THE BOOK: AN APOLOGY 7 



wealth and social position, that without getting him 

 on our side it would be difficult to obtain an order. 

 He was certainly a big man physically, a very giant 

 in stature, with a tread like that of an elephant when 

 he entered the vast dim room into which a servant had 

 conducted me. So huge a mass, so heavy and stolid, 

 as he stood there silently staring at me out of his 

 great expressionless boiled-gooseberry-coloured eyes, 

 waiting to hear what I had to say to him. I said it, 

 and handed him some papers, which I wanted him to 

 look at. But he was not listening, and when I finished 

 he held out the papers for me to take them back. 

 " No," he said, " I have too many calls on me — I 

 can't entertain it." " Will you kindly listen," I said, 

 then repeated it again, and he muttered something and 

 taking the papers once more inclined his head to indicate 

 that the interview was over, and, thanking him for his 

 ready sympathy, I went my way to some one else. 



My next visit was to an enthusiastic sportsman. 

 I told him where I had been, and he exclaimed that 

 it was a mistake, a waste of time. " That chunk of 

 a man is no good," he said. " If he sees a roast goose 

 on the table he knows what it is and he can distinguish 

 it from a roast turkey, and that's all he knows about 

 birds." Perhaps it was all he knew, from the natural 

 history point of view at all events ; yet even this 

 " chunk of a man " had doubtless felt something of 

 that common universal joy in a bird, which makes 

 the bird so much to us, for by-and-by it was with 

 his help that the order for the county was obtained. 



