It is a position in which a man should at any rate be a gentleman. If
he be not, all those who should be concerned in maintaining the hunt
will turn their backs upon him. When I take my hounds over this man's
ground, and that man's ground, certainly without doing him any good,
I have to think of a great many things. I have to understand that
those whom I cannot compensate by money, I have to compensate by
courtesy. When I shake hands with a farmer and express my obligation
to him because he does not lock his gates, he is gratified. I don't
think any decent farmer would care much for shaking hands with Major
Tifto. If we fall into that kind of thing there must soon be an end
of hunting. Major Tiftos are cheap no doubt; but in hunting, as in
most other things, cheap and nasty go together. If men don't choose
to put their hands in their pockets they had better say so, and give
the thing up altogether. If you won't take any more wine, we'll go to
the ladies. Silverbridge, the trap will start from the door to-morrow
morning precisely at 9.30 A.M. Grantingham Cross is fourteen miles."
Then they all left their chairs,--but as they did so Mr. Spooner
finished the bottle of port-wine.

"I never heard Chiltern speak so much like a book before," said
Spooner to his wife, as she drove him home that night.

The next morning everybody was ready for a start at half-past nine,
except Mr. Maule,--as to whom his wife declared that she had left him
in bed when she came down to breakfast. "He can never get there if
we don't take him," said Lord Chiltern, who was in truth the most
good-natured man in the world. Five minutes were allowed him, and
then he came down with a large sandwich in one hand and a button-hook
in the other, with which he was prepared to complete his toilet.
"What the deuce makes you always in such a hurry?" were the first
words he spoke as Lord Chiltern got on the box. The Master knew him
too well to argue the point. "Well;--he always is in a hurry," said
the sinner, when his wife accused him of ingratitude.

"Where's Spooner?" asked the Master when he saw Mrs. Spooner without
her husband at the meet.

"I knew how it would be when I saw the port-wine," she said in a
whisper that could be heard all round. "He has got it this time
sharp,--in his great toe. We shan't find at Grantingham. They were
cutting wood there last week. If I were you, my Lord, I'd go away to
the Spinnies at once."

"I must draw the country re