Mr.Raikes addressed the meeting.
The three young gentlemen-cricketers had hitherto behaved with a certain propriety.

It did not offend Mr.Raikes to see them conduct themselves as if they were at a play, and the rest of the company paid actors.

He had likewise taken a position, and had been the first to laugh aloud at a particular slip of grammar; while his shrugs at the aspirates transposed and the pronunciation prevalent, had almost established a free-masonry between him and one of the three young gentlemen-cricketers--a fair-haired youth, with a handsome, reckless face, who leaned on the table, humorously eyeing the several speakers, and exchanging by-words and laughs with his friends on each side of him.
But Mr.Raikes had the disadvantage of having come to the table empty in stomach--thirsty exceedingly; and, I repeat, that as, without experience, you are the victim of divinely given Eve, so, with no foundation to receive it upon, are you the victim of good sound Ale.
He very soon lost his head.

He would otherwise have seen that he must produce a wonderfully-telling speech if he was to keep the position he had taken, and had better not attempt one.

The three young cricketers were hostile from the beginning.