‘Here are two!’ said the hearty presiding dame.  ’Ladies, apply immediately to have your names put down.’

The possibility of an expedition of ladies now struck Seymour vividly, and said he:  ’I ‘ll be secretary’; and began applying to the ladies for permission to put down their names.  Many declined, with brevity, muttering, either aloud or to themselves, ‘unwomanly’; varied by ‘unladylike’:  some confessed cowardice; some a horror of the noise close to their ears; and there was the plea of nerves.  But the names of half-a-dozen ladies were collected, and then followed much laughter, and musical hubbub, and delicate banter.  So the ladies and gentlemen fell one and all into the partridge pit dug for them by the Countess:  and that horrible ‘Hem!’ equal in force and terror to the roar of artillery preceding the charge of ten thousand dragoons, was silenced—­the pit appeared impassable.  Did the Countess crow over her advantage?  Mark her:  the lady’s face is entirely given up to partridges.  ’English sports are so much envied abroad,’ she says:  but what she dreads is a reflection, for that leads off from the point.  A portion of her mind she keeps to combat them in Lady Jocelyn and others who have the tendency:  the rest she divides between internal-prayers for succour, and casting about for another popular subject to follow partridges.  Now, mere talent, as critics say when they are lighting candles round a genius, mere talent would have hit upon pheasants as the natural sequitur, and then diverged to sports—­a great theme, for it ensures a chorus of sneers at foreigners, and so on probably to a discussion of birds and beasts best adapted to enrapture the palate of man.  Stories may succeed, but they are doubtful, and not to be trusted, coming after cookery.  After an exciting subject which has made the general tongue to wag, and just enough heated the brain to cause it to cry out for spiced food—­then start your story:  taking care that it be mild; for one too marvellous stops the tide, the sense of climax being strongly implanted in all bosoms.  So the Countess told an anecdote—­one of Mel’s.  Mr. George Uplift was quite familiar with it, and knew of one passage that would have abashed him to relate ‘before ladies.’  The sylph-like ease with which the Countess floated over this foul abysm was miraculous.  Mr. George screwed his eye-lids queerly, and closed his jaws with a report, completely beaten.  The anecdote was of the character of an apologue, and pertained to game.  This was, as it happened, a misfortune; for Mr. Raikes had felt himself left behind by the subject; and the stuff that was in this young man being naturally ebullient, he lay by to trip it, and take a lead.  His remarks brought on him a shrewd cut from the Countess, which made matters worse; for a pun may also breed puns, as doth an anecdote.  The Countess’s stroke was so neat and perfect that it was something for the gentlemen to think over; and to punish her for giving way to her cleverness and to petty vexation, ‘Hem!’ sounded once more, and then:  ‘May I ask you if the present Baronet is in England?’