he very
rarely hunted; who had guns, though he never fired them; and
fishing-rods, though nobody knew where they were. He kept up a
great establishment, regretting nothing in regard to it except
the necessity of being sometimes present at the festivities for
which it was used. On the present occasion he had been enticed
into Northamptonshire no doubt with the purpose of laying some
first bricks, or opening some completed institution, or eating some
dinner,--on any one of which occasions he would be able to tell the
neighbours something as to the constitution of their country. Then
the presence of his lady-love seemed to make this a fitting occasion
for, perhaps, the one day's sport of the year. He came to Gorse Hall
to breakfast, and then rode to the meet along with the open carriage
in which the two ladies were sitting. "Llwddythlw," said his
lady-love, "I do hope you mean to ride."

"Being on horseback, Amy, I shall have no other alternative."

Lady Amaldina turned round to her friend, as though to ask whether
she had ever seen such an absurd creature in her life. "You know what
I mean by riding, Llwddythlw," she said.

"I suppose I do. You want me to break my neck."

"Oh, heavens! Indeed I don't."

"Or, perhaps, only to see me in a ditch."

"I can't have that pleasure," she said, "because you won't allow me
to hunt."

"I have taken upon myself no such liberty as even to ask you not to
do so. I have only suggested that tumbling into ditches, however
salutary it may be for middle-aged gentlemen like myself, is not a
becoming amusement for young ladies."

"Llwddythlw," said Hautboy, coming up to his future brother-in-law,
"that's a tidy animal of yours."

"I don't quite know what tidy means as applied to a horse, my boy;
but if it's complimentary, I am much obliged to you."

"It means that I should like to have the riding of him for the rest
of the season."

"But what shall I do for myself if you take my tidy horse?"

"You'll be up in Parliament, or down at Quarter Sessions, or doing
your duty somewhere like a Briton."

"I hope I may do my duty not the less because I intend to keep the
tidy horse myself. When I am quite sure that I shall not want him any
more, then I'll let you know."

There was the usual trotting about from covert to covert, and the
usual absence of foxes. The misery of sportsmen on these days is
sometimes so great that we wonder that any man, having experienced
the bitterness of hu