DEERSTALKING. 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 Httle 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 



