130 AN ANGLER AT LARGE 



and the digestive system is benefited. To the 

 grass-eater it is the tonic appetiser which his 

 meals are to the cigarette-smoker. Even this, 

 you see, was provided for the thrice and four 

 times happy ass. The road to market is a 

 pleasant road of an easy length, not hilly, passing 

 among trees. Jack liked very well to jog his 

 four miles there in his fifty minutes and to return 

 in his forty-five. It set him up for the week, and 

 it gave him that feeling of usefulness which, 

 in however modified a form Charity Matinees 

 let us say, and most subscription dances is 

 necessary to perfect contentment. 



But now his hire is but a shilling now he 

 lives in a sort of Purgatory, not quite Hell. Any 

 afternoon he may see Mrs. Bunting at the gate, 

 and at the sight his heart dies within him. He 

 knows what this portends. Whereas the really 

 charming spectacle of Mrs. Bunting at the gate 

 was wont to arouse within him the happy antici- 

 pation of gentle movement not over-prolonged, 

 for which his week's repose had absolutely inclined 

 him ; whereas the hebdomadary frolic was but a 

 pleasant break in a monotony, rendered by it 

 doubly delicious ; whereas his legs carried him 

 joyously to meet Mrs. Bunting, and he wore his 

 shafts as a man wears his holiday suit, now he 

 lowers his ears, ignores Mrs. Bunting, and tears 



