at can be charged for, with the treble X outside, and the
punch to follow after. His lordship is the gentleman to keep the bottle
going."

For the Lord-Lieutenant of the county, the popular Marquis of Southdown,
had promised to preside at this grand dinner; and everybody knew what
that meant. "Short tongue and long throat," was his lordship's motto in
the discharge of all public business, and "Bottle to the gentleman on
my left!" was the practical form of his eulogies. In a small space like
this, there would be no chance for a sober-minded guest to escape his
searching eye, and Blyth Scudamore (appointed to represent the officers
of the Leda, and therefore the hero of the evening) felt as happy as a
dog being led to be drowned, in view of this liquid ordeal. For Blyth
was a temperate and moderate young man, neither such a savage as to turn
his wine to poison, nor yet so Anti-Christian as to turn it into water.

Many finer places had been offered for the feast, and foremost amongst
them the Admiral's house; but the committee with sound judgment had
declined them all. The great point was to have a place within easy reach
of boats, and where gallant naval officers could be recalled at once,
if the French should do anything outrageous, which they are apt to do
at the most outrageous time. But when a partition had been knocked down,
and the breach tacked over with festoons of laurel, Mr. Prater was quite
justified in rubbing his red hands and declaring it as snug a box
as could be for the business. There was even a dark elbow where the
staircase jutted out, below the big bressemer of the partition, and made
a little gallery for ladies to hear speeches, and behold the festive
heroes while still fit to be beholden. And Admiral Darling, as
vice-chairman, entering into facts masculine and feminine, had promised
his daughters and Miss Twemlow, under charge of the rector's wife and
Mrs. Stubbard, a peep at this heroic scene, before it should become too
convivial. The rescuers also of the Blonde, the flesh and bone, without
which the master brain must still have lain stranded, were to have a
grand supper in the covered skittle-alley, as the joints came away from
their betters, this lower deck being in command of Captain Tugwell, who
could rouse up his crew as fast as his lordship roused his officers.

Admiral Darling had been engaged of late in the service of his Country
so continually, and kept up and down the great roads so much