Mrs. Fitz

Joseph Jocelyn De Vere Vane-Anstruther was in rather smart kit. It was December the First, and the hounds—there is only one pack in the United Kingdom—were about to pay an annual visit to the country of a neighbour. With conscious magnificence my relation by marriage took a bee-line to the sideboard. He paused a moment to debate to which of two imperative duties he should give the precedence: i. e. to make his daily report upon the personal appearance of his host, or to find out what there was to eat. The state of the elements enabled Mother Nature "to get a cinch" on an honourable æstheticism. Jodey began to forage slowly but resolutely among the dish covers.