V 148 ) 



MR. AND MRS. SPARKLER. 



HEN it came to the ears of the good people of 

 Buttercupshire, that Crackleton Court, one of 

 the numerous country seats of that well-known 

 ornament to the peerage, Viscount Stififnecke, which has 

 been shut up for many years, and consequently was a 

 dead loss to the county in the way of festivities of any 

 sort, had at last been let for a term, together with its 

 first-rate shooting and fishing, to a wealthy young gentle- 

 man, of the name of Sparkler, a thrill of joyful expectancy 

 ran through their midst. Fond matrons marked him 

 down at once as an eligible mate for Rosey, or Blanche, 

 or Violet, as the case might be ; whilst fairy visions of 

 balls and garden parties on a large scale disturbed the 

 natural rest of all the young ladies themselves. 



'' He is extremely good looking ; quite young, has only 

 just attained his majority, indeed — and so rich ! " thus 

 spoke Mrs. Gapeseed, the great purveyor of news, and 

 champion gossip of that part of the world, who was 

 making an afternoon call at the Timmins's, clasping her 

 hands ecstatically, as she spoke, and turning up her eyes 

 until you could see nothing but the whites, or, to be 

 strictly accurate, the yellows ; for Mrs. Gapeseed, being 

 what the doctors call rather a '' livery " subject, did not, 

 in consequence, possess that clear skin and bright optic 



