Not only habit rouge, but
habit blue and buff, that he used to sport with 'Old Beaufort' and the
Badminton Hunt--coats that he certainly had no chance of ever getting into
again, but still which he kept as memorials of the past--souvenirs of the
days when he was young and slim. The bottle-conjurer could just as soon
have got into his quart bottle as Puff could into the Beaufort coat at the
time of which we are writing. The intelligence of their existence was
quickly followed by the aforesaid fifty-pound cheque. A meeting of the
Mangeysterne hunt was called at the sign of the Thirsty Freeman in
Swillingford--Sir Charles Figgs, Knight--a large-promising but badly paying
subscriber--in the chair, when it was proposed and carried unanimously that
Mr. Puffington was eminently qualified for the mastership of the hunt, and
that it be offered to him accordingly. Puff 'bit.' He recalled his early
exploits with 'Mostyn and old Beaufort,' and resolved that the hunt had
taken a right view of his abilities. In coming to this decision he,
perhaps, was not altogether uninfluenced by a plausible subscription list,
which seemed about equal to the ordinary expenses, supposing that any
reliance could be placed on the figures and calculations of Sir Charles.
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