Singing and the clang of glasses was resounding from the next room, together with peals of coarse laughter, and from that on the other side, the high tones and hard swearing, and the emphatic slapping of a heavy hand upon the table, indicating a rising quarrel, were heard.

From one door through another, across the narrow floor on which Mr.Dangerfield stood, every now and then lounged some neglected, dirty, dissipated looking inmate of these unwholesome precincts.

In fact, Surgeon Dillon's present residence was in that diversorium pecatorum, the Four Courts Marshalsea in Molesworth-court.
As these gentlemen shuffled or swaggered through, they generally nodded, winked, grunted, or otherwise saluted the medical gentleman, and stared at his visitor.

For as the writer of the Harleian tract--I forget its name--pleasantly observes:--'In gaol they are no proud men, but will be quickly acquainted without ceremony.' Mr.Dangerfield stood erect; all his appointments were natty, and his dress, though quiet, rich in material, and there was that air of reserve, and decision, and command about him, which suggests money, an article held much in esteem in that retreat.

He had a way of seeing every thing in a moment without either staring or stealing glances, and nobody suspected him of making a scrutiny.