reading-rooms, and the rush for
the evening papers; they saw the kitchens--those wonders of art--where
the CHEF was presiding over twenty pretty kitchen-maids, and ten
thousand shining saucepans: and they got into the light-blue fly
perfectly bewildered with pleasure.

Sackville did not enter it, though little Laura took the back seat on
purpose, and left him the front place alongside of Mrs. Chuff's red
tabinet.

'We have your favourite dinner,' says she, in a timid voice; 'won't you
come, Sackville?'

'I shall take a chop here to-day, my dear,' Sackville replied. 'Home,
James.' And he went up the steps of the 'Sarcophagus,' and the pretty
face looked very sad out of the carriage, as the blue fly drove away.

CHAPTER XLIV--CLUB SNOBS

Why--Why did I and Wagley ever do so cruel an action as to introduce
young Sackville Maine into that odious 'Sarcophagus'? Let our imprudence
and his example be a warning to other gents; let his fate and that of
his poor wife be remembered by every British female. The consequences of
his entering the Club were as follows:--

One of the first vices the unhappy wretch acquired in this abode of
frivolity was that of SMOKING. Some of the dandies of the Club, such as
the Marquis of Macabaw, Lord Doodeen, and fellows of that high order,
are in the habit of indulging in this propensity upstairs in the
billiard-rooms of the 'Sarcophagus'--and, partly to make their
acquaintance, partly from a natural aptitude for crime, Sackville Maine
followed them, and became an adept in the odious custom. Where it is
introduced into a family I need not say how sad the consequences
are, both to the furniture and the morals. Sackville smoked in his
dining-room at home, and caused an agony to his wife and mother-in-law
which I do not venture to describe.

He then became a professed BILLIARD-PLAYER, wasting hours upon hours
at that amusement; betting freely, playing tolerably, losing awfully to
Captain Spot and Col. Cannon. He played matches of a hundred games with
these gentlemen, and would not only continue until four or five o'clock
in the morning at this work, but would be found at the Club of a
forenoon, indulging himself to the detriment of his business, the ruin
of his health, and the neglect of his wife.

From billiards to whist is but a step--and when a man gets to whist and
five pounds on a rubber, my opinion is, that it is all up with him. How
was the coal business to go on, and the connect