lpful afforded me a frequent change of scene and visits by
important people as well as more intimate ones by Preblesham and the
Tharios prevented The Ivies--for so my place was called--from ever
becoming dull to me.

The general fell in love with a certain ale which was brewed on the
premises and declared, in spite of his lifelong rule to the contrary,
that it could be mixed with Irish whisky to make a drink so agreeable
that no sane man would want a better. The girls, particularly Winifred,
were enchanted with my private woods, the gardens and the deerpark; but
Mama, throughout their visits, remained almost entirely silent and aloof
except for the rare remarks which seemed to burst from her as though by
an inescapable inward compulsion. These were always insulting and always
directed at me, but I overlooked them, knowing her to be deranged.

_79._ Perhaps one of the things I most enjoyed about The Ivies was
wandering through its acres, breathing through my pores, as it were, the
sense of possession. I was walking through the cowslips and violets
punctuating the meadow bordering one of the many little streams, when I
came upon a fellow roughly dressed, the pockets of his shootingjacket
bulging and a fishingline in his hand. For a moment I thought him one of
the gamekeepers and nodded, but his quick look and furtive gestures
instantly revealed him as a poacher.

"Youre trespassing, you know," I said with some severity.

"I know, guvner," he admitted readily, "but I wasnt doing no harm; just
looking at this bit of water here and listening to the birds."

"With a fishingline in your hands?"

"Well, now, guvner, that's by way of being a precaution. You see, when I
go out on a little expedition like this, to inspect the beauties of
nature--which I admit I have no right to do, they being on someone
else's land--I always say to myself, 'Suppose you run into some gent
looking at a lovely fat trout in a brook and he hasnt got no fishline
with him? What could be more philanthropic than I produce my bit of
string and help him out?' Aint that a proper Christian attitude,
guvner?"

"Possibly; but what, may I ask, makes your pockets bulge so
suspiciously? Is that another philanthropy?"

"Accident, guvner, sheer accident. Walking along like this with my head
down I always seem to come upon two or three dead hares or now and then
a partridge or grouse. Natural mortality, you understand. Well, what
could be more humane than t