223 



said she, as she took a parting glance at herself in general, and the 

 hot spot in particular. 



Judge of her disgust on meeting her mamma on the staircase at 

 learning that his lordship had got up at six o clock, and had gone to 

 meet his hounds on the other side of the county. That Baggs had 

 boiled his oatmeal porridge in his bedroom, and his lordship had 

 eaten it as he was dressing. 



It may be asked, what was the maid about not to tell her. 



The fact is, that ladies'-maids are only numb hands in all that 

 relates to hunting, and though Juliana knew that his lordship was 

 up, she thought he had gone to have his hunt before breakfast, just 

 as the young gentlemen in the last place she lived in used to go and 

 have a bathe. 



Baggs, we may add, was a married man, and Juliana and he had 

 not had much conversation. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



MR. BRAGG'S KENNEL MANAGEMENT. 



The reader will now have the kindness to consider that Mr. Puffing- 

 ton has undergone his swell huntsman, Dick Bragg, for three whole 

 years, during which time it was difficult to say whether his winter's 

 service or his summer's impudence was most oppressive. Either way, 

 Mr. Puffington had had enough both of him and the honours of 

 hound-keeping. Mr. Bragg was not a judicious tyrant. He lorded 

 it t©o much over Mr. Puffington; was too fond of showing himself 

 off, and exposing his master's ignorance before the servants and field. 

 A stranger would have thought that Mr. Bragg, and not "Mr. Puff," 

 as Bragg called him, kept the hounds. Mr. Puffington took it pretty 

 quietly at first, Bragg inundating him with what they did at the 

 Ihike of Downeybird's, Lord Reynard's, and the other great places 

 in which he had lived, till he almost made Puff believe that such 

 treatment was a necessary consequence of hound-keeping. Moreover, 

 the cost was heavy, and the promised subscriptions were almost 

 wholly imaginary ; even if they had been paid, they would net have 

 covered a quarter of the expense Mr. Bragg run him to ; and, worst 

 of all, there was an increasing instead of a diminishing expenditure. 

 Trust a servant for keeping things up to the mark. 



All things, however, have an end, and Mr. Bragg began to get to 

 the end of Mr. Puff's patience. As Puff got older he got fonder of 

 his five-pound notes, and began to scrutinise bills and ask questions; 



