The boards were rotten, and I should think a man like you ought to have better cellar doors than those are." The squire didn't relish this criticism, especially from the source whence it came.

There was a want of humility on the part of the culprit which the magnate of Pinchbrook thought would be exceedingly becoming in a young man in his situation.

The absence of it made him more angry than before.

He stormed and hurled denunciations at the offender; he rehearsed the mischief he had done during the day, and alluded in strong terms to that which he intended to perpetrate in the "dead watches of the night"-- which was the poetical rendering of half-past six in the evening; for the squire was fond of effective phrases.
Tom ventured to hint that a man who would not stand by his country when her flag was insulted and "trailed in the dust"-- Tom had read the daily papers--ought to be brought to his senses by such expedients as his fellow-citizens might suggest.

Of course this remark only increased the squire's wrath, and he proceeded to pronounce sentence upon the unlucky youth, which was that he should be taken to the finished room in the attic, and confined there under bolts and bars till the inquisitor should further declare and execute his intentions.
Mrs.Pemberton and Susan remonstrated against this sentence, prudently suggesting the consequences which might result from detaining the boy.