38 RACECOUESE AND COVERT SIDE. 



to jump anything, for the excellent reason that 

 there was nothing to jump, except occasional 

 sheep hurdles, which he could take or leave as 

 he liked ; and Cobb, who had been to the Horse 

 Show at the Agricultural Hall, at once decided 

 that he should always adopt the latter alter- 

 native, and leave them without hesitation. 



Cobb was not at all sure that he should not 

 look remarkably well in boots and breeches, and 

 at the hunt breakfasts he felt certain that he 

 should shine. At the Vestry Hall in the even- 

 ing oratory is dry work ; but when champagne 

 glasses hold a fair quantity, and the servants 

 are instructed to let no glass be empty, a 

 man whose political principles, in opposition to 

 those of the speaker, are not very firml}^ fixed is 

 apt to have them washed away, temporarily, 

 perhaps, but for a period sufficiently long to 

 enable him to enunciate some ''Hear, hears ! " 

 with a conviction which to sanguine orators 

 sounds permanent. Then the hunt could break- 

 fast at other men's houses, and in the cases of 

 those who were not of liberal disposition he 

 could arrange so that they should not lose any- 

 thing by their hospitality. And a master of 

 hounds was somebody, even if the hounds were 

 not foxhounds. Cobb went to bed impressed 

 with the idea that Wetherby was one of the 



