To T. Tifto, Esq.,
Tallyho Lodge.

Poor Tifto, when he got this very curt epistle, was broken-hearted.
He did not dare to show it. Day after day he told the livery-stable
keeper that he had received no reply, and at last asserted that his
appeal had remained altogether unanswered. Even this he thought
was better than acknowledging the rebuff which had reached him.
As regarded the meeting which had been held,--and any further
meetings which might be held,--at The Bobtailed Fox, he did not
see the necessity, as he explained to the livery-stable keeper, of
acknowledging that he had written any letter to Lord Silverbridge.

The letter to Mr. Jawstock was of course brought forward. Another
meeting at The Bobtailed Fox was convened. But in the meantime
hunting had been discontinued in the Runnymede country. The Major
with all his pluck, with infinite cherry brandy, could not do it. Men
who had a few weeks since been on very friendly terms, and who had
called each other Dick and Harry when the squabble first began, were
now talking of "punching" each other's heads. Special whips had been
procured by men who intended to ride, and special bludgeons by the
young farmers who intended that nobody should ride as long as Major
Tifto kept the hounds. It was said that the police would interfere.
It was whispered that the hounds would be shot,--though Mr. Topps,
Mr. Jawstock, and others declared that no crime so heinous as that
had ever been contemplated in the Runnymede country.

The difficulties were too many for poor Tifto, and the hounds were
not brought out again under his influence.

A second meeting was summoned, and an invitation was sent to the
Major similar to that which he had before received;--but on this
occasion he did not appear. Nor were there many of the gentlemen
down from London. This second meeting might almost have been called
select. Mr. Mahogany Topps was there of course, in the chair, and
Mr. Jawstock took the place of honour and of difficulty on his right
hand. There was the young gentleman from Bagshot, who considered
himself quite fit to take Tifto's place if somebody else would pay
the bills and settle the money, and there was the sporting old parson
from Croppingham. Three or four other members of the hunt were
present, and perhaps half-a-dozen farmers, ready to declare that
Major Tifto should never be allowed to cross their fields again.

But there was no opposition. Mr. Jawstock read the young l