70 THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. 



a butcher's cart, cheek by jowl with Mrs. Whiffin's sheep's 

 head and Mrs, Onion's scrag-end of the neck, but the pain 

 of his excoriated heels was more than poor Tommy could 

 stand, and up he climbed, and in this inglorious and humiliat- 

 ing manner ultimately reached The Chase. 



Travers felt more than delighted as he met his friend 

 hopping painfully up the carriage-drive, on foot. He 

 listened with great pleasure to the Baronet's dismal tale — 

 Tommy would have said the horse had fallen with him — it is 

 so much pleasanter than having to admit that you've been 

 kicked off — but for the fact that the whole field had witnessed 

 the catastrophe, and could have contradicted the assertion. 

 When he had finished the recital, Trousers accompanied him 

 into the house, and administered a whisky-and-soda by way 

 of solace to his wounded feelings. Then he straightway 

 proceeded to lacerate them afresh by saying, in his best 

 and most vacuous manner — 



" So I ain't such a bad rider, you see, after all, am I ? In 

 fact, I must be a doosid sight better rider than you. Tommy, 

 mustn't I? because, although he ran away with me, I stuck 

 on; and when he ran away with you, you came off ! " and 

 he indulged in a high falsetto giggle. 



We regret to state — though we do not feel any surprise 

 at the fact — that murder was in Sir Tommy's heart at that 

 moment. Not a plain common-or-garden ordinary sort of 

 murder, but a regular twopence-coloured, done-to-death-in-the- 

 torture-chamber kind of tragedy. However, civilization has its 

 advantages, and instead of springing upon his companion, 

 there and then, and throttling him, he borrowed a tenner on 

 the spot. Then he said — 



