DEER-STALKING. 217 



certain degree, keeps me *' extended," and I want 

 to be quite fresh for the ample work which I know 

 awaits me when we reach the " tops." So, being 

 a little too proud to ask him to stop, I now and 

 then affect an interest in the view which I really 

 do not feel, and spare my legs and lungs without 

 wound to my feelings, although in my heart I have 

 a shrewd conviction that he is not taken in by this 

 very old manoeuvre. There is something very irritat- 

 ing in seeing your companion calmly striding on, 

 with not even a dew of perspiration on his brow, 

 and hardly a heave of his chest, when you are 

 raining with it and panting audibly ; and a friend 

 of mine, a statesman of distinction and middle age, 

 told me that on one occasion he felt this so strongly 

 that he positively conceived a bitter hatred towards 

 the young gillie who, poor fellow, was going as 

 slow as he could to accommodate him and vainly 

 racked his brains in search of some one physical 

 feat which he could challenge his young tormentor 

 to perform in which he my friend would have a 



