Mr.Candy, hitting back smartly, said that Mr Franklin himself was, constitutionally speaking, groping in the dark after sleep, and that nothing but medicine could help him to find it.

Mr.Franklin, keeping the ball up on his side, said he had often heard of the blind leading the blind, and now, for the first time, he knew what it meant.

In this way, they kept it going briskly, cut and thrust, till they both of them got hot--Mr.
Candy, in particular, so completely losing his self-control, in defence of his profession, that my lady was obliged to interfere, and forbid the dispute to go on.

This necessary act of authority put the last extinguisher on the spirits of the company.

The talk spurted up again here and there, for a minute or two at a time; but there was a miserable lack of life and sparkle in it.