194 CUB-HUNTING 



however, at least one individual whom all 

 agree in desiring to avoid, some cad, some 

 snob, to escape whom we hang back in 

 covert, jump some appalling place, or, if in 

 a crowd, endeavour to get our worst enemy 

 or most unselfish friend between him and 

 us. If one of these objectionable persons, 

 or well-meaning bores, comes out cub-hunting, 

 we are at his mercy ; he can get at us, and 

 the music of the hounds is mingled with 

 his ceaseless jabber ; our only escape is 

 the road home to breakfast. Oh, gentle 

 reader, have you not often, at covert side, 

 endeavoured to stay the torrent of " shop " 

 poured into your ear, by assenting to any 

 opinion, acquiescing in every view put forward, 

 no matter at what violation to conscience and 

 conviction ? Have we not all, in the dread 



