1 8 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



speech or appearance he loves to dwell upon. If the 

 valet sees the hero or the statesman too closely, so 

 sometimes does the gamekeeper. A great man must 

 have moments when it is a relief to fling off the con- 

 stant posturing necessary before the world ; and there 

 is freshness in the gamekeeper's unstudied conversa- 

 tion. The keeper thinks that nothing reveals a gentle- 

 man's character so much as his ' tips.' 



I Gentlemen is very curious in tips,' he says, c and 

 there ain't nothing so difficult as to know what's com- 

 ing. Most in general them as be the biggest guns, and 

 what you would think would come out handsome, 

 chucks you a crown and no more ; and them as you 

 knows ain't much go in the way of money slips a sove- 

 reign into your fist. There's a deal in the way of giv- 

 ing it too, as perhaps you wouldn't think. Some gents 

 does it as much as to say they're much obliged to you 

 for kindly taking it. Some does it as if they were 

 chucking a bone to a dog. One place where I was, 

 the governor were the haughtiest man as ever you see. 

 When the shooting was done — after a great party, you 

 never knowed whether he were pleased or not — he 

 never took no more notice of you than if you were a 

 tree. But I found him out arter a time or two. You 

 had to walk close behind him, as if you were a spaniel ; 

 and by-and-by he would slip his hand round behind 



