82 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



hat was quite a proper one for a gentleman, and 

 put on with appropriate regard to taste ; liis hair 

 curled, naturally or artificially, just as hair should 

 curl to be becoming, while its glossy black showed 

 off to advantage a face of gentlemanly delicacy 

 and paleness ; the features were good, but with 

 a cuiming sinister cast, showing a very laudable 

 desire to be a rogue, and the full complement of 

 a puppy ; his cravat was proper enough as to 

 colour, dark blue with white spots, — the tie alto- 

 gether faultless, fastened by a gold pin, showing 

 the plate of a race-horse; the coat black, New- 

 market cut, made so as not to button, but fastened 

 at the second button -hole by blood- stone coat 

 studs ; his waistcoat a most proper length, dark 

 blue, the stitches white, flap lower pockets, the 

 upper ones artistically cut with a transverse slope, 

 and the corners critically rounded off: by the cut 

 of the trowsers, I guessed Mr. Forester did not 

 patronise a mere coat maker in their structure; 

 they were plain drab, but symmetrically cut, and 

 fitted to a very light boot as if stitched to it. 

 Such was the head functionary of my friend^s 

 stables : his age might be thirty. 



" I see,^^ said my friend, " Forester is not one 

 of your sort.^^ 



" Not precisely,^' said I ; " but I never had the 

 means more than the inclination to employ such 

 superior artistes.^' 



