152 THE SILVER FOX 



into a marshy hollow was revealed. Lady- 

 Susan's handling had not been lost on the 

 grey ; he kept his head up, and jumped out 

 like a stag, landing clear of the rotten 

 ground, and collecting himself in a moment 

 with his eye on the hounds. Hugh sat him 

 loosely and recklessly ; what he felt was not 

 pleasure, yet it was not wholly removed 

 from it. He had, at all events, the fierce 

 and bitter satisfaction of taking his weaker 

 nature by the throat, and keeping it down, 

 even to the death that every fibre was 

 expectant of. 



One other rider had seen the hounds 

 going away. As Hugh turned down the 

 hill, with the pack already three fields 

 ahead, he saw through the mist that a lady 

 on a brown horse had got away on good 

 terms with them from the first. It was his 

 wife, on Glasgow's horse. The rest of the 

 field were left at the wrong side of the 

 covert, ignorant of the fact that the fox had 

 gone away, and, from the line that he had 

 taken, not likely to know for some time. 



