Sprout, he changed and
reversed all his habits, good, bad, and indifferent. From staking
thousands at a horse-race, he turned up his eyes at the grievous
abomination of half-crown whist; and, indeed, had he been disposed to
card-playing, he could not have indulged himself at Trimmerstone, for
Mr. Sprout had banished almost all card-playing from the place, so
that there was not a pack of cards in the parish, except two or three
mutilated well-thumbed packs of quadrille-cards, which were still used
by a knot of antiquated spinsters worthy of the good old days of
Sacheverel and High Church. Quadrille-cards will not do for whist,
for all the eights, nines, and tens are thrown out. Formerly, Lord
Trimmerstone used to be proud of giving some of his acquaintance a
sumptuous dinner; but now he had changed all that, and he only kept one
female cook, who could just manage to make a comfortable and snug little
dish or two for his lordship's own self, occasionally assisted by the
Rev. Mr. Sprout. Formerly, his lordship had been disposed to be lively,
and oftentimes facetious; but now he was prodigiously grave, and almost
sulky. Formerly, his lordship never went to church; now he went twice
every Sunday, and said Amen as loud as the clerk, and with much more
solemnity, for the clerk did not turn up his eyes for fear of losing the
place.
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