After that, I doubt if the court of Charles the Second was regarded by the Puritans with a greater abhorrence than was Mohair by the good ladies of Asquith.  Mr. Cooke and his ten friends were branded as profligates whose very scarlet coats bore witness that they were of the devil.  Mr. Cooke himself, who particularly savored of brimstone, would much better have remained behind the arras, for he was denounced with such energy and bitterness that those who might have attempted his defence were silent, and their very silence told against them.  Mr. Cooke had indeed outdone himself in hospitality.  He had posted punch-bowls in every available corner, and so industriously did he devote himself to the duties of host, as he conceived them, that as many as four of the patriarchs of Asquith and pillars of the church had returned home more or less insensible, while others were quite incoherent.  The odds being overwhelming, the master of Mohair had at length fallen a victim to his own good cheer.  He took post with Judge Short at the foot of the stair, where, in spite of the protests of the Celebrity and of other well-disposed persons, the two favored the parting guests with an occasional impromptu song and waved genial good-byes to the ladies.  And, when Mrs. Short attempted to walk by with her head in the air, as though the judge were in an adjoining county, he so far forgot his judicial dignity as to chuck her under the chin, an act which was applauded with much boyish delight by Mr. Cooke, and a remark which it is just as well not to repeat.  The judge desired to spend the night at Mohair, but was afterwards taken home by main force, and the next day his meals were brought up to him.  It is small wonder that Mrs. Short was looked upon as the head of the outraged party.  The Ten were only spoken of in whispers.  Three of them had been unable to come to time when the last figure was called, whereupon their partners were whisked off the scene without so much as being allowed to pay their respects to the hostess.  Besides these offences, there were other minor barbarisms too numerous to mention.

Although Mrs. Short’s party was all-powerful at Asquith, there were some who, for various reasons, refused to agree in the condemnation of Mr. Cooke.  Judge Short and the other gentlemen in his position were, of course, restricted, but Mr. Trevor came out boldly in the face of severe criticism and declared that his daughter should accept any invitation from Mrs. Cooke that she chose, and paid but little attention to the coolness resulting therefrom.  He was fast getting a reputation for oddity.  And the Celebrity tried to conciliate both parties, and succeeded, though none but he could have done it.  At first he was eyed with suspicion and disgust as he drove off to Mohair in his Hempstead cart, and was called many hard names.  But he had a way about him which won them in the end.

A few days later I ran over to Mohair and found my client with the colored Sunday supplement of a Chicago newspaper spread out before him, eyeing the page with something akin to childish delight.  I discovered that it was a picture of his own hunt ball, and as a bit of color it was marvellous, the scarlet coats being very much in evidence.