“And I think,” said Mr. Ben Allen, in conclusion. “ I think there’s a prior attachment.”

“Have you any idea who the object of it might be?” asked Mr. Winkle, with great trepidation.

Mr. Ben Allen seized the poker, flourished it in a warlike manner above his head, inflicted a savage blow on an imaginary skull, and wound up by saying, in a very expressive manner, that he only wished he could guess; that was all.

“I’d show him what I thought of him,” said Mr. Ben Allen. And round went the poker again, more fiercely than before.