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By the time the ladies took their departure, Mr. Jawleyford had 

 somewhat recovered from the annoyance of his disappointment ; and 

 as they retired he rang the bell, and desired Spigot to set in the 

 horse-shoe table, and bring a bottle of the "green seal," being the 

 colour affixed on the bottles of a four-dozen hamper of port (" curi- 

 ous old port at 48s.") that had arrived from " Wintle and Co." by 

 rail (goods-train of course) that morning. 



" There! " exclaimed Jawleyford, as Spigot placed the richly-cut 

 decanter on the horse-shoe table. "There/ 11 repeated he, drawing 

 the green curtain as if to shade it from the fire, but in reality to hide 

 the dulness the recent shaking had given it; "that wine" said he, 

 " is a quarter of century in bottle, at the very least." 



" Indeed," observed Sponge ; " time it was drunk." 



" A quarter of a century ! " gaped Robert Foozle. 



" Quarter of a century if it's a day," replied Jawleyford, smack- 

 ing his lips as he set down his glass after imbibing the precious bev- 

 erage. 



" Very fine," observed Sponge ; adding, as he sipped off his glass, 

 " it's odd to find such old wine so full-bodied." 



" Well, now tell us all about your day's proceedings," said Jaw- 

 leyford, thinking it advisable to change the conversation at once. 

 " What sport had you with my lord ? " 



" Oh, why, I really can't tell you much," drawled Sponge, with 

 an air of bewilderment. " Strange country — strange faces — nobody I 

 knew, and " 



" Ah, true," replied Jawleyford, " true. It occurred to me after 

 you were gone, that perhaps you might not know any one. Ours, 

 you see, is rather an out-of-the-way country ; few of our people go 

 to town, or indeed anywhere else ; they are all tarry-at-home birds. 

 But they'd receive you with great politeness, I'm sure — if they knew 

 you came from here, at least," added he. 



Sponge was silent, and took a great gulp of the dull " Wintle," 

 to save himself from answering. 



" Was my Lord Scamperdale out ? " asked Jawleyford, seeing he 

 was not going to get a reply. 



" Why, I can really hardly tell you that," replied Sponge. 

 "There were two men out, either of whom might be him; at 

 least, they both seemed to take the lead, and — and — " he was going 

 to say " blow up the people," but he thought he might as well keep 

 that to himself. 



" Stout, hale-looking men, dressed much alike, with great broad 

 tortoise-shell-rimmed spectacles on?" asked Jawleyford. 



" Just so," replied Sponge. 



" Ah, you are right, then," rejoined Jawleyford ; " it would be 

 my lord." 



" And who was the other ?" inquired our friend. 

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