84 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



might, for on the morrow the farmers on the estate 

 were to have their day's duck shooting on the lake. 

 My companion saw nothing in this to prevent our 

 fishing; indeed he showed no alaiTn until the keeper 

 told us that it would be as well to be on the water by 

 daybreak as possibly we might desire to leave when 

 those shooters got to work. 



Some men shine in all positions and are stars in 

 all companies; they seem to ghde through every affair 

 of life with the ease with which polished ivory makes 

 its way. I am not so happy; I confess I have often 

 wished myself somewhere else, but I don't remember 

 ever having done so while staying at a country inn. 

 The doctor, too, seems quite happy in the smoke- 

 room, and I don't wonder, as it must be a pleasant 

 change for him to be so near ruddy faces, robust health, 

 and loud, honest voices. 



The smoking-room we entered after dinner was 

 so full that my companion, after looking in, turned 

 back, but the chorus of voices that called after him, 

 'There's a chair vacant, sir,' caused us to carry out 

 our first intention of being listeners to agricultural 

 talk. Efforts were made by our neighbours, on either 

 side, to start a conversation with us, but the market, 

 its prices, seductive offers for unsold lots, and inquiries 

 for sound meadow hay, soon engrossed them, and when 

 these bargainings simmered to a settlement the more 

 general questions, rents and the price of wheat, were 

 talked of in louder voices. Many seemed to think 

 that farming could not be profitable so long as a 

 farmer could buy foreign grain cheaper than he could 

 grow it. Many were of opinion that wheat could not 

 be grown profitably under forty shillings, and there 

 was an almost universal opinion that rents were still 

 far too high. The biggest man in the room, a very big 

 one, smoked his pipe and drank his toddy with the 

 beamiest countenance imaginable, and, although more 

 than onca appealed to, only beamed and refixed his 



