AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS 51 



thirty shots without touching a featlier, as it seemed 

 to my heated imagination ; but the keeper, with a 

 presence the late Due de Morny might have envied, 

 urges him " not to give over yet ; he might 'ave a 

 haccident and hit summut." Laughter is irresistible, 

 but Dick's ardour is not equal to trusting to this 

 remote contingency, so he wends his way home- 

 wards, for a wonder, on his own legs. The rest of 

 us proceed again, but the shooting is, if possible, 

 worse than before lunch ; and as we enter the park 

 again I ask, in a dejected tone of the head keeper, 

 ' What is the bag ? " " Seven brace, three hares, 

 and one rabbit." I turn away with a sigh, and 

 mentally resolve to remove from my head, in the 

 solitude of my chamber, on my return, the hairs — 

 the many hairs — that must have turned grey during 

 that terrible day ; and I join the rest to reseek the 

 hall, a sadder and a sulkier man. We enter the 

 billiard-room at six, to find Dick engaged in a game 

 of billiards with his pretty cousin, Lucy Hazard — 

 the dog ! but feeling that he deserves nothing at 

 our hands, we break the tetc-a-tete and summon the 

 other ladies for a pool. Lucy has been chaffing 

 Master Dick about " being such a muff as to return 

 so soon." Quite right — an uncommonly nice girl 

 is Miss Lucy, and with £50,000 of her own, too, 

 they say. If I were ten years younger, I think I 



