CAPTAIN SHABBYHOUNDE 257 



for any man, be he who he might, to attempt to "do" his 

 master without consulting him. He took an enlarged com- 

 prehensive view of the question — -not the mere " A and B " 

 deal case, as between Shabbyhounde and his master, but he 

 looked at the general principle of the thing, and he saw if 

 such work was allowed it would be destructive of settled 

 principles, and most prejudicial to the interests of his pro- 

 fession. Moreover, Shabbyhounde's fame was not altogether 

 unknown to him, though it did not enter into Strutt's imagina- 

 tion that a man could be so depraved as to think of defrauding 

 him of his regulars ; the amount of which, however, he could 

 not but feel greatly depended upon the imparlance before the 

 deal. It is a delicate case, and one that we feel assured will 

 come home to the feelings of all stabularian professors. It 

 makes all the difference in the world, whether the imparlance is 

 before or after the deal. 



Strutt looked as though nature had meant him for the 

 name, for he was a most bumptious, consequential, rosy-gilled 

 bantam-cock-looking little fellow, uniting in his apparel the 

 extravagances of valet and groom. He had a groom's hat 

 and a valet's hair, a groom's coat and a valet's waistcoat, a 

 swell satin cravat, and groomish-made trowsers, buttoning up 

 the leg with French-cut gaiters and thin shoes. At the 

 time of which we are writing, he might be forty or forty-five 

 years of age, greyish about the whisker, but not about the 

 hair, pot-bellied, and uncommonly " long in the tooth." He 

 knew where sixpence could be laid on, or a shilling squeezed 

 out, as well as any man going. He had been Lord Creamjug's 

 " own groom," and had been selected by his lordship to 

 accompany his son to Cambridge, in the advanced capacity 

 of valet and groom of the one horse his lordship thought would 

 assist in digesting his son's mathematics, and other cross- 

 grained stuff that he had to encounter with his mental teeth. 



Of course, Strutt had improved his own education and 



s 



