een part of. Is it a great deal I ask? Tell me,
Mr. Siward--for I don't know--is it too much to expect?"

"I don't think it is a very high ambition," said Siward, smiling. "What
you ask is not very much to ask of life, Mr. Plank."

"But is there any reason why I may not hope to go where I wish to go?"

"I think it depends upon yourself," said Siward, "upon your capacity for
being, or for making people believe you to be exactly what they require.
You ask me whether you may be able to go where you desire; and I answer
you that there is no limit to any journey except the sprinting ability
of the pilgrim."

Plank laughed a little, and his squared jaws relaxed; then, after a few
moments' thought:

"It is curious that what you cast away from you so easily, I am waiting
for with all the patience I have in me. And yet it is always yours to
pick up again whenever you wish; and I may never live to possess it."

He was so perfectly right that Siward said nothing; in fact, he could
have no particular interest or sympathy for a man's quest of what
he himself did not understand the lack of. Those born without a tag
unmistakably ticketing them and their positions in the world were
perforce ticketed. Siward took it for granted that a man belonged where
he was to be met; and all he cared about was to find him civil, whether
he happened to be a policeman or a master of fox-hounds.

He was, now that he knew Plank, contented to accept him anywhere he met
him; but Plank's upward evolutions upon the social ladder were of no
interest to him, and his naive snobbery was becoming something of a
bore.

So Siward directed the conversation into other channels, and Plank,
accepting another cup of tea, became very communicative about his
stables and his dogs, and the preservation of game; and after a while,
looking up confidently at Siward, he said:

"Do you think it beastly to drive pheasants the way I did at Black
Fells? I have heard that you were disgusted."

"It isn't my idea of a square deal," said Siward frankly.

"That settles it, then."

"But you should not let me interfere with--"

"I'll take your opinion, and thank you for it. It didn't seem to me to
be the thing; only it's done over here, you know. The De Coursay's and
the--"

"Yes, I know. ... Glad you feel that way about it, Plank. It's pretty
rotten sportsmanship. Don't you think so?"

"I do. I--would you--I should like to ask you to try some square
shooting at the Fe