His dress, too, exhibited a marked improvement in quality and style, although still characterized in the waist and chest by the unbuttoned freedom of portly and slovenly middle age.

Civilization had restricted his potations or limited them to certain festivals known as "sprees," and his face was less puffy and sodden.

But with the accession of sobriety he had lost his good humor, and had the irritability and intolerance of virtuous restraint.
"Ye needn't ladle out any of your forty-rod whiskey to me," he said querulously to Steptoe, as he filed out with the rest of the party through the bar-room into the adjacent apartment.

"I want to keep my head level till our business is over, and I reckon it wouldn't hurt you and your gang to do the same.

They're less likely to blab; and there are few doors that whiskey won't unlock," he added, as Steptoe turned the key in the door after the party had entered.
The room had evidently been used for meetings of directors or political caucuses, and was roughly furnished with notched and whittled armchairs and a single long deal table, on which were ink and pens.