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But in the room to the right, tempting the Assessor, the Notary

casually remarked:-

"I said yesterday that our hunting party could not succeed; it is

still too early, the grain is still in the ear, and there are

many strips of unreaped spring corn, belonging to the peasants.

For this reason the Count did not come, despite our invitation.

The Count has an excellent knowledge of the chase; he has often

discoursed of the proper time and places for hunting. The Count

from childhood up has dwelt in foreign parts, and he says that it

is a mark of barbarism to hunt, as we do, with no regard to laws,

ordinances, and government regulations; to ride over another

man's estate without the knowledge of the owner, without

respecting any man's landmarks or boundaries; to course the

fields and woods in spring as well as in summer; sometimes to

kill a fox just when it is moulting, or to allow the hounds to

run down a pregnant hare in the winter corn, or rather to torture

it, with great damage to the game.