Indeed, the latter has taken complete command at the tap-room of the
tavern, not so much because he has convinced, as because he has
out-talked all the old-established oracles. The apothecary, with all
his philosophy, was as nought before him. He has convinced and
converted the landlord at least a dozen times; who, however, is liable
to be convinced and converted the other way, by the next person with
whom he talks. It is true the radical has a violent antagonist in the
landlady, who is vehemently loyal, and thoroughly devoted to the king,
Master Simon, and the Squire. She now and then comes out upon the
reformer with all the fierceness of a cat-o'-mountain, and does not
spare her own soft-headed husband, for listening to what she terms
such "low-lived politics." What makes the good woman the more violent,
is the perfect coolness with which the radical listens to her attacks,
drawing his face up into a provoking supercilious smile; and when she
has talked herself out of breath, quietly asking her for a taste of
her home-brewed.
The only person that is in any way a match for this redoubtable
politician, is Ready-Money Jack Tibbets, who maintains his stand in
the tap-room, in defiance of the radical and all his works.
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