MB. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 83 



" What time do you dine ? " asked Mr. Sponge, rubbing hia 

 hands as he spoke. 



" Six o'clock," replied Mr. Jawleyford, " six o'clock — say six 

 o'clock — not particular to a moment — days are short, you see — 

 days are short." 



" I think I should like a glass of sherry and a biscuit, then," 

 observed Mr. Sponge. 



And forthwith the bell was rung, and in due course of time Mr. 

 Spigot arrived with a tray, followed by the Miss Jawleyfords, who 

 had rather expected Mr. Sponge to be shown into the drawing- 

 room to them, where they had composed themselves very prettily ; 

 one working a parrot in chenille, the other with a lapful of 

 crochet. 



The Miss Jawleyfords — Amelia and Emily — were lively girls ; 

 hardly beauties — at least not sufficiently so to attract attention in 

 a crowd ; but still, girls well calculated to "bring a man to book," 

 in the country. Mr. Thackeray, who bound up all the home 

 truths in circulation, and many that exist only in the inner 

 chambers of the heart, calling the whole " Vanity Fair," says, we 

 think (though we don't exactly know where to lay hand on the 

 passage), that it is not your real striking beauties who are the most 

 dangerous — at all events, that do the most execution — but sly, 

 quiet sort of girls, who do not strike the beholder at first sight, 

 but steal insensibly upon him as he gets acquainted. The Miss 

 Jawleyfords were of this order. Seen in plain morning gowns, a 

 man would meet them in the street, without either turning round 

 or making an observation, good, bad, or indifferent ; but in the 

 close quarters of a country house, with all the able assistance of 

 first-rate London dresses, well flounced and set out, each bent on 

 doing the agreeable, they became dangerous. The Miss Jawley- 

 fords were uncommonly well got up, and Juliana, their mutual 

 maid, deserved great credit for the impartiality she displayed in 

 arraying them. There wasn't a halfpenny's worth of choice as to 

 which was the best. This was the more creditable to the maid, 

 inasmuch as the dresses — sea-green glaces — were rather dashed ; 

 and the worse they looked, the likelier they would be to become 

 her property. Half-dashed dresses, however, that would look 

 rather seedy by contrast, come out very fresh in the country, espe- 

 cially in winter, when day begins to close in at four. And here 

 we may observe, what a dreary time is that which intervenes 

 between the arrival of a guest and the dinner hour, in the dead 

 winter months in the country. The English are a desperate 

 people for overweighting their conversational powers. They have 

 no idea of penning up their small talk, and bringing it to bear in 

 generous flow upon one particular hour ; but they keep dribbling 

 it out throughout the live-long day, wearying their listeners with- 



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