CHAPTER VIII 



SELECTION 



Take a hot schoolboy into a fruiterer's shop, where 

 the cheeks of the peach and the Quarrenden pippin 

 are glowing like his own, where the bloom still 

 lingers upon grape and plum, and where the * Good 

 Christian' pear of Williams (would that all who 

 assure us of their sanctity were as free from sourness, 

 as fruitful and refreshing !) yields to his inquiring 

 thumb. Bid him survey the scene, a pomological 

 Selkirk, and then proceed to fruition. Or take young 

 Philippos, a few years older, to some great mart of 

 horses. Introduce him to the proprietor, with his 

 pleasant smiling face, ruddy (from early rising, doubt- 

 less), his cheek and chin close-shaven (few men 

 nowadays shave so closely), hair clipped like his 

 horses', fox galloping over bird's-eye neckerchief, 

 cut-away coat with gilt buttons, and drab adhesive 

 pants. Let him hear how this generous, guileless 

 man has collected, without regard to toil or money, 

 the best horses in all Europe, solely for the pleasure 



