" We were a jovial
company: four of us were wondering how they could rob the fifth, and
that fifth resolved, quite early in this seance, to use his
knuckle-duster promptly, and to prevent either of the male warblers from
getting behind him, at any risk. About three o'clock the junior lady
placed herself on my knee, and her husband approvingly described her as
a bloomin' baggage. I did not like the special perfume which my friend
employed for her hair, and I also disliked the evidences which went to
prove that the bath was not her favourite luxury; but we did not fall
out, and, after a spell of sprightly song, we all indulged in a dance of
the most spirited description. Drink was plentiful, and, as I saw I was
being plied very freely, I pretended to be eager for more. This modified
the strategy of my friends, for they were reasonably anxious to secure a
skinful, and they feared lest my powers might prove to be abnormal. Four
watching like wild beasts! One waiting, and calculating chances! The
sullen, grey-eyed old man had taken on the aspect of a ferret; the fat
woman was like that awful wretch who meets the pale girl in Hogarth's
"Marriage a la Mode;" the bastard gipsy smiled in "leary" fashion, as if
he were coming up for the second round of a fight, and knew that he had
it all own way.
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