Page:Crotchet Castle - Peacock (1831).djvu/218

 feelings, though they deserve not the name of passions; and some of us may pluck up spirit to try to carry a point, when we reflect that we have to contend with men no better than ourselves.

We do not now break lances for ladies.

No, nor even bulrushes. We jingle purses for them, flourish paper-money banners, and tilt with scrolls of parchment.

In which sort of tilting I have been thrown from the saddle. I presume it was not love that led you from the flotilla.

By no means. I was tempted by the sight of an old tower, not to leave this land of ruined castles, without having collected a