THE MASTER 23 



bane. Take it easy ! Take it easy ! " Better luck 

 next time," say we. 



To suppose that a man can be Master of a pack 

 of hounds, and not feel differently when things go on 

 smoothly and well to what he does when they all 

 go crooked and wrong, is either to suppose that he is 

 ignorant of what he professes to direct, or has feelings 

 and passions different from other people. It is the 

 mode of conducting himself under the circumstances, 

 the language made use of, the manner, time, and style 

 of the reproof that constitutes the difference between 

 the "best fellow under the sun," and the "nastiest 

 brute going." 



The old Masters, if history is to be credited, in- 

 dulged in the innuendo, or suaviter in modo style of 

 rebuke rather than in the " d — n your eyes " fortiter 

 in re one. Thus Mr. Meynell, in reply to a persecut- 

 ing over-rider, who would argue that he was right, 

 would bow and smilingly say, " You may be perfectly 

 right, sir, and I quite wrong, but there is gross 

 ignorance on one side or the other." Even this sort 

 of rebuke he did not care to repeat, generally the 

 telling the man a second time that he was incorrigible, 

 and it was no use admonishing him. Notwithstand- 

 ing all his politeness, however, we are told that Mr. 

 Meynell's indignation in the field was sometimes 

 excessive, frequently expressed by looks, sometimes 

 by deputies, but still, when by words, he never degene- 

 rated into rudeness. Mr. Corbet was a somewhat 

 similar character. A gentleman killed him a hound 

 one day. He saw who did it, but, instead of attack- 

 ing the delinquent point blank, he trotted past him, 

 saying, "They've killed me a favourite hound, sir ; 

 you don't happen to know who did it, do you ? " On 

 another occasion he just dropped into the delinquent's 

 ear, en passant, "Killed the best hound in the pack, 

 that's all." He caught a gentleman hunting the 

 hounds one day, " Thank you, sir," exclaimed Mr. 



