Master's a sad old wife,' added she.
A great change had come over everything.

The fare, the lights, the footmen, the everything, underwent grievous diminution.

The lamps were extinguished, and the transparent wax gave way to Palmer's composites, under the mild influence of whose unsearching light the young ladies sported their dashed dresses with impunity.

Competition between them, indeed, was about an end.
Amelia claimed Mr.Sponge, should he be worth having, and should the Scamperdale scheme fail; while Emily, having her mamma's assurance that he would not do for either of them, resigned herself complacently to what she could not help.
[Illustration: MR.

SPONGE DEMANDING AN EXPLANATION] Mr.Sponge, on his part, saw that all things portended a close.