their inoffensive

09:35 Dec 6, 2012 

I agree there is nothing missing. My guess is that "let" may have also had (in the19th century) the meaning "given"/ "if we accept as true", as well as the more familiar "let + verb base" (allow, permit) as we have just before the element you query. However, I have found nothing convincing to back this up.

09:17 Dec 6, 2012 

Another way of clarifying it:

"and straightway their inoffensive air towards him, not to say their deprecatory and humble air towards him, as he sits at the head of the table is marvellous, sometimes most comical."

07:48 Dec 6, 2012 

Michael, perhaps your comprehension is being confused by your parsing of the phrase; you need to read it as 'their ... air', with 'air being qualified by the whole expression 'inoffensive, not to say deprecatory and humble'

There is no active verb in this phrase, which may make it sound odd to you; but it is acceptable, since in effect the whole phrase is summed up by the 'this' that follows it; it might help you to understand the sentence better if you simply delete the ; and this, so it then reads:

"and straightway their inoffensive, not to say deprecatory and humble air towards him, as he sits at the head of the table is marvellous, sometimes most comical."

This does change the tenor slightly, but should at least help you to sort it out.

07:45 Dec 6, 2012 

I can't agree about that verb; the first instance is 'bear themselves', and even as a figure of style, I don't think we can use (imply) the same verb used next with 'air'.

However, to help Asker understand, one might insert another verb like 'we see...' — but it is not strictly necessary for it to make sense.

02:50 Dec 6, 2012 

is "Bear" it applies to both attitudes shown by the officers
Is not strange for the officers to
1) bear themselves [...] towards their commander
2) and straightway (bear) their inoffensive [...] towards him
This is the way I read it