HOOKED FOUL. 217 



he was secured, and not objecting to enjoy his hopeless 

 struggles before treating him to the coup de grace. The 

 pike seemed particularly uncomfortable, and the lady 

 smiled a smile of calm and virtuous content as he gave 

 evidence of his perturbed state of mind. He kept well 

 down into the deep, describing, as the line indicated, a 

 series of strange mathematical figures. 



" The moment the angleress tightened on him, he leaped, 

 shining like gold, a foot out of the water ! — bringing an- 

 other quiet smile into her placid face when he fell back. 

 Her theory was to give her enemy plenty of line — (and let 

 me tell you in an ' aside,' there are worse notions than 

 that for other pursuits than pike-fishing). The line was 

 hauled in and neatly deposited in circles on the floor of 

 the punt ; and when, at length, the broad yellow side of 

 the conquered one appeared on the surface at the exact 

 spot necessary for successful bagging, the lady, with a 

 slight flush of cheek and flash of eye, inserted the gaff 

 under his gaping gill, and lifted him deftly over the 

 gunwale. 



"A cheery bell-metal laugh broke the silence. The 

 game — objecting, maybe, to the morality of Mons. Du- 

 mas — flapped and floundered at the young gentleman in 

 the stem, causing him to splutter, to drop 'Beau Tan- 

 crede,' and jump so ludicrously, that the nut-brown maid 

 indulged in several merry peals. 



" The fish could not frighten her : to be sure, petticoats 

 are a protection to a lady in more ways than one. But she 

 made no effort to get out of his way when he descended 

 against her skirts ; on the contrary, she waited her oppor- 

 tunity — thrust her fqre-finger and thumb into the eye-sockets, 



