Richard could only repeat his thanks for the good clergyman's kindness. "You know nobody here, I suppose," observed the latter, "and, with a few exceptions, which I will name to you, that is not of much consequence. It is a shifting lot: they are here to-day and gone to-morrow, as says the Scripture, and I wish they were all going to-morrow except Byam Ryll. That's old Byam yonder, with the paunch and his hands behind him; he has nowhere else to put them, poor fellow." And here Parson Whymper launched into biography as aforesaid. The clock on the chimney-piece, on which the two were leaning, broke in upon the divine's scarcely less dulcet accents with its silver quarter. "This is the first time," said Whymper, "that I have ever known your father late; and to you belongs the honor of having caused him to transgress his own immutable rule." While he was yet speaking a hunting-horn was blown in the hall beneath, and the whole company turned _en masse_, like a field of poppies before a sudden wind, to the door where Carew was standing. CHAPTER VI. THE FEAST OF LAPITHAE The host himself led the way down stairs; while the rear of the party was brought up by Mr. Whymper, to whom Yorke attached himself. When they reached the dining-room, and before they took their seats at the ample table, the chaplain, with sonorous voice, gave a view holloa! which was the Crompton grace. "It is very distressing to me to have to act in this way," whispered he to his young friend, whose countenance betrayed considerable astonishment; but it is the custom of the house; and, after all, there is no great harm in it. _De minimis non curat lex_, you know." "That does not hold good with respect to the law of affiliation, parson," observed Mr. Byam Ryll, who sat on the other side of him, "if, at least, I have not forgotten my _Burns_." "I always understood that Burns had very loose views upon such matters," returned the chaplain, demurely. "My dear parson, your remark is like that excellent condiment which I wish I could see at this otherwise well-provided table--caviare to the multitude. Why is it not furnished? You have only to say the word." Here he addressed himself to Yorke: "This worthy divine who sits at the bottom of the table, young gentleman, and who has neglected his duty in not having introduced us, is all-powerful here; and we all endeavor to make friends of him; nor is that circumstance, it is whispered, the only respect in which he resembles the mammon of unrighteousness." A shadow of annoyance crossed the parson's smiling face. "Mr. Richard Yorke," said he, "this is Mr. Byam Ryll, our unlicensed jester."