THE J.IFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



■ What a spoon you must be,' continued Frank, to his elder 

 brother, ' to dance with those two ugly sisters, and that Miss 

 Johnson, who is old enough to have been your mother, when 

 there were so many pretty women in the room. For my own 

 part, I think dancing, unless with a pretty woman for a partner, 

 one of the greatest of all bores. In fact, pretty women and 

 good suppers are, with me, the only inducement to go to balls.' 



* Some of your Christchurch notions,' said Lady Charlotte, 

 ' or else those of your friend Sir John. But I know no one 

 fonder of a ball than he is, and you always see him dancing 

 away as if ' 



' Yes,' resumed our hero ; ' but always with a pretty woman. 

 I have heard him say, he dislikes an ugly woman in a ball-room 

 as much as he would an ugly leader in his coach. He swears 

 he never yet saw one who had any action that was not good 

 looking, either in one place or in the other.' 



' Ah,' resumed Lady Charlotte ; ' Sir John's tongue runs 

 fast, as, Dr. Johnson says, the race-horse does when he carries 

 a light weight ; but are you (|uite sure, Francis, he would not 

 marry that little ugly heiress, whose fine estate joins his own ? ' 



' No,' answered Frank, ' not if he was sure that, witliout her 

 and her estate, he could never sit behind the bars, or his own 

 coach, again.' 



' There you go again, Frank,' observed Lady Charlotte 

 laughingly, ' to the stable, as usual, for your allusions.' 



' And did not you go thither, also my dear mother, for your 

 simile — at all events, to the race-horse ? ' rejoined her son. 



' I believe I did,' replied his mother ; ' but I do not wonder 

 at my having done so ; for when you are at home, and 

 especially when Sir John is at the Abbey, I hear of nothing 

 else but horses, hounds, and coach-boxes, leaders, wheelers, 

 and so forth. Still, I like Sir John, with all his foibles, but 

 shall tell him, the next time I see him, not to be introducing 

 you to pretty married women.' 



Frank said nothing in answer to this remark, turning oft* the 

 conversation to his sister, whom he asked, in a jocular mood, 

 whether either of her partners had made a tender impression 

 upon her heart, insinuating, at the same time, that that of 

 their brother Andrew must necessarily have escaped unscathed 

 in the assault, from the very ineffective strength of the batteries. 



It has been often asserted that, amongst the infirmities of 



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