THE MEET OF THE HOUNDS 103 



mare for you. She'll be round at the door in ten 

 minutes." 



Twenty minutes later, Miss Grimshaw, in a 

 riding-habit and covert coat, relic of her money- 

 making days with Hardmuth, was accompanying 

 IVIr French down the drive, she on the grey mare, 

 he on a raw-boned hunter mth a head which had 

 suggestions about it of a fiddle and the devil. 



She was a good horsew^oman. In London her 

 only extravagance had been an early morning 

 canter in the park on a hired hack. It was for this 

 she had bought the habit. 



They struck the road. It was twenty minutes 

 past nine, and as the meet was at half-past ten 

 they had plenty of time. 



The clouds had ceased raining, had risen to an 

 immense height, and there, under the influence of 

 some wind of the upper atmosphere, had become 

 mackerelled, a grey, peaceful sky, showing here 

 and there through a rift the faintest tinge of blue. 



The air smelt of the rain and the rain-wet earth, 

 and the hills lay distinct, grey, peaceful, wonder- 

 fully clear. 



Nowhere else in the world but in Ireland do you 

 get such weather as this ; it pays for weeks of rain, 

 damp, sad, clear, grey and exhilarating as wine. 



Hennessey, the master of the hounds, hved at a 

 place called Barrington Court, seven miles south 

 of Drumbojme. He was a young man, a bachelor 

 and a pretty fast Uver; he owned a good bit of 

 land, and, Hke ^very other landowner in the 



