on him the
half-mile under fifteen in the last school sports; climbed two gates
and jumped a ditch, finally arriving at the top of a small hill, the
very highest point on the Manor property. From this eminence he
surveyed the country round, and speedily, without the aid of the
field-glasses, discerned his brother kicking a football well into the
centre of the field, while the Liberal member for Marlehouse ran after
it and tried somewhat feebly to kick it back.

"Well I'm jiggered!" Buz exclaimed in breathless astonishment; "so he
knows him too. Whatever are they playing at?"

He fixed the field-glasses, watching intently, then dropped them and
rubbed his eyes, took them up again and gazed fixedly, and so absorbed
was he that he positively leapt into the air when he heard his father's
voice close beside him asking mildly, "What are you watching so
intently, Hilary?"

The lovely winter afternoon had tempted Mr Ffolliot out. Usually Mrs
Ffolliot accompanied him on his rare walks, but this afternoon he only
decided to go out after she had left for Marlehouse. Like Buz, he
sought the highest point of his estate, in his case that he might
complacently survey its many acres.

Buz dropped the glasses so that they hung by their strap and swung
round, facing his father with his back to the distant figures with the
football, seized the glasses again and gazed into the copse, exclaiming
eagerly, "A fox, sir; perhaps you could see him if you're quick,"
pulled the strap over his head, gave the glasses a dextrous twist,
entirely destroying their focus, and handed them to his father, who
fiddled about for some time before he could see anything at all.

"A fox," Mr Ffolliot repeated, "in the copse. We had better go and
warn Willets to look out for his ducks and chickens."

"I don't suppose he'll stay, sir, but perhaps it would be as well.
Shall I take the glasses, father, they're rather heavy?"

But Mr Ffolliot had got them focussed and was leisurely surveying the
distant scene; gradually turning so that in another moment he would
bear directly on the field where Grantly and Eloquent were now to be
seen standing in earnest conversation.

"There he is," shouted the mendacious Buz, seizing his father by the
arm so violently that he almost knocked him down, "over there towards
the house; don't you see him? a big dog fox with a splendid brush----"

Imperceptibly Buz had propelled his father down the slope on the side
farthes