off with the
cork mat....

"After a decent interval you start again. This time you turn on the
water first. Stone cold, of course. When you've used enough gas to
roast an ox, you hope like anything and reduce the flow." He paused to
pass a hand wearily across his eyes. "Have you ever seen Vesuvius in
eruption?" he added. "I admit no rocks were discharged--at least, I
didn't see any. There may be some in the bath. I didn't wait to
look.... Blinded by the steam, deafened by the noise, you make a rush
for the door. This seems to have been moved. You feel all over the
walls, like a madman. In the frenzy of despair--it's astonishing how
one clings to life--you hurl yourself at the bath and turn on both
taps.... As if by magic the steam disappears, the roaring subsides,
and two broad streams of pure cold water issue, like crystal founts,
into the bath. Now you know why I'm so jolly this morning."

With tears running down her cheeks--

"You must have a bath in the dressing-room," wailed Daphne. "The
others do."

"I won't," said Berry. "It faces North."

"Then you must have it at night."

"Not to-night," I interposed. "Nobby's bagged it."

With the laugh of a maniac, my brother-in-law requested that the facts
should be laid before the Sealyham, and the latter desired to waive his
rights.

"Of course," he concluded, "if you want me to become verminous, just
say so."

There was a shriek of laughter.

"And now be quick," said Daphne, "or we shall be late for the meet.
And I particularly want to see Sally."

Sarah Featherstone was the possessor of the coveted shawl.

We had met her by chance upon the boulevard two days before. No one of
us had had any idea that she was not in Ireland, whither she had
retired upon her marriage, and where her passion for hunting kept her
most of the year, and when we learned that she had already spent six
months in the Pyrenees, and would be at Pau all the winter, we could
hardly believe our ears. Her little son, it appeared, had been ailing,
and the air of the Pyrenees was to make him well. So their summer had
been passed in the mountains, and, with three good hunters from
Ireland, the winter was to be supported under the shadow of the healing
hills.

"It hurts me to think of Ireland, but I'm getting to love this place.
I want the rain on my face sometimes, and the earth doesn't smell so
sweet; but the sun's a godsend--I've never seen it before--and the air
ma