'
'This is better than dining at the "Sarcophagus,"' thinks I to myself,
at which Club Wagley and I had intended to take our meal; and so we
accepted the kindly invitation, whence arose afterwards a considerable
intimacy.
Everything about this family and house was so good-natured, comfortable,
and well-conditioned, that a cynic would have ceased to growl there.
Mrs. Laura was all graciousness and smiles, and looked to as great
advantage in her pretty morning-gown as in her dress-robe at Mrs.
Perkins's. Mrs. Chuff fired off her stories about the 'Nebuchadnezzar,'
74, the action between the 'Pitchfork' and the 'Furibonde'--the heroic
resistance of Captain Choufleur, and the quantity of snuff he took, &c.
&c.; which, as they were heard for the first time, were pleasanter than
I have subsequently found them. Sackville Maine was the best of hosts.
He agreed in everything everybody said, altering his opinions without
the slightest reservation upon the slightest possible contradiction.
He was not one of those beings who would emulate a Schonbein or
Friar Bacon, or act the part of an incendiary towards the Thames, his
neighbour--but a good, kind, simple, honest, easy fellow--in love with
his wife--well disposed to all the world--content with himself, content
even with his mother-in-law. Nelson Collingwood, I remember, in the
course of the evening, when whisky-and-water was for some reason
produced, grew a little tipsy.
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