THE BLOOMSBURY CHRISTENING. 385 



point of losing : everbody laughed tremendously. Dumps retorted 

 with a better joke, and nobody smiled, with the exception of the 

 host, who seemed to consider it his duty to laugh, till he was black 

 in the face, at everything. There was only one drawback the mu- 

 sicians did not play with quite as much spirit as could have been 

 wished. The cause, however, was satisfactorily explained ; for it 

 appeared, on the testimony of a gentleman who had come up from 

 Gravesend in the afternoon,, that they had been engaged on board a 

 steamer all day, and had played almost without cessation all the way 

 to Gravesend, and all the way back again. 



The " sit-down supper" was excellent; there were four barley- 

 sugar temples on the table, which would have looked beautiful if they 

 had not melted away when the supper began ; and a water-mill, 

 whose only fault was, that instead of going round, it ran over the 

 table-cloth. Then there were fowls, and tongue, and trifle, and 

 sweets, and lobster salad, and potted beef and everything. And 

 little Kitterbell kept calling out for clean plates, and the clean plates 

 didn't come; and then the gentlemen who wanted the plates said 

 they didn't mind, they'd take a lady's ; and then Mrs. Kitterbell ap- 

 plauded their gallantry ; and the green-grocer ran about till he 

 thought his 7*- 6W. was very hardly earned ; and the young ladies 

 didn't eat much for fear it shouldn't look romantic, and the married 

 ladies eat as much as possible for fear they shouldn't have enough ; 

 and a great deal of wine was drank, and everybody talked and laughed 

 considerably. 



"Hush! hush!" said Mr. Kitterbell, rising and looking very im- 

 portant. " My love (this was addressed to his wife at the other end 

 of the table), take Care of Mrs. Maxwell, and your mama, and the 

 rest of the married ladies ; the gentlemen will persuade the young 

 ladies to fill their glasses, I am sure/' 



" Ladies and gentlemen," said long Dumps, in a very sepulchral 

 voice and rueful accent, rising from his chair like the ghost in Don 

 Juan, f( will you have the kindness to charge your glasses ? I am de- 

 sirous of proposing a toast." 



A dead silence ensued, and the glasses were filled everybody 

 .looked serious " from gay to grave, from lively to severe." 



tc Ladies and gentlemen," slowly continued the ominous Dumps, 

 " I " (Here Mr. Danton imitated two notes from the French-horn, 

 in a very loud key, which electrified the nervous toast-proposer, and 

 convulsed his audience). 



"Order! order!" said little Kitterbell, endeavouring to suppress 

 his laughter. 



" Order ! " said the gentlemen. 



" Danton, be quiet," said a particular friend on the opposite side of 

 the table. 



" Ladies and gentlemen," resumed Dumps, somewhat recovered, 

 and not much disconcerted, for he was always a pretty good hand at 

 a speech " In accordance with what is, I believe, the established 

 usage on these occasions, I, as one of the godfathers of Master Frede- 

 rick Charles William Kitterbell (here the speaker's voice faltered, 

 for he remembered the mug) venture to rise to propose a toast. I 



M.M. No. 100. 3 D 



