98 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



" A shitting," replied Sponge, adding, " you may have mine for 

 a guinea if you like." 



" By Jove, what a day it is ! " observed Jawleyford, turning the 

 conversation, as the wind dashed the hard sleet against the 

 window like a shower of pebbles. " Lucky to have a good house 

 over one's head, such weather ; and, by the way, that reminds me, 

 I'll show you my new gallery and collection of curiosities — 

 pictures, busts, marbles, antiques, and so on ; there'll be fires on, and 

 we shall be just as well there as here." So saying, Jawleyford led 

 the way through a dark, intricate, shabby passage, to where a 

 much gilded white door, with a handsome crimson curtain over it 

 announced the entrance to something better. " Now," said Mr. 

 Jawleyford, bowing as he threw open the door, and motioned, or 

 rather flourished, his guest to enter — " now," said he, " you shall 

 see what you shall see." 



Mr. Sponge entered accordingly, and found himself at the end 

 of a gallery fifty feet by twenty, and fourteen high, lighted by 

 skylights and small windows round the top. There were fires in 

 handsome Caen-stone chimney-pieced fireplaces on either side, a 

 large timepiece and an organ at the far end, and sundry white 

 basius scattered about, catching the drops from the skylights. 



" Hang the rain ! " exclaimed Jawleyford, as he saw it trickling 

 over a river scene of Van Goyen's (gentlemen in a yacht, and 

 figures in boats), and drip, drip, dripping on to the head of an 

 infant Bacchus below. 



"He wants an umbrella, that young gentleman," observed 

 Sponge, as Jawleyford proceeded to dry him with his handker- 

 chief. 



" Fine thing," observed Jawleyford, starting off to a side, and 

 pointing to it ; " fine thing — Italian marble — by Frere — cost a 

 vast of money — was offered three hundred for it. Are you a judge 

 of these things ? " asked Jawleyford ; "are you a judge of these 

 things ? " 



"A little," replied Sponge, "a little;" thinking he might as 

 well see what his intended father-in-law's personal property was 

 like. 



" There's a beautiful thing ! " observed Jawleyford, pointing to 

 another group. " I picked that up for a mere nothing — twenty 

 guineas — worth two hundred at least. Lipsalve, the great picture- 

 dealer in Gammon Passage, offered me Murillo's 'Adoration of the 

 Virgin and Shepherds,' for which he shewed me a receipt for a 

 hundred and eighty-five, for it." 



" Indeed ! " replied Sponge, " what is it ? " 



" It's a Bacchanal group, after Ponssin, sculptured by Marin. 1 

 bought it at Lord Breakdown's sale ; it happened to be a wet 

 day — much such a day as this — and things went for nothing. 



