It was no time for shuffling.

He had had enough of that over his trouser-ends.

He must throw himself on the mercy of his critics.
"I quite forgot--of course," said he hurriedly; "I--I--" "Look here," said Wally, hurriedly shoving a pocket-comb into his hands; "you'd better go downstairs again and change it sharp, or you'll be spotted.

Cut along." So Fisher minor began with shame to look once more for his fork, and in doing so crawled well under the table, and sitting down proceeded nervously and painfully to open up a parting on the left side of his head.

It was an arduous task, and not made easier by the unjustifiable conduct of the twins, who having got their man safe under hatches began to kick out in an unceremonious fashion and basely betray his retreat to their friends and neighbours.
"Pass him on!" "Hack it through!" "Ware cats!" was the cry, in the midst of which the luckless Fisher minor, finding a return to his old place effectually barred, and wearying of the ceremony of running a gauntlet of all the legs along the table before it was half over, made a hasty selection of what seemed to him the mildest pair within reach, and clutching at them convulsively, hung on for dear life.
The owner of the limbs in question was Ranger, a prefect of his house and more or less of a grandee at Fellsgarth.