116 mr. sponge's sporting tour. 



" Oh ! all in good time," replied Sponge, " all in good time. The 

 sight of you warms me more than a fire would do ; " adding, " I 

 declare you look quite bewitching, after all the roughings and tum- 

 blings about out of doors." 



" Oh ! you've not had a fall, have you ? " exclaimed Amelia, look- 

 ing the picture of despair ; " you've not had a fall, have you ? Do 

 send for the doctor, and be bled." 



Just then a door along the passage to the left opened ; and 

 Amelia knowing pretty well who it was, smiled and tripped away, 

 leaving Sponge to be bled or not as he thought proper. 



Our hero then made for his bed-room, where, having sucked off his 

 adhesive boots, and divested himself of the rest of his hunting attire, 

 he wrapped himself up in his grey flannel dressing-gown, and prepared 

 for parboiling his legs and feet, amid agreeable anticipations arising 

 out of the recent interview, and occasional references to his old friend 

 " Mogg," whenever he did not see his way on the matrimonial road 

 as clearly as he could wish. " She'll have me, that's certain," 

 observed he. 



" Curse the water ! how hot it is ! " exclaimed he, catching his 

 foot up out of the bath, into which he had incautiously plunged it 

 without ascertaining the temperature of the water. He then sluiced 

 it with cold, and next had to add a little more hot ; at last he got it 

 to his mind, and lighting a cigar, prepared for uninterrupted enjoy- 

 ment. 



" Gad ! " said he, " she's by no means a bad looking girl " (whiff). 

 " Devilish good-loooking 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 setup" (whiff, 

 puff, whiff); "straight as a dairy maid" (puff); "plenty of sub- 

 stance — grand thing substance " (puff). " Hate a weedy woman — fif- 

 teen 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 hunt- 

 ing " (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 



