hus, if a man spoke, or placed himself where
Waffles thought he ought not to be (that is to say, anywhere but where
Waffles was himself), he would exclaim, 'Pray, sir, hold your tongue!--you,
sir!--no, sir, not you--the man that speaks as if he had a brush in his
throat!'--or, '_Do_ come away, sir!--you, sir!--the man in the
mushroom-looking hat!'--or, 'that gentleman in the parsimonious boots!'
looking at some one with very narrow tops.

[Illustration: MR. WAFFLES, THE PRESENT MASTER OF THE LAVERICK WELLS
HOUNDS]

Still, he was a rattling, good-natured, harum-scarum fellow; and
masterships of hounds, memberships of Parliament--all expensive
unmoney-making offices,--being things that most men are anxious to foist
upon their friends, Mr. Waffles' big talk and interference in the field
procured him the honour of the first refusal. Not that he was the man to
refuse, for he jumped at the offer, and, as he would be of age before the
season came round, and would have got all his money out of Chancery, he
disdained to talk about a subscription, and boldly took the hounds as his
own. He then became a very important personage at Laverick Wells.

He had always been a most important personage among the ladies, but as the
men couldn't marry him, those who didn't want to borrow money of him, of
course, ran him down. It used to be, 'Look at that dandified ass, Waffles,
I declare the sight of him makes me sick'; or, 'What a barber's apprentice
that fellow is, with his ringlets all smeared with Macassar.'

Now it was Waffles this, Waffles that, 'Who dines with Waffles?' 'Waffles
is the best fellow under the sun! By Jingo, I know no such man as Waffles!'
'_Most deserving_ young man!'

In arriving at this conclusion, their judgement was greatly assisted by the
magnificent way he went to work. Old Tom Towler, the whip, who had toiled
at his calling for twenty long years on fifty pounds and what he could
'pick up,' was advanced to a hundred and fifty, with a couple of men under
him. Instead of riding worn-out, tumble-down, twenty-pound screws, he was
mounted on hundred-guinea horses, for which the dealers were to have a
couple of hundred, _when they were paid_. Everything was in the same
proportion.

Mr. Waffles' succession to the hunt made a great commotion among the
fair--many elegant and interesting young ladies, who had been going on the
pious tack against the Reverend Solomon Winkeyes, the popular bachelor
preacher of St. Margar