—AND pray, said my uncle _Toby_, leaning upon _Yorick_, as he and my
father were helping him leisurely down the stairs——don’t be terrified,
madam, this stair-case conversation is not so long as the last——And
pray, _Yorick_, said my uncle _Toby_, which way is this said affair of
_Tristram_ at length settled by these learned men? Very satisfactorily,
replied _Yorick;_ no mortal, Sir, has any concern with it——for Mrs.
_Shandy_ the mother is nothing at all a-kin to him——and as the mother’s
is the surest side——Mr. _Shandy_, in course is still less than
nothing——In short, he is not as much a-kin to him, Sir, as I am.——
——That may well be, said my father, shaking his head.
——Let the learned say what they will, there must certainly, quoth my
uncle _Toby_, have been some sort of consanguinity betwixt the duchess
of _Suffolk_ and her son.
The vulgar are of the same opinion, quoth _Yorick_, to this hour.