or
the sport. Great nuisances they are to steady, middle-aged hunting
men; but the young fellows like them because they have thereby an
opportunity of showing off their sporting finery, and of doing a
little flirtation on horseback. The bishop, also, had been minded to
be of the party: so, at least, he had said on the previous evening;
and a place in one of the carriages had been set apart for him: but
since that, he and Mrs. Proudie had discussed the matter in private,
and at breakfast his lordship declared that he had changed his mind.

Mr. Sowerby was one of those men who are known to be very poor--as
poor as debt can make a man--but who, nevertheless, enjoy all the
luxuries which money can give. It was believed that he could not
live in England out of jail but for his protection as a member of
Parliament; and yet it seemed that there was no end to his horses
and carriages, his servants and retinue. He had been at this work
for a great many years, and practice, they say, makes perfect. Such
companions are very dangerous. There is no cholera, no yellow-fever,
no small-pox, more contagious than debt. If one lives habitually
among embarrassed men, one catches it to a certainty. No one had
injured the community in this way more fatally than Mr. Sowerby.
But still he carried on the game himself; and now, on this morning,
carriages and horses thronged at his gate, as though he were as
substantially rich as his friend the Duke of Omnium.

"Robarts, my dear fellow," said Mr. Sowerby, when they were well
under way down one of the glades of the forest,--for the place
where the hounds met was some four or five miles from the house of
Chaldicotes,--"ride on with me a moment. I want to speak to you; and
if I stay behind we shall never get to the hounds." So Mark, who had
come expressly to escort the ladies, rode on alongside of Mr. Sowerby
in his pink coat.

"My dear fellow, Fothergill tells me that you have some hesitation
about going to Gatherum Castle."

"Well, I did decline, certainly. You know I am not a man of pleasure,
as you are. I have some duties to attend to."

"Gammon!" said Mr. Sowerby; and as he said it, he looked with a kind
of derisive smile into the clergyman's face.

"It is easy enough to say that, Sowerby; and perhaps I have no right
to expect that you should understand me."

"Ah, but I do understand you; and I say it is gammon. I would be the
last man in the world to ridicule your scruples about duty,