44 PARTRIDGE DAY 



down stairs, — the breakfast room is tenantless. 

 My first impression is that they have been unable 

 to curb their sporting ardour, and have started 

 without me. Hearing a footstep on the gravel 

 sweep without, I step through the open casement, 

 and confront a pretty dairymaid bringing in the 

 milk and cream for breakfast. 



"Tine mornin', sir." 



" Yes. Which way have they gone — can you 

 tell me ? " 



" Same gait as ever, sir. Joe have druv 'em 

 down agin the fenny pasture, arter milkin' up 

 hinder." 



" Ah ! but the gentlemen, not the cows." 



" The gentlemen, is it ? Maybe if ye look in 

 their beds yell see 'em this time o' day." 



Heaving a mighty sigh, I leave the dairymaid, 

 and stroll up and down the garden, listening with 

 increasing impatience to the distant call of the 

 partridges in the park. Nature at Downcharge 

 Hall that morning was at all events beautifully 

 still ; there was a slight mist, too, gradually clearing 

 off from the distance, which betokened very surely a 

 broiling day, and made me long the more to get our 

 seven or eight brace before the mid- day heat should 

 come upon us. My longings and reflections, how- 

 ever, were suddenly cut short by a pitying butler, 



