OUR REPRESENTATIVE MAN. 265 



distance, but, as we sped along, my eye, unaided, was not 

 arrested by any festive signals, nor did either six bells, or 

 two guns, announce the preparations for dinner. 



By the time I had got my sea legs on, I had to get 'em off 

 again, and walk ashore. I had arrived on the night of 

 R.Y.S. Ball, and a qiceice of amateur tars were awaiting their 

 turn at the hairdresser's, who, on this sultry day, was melting 

 under the heavy work, like his own pomatum before a fire. 



After my sea- voyage, I too wanted renovating with mecha- 

 nical brushing, and the grateful shampoo, without which I 

 foresaw I should not enjoy my dinner. Shampoo first, Cham- 

 pagne afterwards. However, I could not be attended to for 

 at least an hour, so I wandered forth into the town, and 

 paused, in the first place, before a shop-window which re- 

 flected me like a pier-glass. (Nautical jeu de mot. No 

 gentleman staying at the sea-side perfect without a pier- 

 glass. This is the effect of the briny breezes on Your Repre- 

 sentative.) 



I was astonished. My noble Panama, once the pride of a 

 fashionable watering-place in Germany, by constant foldings 

 and frequent battlings with the stormy winds, had got hope- 

 lessly out of shape. Here let me warn my readers against a 

 Panama, except only for domestic wear, where nobody's 

 boking. A Panama, price about four guineas, is generally 

 recommended as " a hat, Sir, that'll last you your lifetime." 

 Quite so : it will, and a precious bore it becomes. Fashions 

 change, but there's your Panama, always the same. No, not 

 always, for having bought it for its " portability" (everything 

 * portable" is, generally speaking, a mistake), you have fre- 



