that very rich people lose all that. When
everything is so easily obtained, nothing is of any value. Crawley at
any rate was delighted with his new possession. He took it to pieces
and put it together again for the benefit of every member of the family,
besides a good many times for his own private delectation, and practised
aiming drill and position drill by the hour together, without knowing
that there were any such military exercises.

The frost set in again, however, a week before Christmas, and when the
ice bore, he had to leave his new toy alone, for besides practising
himself, his sisters required tuition in the art of skating. And you
must not think that he found the time hang heavy to the day of his
departure; he was too fresh home, and of too genial a disposition for
that, besides which it was Christmas time. But he did look forward with
pleasurable excitement to his visit, for all that.

The day came at length, and he started for Barnsbury, snugly ensconsed
in a first-class carriage, with wraps, and comic papers, and a story by
Manville Fenn with a thrilling picture on the cover, and his beloved gun
in the rack over his head. His mother had suggested travelling second-
class, but he durst not, for fear someone should meet him at the
station. He was right in that expectation, for when the train stopped
at Barnsbury he saw Gould and a man in livery waiting for him on the
platform.

"All right! how are you, old fellow?" said Gould, shaking him by the
hand. "How good of you to come! No hunting in such a frost as this, so
I thought I would drive over myself."

Crawley said something civil, and the groom touched his hat and asked
what luggage he had, taking his gun-case from him as he spoke.

"It will be brought after us in the tax-cart," said Gould, "which has
come over too. I hate a lot of luggage in the trap I am driving, don't
you? Leave it to William and come along; it will be all right;" and he
led the way out of the station, where there was a dog-cart with another
liveried servant on the seat, and a handsome nag in the shafts, waiting
at the door.

The man jumped down and touched his hat; Crawley got in; Gould gathered
up the reins, sat beside him, and started, the man springing up behind
as they moved off, and balancing himself, with folded arms, as smart and
natty as you please.

Crawley wondered more and more that he had never perceived any
superiority in Gould; surely he must be very b