t Mr. Danton said he could not have
lost every point, because he made a point of losing: everybody laughed
tremendously. Dumps retorted with a better joke, and nobody smiled, with
the exception of the host, who seemed to consider it his duty to laugh
till he was black in the face, at everything. There was only one
drawback--the musicians did not play with quite as much spirit as could
have been wished. The cause, however, was satisfactorily explained; for
it appeared, on the testimony of a gentleman who had come up from
Gravesend in the afternoon, that they had been engaged on board a steamer
all day, and had played almost without cessation all the way to
Gravesend, and all the way back again.

The 'sit-down supper' was excellent; there were four barley-sugar temples
on the table, which would have looked beautiful if they had not melted
away when the supper began; and a water-mill, whose only fault was that
instead of going round, it ran over the table-cloth. Then there were
fowls, and tongue, and trifle, and sweets, and lobster salad, and potted
beef--and everything. And little Kitterbell kept calling out for clean
plates, and the clean plates did not come: and then the gentlemen who
wanted the plates said they didn't mind, they'd take a lady's; and then
Mrs. Kitterbell applauded their gallantry, and the greengrocer ran about
till he thought his seven and sixpence was very hardly earned; and the
young ladies didn't eat much for fear it shouldn't look romantic, and the
married ladies eat as much as possible, for fear they shouldn't have
enough; and a great deal of wine was drunk, and everybody talked and
laughed considerably.

'Hush! hush!' said Mr. Kitterbell, rising and looking very important.
'My love (this was addressed to his wife at the other end of the table),
take care of Mrs. Maxwell, and your mamma, and the rest of the married
ladies; the gentlemen will persuade the young ladies to fill their
glasses, I am sure.'

'Ladies and gentlemen,' said long Dumps, in a very sepulchral voice and
rueful accent, rising from his chair like the ghost in Don Juan, 'will
you have the kindness to charge your glasses? I am desirous of proposing
a toast.'

A dead silence ensued, and the glasses were filled--everybody looked
serious.

'Ladies and gentlemen,' slowly continued the ominous Dumps, 'I'--(here
Mr. Danton imitated two notes from the French-horn, in a very loud key,
which electrified the nervous toast-proposer