242 THE MASTER OF THE HOUNDS. 



laughter ; <c swipey already ! Why, Bob, slie will be roaring 

 drunk before dinner is over, and under the table." 



" By Jove ! Selina, if you run on in this fashion, I must 

 bolt, as I am nearly choked already in bolting my dinner ; pray 

 be quiet, can't you ? " 



" (Test impossible, Bob ; can't be done. I have set my mind 

 on a regular spree to-night, and suspect my situation before 

 morning will be about the same as Mrs. Featherbottom's — I 

 shall feel clemmed swipey. Eh ! aw ! the Captain looks as if he 

 had swallowed his fork instead of his fish ; what does he say, 

 Bob ? " 



" That you are a deuced deal too bad, Selina, 'pon honour." 



" Oh, indeed ! perhaps the life-guardsman intends changing 

 Miss Winterbottom into Mrs. Markham ; lots of tin, I suppose, 

 with beer and stout gratis." 



At this moment, the old squire, wishing to show every 

 civility to Mrs. Winterbottom, requested the honour of taking 

 wine with her. 



" Why, really, Squire Beauchamp," replied the lady appealed 

 to, "I mus'n't refuse you, I suppose ; but my neigh Dour here, 

 Sir Lucius, has been flushing my glass with champagne, until 

 I am become, as our John says, uncomfortably lushy." 



" Then let me recommend," said the squire (scarcely able to 

 preserve his gravity during the titters which followed this 

 speech), " a glass of good old sherry, which will set all to rights 

 again." 



"I'll take your advice, Squire Beauchamp, as that wishy- 

 washy stuff always makes me feel as if I had the cholica 

 mobus." 



" Mercy on us!" cried Selina; "that summer-topped woman 

 will be the death of me, Bob ; but my lady mamma looks un- 

 utterable things, wondering, no doubt, how the old squire dare 

 ask her to sit at table with such a- person as Mrs. Winter- 

 bottom." 



"Well, Selina, it can't be helped now, and I daresay my 

 old friend feels uncomfortable enough at such vulgarity ; but 

 her better half is passable enough, and the daughter tolerably 

 presentable and good-looking, and a fortune of a hundred 

 thousand pounds (so report goes) will make her a very hand- 

 some girl." 



" Ay, ay, Bob, money is the magnifying glass ; the most 

 plain, disagreeable woman becomes a perfect houri in the eyes 

 of some men, when bedecked with jewels and lacquered very 



