that he looked like a manly portly high-bred gentleman--a
lieutenant-colonel in the army, at the very least.

"You're a full man, Eglantine," said the tailor, delighted, too, with
his own work; "but that can't be helped. You look more like Hercules
than Falstaff now, sir, and if a coat can make a gentleman, a gentleman
you are. Let me recommend you to sink the blue cravat, and take the
stripes off your trousers. Dress quiet, sir; draw it mild. Plain
waistcoat, dark trousers, black neckcloth, black hat, and if there's a
better-dressed man in Europe to-morrow, I'm a Dutchman."

"Thank you, Woolsey--thank you, my dear sir," said the charmed perfumer.
"And now I'll just trouble you to try on this here."

The wig had been made with equal skill; it was not in the florid style
which Mr. Eglantine loved in his own person, but, as the perfumer said,
a simple straightforward head of hair. "It seems as if it had grown
there all your life, Mr. Woolsey; nobody would tell that it was not
your nat'ral colour" (Mr. Woolsey blushed)--"it makes you look ten year
younger; and as for that scarecrow yonder, you'll never, I think, want
to wear that again."

Woolsey looked in the glass, and was delighted too. The two rivals shook
hands and straightway became friends, and in the overflowing of his
heart the perfumer mentioned to the tailor the party which he had
arranged for the next day, and offered him a seat in the carriage and
at the dinner at the "Star and Garter." "Would you like to ride?" said
Eglantine, with rather a consequential air. "Snaffle will mount you, and
we can go one on each side of the ladies, if you like."

But Woolsey humbly said he was not a riding man, and gladly consented to
take a place in the clarence carriage, provided he was allowed to bear
half the expenses of the entertainment. This proposal was agreed to by
Mr. Eglantine, and the two gentlemen parted to meet once more at the
"Kidneys" that night, when everybody was edified by the friendly tone
adopted between them.

Mr. Snaffle, at the club meeting, made the very same proposal to Mr.
Woolsey that the perfumer had made; and stated that as Eglantine was
going to ride Hemperor, Woolsey, at least, ought to mount too. But he
was met by the same modest refusal on the tailor's part, who stated that
he had never mounted a horse yet, and preferred greatly the use of a
coach.

Eglantine's character as a "swell" rose greatly with the club that
evening.

Two o'cl