f his friend Tommy. The dinner indeed was, if
possible, more dreadful than anything he had before undergone--so many
fine gentlemen and fine ladies; so many powdered servants to stand
behind their chairs; such an apparatus of dishes which Harry had never
tasted before, and which almost made him sick when he did taste; so
many removes; such pomp and solemnity about what seemed the easiest
thing in the world--that Harry could not help envying the condition of
his father's labourers, who, when they are hungry, can sit at their ease
under a hedge, and make a dinner without plates, table-cloths, or
compliments!

In the mean time his friend Tommy was received amid the circle of the
ladies, and attended to as a prodigy of wit and ingenuity. Harry could
not help being surprised at this. His affection for his friend was
totally unmixed with the meanness of jealousy, and he received the
sincerest pleasure from every improvement which Tommy had made; however,
he had never discovered in him any of those surprising talents; and,
when he could catch anything that Tommy said, it appeared to him rather
inferior to his usual method of conversation. However, as so many fine
ladies were of a different opinion, he took it for granted that he must
be mistaken.

But if Harry's opinion of his friend's abilities was not much improved
by this exhibition, it was not so with Tommy. The repeated assurances
which he received that he was indeed a little _prodigy_, began to
convince him that he really was so. When he considered the company he
came from, he found that infinite injustice had been done to his merit;
for at Mr Barlow's he was frequently contradicted, and obliged to give a
reason for what he said; but here, in order to be admired, he had
nothing to do but to talk; whether he had any meaning or not, his
auditors always found either wit or sense, or a most entertaining
sprightliness in all he said. Nor was Mrs Merton herself deficient in
bestowing marks of admiration upon her son. To see him before, improved
in health, in understanding, in virtue, had given her a pleasurable
sensation, for she was by no means destitute of good dispositions; but
to see him shine with such transcendant brightness, before such
excellent judges, and in so polite a company, inspired her with raptures
she had never felt before. Indeed, in consequence of this success, the
young gentleman's volubility improved so much that, before dinner was
over, he seemed dispo