LOST OPPORTUNITIES. 127 
nimity. ‘All in the day’s job,” we say. ‘“ Besides, who knows ? I may 
see it again to-morrow.” But what if in the evening there appears upon 
the scene that miserable kill-joy, the man who didn’t miss; who drags 
forth from the recesses of his game-bag, and expects you to admire, and, 
worse still, congratulate him on having slaughtered, the bird that you had 
ear-marked as your own? Well, I make no secret of the fact that it is 
an occasion for displaying Christian charity to which I personally have 
never yet risen. Were I to express my real feelings in polite English, I 
should say: ‘Sir, if I were absolutely certain that, but for your skill as 
a marksman, the bird in question would now be well on its way to France, 
I should be able to congratulate you with sincerity; but this I feel is a 
very big ‘if.’ Confound you, sir, why didn’t you miss it, too?” 
