and the visitors departed.

Wednesday evening arrived; eight o'clock came, and eight members of the
committee were punctual in their attendance. Mr. Loggins, the solicitor,
of Boswell-court, sent an excuse, and Mr. Samuel Briggs, the ditto of
Furnival's Inn, sent his brother: much to his (the brother's)
satisfaction, and greatly to the discomfiture of Mr. Percy Noakes.
Between the Briggses and the Tauntons there existed a degree of
implacable hatred, quite unprecedented. The animosity between the
Montagues and Capulets, was nothing to that which prevailed between these
two illustrious houses. Mrs. Briggs was a widow, with three daughters
and two sons; Mr. Samuel, the eldest, was an attorney, and Mr. Alexander,
the youngest, was under articles to his brother. They resided in
Portland-street, Oxford-street, and moved in the same orbit as the
Tauntons--hence their mutual dislike. If the Miss Briggses appeared in
smart bonnets, the Miss Tauntons eclipsed them with smarter. If Mrs.
Taunton appeared in a cap of all the hues of the rainbow, Mrs. Briggs
forthwith mounted a toque, with all the patterns of the kaleidoscope. If
Miss Sophia Taunton learnt a new song, two of the Miss Briggses came out
with a new duet. The Tauntons had once gained a temporary triumph with
the assistance of a harp, but the Briggses brought three guitars into the
field, and effectually routed the enemy. There was no end to the rivalry
between them.

Now, as Mr. Samuel Briggs was a mere machine, a sort of self-acting legal
walking-stick; and as the party was known to have originated, however
remotely, with Mrs. Taunton, the female branches of the Briggs family had
arranged that Mr. Alexander should attend, instead of his brother; and as
the said Mr. Alexander was deservedly celebrated for possessing all the
pertinacity of a bankruptcy-court attorney, combined with the obstinacy
of that useful animal which browses on the thistle, he required but
little tuition. He was especially enjoined to make himself as
disagreeable as possible; and, above all, to black-ball the Tauntons at
every hazard.

The proceedings of the evening were opened by Mr. Percy Noakes. After
successfully urging on the gentlemen present the propriety of their
mixing some brandy-and-water, he briefly stated the object of the
meeting, and concluded by observing that the first step must be the
selection of a chairman, necessarily possessing some arbitrary--he
trusted not unco