COVERT-SHOOTING. 107 



had been conscientiously bred on the estate. To 

 him and his keepers there was no romance ; they 

 knew that when 400 had been killed exactly 100 

 remained, representing so much outlay unaccounted 

 for, or capital bearing no interest save such sport 

 as could be derived from missing, or, alas ! wound- 

 ing a certain percentage of them. But from his 

 guests these things were hidden. They, in their 

 ignorance, were happy, as Othello says he would 

 have been, however vile the inconstancy and 

 incontinence of Desdemona^ 



"So he had nothing known." 



They knew not, and there was nothing in the flight 

 of the birds to tell them, that most of the tallest 

 " rocketers " had come straight from Leadenhall 

 Market. But the proper production of the 

 rocketer is a matter of arrangement and manage- 

 ment — knowledge and study of the ground and 

 placing of the guns. It is only by the hated 



