Eoof Beats 



club on his invitation and hunting with the 

 Harkaway pack, for which he, Richard Leffington, 

 had the honor to carry the horn. 



The following Sunday morning just before the 

 church hour, Mr. Leffington called out to the 

 stable for the boys to put the Nut-Cracker into 

 the yellow-wheeled break-cart and secretly con- 

 gratulated himself that Gwen had chosen so 

 propitious a time to arrive as Sunday morning. 

 Usually at this hour Mr. Leffington was conscript- 

 ed to drive Mrs. Leffington to church, which, to Mr. 

 Leffington's fancy, lurked in sad and everlasting 

 sorrow five or six miles down the hardest pike in 

 the state. To be sure Mrs. Leffington often let 

 Mr. Leffington come out before the sermon, but 

 not always, and so Mr. Leffington's soul was this 

 Sunday morning unaccustomedly joyful and he 

 looked forward to seeing Gwen with a pleasure 

 which a few days before he would have believed 

 impossible. Mrs. Leffington in the meantime 

 had remained home from church, her great sacri- 

 fice somewhat ameliorated however by the pleas- 

 ant anticipation with which one woman looks 

 forward to that intimate conversation with an- 

 other, who has recently been made supremely 

 happy or unutterably miserable, by a man. 



As Mr. Leffington drove gaily out of the stable 

 yard and playfully welted the Nut-Cracker with 

 102 



