278 THE COMPLETE SPORTSMAN 



" I can never think of him," continued my 

 host, " mthout recalling those beautiful lines of 

 — who is it ? — Shakespeare, I think." 



" It certainly sounds like Shakespeare," I 

 agreed. 



" ' Better a man ' " Lord Balcombe 



rolled the fine phrases round his tongue wdth 

 evident gusto: 



Better a man himself should ever be 

 Than, like an estridge, in his limes ensky'd. 

 Plumbing th' abysmal, incommensurate deeps ' " 



He paused. " Who can forget that passage ?" 

 he murmured, with some emotion. 



''Who, indeed?" I said. "It is unfor- 

 gettable." 



" Let me see," he added. " How does it go 

 on ?" 



" Dear me !" I replied, rather nervously. " I 

 know it so well. 



Plumbing the — er — incommensurate deeps — 

 The — er — something — incommensurate deeps ' '* 



" Never mind." He interrupted a fourth repe- 

 tition of these haunting lines. " Memory plays 

 strange tricks with us all, as Dickens says so 

 truly in— is it ' Bleak House ' ?" 



" Yes," I answered firmly, though I had un- 

 fortunately never read " Bleak House." 



" What an admirable scene that is between 



