Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 2).pdf/103

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[97]

Honour, replied the Corporal, making a bow, and bespeaking attention with a slight movement of his right-hand.

CHAP. XVII.

—But before the Corporal begins, I must first give you a description of his attitude;—otherwise he will naturally stand represented, by your imagination, in an uneasy posture,—stiff,—perpendicular,—dividing the weight of his body equally upon both legs;—his eye fix'd, as if on duty;—his look determined,—clinching the sermon in his left-hand, like his firelock:—In a word, you would be apt to paint Trim, as if he was standing in his platoon ready for action:—His attitude was as unlike all this as you can conceive.

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