A MINCING LANE M. F. H. 65 



friends, expressed doubts as to the nature of the 

 sport we were hkely to find on the morrow. 



" Poult is an admirable sportsman in Mincing 

 Lane, but only an indifferent woolstapler in the 

 country," Sutcliffe cheerily remarked. " Rum 

 fellow he is, too ! I was bobbing along with the 

 hounds the other day, and was well forward — 

 no credit to me, for there was no pace. All of 

 a sudden somebody behind me called out, ' If 

 you want to ride there, sir, perhaps you would 

 like to take the hounds home and keep them ! ' 

 It was Poult, and he was in a rage because I 

 happened to be before him. Considering that 

 he calls the hounds his, and expects everybody 

 to subscribe, that is rather going it, I think." 



" But he's very considerate sometimes, you'll 

 admit ? He was to Birchington, for instance," 

 Stuart, another guest, broke in. " When Birch- 

 ington came down to these parts he turned up 

 at a meet one day, beautiful to behold. Poult 

 did not hke the look of him at first, and disliked 

 still more the patronizing tone in which Birch- 

 ington admired the hounds. But when he 

 trusted that he might forward a cheque. Poult 

 thought him one of the best got-up, most sterling 

 sportsmen he had ever seen. We did have a 

 gallop that day, and Birchington, who fondly 

 supposed that the ditches were a good bit 



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