latter statement was true enough, for Jawleyford, though apparently
such a fine open-hearted, sociable sort of man, was in reality a very
quarrelsome, troublesome fellow. He quarrelled with all his neighbours in
succession, generally getting through them every two or three years; and
his acquaintance were divided into two classes--the best and the worst
fellows under the sun. A stranger revising Jawleyford after an absence of a
year or two, would very likely find the best fellows of former days
transformed into the worst ones of that. Thus, Parson Hobanob, that pet
victim of country caprice, would come in and go out of season like lamb or
asparagus; Major Moustache and Jawleyford would be as 'thick as thieves'
one day, and at daggers drawn the next; Squire Squaretoes, of Squaretoes
House, and he, were continually kissing or cutting; and even distance--nine
miles of bad road, and, of course, heavy tolls--could not keep the peace
between lawyer Seedywig and him. What between rows and reconciliations,
Jawleyford was always at work.

CHAPTER XVI

THE DINNER

[Illustration]

Notwithstanding Jawleyford's recommendation to the contrary, Mr. Sponge
made himself an uncommon swell. He put on a desperately stiff starcher,
secured in front with a large gold fox-head pin with carbuncle eyes; a
fine, fancy-fronted shirt, with a slight tendency to pink, adorned with
mosaic-gold-tethered studs of sparkling diamonds (or French paste, as the
case might be); a white waistcoat with fancy buttons; a blue coat with
bright plain ones, and a velvet collar, black tights, with broad
black-and-white Cranbourne-alley-looking stockings (socks rather), and
patent leather pumps with gilt buckles--Sponge was proud of his leg. The
young ladies, too, turned out rather smart; for Amelia, finding that Emily
was going to put on her new yellow watered silk, instead of a dyed satin
she had talked of, made Juliana produce her broad-laced blue satin dress
out of the wardrobe in the green dressing-room, where it had been laid away
in an old tablecloth; and bound her dark hair with a green-beaded wreath,
which Emily met by crowning herself with a chaplet of white roses.

Thus attired, with smiles assumed at the door, the young ladies entered the
drawing-room in the full fervour of sisterly animosity. They were very much
alike in size, shape, and face. They were tallish and full-figured. Miss
Jawleyford's features being rather more strongly marked, a