The things we do!

Him the first mate succeeded; after which came a song from the redoubted
F. Bayham, which he sang with a bass voice which Lablache might envy, and
of which the chorus was frantically sung by the whole company. The cry
was then for the Colonel; on which Barnes Newcome, who had been drinking
much, started up with something like an oath, crying, "Oh, I can't stand
this."
"Then leave it, confound you!" said young Clive, with fury in his face.
"If our company is not good for you, why do you come into it?"
"What's that?" asks Barnes, who was evidently affected by wine. Bayham
roared "Silence!" and Barnes Newcome, looking round with a tipsy toss of
the head, finally sate down.
The Colonel sang, as we have said, with a very high voice, using freely
the falsetto, after the manner of the tenor singers of his day. He chose
one of his maritime songs, and got through the first verse very well,
Barnes wagging his head at the chorus, with a "Bravo!" so offensive that
Fred Bayham, his neighbour, gripped the young man's arm, and told him to
hold his confounded tongue.


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