the old cummerbund

And the thought of it depressed me to such an extent that I felt there was only one thing to be done. 

I went straight back to my room, dug out the cummerbund, and draped it round the old tum. I turned round and Jeeves shied like a startled mustang.... 

'I beg your pardon, sir,' he said in a sort of hushed voice. 'You are surely not proposing to appear in public in that thing?' 

'The cummerbund?' I said, in a careless, debonair way, passing it off. 'Oh, rather!'

- Wodehouse. 'Inimitable Jeeves'