total
absence of all pecuniary thoughts and cares.

And then there arose at The Cleeve a question as to what should
immediately be done with the heir. He himself was by no means so well
prepared with an answer as had been his friend Lucius Mason. When
consulted by his grandfather, he said that he did not know. He would
do anything that Sir Peregrine wished. Would Sir Peregrine think
it well that he should prepare himself for the arduous duties of a
master of hounds? Sir Peregrine did not think this at all well, but
it did not appear that he himself was prepared with any immediate
proposition. Then Peregrine discussed the matter with his mother,
explaining that he had hoped at any rate to get the next winter's
hunting with the H.H.;--which letters have represented the Hamworth
Fox Hunt among sporting men for many years past. To this his mother
made no objection, expressing a hope, however, that he would go
abroad in the spring. "Home-staying youths have ever homely wits,"
she said to him, smiling on him ever so sweetly.

"That's quite true, mother," he said. "And that's why I should like
to go to Leicestershire this winter." But going to Leicestershire
this winter was out of the question.

CHAPTER IV

THE PERILS OF YOUTH

Going to Leicestershire was quite out of the question for young Orme
at this period of his life, but going to London unfortunately was
not so. He had become acquainted at Oxford with a gentleman of
great skill in his peculiar line of life, whose usual residence
was in the metropolis; and so great had been the attraction found
in the character and pursuits of this skilful gentleman, that our
hero had not been long at The Cleeve, after his retirement from
the university, before he visited his friend. Cowcross Street,
Smithfield, was the site of this professor's residence, the
destruction of rats in a barrel was his profession, and his name
was Carroty Bob. It is not my intention to introduce the reader to
Carroty Bob in person, as circumstances occurred about this time
which brought his intimacy with Mr. Orme to an abrupt conclusion. It
would be needless to tell how our hero was induced to back a certain
terrier, presumed to be the pride of Smithfield; how a great match
came off, second only in importance to a contest for the belt of
England; how money was lost and quarrels arose, and how Peregrine
Orme thrashed one sporting gent within an inch of his life, and
fought his way out of Carrot