ther they seemed to be an amazing, sporting,
hard-riding set.

When at length they rose to go to bed, it struck each man as he followed
his neighbour upstairs that the one before him walked very crookedly.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

A DAY WITH PUFFINGTON'S HOUNDS

Day dawned cheerfully. If there was rather more sun than the strict rules
of Beckford prescribe, still sunshine is not a thing to quarrel with under
any circumstances--certainly not for a gentleman to quarrel with who wants
his place seen to advantage on the occasion of a meet of hounds. Everything
at Hanby House was in apple-pie order. All the stray leaves that the
capricious wintry winds still kept raising from unknown quarters, and
whisking about the trim lawns, were hunted and caught, while a heavy roller
passed over the Kensington gravel, pressing out the hoof and wheelmarks of
the previous day. The servants were up betimes, preparing the house for
those that were in it, and a _dejeuner a la fourchette_ for chance
customers, from without.

They were equally busy at the stable. Although Mr. Bragg did profess such
indifference for Mr. Sponge's opinion, he nevertheless thought it might
perhaps be as well to be condescending to the stranger. Accordingly, he
ordered his whips to be on the alert, to tie their ties and put on their
boots as they ought to be, and to hoist their caps becomingly on the
appearance of our friend. Bragg, like a good many huntsmen, had a sort of
tariff of politeness, that he indicated by the manner in which he saluted
the field. To a lord, he made a sweep of his cap like the dome of St.
Paul's; a baronet came in for about half as much; a knight, to a quarter.
Bragg had also a sort of City or monetary tariff of politeness--a tariff
that was oftener called in requisition than the 'Debrett' one, in Mr.
Puffington's country. To a good 'tip' he vouchsafed as much cap as he gave
to a lord; to a middling 'tip' he gave a sort of move that might either
pass for a touch of the cap or a more comfortable adjustment of it to his
head; a very small 'tip' had a forefinger to the peak; while he who gave
nothing at all got a good stare or a good morning! or something of that
sort. A man watching the arrival of the field could see who gave the fives,
who the fours, who the threes, who the twos, who the ones, and who were the
great o's.

But to our day with Mr. Puffington's hounds.

Our over-night friends were not quite so brisk in the morning as t