The backtick acts like the double-quote operator.

Observe how Lord Somers […] comported himself.

When this is over, there seems no reason why a metric inch of twenty-five millimetres should not serve as well as our inch, a quarter-metre of ten metric inches as well as our foot, and a metric ounce of twenty-five grammes as well as our ounce.

He hath made me also a byword of the people […]