30 MR. SPONGE'S SPOUTING TOUR. 



had been able to put hup with him so long." The duchess was a 

 "good cretur," he said, and, indeed, it was maiuly on her account 

 that he stayed, but as to the duke, he was — every thing that was 

 bad, in short. 



Mr. Sponge, on the other hand, had no reason to complain of 

 the colours in which his stud-groom painted him. Instead of 

 being the shirtless strapper of a couple of vicious hack hunters, 

 Leather made himself out to be the general superintendent of the 

 opulent owner of a large stud. The exact number varied with the 

 number of glasses of grog Leather had taken, but he never had 

 less than a dozen, and sometimes as many as twenty hunters under 

 his care. These, he said, were planted all over the kingdom ; some 

 at Melton, to " 'unt with the Quorn ; " some at Northampton, to 

 " 'unt with the Pytchley ; " some at Lincoln, to " 'unt with Lord 

 'Enry ; " and some at Louth, to " 'unt with " — he didn't know 

 who. What a fine flattering, well-spoken world this is, when the 

 speaker can raise his own consequence by our elevation ! One 

 would think that " envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitable- 

 ness," had gone to California. A weak-minded man might have 

 his head turned by hearing the description given of him by his 

 friends. But hear the same party on the running-down tack ! — 

 when either his own importance is not involved, or dire offence 

 makes it worth his while " to cut off his nose to spite his face." 

 No one would recognise the portrait then drawn as one of the 

 same individual. 



Mr. Leather, as we said before, was in the laudatory strain, but, 

 like many indiscreet people, he overdid it. Not content with 

 magnifying the stud to the liberal extent already described, he 

 must needs puff his master's riding, and indulge in insinuations 

 about " showing them all the way," and so on. Now nothing 

 " aggrawates " other grooms so much as this sort of threat, and 

 few things travel quicker than these sort of vapourings to their 

 masters' ears. Indeed, we can only excuse the lengths to which 

 Leather went, on the ground of his previous coaching career not 

 having afforded him a due insight into the delicacies of the 

 hunting stable ; it being remembered that he was only now acting 

 as stud-groom for the first time. However, be that as it may, he 

 brewed up a pretty storm, and the longer it raged the stronger it 

 became. 



" Ord dash it ! " exclaimed young Spareneck, the steeple-chase 

 rider, bursting into Scorer's billiard-room in the midst of a full 

 gathering, who were looking on at a grand game of poule, " Ord 

 dash it ! there's a fellow coming who swears by Jove that he'll 

 take the shine out of us all, ' cut us all down ! ' " 



" I'll play him for what he likes ! " exclaimed the cool, coatless 

 Captain Macer, striking his ball away for a cannon. 



