m as big as a field in a
cramped country! Can't have less than fifty thousand a-piece, I should say,
at the least. Jawleyford, to be sure, is young,' thought he; 'may live a
long time' (puff). 'If Mrs. J. were to die (Curse--the cigar's burnt my
lips'), added he, throwing the remnant into the fire, and rolling out of
the chair to prepare for turning into bed.

If any one had told Sponge that there was a rich papa and mamma on the
look-out merely for amiable young men to bestow their fair daughters upon,
he would have laughed them to scorn, and said, 'Why, you fool, they are
only laughing at you'; or 'Don't you see they are playing you off against
somebody else?' But our hero, like other men, was blind where he himself
was concerned, and concluded that he was the exception to the general rule.

Mr. and Mrs. Jawleyford had their consultation too.

'Well,' said Mr. Jawleyford, seating himself on the high wire fender
immediately below a marble bust of himself on the mantelpiece; 'I think
he'll do.'

'Oh, no doubt,' replied Mrs. Jawleyford, who never saw any difficulty in
the way of a match; 'I should say he is a very nice young man,' continued
she.

'Rather brusque in his manner, perhaps,' observed Jawleyford, who was quite
the 'lady' himself. 'I wonder what he was?' added he, fingering away at his
whiskers.

'He's rich, I've no doubt,' replied Mrs. Jawleyford.

'What makes you think so?' asked her loving spouse.

'I don't know,' replied Mrs. Jawleyford; 'somehow I feel certain he is--but
I can't tell why--all fox-hunters are.'

'I don't know that,' replied Jawleyford, who knew some very poor ones. 'I
should like to know what he has,' continued Jawleyford musingly, looking up
at the deeply corniced ceiling as if he were calculating the chances among
the filagree ornaments of the centre.

'A hundred thousand, perhaps,' suggested Mrs. Jawleyford, who only knew two
sums--fifty and a hundred thousand.

'That's a vast of money,' replied Jawleyford, with a slight shake of the
head.

'Fifty at least, then,' suggested Mrs. Jawleyford, coming down half-way at
once.

'Well, if he has that, he'll do,' rejoined Jawleyford, who also had come
down considerably in his expectations since the vision of his railway days,
at whose bright light he had burnt his fingers.

'He was said to have an immense fortune--I forget how much--at Laverick
Wells,' observed Mrs. Jawleyford.

'Well, we'll see,' said Jawleyford, adding, 'I su