse off than when he began.

Happy for him if some chance word is not let drop, which will afford the whole assembly an excuse for falling on him open-mouthed, as the cause of all their woes! That chance word came.

Mr.Penruddock gave a spiteful hit, being, as he said, of a cantankerous turn, to Mr.Treluddra, principal "jowder," _i.e._ fish salesman, of Aberalva.