nexceptionable in material and fit; and "our set," having approved of
this, were curious to see what sort of costume he would display at
dinner. When, therefore, he came to table,

Avec les memes bas et la meme cravate,

and the shooting-jacket unchanged, they were visibly disappointed.
Benson, to keep him in countenance, had retained his white coat, on the
plea of its being most wanted then, as they were in the hottest part of
the day, which excuse did not enable him to escape some hints from his
sister-in-law, and a direct scolding from his wife.

Our Englishman thought the dinner hardly worth so much dressing for. The
dishes, so far as he had an opportunity of judging, were tolerably
cooked; but their number was not at all proportionate to that of the
guests; in short, it was a decided case of short commons, and the
waiters were scarce to match. There were but two parties well attended
to. One was the family of an old gentleman from the South, who was part
owner of the building, and who, besides this advantage, enjoyed the
privilege of letting his daughter monopolize the piano of the public
parlor half the day, to sing Italian _arias_ shockingly out of tune,
much to the disgust of the boarders generally, and especially of the
dancing set, who were continually wanting the instrument themselves for
polking purposes. The other was----the reporters of _The Sewer_; who had
a choice collection of dishes and waiters always at their command. To be
sure they had their end of the table to themselves, too, for not a
person sat within three chairs of them on either side; but this they, no
doubt, accepted as a complimentary acknowledgment of their formidable
reputation. Every one else was famished. The married women grumbled, and
scolded their husbands--those convenient scapegoats of all
responsibility; the young ladies tried to look very sentimental, and
above all such vulgar anxiety as that of meat and drink, but only
succeeded in looking very cross; the men swore in various dialects at
the waiters whenever they could catch them flying, and the waiters being
used to it didn't mind it; and Ashburner, as a recollection of a former
conversation flitted across his mind, could not help letting off a _tu
quoque_ at his friend.

"I say, Benson," quoth he, "is this one of the hotels that are so much
better than ours, and that our people ought to take a lesson from?"

Harry looked half-a-dozen bowie-knives at him. Besides the na