32 CONVERSATIONAL HINTS 



playing the very neatest and smallest pair of ankles 

 that ever were seen. And your dear little nose is 

 just a leetle not red, no, certainly not red, but 

 just delicately pink on its jolly little tip, having 

 gallantly braved the north wind without a veil. 

 To call you a bore is absurd. But men are such 

 brutes, and it is as certain as that two and two 

 (even at our public schools) make four, that ladies 

 are what shall I say? not so popular as they 

 always ought to be when they come amongst 

 shooters engaged in their sport. Even at lunch 

 they are not always welcomed with enthusiasm. 

 This is, perhaps, wrong, for, after all, they can do 

 no harm there. 



But, darling Eose, I am sure Fred was perfectly 

 right to send you home again directly the meal 

 was over, though it must have wrung his manly 

 heart to part from Emily Kayburn. Even veteran 

 sportsmen have qualms when a poor bird has 

 been merely wounded, or when a maimed hare 

 shrieks as the dog seizes it. I cannot, as I 

 say, discuss the ethics of the question. The 

 good shot is the merciful shot. But, after all, 

 in killing of every kind, whether by the gun or the 

 butcher's knife, there is an element of cruelty. 



