Johnson's Dictionary_, and read out
something about "Lunch" being only a colloquial form of "luncheon."
Still, I don't care a little bit. Dr. JOHNSON lived so long ago, and
couldn't possibly know _everything_--could he?

R.L.

My darling young lady, I reply, your letter has made a deep impression
on me. Dr. JOHNSON did, as you say, live many years ago; so many years
ago, in fact, that (as a little friend of _Mr. Punch_ once said, with
a sigh, on hearing that someone would have been one hundred and fifty
years old if he had been alive at the present day) he must be "a orfle
old angel now." The word "lunch" is short, crisp, and appetising. The
word "luncheon" is of a certain pomposity, which, though it may suit
the mansions of the great, is out of place when applied to the meals
of active sportsmen. So we will continue, if you please, to speak
of "lunch." And now for your question. My charming ROSE, this little
treatise does not profess to do anything more than teach young
sportsmen how to converse. I assume that they have learnt shooting
from other instructors. And as to the details of shooting-parties,
how they should be composed, what they should do or avoid, and how
they should bear themselves generally--the subject is too great, too
solemn, too noble to be entered upon with a light heart. At any rate,
that is not my purpose here. It was rude--_very_ rude--of FRED to
say you were a bore--and I am sure it wasn't true. I can picture
you tripping daintily along with your pretty companions to the lunch
_rendezvous_. You are dressed in a perfectly fitting, tailor-made
dress, cut short in the skirt, and displaying the very neatest and
smallest pair of ankles that ever were seen. And your dear little nose
is just a leetle--not red, no, certainly not red, but just delicately
pink on its jolly little tip, having gallantly braved the north wind
without a veil. To call _you_ a bore is absurd. But men are _such_
brutes, and it is as certain as that two and two (even at our public
schools) make four, that ladies are--what shall I say?--not so popular
as they always ought to be when they come amongst shooters engaged
in their sport. Even at lunch they are not _always_ welcomed with
enthusiasm. This is, perhaps, wrong, for, after all, they can do no
harm there.

But, darling ROSE, I am sure FRED was perfectly right to send you home
again directly the meal was over, though it must have wrung his manly
heart to part from EMILY RAY