[The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade]@TWC D-Link bookThe Cloister and the Hearth CHAPTER VII 3/20
He was a vain fellow, and not conscious of this nor any defect.
Now it happened he caught sight of Giles sitting on the top of the balcony; so he stopped and began to make fun of him. "Hallo! brother!" squeaked he, "I had nearly passed without seeing thee." "You are plain enough to see," bellowed Giles in his bass tones. "Come on my shoulder, brother," squeaked Titan, and held out a shoulder of mutton fist to help him down. "If I do I'll cuff your ears," roared the dwarf. The giant saw the homuncule was irascible, and played upon him, being encouraged thereto by the shouts of laughter.
For he did not see that the people were laughing not at his wit, but at the ridiculous incongruity of the two voices--the gigantic feeble fife, and the petty deep, loud drum, the mountain delivered of a squeak, and the mole-hill belching thunder. The singular duet came to as singular an end.
Giles lost all patience and self-command, and being a creature devoid of fear, and in a rage to boot, he actually dropped upon the giant's neck, seized his hair with one hand, and punched his head with the other.
The giant's first impulse was to laugh, but the weight and rapidity of the blows soon corrected that inclination. "He! he! Ah! ha! hallo! oh! oh! Holy saints! here! help! or I must throttle the imp.
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