MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 23 



tor — and compositors arc people who can read almost any thing — 

 would have been puzzled to decypher it. The letters were gilt, 

 riveted on steel, and the wearers of the button-brooches were very 

 soon dubbed by the non-recipients, " Mr. Waffles' sheep." 



A fine button naturally requires a fine coat to put it on, and 

 many were the consultations and propositions as to what it should 

 be. Mr. Slocdolager had done nothing in the decorative depart- 

 ment, and many thought the failure of funds was a good deal 

 attributable to that fact. Mr. Waffles was not the man to lose an 

 opportunity of adding another costume to his wardrobe, and after 

 an infinity of trouble, and trials of almost all the colours of the 

 rainbow, ho at length settled the following uniform, which, at 

 least, had the charm of novelty to recommend it. The morning, 

 or hunt-coat, was to be scarlet, with a cream-coloured collar and 

 cuffs ; and the evening, or dress coat, was to be cream-colour, 

 with a scarlet collar and cuffs, and scarlet silk facings and linings, 

 looking as if the wearer had turned the morning one inside out. 

 Waistcoats, and other articles of dress, were left to the choice of 

 the wearer, experience having proved that they are articles it is 

 impossible to legislate upon with any effect. 



The old ladies, bless their disinterested hearts, alone looked on 

 the hound freak with other than feelings of approbation. 



They thought it a pity ho should take them. They wished he 

 mightn't injure himself — hounds very expensive things — led to 

 habits of irregularity — should he sorry to sec such a nice young 

 man as Mr. Waffles led astray — not that it would make any differ- 

 ence to them, but (looking significantly at their daughters). 



No fox had been hunted by more hounds than Waffles had been 

 by the ladies ; but though he had chatted and prattled with fifty 

 fair maids — any one of whom he might have found difficult to 

 lvsist, if " pinned " single-handed by, in a country house, yet the 

 multiplicity of assailants completely neutralised each other, and 

 \erified the truth of the adage that there is " safety in a crowd." 



If pretty, lisping Miss Wordsworth thought she had shot an 

 arrow home to his heart over night, a fresh smile and dart from 

 little Mary Oglcby's dark eyes extracted it in the morning, and 

 made him think of her till the commanding figure and noble air 

 of the Honourable Miss Letitia Amelia Susannah Jemimah de 

 Jenkins, in all the elegance of first-rate millinery and dressmaker- 

 ship, drove her completely from his mind, to be in turn displaced 

 by some one more bewitching. Mr. Waffles w T as reputed to be 

 made of money, and he went at it as though he thought it utterly 

 impossible to get through it. He was greatly aided in his endea- 

 vours by the fact of its being all in the funds — a great convenience 

 to the spendthrift. It keeps him constantly in cash, and enables 

 him to "cut and come again," as quick as ever he likes. Land 



