THE SILVER FOX 33 



when released, would wash the fox out 

 before it. 



At intervals a rider or two arrived, hot, 

 wet, and full of explanations of the cause of 

 delay, but of the new Master there was no 

 sign. Slaney Morris was one of these later 

 arrivals. She proffered no excuses, being 

 probably aware that these were made for 

 her by her mount with an eloquence beyond 

 all gainsaying. Slaney had, in an unpre- 

 tentious way, ridden from her youth up, 

 but she rode merely as a means of transit, 

 very much as people use omnibuses ; her 

 enthusiasms were reserved for other pur- 

 suits. She was now seated on an elderly 

 brown mare, whose natural embonpoint was 

 emphasized by Uncle Charles' humane scru- 

 ples on the subject of clipping horses. As 

 a further tribute to his clemency, the brown 

 mare's tail had passed undocked through 

 the changing fashions of fifteen years, and 

 hung like a heavy black skirt, in righteous 

 protest against the spruce abbreviations of 

 the French's Court horses. 



