d Herlton, "but they are quite
reliable."

"I shall insist on something substantial off the rent if there are no
buzzards," said Yeovil; "now that you have mentioned them they seem an
indispensable accessory to any decent hunting-box. Look," he exclaimed,
catching sight of a plump middle-aged individual, crossing the vestibule
with an air of restrained importance, "there goes the delectable
Pitherby. Does he come on your books at all?"

"I should say!" exclaimed Herlton fervently. "The delectable P.
nourishes expectations of a barony or viscounty at an early date. Most
of his life has been spent in streets and squares, with occasional
migrations to the esplanades of fashionable watering-places or the
gravelled walks of country house gardens. Now that noblesse is about to
impose its obligations on him, quite a new catalogue of wants has sprung
into his mind. There are things that a plain esquire may leave undone
without causing scandalised remark, but a fiercer light beats on a baron.
Trigger-pulling is one of the obligations. Up to the present Pitherby
has never hit a partridge in anger, but this year he has commissioned me
to rent him a deer forest. Some pedigree Herefords for his 'home farm'
was another commission, and a dozen and a half swans for a swannery. The
swannery, I may say, was my idea; I said once in his hearing that it gave
a baronial air to an estate; you see I knew a man who had got a lot of
surplus swan stock for sale. Now Pitherby wants a heronry as well. I've
put him in communication with a client of mine who suffers from
superfluous herons, but of course I can't guarantee that the birds'
nesting arrangements will fall in with his territorial requirement. I'm
getting him some carp, too, of quite respectable age, for a carp pond; I
thought it would look so well for his lady-wife to be discovered by
interviewers feeding the carp with her own fair hands, and I put the same
idea into Pitherby's mind."

"I had no idea that so many things were necessary to endorse a patent of
nobility," said Yeovil. "If there should be any miscarriage in the
bestowal of the honour at least Pitherby will have absolved himself from
any charge of contributory negligence."

"Shall we say Wednesday, here, one o'clock, lunch first, and go down and
look at the horse afterwards?" said Herlton, returning to the matter in
hand.

Yeovil hesitated, then he nodded his head.

"There is no harm in going to look at the