184 EACECOUESE AND COVEET SIDE. 



head, and there you are." The question seemed 

 to me rather where I should be if I endeavoured 

 to interfere with his possession of that useful 

 member. As for my having " nothing to do but 

 to sit still," calling to remembrance the size of 

 some of the obstacles we had to cross, I cannot 

 put it more mildly than by saying that, under 

 the circumstances, I did not see how it was to 

 be done. 



Packenham interrupted my reflections. 



" Come on, old fellow, or we shall be late — in 

 fact, we are rather so already," he said. 



Quite incapable of resistance, I passively 

 followed them into a dressing-room, where they 

 supplied me with a pair of leathers and boots, 

 and assisted me into one of Hugh Welwyn's 

 crimson jackets and vivid racing caps. 

 Almost oblivious of the world in general, I was 

 seated with some difficulty in a swinging scale, 

 while in my luckless lap was piled a confused 

 heap of saddle, stirrup-irons, bridles, girths, and 

 whip ; and then, hoping that some of the colour 

 from my jacket was reflected into a face which 

 must have been more than pallid, if extreme 

 anxiety has the effect which is usually attributed 

 to it, I issued forth, and looked on with some 

 trepidation — with a good deal of trepidation, if 

 the truth must be told — while the gigantic 



