d blotted out the bustling London scene.
The shops glittering with their brightest goods placed in front, the
throng of vehicles, the crowds of people, faded away, the pace
increased and the stride lengthened as if stepping over the elastic
turf, and the roar of the traffic sounded low, like a distant
waterfall. From this reverie the rude apostrophes of a hansom-cabman
awoke me--I had walked right into the stream of the street, and
instead of the awning boughs of the wood found a whip upheld,
threatening chastisement for getting in the way. This brought me up
from imagination to logic with a jerk, and I began to check off the
uses D. could put his gun to on the fingers. (1) I knew he had a
friend in Yorkshire, and shot over his moor every August. His gun,
then, must be suited to grouse-shooting, and must be light, because
of the heat which often prevails at that time, and renders dragging
a heavy gun many miles over the heather--before they pack--a
serious drawback to the pleasure of the sport. (2) He had some
partridge-shooting of his own, and was peculiarly fond of it. (3) He
was always invited to at least two battues. (4) A part of his own
shooting was on the hills, where the hares were very wild, where
there was no cover, and they had to be knocked over at long
distances, and took a hard blow. That would require (a) a
choke-bore, which was not suitable either, because in covers the
pheasants at short ranges would not unlikely get 'blown,' which
would annoy the host; or (b) a heavy, strong gun, which would take a
stiff charge without too much recoil. But that, again, clashed with
the light gun for shooting in August. (5) He had latterly taken a
fancy to wild-fowl shooting by the coast, for which a very
hard-hitting, long-range gun was needed. It would never do if D.
could not bring down a duck. (6) He was notorious as a dead shot on
snipe--this told rather in favour of a light gun, old system of
boring; for where would a snipe or a woodcock be if it chanced to
get 200 pellets into it at twenty yards? You might find the claws
and fragments of the bill if you looked with a microscope. (7) No
delicate piece of workmanship would do, because he was careless of
his gun, knocked it about anyhow, and occasionally dropped it in a
brook. And here was the shop-door; imagine the state of confusion my
mind was in when I entered!

This was a very 'big' place: the gentleman who approached had a way
of waving his hand--very white