42 BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



matter, though it compelled us to distribute the 

 contents of the hold-alls upon the floor. 



Early next morning the house rang with the 

 shrieks that accompanied the toilet of many 

 children ; and though the coffee-room was at 

 breakfast-time as desolate as ever, the garden 

 presently became filled to a state of creche-\\kQ 

 repletion, and Miss O'Flannigan and I wandered 

 forth in search of a resting-place less fraught 

 with domesticity. We made for the pine-clothed 

 flanks of Moel Dinas, but the heat was terrific — 

 the pine-trees were too young to keep it out, 

 though they were old enough to hide the view ; 

 the flies were beyond belief, and the hot perfume 

 from the trees became at last intolerable. We 

 crept back to the hotel and lay about in the 

 shadeless coffee-room, and it was afternoon be- 

 fore we discovered coolness by going down to 

 the river and sitting on damp rocks in a draught 

 under an arch of the new bridge, with the old 

 one picturesquely visible in the background, while 

 the children, the mothers, and the chambermaid 



