nal than the
judgment of the man.

It was on Monday, the tenth of August, that we were due at Milchester
Abbey, Dorset; and the beginning of the month found us cruising about
that very county, with fly-rods actually in our hands. The idea was
that we should acquire at once a local reputation as decent fishermen,
and some knowledge of the countryside, with a view to further and more
deliberate operations in the event of an unprofitable week. There was
another idea which Raffles kept to himself until he had got me down
there. Then one day he produced a cricket-ball in a meadow we were
crossing, and threw me catches for an hour together. More hours he
spent in bowling to me on the nearest green; and, if I was never a
cricketer, at least I came nearer to being one, by the end of that
week, than ever before or since.

Incident began early on the Monday. We had sallied forth from a
desolate little junction within quite a few miles of Milchester, had
been caught in a shower, had run for shelter to a wayside inn. A
florid, overdressed man was drinking in the parlor, and I could have
sworn it was at the sight of him that Raffles recoiled on the
threshold, and afterwards insisted on returning to the station through
the rain. He assured me, however, that the odor of stale ale had
almost knocked him down. And I had to make what I could of his
speculative, downcast eyes and knitted brows.

Milchester Abbey is a gray, quadrangular pile, deep-set in rich woody
country, and twinkling with triple rows of quaint windows, every one of
which seemed alight as we drove up just in time to dress for dinner.
The carriage had whirled us under I know not how many triumphal arches
in process of construction, and past the tents and flag-poles of a
juicy-looking cricket-field, on which Raffles undertook to bowl up to
his reputation. But the chief signs of festival were within, where we
found an enormous house-party assembled, including more persons of
pomp, majesty, and dominion than I had ever encountered in one room
before. I confess I felt overpowered. Our errand and my own presences
combined to rob me of an address upon which I have sometimes plumed
myself; and I have a grim recollection of my nervous relief when dinner
was at last announced. I little knew what an ordeal it was to prove.

I had taken in a much less formidable young lady than might have fallen
to my lot. Indeed I began by blessing my good fortune in this respect.