his shoulder, played games with him, and
had to be carried away from him struggling by his nurse. Mr. Ramsay had
other occupations: he rode, he fished, he cleaned his guns, he got over
leagues and leagues of ground, he killed several snakes and captured
scores of insects. He caught dozens of tree-frogs, for one thing, and shut
them all up together in the drawing-room coal-scuttle, where he peeped at
them from time to time, well satisfied. He played little tunes on his chin,
asked conundrums, showed Job a great many tricks at cards, and two French
puzzles (saying, "Those French beggars are awfully sharp at that kind of
thing, you know"); he played "God Save the Queen" with one finger on the
piano, held skeins of wool for the ladies, shut doors, got shawls, and
really need have done none of these arduous duties, for in looking so
handsome and so jolly from Monday morning until Saturday night he
contributed his quota toward the carrying on of society, and all beside
were works of supererogation. When these palled upon him a little, as was
shown by his picking up a book, he looked very unhappy for ten minutes,
and then, making a pass at his face with one of has beautiful hands, he
cried out, "No fellow can read badgered like this. There's a regular brute
of a fly that has been lighting on my nose every half-second since I sat
down," closed the book, smiled, and said, "I may as well call upon Mr.
Brown while I have time," and took himself off. This happened on the ninth
day after his arrival, and with it began a new era in his existence. He
not only went to Mr. Brown's that day, but the next, and the day after
that. In short, he had found an amusement best expressed in the French
equivalent _distraction_. He rode with Bijou, and reported to Mr.
Heathcote that she was "a clinker at her fences, and went at them as
straight as an English girl." He taught her a good deal about the
management of her reins and animal, and admitted that she was "a plucky
one." If she had only consented to get an English saddle (which she
declined to do, with one of her customary exaggerations, saying that she
"didn't want a thousand pommels"), to rise in that saddle, and to have the
tail of her horse cropped properly, he would have been quite happy. As it
was, he acknowledged that in her own fashion she was a most graceful and
fearless horsewoman, and approved of her accordingly. It soon struck him
that she did other things well. Used to the reserved