230 MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



when she got to her room was to rim to the glass to see how she 

 had been looking ; when, grievous to relate, she found an angry 

 hot spot in the act of breaking out on her nose. 



What a distressing situation for a young lady, especially one 

 with a spectacled suitor. " Oh, dear ! " she thought, as she eyed 

 it in the glass, " it will look like Vesuvius itself through his 

 formidable inquisitors." Worst of all, it was on the side she 

 would have next him at dinner, should he choose to sit with his 

 back to the fire. However, there was no help for it, and the maid 

 kindly assuring her, as she worked away at her hair, that it 

 " would never be seen," she ceased to watch it, and turned her 

 attention to her toilette. The fine, new broad-lace flounced, light 

 blue satin dress — a dress so much like a ball-dress as to be only 

 appreciable as a dinner one by female eyes — was again in requisi- 

 tion ; while her fine arms were encircled with chains and armlets 

 of various brilliance and devices. Thus attired, with a parting 

 inspection of the spot, she swept down stairs, with as smart a 

 bouquet as the season would afford. As luck would have it, she 

 encountered his lordship himself wandering about the passage in 

 search of the drawing-room, of whose door he had not made a 

 sufficient observation on leaving. He, too, was uncommonly 

 smart, with the identical dress-coat Mr. Spraggon wore, a white 

 waistcoat with turquoise buttons, a lace-frilled shirt, and a most 

 extensive once-round Joinville. He had been eminently successful 

 in accomplishing a tie that would almost rival the sticks farmers 

 put upon truant geese to prevent their getting through gaps or 

 under gates. 



Well, Miss Amelia having come to his lordship's assistance, and 



eased him of his candle, now showed him into the drawing-room ; 



and his hands being disengaged, like a true Englishman, he must 



be doing, and accordingly he commenced an attack on her 



bouquet. 



" That's a fine nosegay ! " exclaimed he, staring and running 



his snub nose into the midst of it. 



" Let me give you a piece," replied Amelia, proceeding to detach 



some of the best. 



" Do," replied his lordship, banging one hand against the other; 



adding, " I'll wear it next my heart of hearts." 



In sidled Miss Emily just as his lordship was adjusting it in 



his buttonhole, and the inconstant man immediately chopped over 



to her. 



" Well, now, that is a beautiful nosegay ! " exclaimed he, 



turning upon her in precisely the same way, with a bang of the 



hand and a dive of his nose into Emily's. 



She did not offer him any, and his lordship continued his atten- 

 tion to her until Mrs. Jawleyford entered. 



