Anthony Trollope 



score of elderly men, with some young men among them 

 too, turned back into a lane behind them, having watched 

 long enough to see that they were to take the lane to the left, 

 and not the lane to the right. After all there was time 

 enough, for when the men had got through the hand-gate 

 the hounds were hardly free of the covert, and Tony, riding 

 up the side of the hill opposite, was still blowing his horn. 

 But they were off at last, and the bulk of the field got away 

 on good terms with the hounds. ' Now they are hunting,' 

 said Mr. Morton to the Senator. 



' They all seemed to be very angry with each other at 

 that narrow gate.' 



' They were in a hurry, I suppose.' 



' Two of them jumped over the hedge. Why didn't they 

 all jump ? How long will it be now before they catch him ? ' 



' Very probably they may not catch him at all.' 



' Not catch him after all that ! Then the man was 

 certainly right to poison that other fox in the wood. How 

 long will they go on ? ' 



' Half an hour perhaps.' 



' And you call that hunting ! Is it worth the while of 

 all those men to expend all that energy for such a result } 

 Upon the whole, Mr. Morton, I should say that it is one of 

 the most incomprehensible things that I have ever seen in 

 the course of a rather long and varied life. Shooting I can 

 understand, for you have your birds. Fishing I can under- 

 stand, as you have your fish. Here you get a fox to begin 

 with, and are all broken-hearted. Then you come across 



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