foolish people let fall so freely before servants, as if for all the world the servants were sideboards themselves; and he had kept up his stock of service-gained knowledge by a liberal, though not a dignity-compromising intercourse—­for there is no greater aristocrat than your out-of-livery servant—­among the upper servants of all the families in the neighbourhood, so that he knew to a nicety who would pull together, and who wouldn’t, whose name it would not do to mention to this person, and who it would not do to apply to before that.

Neither Watchorn nor Viney being sportsmen, they thought they had nothing to do but apply to two friends who were; and after thinking over who hunted in couples, they were unfortunate enough to select our Flat Hat friends, Fyle and Fossick.  Fyle was indignant beyond measure at being asked to be steward to a steeple-chase, and thrust the application into the fire; while Fossick just wrote below, ‘I’ll see you hanged first,’ and sent it back without putting even a fresh head on the envelope.  Nothing daunted, however, they returned to the charge, and without troubling the reader with unnecessary detail, we think it will be generally admitted that they at length made an excellent selection in Mr. Puffington, Guano, and Tom Washball.

[Illustration:  MR. VINEY AND MR. WATCHORN GETTING UP ’THE GRAND ARISTOCRATIC’]

Fortune favoured them also in getting a locality to run in, for Timothy Scourgefield, of Broom Hill, whose farm commanded a good circular three miles of country, with every variety of obstacle, having thrown up his lease for a thirty-per-cent reduction—­a giving up that had been most unhandsomely accepted by his landlord—­Timothy was most anxious to pay him off by doing every conceivable injury to the farm, than which nothing can be more promising than having a steeple-chase run over it.  Scourgefield, therefore, readily agreed to let Viney and Watchorn do whatever they liked, on condition that he received entrance-money at the gate.

The name occupied their attention some time, for it did not begin as the ‘Aristocratic.’  The ‘Great National,’ the ‘Grand Naval and Military,’ the ‘Sports-man,’ the ‘Talli-ho,’ the ‘Out-and-Outer,’ the ‘Swell,’ were all considered and canvassed, and its being called the ‘Aristocratic’ at length turned upon whether they got Lord Scamperdale to subscribe or not.  This was accomplished by a deferential call by Mr. Viney upon Mr. Spraggon, with a little bill for three pound odd, which he presented, with the most urgent request that Jack wouldn’t think of it then—­any time that was most convenient to Mr. Spraggon—­and then the introduction of the neatly-headed sheet-list.  It was lucky that Viney was so easily satisfied, for poor Jack had only thirty shillings, of which he owed his washerwoman eight, and he was very glad to stuff Viney’s bill into his stunner jacket-pocket, and apply himself exclusively to the contemplated steeple-chase.