BOB HAMILTON'S MAIDEN RAGE. 121 



not possibly have stood it, Dudley," he chuckled. " But I 

 must begin at the beginning," he went on. " I was 

 spending Christmas with an old friend of mine, Hartopp — 

 he's dead now, poor chap — whose park ran up to a 

 portion of the course. In the billiard-room that evening 

 conversation turned on the annual 'chases that were to take 

 place in the spring, and our genial host invited us one and 

 all to stop with him for the meeting. He had a house full of 

 shooting men at the time, but some of us who were fond of 

 hunting and racing eagerly accepted his invitation. We were 

 a jolly party, but there was one who did not seem to be quite 

 one of us, a new-comer in the district, a man by the name of 

 Hodgson, whose father had made a fortune out of soap or 

 candles, or something, and who had bought a small neigh- 

 bouring estate for his young hopeful. Hartopp,' like the 

 good fellow he was, always did his best to be neighbourly, so 

 had asked him to shoot with us that day, when he had made 

 himself conspicuous by the masterly way in which he missed 

 his birds, and by the strength and variety of his expletives. 

 " Having drunk more than a reasonable allowance of wine 

 at dinner, where his vulgar jokes and the inordinate boasting 

 of his wealth and achievements had thoroughly disgusted us, 

 we had by this time summed up Mr. Hodgson as an out-and- 

 out bounder. Talking of racing soon brought riding up as a 

 topic of conversation, and then some of my more intimate 

 friends began chaffing me on my skill in the pigskin. It was 

 much the same as it is now, my dear boys. I don't think I 

 have deteriorated a bit. Hodgson, who had joined in all the 

 conversation and expressed himself freely on every occasion, 

 soon chimed in with a few specially selected and extra refined 

 jokes at my expense, so that it is no wonder II got nettled. 

 We had often met in the hunting field, where he was a very 

 fair performer, though rather devoid of pluck, and where I 

 grieve to say he had witnessed some of my unique per- 



