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Cautious, indeed with that giant of Pytchley fame running neck to neck by him; cautious with two-thirds of the course unrun, and all the yawners yet to come; cautious with the blood of Forest King lashing to boiling heat, and the wondrous greyhound stride stretching out faster and faster beneath him, ready at a touch to break away and take the lead; but he would be reckless enough by and by; reckless, as his nature was, under the indolent serenity of habit.
"I met her at lunch last week, and she spoke of hunting with the Pytchley next season. She's going to have a look at the country. Sorry the rain spoilt your match." I hesitated a moment. "Lady Dennisford," I said, "I had a particular reason for coming to see you this morning." She raised her eyebrows. "My dear Jim!"
"I have been thinking about it ever since. This is Thursday." "Not a doubt about it." "To-morrow will be Friday and the Duke has his great shooting on Saturday. There's nothing within a hundred miles of us on Saturday. I shall go with the Pytchley if I don't shoot, but I shall have to get up just when other people are going to bed. That wouldn't suit you."
If a lady is well off, and intends to hunt regularly, she would probably not give less than £25; but the Quorn and some other fashionable hunts lay down no hard and fast rule concerning the amount to be subscribed, which varies according to individual circumstances. The minimum subscription to the Pytchley is £25 for a man and £10 for a lady.
'He used to hunt with the Pytchley. 'That's the man. But he hasn't troubled the Pytchley for the last eight years. There was a time when he was the last thing in smartness in the German court officer in the Guards, ancient family, rich, darned clever all the fixings. Kaiser liked him, and it's easy to see why.
These, he said, were planted all over the kingdom; some at Melton, to ''unt with the Quorn'; some at Northampton, to ''unt with the Pytchley'; some at Lincoln, to ''unt with Lord 'Enry'; and some at Louth, to ''unt with' he didn't know who. What a fine flattering, well-spoken world this is, when the speaker can raise his own consequence by our elevation!
Though Sir Henry Fallowfield had never read Aristotle, he had studied, all his life, the principles of the peripeteia. Godfrey Parndon no longer ruled over the Pytchley. He had backed his own opinions and other men's bills once or twice too often, and had retired temporarily into private life till he could get "his second wind."
But for the sake of the children and, by the way, how do my bantlings find themselves this morning? Tol-lollish, I trust? for the sake of the children it was necessary, as we used to say with the Pytchley, to obscure 'the scent. Talking of scent, Smiles, it might be advisable what with the superphosphates and the onions to take some counteracting steps, which your ingenuity may be able to suggest.
It was known that men were coming from the Pytchley and the Cottesmore, so that everybody was supposed to be anxious to do his best. Hautboy was very much on the alert, and had succeeded in borrowing for the occasion Hampstead's best horse. Even Vivian, who was not given to much outward enthusiasm, had had consultations with his groom as to which of two he had better ride first.
He was still able to see dimly, with one eye, the glorious series of sporting prints that lined the walls of his room; and such pulses as he had left were stirred with momentary enthusiasm when the Pytchley Hunt reached the surviving half of his understanding. The other half of him had lived, and seemed to have died, years ago.
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