THE RAT 



not of a solid kind, at any rate. What I really wish 

 most of all is to leave a pleasant taste in your 

 mouth before I make you my final bow. I am 

 well aware that, after reading some of my pre\4ous 

 chapters, you will have come to the perfectly legiti- 

 mate conclusion that I am a godless old ruffian, 

 who ought to have been trapped long ago. I 

 quite grant that the outside of my coat is some- 

 what patchy and shabby, but I really have one or 

 two very nice clean pieces hidden away on the in- 

 side which I should like to show to you, if only 

 you can contrive to look round the corner just a 

 little. I do not wish to imply that you squint ; 

 but, unless you can see a little off the straight line. 

 Nature will never grant to you any near and familiar 

 view of her more intimate secrets. She is the kind 

 of person who always plays her prettiest dramas 

 just round the corner, and if she has no audience 

 to play to that is the time at which she plays her 

 best. I do not exactly mean that you must crawl 

 about and peep through a screen of green bushes 

 or tufts of grass, though you will never have cause 

 to regret the cultivation of this habit. You need 

 not be afraid of the proverb 'Listeners hear no 

 good of themselves.' Not one of the stories which 

 you will see enacted in dumb show is about you. 



