'No hurry, gentlemen--no hurry,' observed Mr. Springwheat, as some of the keen ones were preparing to follow, and began sorting their hats, and making the mistakes incident to their being all the same shape. 'No hurry, sir--no hurry, sir,' repeated Springwheat, addressing Mr. Sponge specifically; 'his lordship will have a talk to his hounds yet, and his horse is still in the stable.' With this assurance Mr. Sponge resumed his seat at the table, where several of the hungry ones were plying their knives and forks as if they were indeed breaking their fasts. 'Well, old boy, and how are you?' asked Sponge, as the whites of Jack's eyes again settled upon him, on the latter's looking up from his plateful of sausages. 'Nicely. How are you?' asked Jack. 'Nicely too,' replied Sponge, in the laconic way men speak who have been engaged in some common enterprise--getting drunk, pelting people with rotten eggs, or anything of that sort. 'Jaw and the ladies well?' asked Jack, in the same strain. 'Oh, nicely,' said Sponge. 'Take a glass of cherry-brandy,' exclaimed the hospitable Mr. Springwheat: 'nothing like a drop of something for steadying the nerves.' 'Presently,' replied Sponge, 'presently; meanwhile I'll trouble the missis for a cup of coffee. Coffee without sugar,' said Sponge, addressing the lady. 'With pleasure,' replied Mrs. Springwheat, glad to get a little custom for her goods. Most of the gentlemen had been at the bottles and sideboard. Springwheat, seeing Mr. Sponge, the only person who, as a stranger, there was any occasion for him to attend to, in the care of his wife, now slipped out of the room, and mounting his five-year-old horse, whose tail stuck out like the long horn of a coach, as his ploughman groom said, rode off to join the hunt. 'By the powers, but those are capital sarsingers!' observed Jack, smacking his lips and eating away for hard life. 'Just look if my lord's on his horse yet,' added he to one of the children, who had begun to hover round the table and dive their fingers into the sweets. 'No,' replied the child; 'he's still on foot, playing with the dogs.' 'Here goes, then,' said Jack, 'for another plate,' suiting the action to the word, and running with his plate to the sausage-dish. 'Have a hot one,' exclaimed Mrs. Springwheat, adding, 'it will be done in a minute.' 'No, thank ye,' replied Jack, with a shake of the head, adding, 'I might be done in a minute too.' 'He'll wait for you, I suppose?' observed Sponge, addressing Jack. 'Not so clear about that,' replied Jack, gobbling away; 'time and my lord wait for no man. But it's hardly the half-hour yet,' added he, looking at his watch. He then fell to with the voracity of a hound after hunting. Sponge, too, made the most of his time, as did two or three others who still remained.