mr. sponge's SPORTING TOUR. 35 



many thought the failure of funds was a good deal attributable to 

 that fact. Mr. Waffles was not the man to lose an opportunity of 

 adding another costume to his wardrobe, and after an infinity of 

 trouble, and trials of almost all the colours of the rainbow, he at 

 length settled the following uniform, which, at least, had the charm 

 of novelty to recommend it. The morning, or hunt coat, was to be 

 scarlet, with a cream-coloured collar and cuffs; and the evening, or 

 dress coat, was to be cream-coloured, with a scarlet collar and cuffs, 

 and scarlet silk facings and linings, looking as if the wearer had 

 turned the morning one inside out. Waistcoats, and other articles 

 of dress, were left to the choice of the wearer, experience having 

 proved that they are articles it is impossible to legislate upon with 

 any effect. 



The old ladies, bless their disinterested hearts, alone looked on 

 the hound freak with other than feelings of approbation. 



They thought it a pity he should take them. They wished he 

 mightn't injure himself — hounds were expensive things — led to hab- 

 its of irregularity — should be sorry to see such a nice young man as 

 Mr. Waffles led astray — not that it would make any difference to 

 them, but — (looking significantly at their daughters). No fox had 

 been hunted by more hounds than Waffles had been by the ladies ; but 

 though he had chatted and prattled with fifty fair maids — any one 

 of whom he might have found difficult to resist, if " pinned " single- 

 handed by, in a country house, yet the multiplicity of assailants com- 

 pletely neutralized each other, and verified the truth of the adage 

 that there is " safety in a crowd." 



If pretty, lisping, Miss Wordsworth thought she had shot an 

 arrow home to his heart over night, a fresh smile and dart from lit- 

 tle Mary Ogleby's dark eyes extracted it in the morning, and made 

 him think of her till the commanding figure and noble air of the 

 Honourable Miss Letitia Amelia Susannah Jemima de Jenkins, in all 

 the elegance of first-rate millinery and dressmakership, drove her 

 completely from his mind, to be in turn displaced by some one more 

 bewitching. Mr. Waffles was reputed to be made of money, and he 

 went at it as though he thought it utterly impossible to get through 

 it. He wa3 greatly aided in his endeavours by the fact of its being 

 all in the funds — a great convenience to the spendthrift. It keeps 

 him constantly in cash, and enables him to " cut and come again," as 

 quick as ever he likes. Land is not half so accommodating ; neither is 

 money on mortgage. What with time spent in investigating a title, 

 or giving notice to " pay in," an industrious man wants a second loan 

 by the time, or perhaps before he gets the first. Acres are not easy 

 of conversion, and the mere fact of wanting to sell implies a defi- 

 ciency somewhere. With money in the funds, a man has nothing to 

 do but lodge a power of attorney with his broker, and write up for 

 four or five thousand pounds, just as he would write to his bootmaker 



