Down the middle was a long table, with benches beside it, and a round-backed chair at each end; other seats were ranged along the walls.

At the upper end of the room an arrangement of dirty red hangings--in the form of a canopy, surmounted by a lion and unicorn, of pasteboard--showed that festive meetings were regularly held here.

Round about were pictures of hunting incidents, of racehorses, of politicians and pugilists, interspersed with advertisements of beverages.

A piano occupied one corner.
The chairman was already in his place; on the table before him was a soup-plate, into which each visitor threw a contribution on arriving.
Seated on the benches were a number of men, women, and girls, all with pewters or glasses before them, and the air was thickening with smoke of pipes.

The beneficiary of the evening, a portly person with a face of high satisfaction, sat near the chairman, and by him were two girls of decent appearance, his daughters.