y in good training. Straight business? I mayn't be
there. But you, Chummy, you mind, old Chums, all cases of the kind,
safest back the professional. Unless--you understand!'

Fleetwood could not persuade Gower to join the party. The philosopher's
pretext of much occupation masked a bashfully sentimental dislike of the
flooding of quiet country places by the city's hordes. 'You're right,
right,' said Fleetwood, in sympathy, resigned to the prospect of
despising his associates without a handy helper. He named Esslemont
once, shot up a look at the sky, and glanced it Eastward.

Three coaches were bound for Sunbury from a common starting-point at
nine of the morning. Lord Fleetwood, Lord Brailstone, and Lord Simon
Pitscrew were the whips. Two hours in advance of them, the earl's famous
purveyors of picnic feasts bowled along to pitch the riverside tent and
spread the tables. Our upper and lower London world reported the earl as
out on another of his expeditions: and, say what we will, we must think
kindly of a wealthy nobleman ever to the front to enliven the town's
dusty eyes and increase Old England's reputation for pre-eminence in the
Sports.

He is the husband of the Whitechapel Countess--got himself into that
mess; but whatever he does, he puts the stamp of style on it. He and
the thing he sets his hand to, they're neat, they're finished, they're
fitted to trot together, and they've a shining polish, natural, like
a lily of the fields; or say Nature and Art, like the coat of a
thoroughbred led into the paddock by his groom, if you're of that mind.

Present at the start in Piccadilly, Gower took note of Lord Fleetwood's
military promptitude to do the work he had no taste for, and envied the
self-compression which could assume so pleasant an air. He heard here
and there crisp comments on his lordship's coach and horses and
personal smartness; the word 'style,' which reflects handsomely on the
connoisseur conferring it, and the question whether one of the ladies
up there was the countess. His task of unearthing and disentangling the
monetary affairs of 'one of the ladies' compelled the wish to belong
to the party soon to be towering out of the grasp of bricks, and
delightfully gay, spirited, quick for fun. A fellow, he thought, may
brood upon Nature, but the real children of Nature--or she loves them
best--are those who have the careless chatter, the ready laugh, bright
welcome for a holiday. In catching the hour, we a