HOOKED FOUL. 215 



" The time had arrived when the mystery must be 

 cleared up. My companion paddled me slowly to the 

 upper end of the lake, I making a pretence of spinning the 

 water as we progressed. A sudden bend of the shore gave 

 us sight of the other punt. The boobiest of fellows still 

 reclined at his ease, and my nut-brown maid stood con- 

 fessed a veritable pike-mistress. 



"What a figure, too, as she lightly swept the bamboo 

 spinning-rod over her left shoulder, and brought it back 

 again for the cast ! It was the freest and most graceful 

 I ever witnessed. The bait fell with a minimum of splash 

 into the water, not an inch less than twenty yards the lee 

 side of the punt, and it was spun home at a speed and 

 depth that bespoke the experienced artist. 



" You may laugh, my friend, but do you not speak of a 

 singer, or dancer, or actor as an i artiste ' ? Therefore, my 

 signification of the term, your ribald jeer notwithstanding, 

 is quite justifiable. The miserable jester who chuckles 

 over the stale old senseless saying, ' A fool at one end 

 and a worm at the other/ will not, perhaps, understand me, 

 but that large and increasing class of anglers, who are the 

 product of nineteenth century refinement yes, I do not 

 withdraw the assertion these will know how to admire my 

 nymph of the rod. For the space of half an hour she 

 made superb leisurely casts, taking the punt as a centre 

 from which to make the radiations, beginning with a dozen 

 yards, and regularly increasing the distance, until the maxi- 

 mum of twenty yards was reached. 



" It was some comfort that she just now caught no fish. 

 I felt so much the less ashamed of myself. A very good 

 angler, according to the estimate of my friends, I confess 



