CHAPTER XIV 



It was a singular piece of good luck that 

 the two children with the milk- can should 

 have met Dr. Hallahan riding homewards 

 down a lane after an ineffectual search for 

 the hounds. It was also fortunate that it 

 being, so to speak, but the third hour of 

 the day, he was perfectly, almost dismally 

 sober. It was barely a quarter of an hour 

 before he was unfastening Hugh's waistcoat 

 and feeling him all over, while Lady Susan 

 stood silently by. She had found water in 

 a ditch, and brought it in her hat; she 

 stood motionless, with her fashionable head 

 bare to the mist, and when Dr. Hallahan 

 looked up at her he was aware that a hand- 

 somer and more haggardly-set face had 



never waited for his verdict. 

 183 



