[Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour by R. S. Surtees]@TWC D-Link bookMr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour CHAPTER XIX 5/12
I'll get one--I'll get one.
How much did you say it was--a guinea? a guinea ?' 'A shilling,' replied Sponge, adding, 'you may have mine for a guinea if you like.' 'By Jove, what a day it is!' observed Jawleyford, turning the conversation, as the wind dashed the hard sleet against the window like a shower of pebbles.
'Lucky to have a good house over one's head, such weather; and, by the way, that reminds me, I'll show you my new gallery and collection of curiosities--pictures, busts, marbles, antiques, and so on; there'll be fires on, and we shall be just as well there as here.' So saying, Jawleyford led the way through a dark, intricate, shabby passage, to where a much gilded white door, with a handsome crimson curtain over it announced the entrance to something better.
'Now,' said Mr.Jawleyford, bowing as he threw open the door, and motioned, or rather flourished, his guest to enter--'now,' said he, 'you shall see what you shall see.' Mr.Sponge entered accordingly, and found himself at the end of a gallery fifty feet by twenty, and fourteen high, lighted by skylights and small windows round the top.
There were fires in handsome Caen-stone chimney-pieced fireplaces on either side, a large timepiece and an organ at the far end, and sundry white basins scattered about, catching the drops from the skylights. 'Hang the rain!' exclaimed Jawleyford, as he saw it trickling over a river scene of Van Goyen's (gentlemen in a yacht, and figures in boats), and drip, drip, dripping on to the head of an infant Bacchus below. 'He wants an umbrella, that young gentleman,' observed Sponge, as Jawleyford proceeded to dry him with his handkerchief. 'Fine thing,' observed Jawleyford, starting off to a side, and pointing to it; 'fine thing--Italian marble--by Frere--cost a vast of money--was offered three hundred for it.
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