drunk on the premises by some score and a half of gentlemen, who were
sitting round the table, and standing or lounging about in various
parts of the room. Heading the table, sat the host, loosely attired
in a neat dressing gown of crimson and blue, in an attitude which
allowed him to swing his legs easily, if not gracefully, over the arm
of his chair, and to converse cheerfully with Charles Larkyns, who
was leaning over the chair-back. Visible to the naked eye, on Mr.
Smalls' left hand, appeared the white tie and full evening dress
which decorated the person of Mr. Verdant Green.

A great consumption of tobacco was going on, not only through the
medium of cigars, but also of meerschaums, short "dhudheens" of
envied colour, and the genuine yard of clay; and Verdant, while he
was scarcely aware of what he was doing, found himself, to his great
amazement, with a real cigar in his mouth, which he was industriously
sucking, and with great difficulty keeping alight. Our hero felt
that the unexpected exigencies of the case demanded from him some
sacrifice; while he consoled himself by the reflection, that, on the
homoeopathic principle of "likes cure likes," a cigar was the best
preventive against any ill effects arising from the combination of
the thirty gentlemen who were generating smoke with all the ardour of
lime-kilns or young volcanoes, and filling Mr. Smalls' small room
with an atmosphere that was of the smoke, smoky. Smoke produces
thirst; and the cup, punch, egg-flip, sherry-cobblers, and other
liquids, which had been so liberally provided, were being consumed by
the members of the party as though it had been their drink from
childhood; while the conversation was of a kind very different to
what our hero had anticipated, being for the most part vapid and
unmeaning, and (must it be confessed?) occasionally too highly
flavoured with improprieties for it to be faithfully recorded in