post-horn, and heavy thumps upon the oak, a voice was heard,
demanding "Entrance in the Proctor's name."


[80 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]

Mr. Verdant Green had for the first time "sported his oak." Under
any circumstances it would have been a mere form, since his bashful
politeness would have induced him to open it to any comer; but, at
the dreaded name of the Proctor, he sprang from his chair, and while
impositions, rustications, and expulsions rushed tumultuously through
his disordered brain, he nervously undid the springlock, and admitted
- not the Proctor, but the "steady" Mr. Charles Larkyns and his "nice
quiet companion," little Mr. Bouncer, who testified his joy at the
success of their ~coup d'etat~, by blowing on his horn loud blasts
that might have been borne by Fontarabian echoes, and which rang
through poor Verdant's head with indescribable jarrings.

"Well, Verdant," said Charles Larkyns, "how do you find yourself this
morning? You look rather shaky."

"He ain't a very lively picter, is he?" remarked little Mr. Bouncer,
with the air of a connoisseur; "peakyish you feel, don't you, now,
with a touch of the mulligrubs in your collywobbles? Ah, I know what
it is, my boy."

It was more than our hero did; and he could only reply that he did
not feel very well. "I - I had a glass of claret after some
lobster-salad, and I think it disagreed with me."