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176 "It is rather a bad one for getting off," muttered the Captain, and then aloud: "Why, we have not much interest at Court, Sir."

"Oh! but then there is a wider scope, as my brother the lawyer says, and no man knows better—for merit. I dare say, you have seen many a man elevated from the ranks?"

"Nothing more common, Sir, than such elevation; and so great is the virtue of our corps, that, I have also known not a few willing to transfer the honour to their comrades."

"You don't say so!" exclaimed the Squire, opening his eyes at such disinterested magnanimity.

"But," said Clifford, who began to believe he might carry the equivoque too far, and who thought, despite of his jesting, that it was possible to strike out a more agreeable vein of conversation; "But, Sir, if you remember, you have not yet finished that youthful hunting adventure of yours, when the hounds lost at Burnham Copse."

"Oh, very true," cried the Squire, quite