He consulted in a whisper with Mr.Nicholas, his clerk--pshawed, hemmed, and elevated his eyebrows, as if in scorn of my supplication.

At length, having apparently made up his mind, he leaned back in his chair, and smoked his pipe with great energy, with a look of defiance, designed to make me aware that all my reasoning was lost on him.
At length, when I stopped, more from lack of breath than want of argument, he opened his oracular jaws, and made the following reply, interrupted by his usual interjectional ejaculations, and by long volumes of smoke:--'Hem--aye--eh--poof.

And, youngster, do you think Matthew Foxley, who has been one of the quorum for these twenty years, is to be come over with such trash as would hardly cheat an apple-woman?
Poof--poof--eh! Why, man--eh--dost thou not know the charge is not a bailable matter--and that--hum--aye--the greatest man--poof--the Baron of Graystock himself, must stand committed?
and yet you pretend to have been kidnapped by this gentleman, and robbed of property, and what not; and--eh--poof--you would persuade me all you want is to get away from him?
I do believe--eh--that it IS all you want.

Therefore, as you are a sort of a slip-string gentleman, and--aye--hum--a kind of idle apprentice, and something cock-brained withal, as the honest folks of the house tell me--why, you must e'en remain under custody of your guardian, till your coming of age, or my Lord Chancellor's warrant, shall give you the management of your own affairs, which, if you can gather your brains again, you will even then not be--aye--hem--poof--in particular haste to assume.' The time occupied by his worship's hums, and haws, and puffs of tobacco smoke, together with the slow and pompous manner in which he spoke, gave me a minute's space to collect my ideas, dispersed as they were by the extraordinary purport of this annunciation.
'I cannot conceive, sir,' I replied, 'by what singular tenure this person claims my obedience as a guardian; it is a barefaced imposture.

I never in my life saw him, until I came unhappily to this country, about four weeks since.' 'Aye, sir--we--eh--know, and are aware--that--poof--you do not like to hear some folk's names; and that--eh--you understand me--there are things, and sounds, and matters, conversation about names, and suchlike, which put you off the hooks--which I have no humour to witness.
Nevertheless, Mr.Darsie--or--poof--Mr.Darsie Latimer--or--poof, poof--eh--aye, Mr.Darsie without the Latimer--you have acknowledged as much to-day as assures me you will best be disposed of under the honourable care of my friend here--all your confessions--besides that, poof--eh--I know him to be a most responsible person--a--hay--aye--most responsible and honourable person--Can you deny this ?' 'I know nothing of him,' I repeated; 'not even his name; and I have not, as I told you, seen him in the course of my whole life, till a few weeks since.' 'Will you swear to that ?' said the singular man, who seemed to await the result of this debate, secure as a rattle-snake is of the prey which has once felt its fascination.