ii THE INVIOLABLE SHADE 25 



Plainly, I should have to have a really 

 big day with the grayling to balance my 

 accounts, and on the next morning I settled 

 down to a shoal which was found rising on 

 the edge of a long bank of weeds. They 

 rose well for some hours, and I nursed my 

 unconquerable hope, and cast diligently 

 across a rather awkward breeze. But it 

 presently began to dawn upon me that the 

 undertaking was not quite so easy as I had 

 imagined. Fancies and terrors were all 

 tried in turn, and all discarded. The dark 

 olive dun, which was on the water in fair 

 quantities, failed to secure a rise. Black 

 gnats, red quills, little Marryatts, sedges red 

 and silver, the red tag itself, all seemed to 

 be useless, and at last the unconquerable 

 hope was, so to speak, put away into its 

 cradle while I considered the problem. 



Finally, a Wickham floated rather cyni- 

 cally over an obstinate fish and was taken. 

 " At last ! " I murmured, as I hurried down 

 stream in obedience to the grayling's per- 

 emptory demand. A good fifty yards were 

 covered, and I saw no more of him than 

 his great back fin once. Evidently this 

 was one of the two-pounders taken with the 



