OF SPECIALISED CONVERSATION 173 



altogether, for I had wished my guests to have 

 their will of the water, and my wife and I had 

 spent the afternoon with the ass on the downs. 

 Still, I had a tale to tell, though a tale of failure 

 and disappointment, and I told it. This occupied 

 our attention till shortly before eleven, when 

 Wickham practically insisted on a hearing. 



This had been Wickham's first experience of 

 the Clere, and he had a great deal to say. During 

 the day he had been over the whole water. So, 

 beginning at the Lower End, he told us about 

 several fishes which he had seen there. These 

 were all well known to Chavender and to me, but 

 it was not always that we could be perfectly 

 satisfied as to the identity of any particular one 

 about which Wickham was talking. For Wick- 

 ham had not that perfect knowledge of the water 

 which Chavender, after an acquaintance of three 

 days, and I, after an intimacy of five and a half 

 seasons, possess. Still, with a little care, we were 

 always able to discover which of the trouts was 

 the subject of Wickham's remarks, and to follow 

 his proceedings with almost as much pleasure and 

 knowledge as if we had actually assisted at them. 

 Our talk ran something like this. 



WICK : So he was put down for good. Then I 

 went on, and just round the next corner I saw a 

 sneaking rise in a quiet place, beside some rushes. 



