MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. U7 



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 unexceptionable 

 young men for his daughters ; or if he was a worldly-minded man, 

 like some he had met, who, after giving him every possible encour- 

 agement, 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 pok- 

 ing a match into the fire, lighted the candles on the toilet-table, and 

 proceeded to adorn himself. Having again got himself into the kill- 

 ing 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 dress- 

 ing-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 himself to London, now fancying himself stand- 

 ing at the end of Burlington Arcade, hailing a Fulham or Turnham 

 Green 'bus ; now wrangling with a conductor for chargirjg him six- 

 pence when there was a pennant flapping at his nose with the words 

 "All the way 3d." upon it; now folding the wooden doors of a 

 Hansom cab in Oxford-street, calculating the extreme distance he 

 could go for an eightpenny fare : until at last he fell into a downright 

 vacant sort of reading, without rhyme or reason, just as one some- 

 times takes a read of "a directory or a dictionary — " Conduit-street, 

 George-street, to or from the Adelphi terrace, Astley's Amphithea- 

 tre, Baker-street, King-street, Bryanston-square any part, Covent 

 Gairden Theatre, Foundling Hospital, Hatton Garden," and so on, 

 till the thunder of the gong aroused him to a recollection of his 

 duties. He then up and at his neckcloth. 



" Ah, well," said he, reverting to his ladylove, as he eyed himself 

 intently in the glass while performing the critical operation, " I'll 

 just sound the old gentleman after dinner — one can do that sort of 

 thing better over one's wine, perhaps, than at any other time : looks 

 less formal, too," added he, giving the cravat a knowing crease at the 

 side ; " and if it doesn't seem to take, one can just pass it off as if it 

 was done for somebody else — some young gentleman at Laverick 

 Wells, for instance." 



So saying, he on with his white waistcoat, and crowned the con- 

 quering suit with a blue coat and metal buttons. Returning his 

 " Mogg " to his dressing-gown pocket, he blew out the candles, and 

 groped his way down-stairs in the dark. 



