Well, now, we shall be at home all September, and up to the middle of October, and you must just come to us at your own time, and I will give you some of the finest partridge and pheasant shooting you ever saw in your life; Norfolk can show nothing to what I can.

Now, my good fellow, say the word; _do_ say you'll come, and then it will be a settled thing, and I shall look forward to it with such pleasure!' He was equally magnanimous about hunting, though, like a good many people who have 'had their hunts,' he pretended that his day was over, though he was a most zealous promoter of the sport.

So he asked everybody who did hunt to come and see him; and what with his hearty, affable manner, and the unlimited nature of his invitations, he generally passed for a deuced hospitable, good sort of fellow, and came in for no end of dinners and other entertainments for his wife and daughters, of which he had two--daughters, we mean, not wives.

His time was about up at Laverick Wells when Mr.Sponge arrived there; nevertheless, during the few days that remained to them, Mr.Jawleyford contrived to scrape a pretty intimate acquaintance with a gentleman whose wealth was reported to equal, if it did not exceed, that of Mr.Waffles himself.

The following was the closing scene between them: [Illustration: Jawleyford of Jawleyford Court] 'Mr.Sponge,' said he, getting our hero by both hands in Culeyford's Billiard Room, and shaking them as though he could not bear the idea of separation; 'my dear Mr.Sponge,' added he, 'I grieve to say we're going to-morrow; I had hoped to have stayed a little longer, and to have enjoyed the pleasure of your most agreeable society.' (This was true; he would have stayed, only his banker wouldn't let him have any more money.) 'But, however, I won't say adieu,' continued he; 'no, I _won't_ say adieu! I live, as you perhaps know, in one of the best hunting countries in England--my Lord Scamperdale's--Scamperdale and I are like brothers; I can do whatever I like with him--he has, I may say, the finest pack of hounds in the world; his huntsman.