fleecy white clouds in the distance.

'Here we be,' observed Watson, with a nod towards where a tarnished
red-and-gold flag, floated, or rather flapped lazily in the winter's
breeze, above an irregular mass of towers, turrets, and odd-shaped
chimneys.

[Illustration]

Jawleyford Court was a fine old mansion, partaking more of the character of
a castle than a Court, with its keep and towers, battlements, heavily
grated mullioned windows, and machicolated gallery. It stood, sombre and
grey, in the midst of gigantic but now leafless sycamores--trees that had
to thank themselves for being sycamores; for, had they been oaks, or other
marketable wood, they would have been made into bonnets or shawls long
before now. The building itself was irregular, presenting different sorts
of architecture, from pure Gothic down to some even perfectly modern
buildings; still, viewed as a whole, it was massive and imposing; and as
Mr. Sponge looked down upon it, he thought far more of Jawleyford and Co.
than he did as the mere occupants of a modest, white-stuccoed,
green-verandahed house, at Laverick Wells. Nor did his admiration diminish
as he advanced, and, crossing by a battlemented bridge over the moat, he
viewed the massive character of the buildings rising grandly from their
rocky foundation. An imposing, solemn-toned old clock began striking four,
as the horsemen rode under the Gothic portico, whose notes re-echoed and
reverberated, and at last lost themselves among the towers and pinnacles of
the building. Sponge, for a moment, was awe-stricken at the magnificence of
the scene, feeling that it was what he would call 'a good many cuts above
him'; but he soon recovered his wonted impudence.

'He _would_ have me,' thought he, recalling the pressing nature of the
Jawleyford invitation.

'If you'll hold my nag,' said Watson, throwing himself off the shaggy
white, 'I'll ring the bell,' added he, running up a wide flight of steps to
the hall-door. A riotous peal announced the arrival.

CHAPTER XV

THE JAWLEYFORD ESTABLISHMENT

The loud peal of the Jawleyford Court door-bell, announcing Mr. Sponge's
arrival, with which we closed the last chapter, found the inhabitants
variously engaged preparing for his reception.

Mrs. Jawleyford, with the aid of a very indifferent cook, was endeavouring
to arrange a becoming dinner; the young ladies, with the aid of a somewhat
better sort of maid, were attractifying themselves, each loo