Orlando Bugles, of the
Surrey Theatre, was obliged to return to town immediately, and, as he
sometimes enacted the part of Squire Tallyho, it was thought a little of
the reality might correct the Tom and Jerry style in which he did it.
Accordingly, orders were issued for a hunt, notwithstanding the hounds were
fed and the horses watered. Sir Harry didn't 'care a rap; let them go as
fast as they could.'
All these circumstances conspired to make them late; added to which, when
Watchorn, the huntsman, cast up, which he did on a higgler's horse, he
found the only sound one in his stud had gone to the neighbouring town to
get some fiddlers--her ladyship having determined to compliment Mr. Bugles'
visit by a quadrille party. Bugles and she were old friends. When Mr.
Sponge cast up at half-past eleven, things were still behind-hand.
Sir Harry and party had had a wet night of it, and were all more or less
drunk. They had kept up the excitement with a champagne breakfast and
various liqueurs, to say nothing of cigars. They were a sad
debauched-looking set, some of them scarcely out of their teens, with
pallid cheeks, trembling hands, sunken eyes, and all the symptoms of
premature decay.
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