beside her sat a much more distinguished-looking chap with a long gray beard , a top hat , and tuxedo , who drank and ate nothing , but took notes furiously at her dictations , erasing agitatedly whenever he , with his pencil , had inadvertently recorded one of her frequent belches and nodding his head in acknowledgment whenever the bawdy old hag saw it fit to add emphasis to her phraseology with a precision squeal of flatulence .