THE ANGLER'S GUIDE. 139 



down sweet. But for his part, he would never 

 obey orders so strictly as all that, for he liked 

 fish fried in plenty of fat, and a good rich 

 gravy with them into the bargain, and he 

 would have it too when he could get it, for he 

 knew for certain that Father Munch, after 

 all his talk to the people about the blessedness 

 of fasting, often ate on the sly all manner of 

 good rich things at fasting times, for he hadn't 

 been into his kitchen so often to learn nothing. 

 And thus they went on talking about fish, fat, 

 and savoury gravy until Mrs. Bigings almost 

 imagined she could smell the delicious effluvia 

 flying off from them. And it was well that 

 her husband's eloquence upon the eating part 

 of the pleasure was good, because it pleased 

 her, and reconciled her to his going to catch 

 the fish. She knew that he was fond of a 

 little drop, as he termed it, though it some- 

 times amounted to a large drop, or a number 

 of large drops ; and then, like many other 

 people, he was troubled with a violent swim- 

 ming in his head, and could hardly tell what 

 he was about. And Father Ganza had found 

 him two or three times the worse for liquor, 

 as people call it, at the chapel ; and upon one 

 occasion, liquor the worse for him, for he had 



