MR. SPONGE'S SPOUTING TOUR. 113 



(whiff). " Devilish good-looking girl" (puff) ; " good head and neck, 

 and carries it well too " (puff)—" capital eye " (whiff), " bright and 

 clear " (puff) ; " no cataracts there. She's all good together " 

 (whiff, puff, whiff). " Nice size too," continued he, " and well set 

 up " (whiff, puff, whiff) ; " straight as a dairy maid " (puff) ; 

 " plenty of substance — grand thing substance " (puff). " Hate a 

 weedy woman — fifteen two and a half — that's to say, five feet four's 

 plenty of height for a woman " (puff). " Height of a woman has 

 nothing to do with her size " (whiff). " Wish she hadn't run off" 

 (puff) ; " would like to have had a little more talk with her " 

 (whiff, puff). " Women never look so well as when one comes in 

 wet and dirty from hunting " (puff). He then sank silently back 

 in the easy chair and whiffed and puffed all sorts of fantastic 

 clouds and columns and corkscrews at his leisure. The cigar being 

 finished, and the water in the foot-bath beginning to get cool, he 

 emptied the remainder of the hot into it, and lighting a fresh cigar, 

 began speculating on how the match was to be accomplished. 



The lady was safe, that was clear ; he had nothing to do but 

 " pop." That he would do in the evening, or in the morning, or 

 any time — a man living in the house with a girl need never be in 

 want of an opportunity. That preliminary over, and the usual 

 answer " Ask papa " obtained, then came the question , how was 

 the old boy to be managed ? — for men with marriageable daughters 

 are to all intents and purposes " old boys ; " be their ages what 

 they may. 



He became lost in reflection. He sat with his eyes fixed on the 

 Jawleyford portrait above the mantelpiece, wondering whether he 

 was the amiable, liberal, hearty, disinterested sort of man, he 

 appeared to be, indifferent about money, and only wanting un- 

 exceptionable young men for his daughters ; or if he was a worldly- 

 minded man, like some he had met, who, after giving him every 

 possible encouragement, sent him to the right about like a servant. 

 So Sponge smoked and thought, and thought and smoked, till, the 

 water in the foot-bath again getting cold, and the shades of night 

 drawing on, he at last started up like a man determined to awake 

 himself, and poking a match into the fire, lighted the candles on the 

 toilet-table, and proceeded to adorn himself. Having again got 

 himself into the killing tights and buckled pumps, with a fine 

 flower-fronted shirt, ere he embarked on the delicacies and 

 difficulties of the starcher, he stirred the little pittance of a fire, 

 and folding himself in his dressing-gown, endeavoured to prepare 

 his mind for the calm consideration of all the minute bearings of 

 the question by a little more Mogg. In idea he transferred him- 

 self to London, now fancying himself standing at the end of 

 Burlington Arcade, hailing a Fulham or Turnham Green 'bus ; 

 now wrangling with a conductor for charging him sixpence when 



