CAPTAIN SHABBYHOUNDE 249 



humiliation so great as the quiet, silent, cold shoulder 

 reproof of a party of gentlemen. 



Shabbyhounde's coat, of course, is a dress one — 

 not only a dress one in cut, but absolutely an 

 evening one. These dress coats for hunting in — 

 these 



"Beds by night, and chests of drawers by day," 



have always appeared to us to be the economy of 

 extravagance, paltry in conception and contemptible 

 in execution. If a man is such a determined out- 

 and-out sportsman that he must always have the 

 insignia of his calling about him, surely he can afford 

 a coat for each division of the day, and not have to 

 look forward to converting the superfine cloth of the 

 drawing-room into the defier of thorns, and storms, 

 briars and bushes, out of doors. 



We are quite aware that, generally speaking, these 

 coats are launched on the service they are meant for 

 — that they go at once into the hunting field, but the 

 theory is the same, they originated in a paltry idea 

 of converting dress coats into hunting ones when 

 they got shabby, and a shabby dog he must have 

 been who started the idea. 



Although we fully agree in the words of the old 

 song, that there's 



" Naught like boots and leather breeches," 



we do not carry our admiration for hunting 

 accoutrements quite so high as to insist upon there 

 being nothing like scarlet for dining in. Indeed, we 

 don't like it. It makes too much of a business of 

 the thing, added to which we often see the greatest 

 cocktails in a morning the most tenacious of appear- 

 ing in it in an evening. 



If, however, men with their hair stiffly curled, and 

 pumps on their feet, will put themselves into scarlet 

 for dinners and balls, let us beg of them to get new 

 coats occasionally. Most things look well when they 



