CHAPTER IX. 



THE HUNT BALL AT MUDBURY. 



It was an especially merciful thing that the elements were 

 propitious upon the night of the Hunt Ball. The little town 

 of Mudbury was none too well-lighted, and had the night 

 proved a dark one, many, we fear, would have been the col- 

 lisions and coxtretemjys arising from the vast stream of vehicles, 

 which began, about a quarter past nine o'clock, to first trickle, 

 and then pour, into the open space which lay just in front of 

 the Corn Exchange. The barouche containing Mrs. Pippin- 

 chipper and the three Misses Pippinchipper was the actual first 

 to arrive, but the elder lady, quickly guessing at the situation, 

 and holding it to be little less than a crime to take the 

 initiative in such a case, promptly ordered her fat old coach- 

 man to "drive on," which he did with a very bad grace, as he 

 had arranged to take a hand at ' all fours ' in the bar-parlour 

 of the ' Spotted Dog ' early that evening. Two minutes after 

 the Pippinchipper carriage had driven away for a turn up the 

 town. Alderman Muggins (who, as the owner of two useful 

 coverts, in which he strictly preserved foxes, was persona c/rata 

 with the Hunt), Mrs. Alderman Muggins, and one Master 

 Muggins, arrived. With some delay — for the lad}^ was of the 

 ample kind, and the carriage-door not wide — Mrs. Muggins was 

 extracted from the vehicle, and conveyed by her husband and 



