As the evening approached our numbers gradually
diminished, some to pursue their journeys, and others to facilitate the
purposes of trade. The representative of the house of Blackstrap and
Co., his friend Sable, the timber merchant, our inviter the bookseller,
and the two interlopers, remained fixed as fate to the festive board,
until the chairman, and scarce any one of the company, could clearly
define, divide, and arrange the exact arithmetical proportions of the
dinner bill. After a short cessation of hostilities, during which our
commercial friends despatched their London letters, and Bob and the
English Spy, to escape the suspicion of not having any definable
pursuit, emigrated to the High Street; we returned to our quarters, and
found the whole party debating upon a proposition of the bon vivants, to
have another bottle, and make a night of it by going to the theatre
at half price; a question that was immediately carried, _nemine
contradicente_. Mr. Margin, our esteemed companion, who represented
the old established house of Sherwood and Co., was known to sing a
good stave, and what was still more attractive, was himself a child of
song--one of the inspired of the nine, who, at the Anacreontic Club,
held in Ivy Lane, would often amuse ~258~~the society with an original
chant; "whose fame," as Blackstrap expressed it, "had extended itself to
the four corners of the island, wherever the sporting works of Sherwood
and Co.
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