MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 159 



of being kept on the fidget all day, lest a fifty-pound horse should 

 be the price of a bodkin or a basket of fish ! 



Amelia's condescension quite turned Jack's head ; and when he 

 went up-stairs to dress, he squinted at his lordship's best clothes, 

 all neatly laid out for him on the bed, with inward satisfaction at 

 having brought them. 



" Dash me ! " said he, " I really think that girl has a fancy for 

 me." Then he examined himself minutely in the glass, brushed 

 his whiskers up into a curve on his cheeks, the curves almost 

 corresponding with the curve of his spectacles above ; then he gave 

 his bristly, porcupine-shaped head a backward rub with a sort of 

 thing like a scrubbing-brush. " If I'd only had the silver specs," 

 thought he, " I should have done." 



He then began to dress ; an operation that ever and anon was 

 interrupted by the outburst of volleys of smoke from the little 

 spluttering, smouldering fire, in the little shabby room Jawleyford 

 insisted on having him put into. 



Jack tried all things — opening the window and shutting the 

 door, shutting the window and opening the door ; but finding 

 that, instead of curing it, he only produced the different degrees 

 of comparison — bad, worse, worst, — he at length shut both, and 

 applied himself vigorously to dressing. He soon got into his stockings 

 and pumps, also his black Saxony trousers ; then came a fine black 

 lace fringed cravat, and the damson-coloured velvet waistcoat with 

 the cut-steel buttons. 



" Dash me, but I look pretty well in this ! " said he, eying first 

 one side and then the other as he buttoned it. He then stuck a 

 chased and figured fine gold brooch, with two pendant tassel- 

 drops, set with turquoise and agates, that he had abstracted from 

 his lordship's dressing-case, into his, or rather his lordship's, finely- 

 worked shirt-front, and crowned the toilet with his lordship's best 

 new blue coat with velvet collar, silk facings, and the Flat Hat Hunt 

 button — " a striding fox," with the letters " F. H. H." below. 



" Who shall say Mr. Spraggon's not a gentleman ? " said he, as 

 he perfumed one of his lordship's fine coronetted cambric handker- 

 chiefs with lavender-water. Scent, in Jack's opinion, was one of 

 the criterions of a gentleman. 



Somehow Jack felt quite differently towards the house of Jaw- 

 leyford ; and though he did not expect much pleasure in Mr. 

 Sponge's company, he thought, nevertheless, that the ladies and 

 he — Amelia and he at least — would get on very well. Forgetting 

 that he had come to eject Sponge on the score of insufficiency, he 

 really bejjan to think he might be a very desirable match for one 

 of theui himself. 



