Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 8).pdf/147

 'Tis Virginity, cried Slop, triumphantly, which fills paradise.

Well push'd nun! quoth my father.

father had such a skirmishing, cutting kind of a flashing way with him in his disputations, thrusting and ripping, and giving every one a stroke to remember him by in his turn—that if there were twenty people in company—in less than half an hour he was sure to have every one of 'em against him.

What did not a little contribute to leave him thus without an ally, was, that if there was any one post more untenable than the rest, he would be sure to throw himself into it; and to do him justice, when he was once there, he would defend