BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 159 



A stertorous sound began presently to be dis- 

 tinguishable from the hoarse note of rushing water 

 in the deep places of the glen : then followed a 

 tremor of the ground, lastly a traction-engine, 

 advancing upon us like Behemoth throned on 

 mill-wheels, opulent of smoke, with a clanging 

 retinue of trucks. I felt in anticipation the mud 

 ooze again through the seams of my gloves, as it 

 had oozed last night, but the gate of a villa was 

 suddenly and miraculously raised up on our left 

 hand. Miss O'Flannigan was off, and had opened 

 one -half with a celerity which suggested long 

 practice in the hunting-field, and we burst through 

 into the shadow of tall evergreens, tearing out a 

 hold-all buckle in an encounter with the gate-post. 

 We were startlingly confronted inside by an old 

 lady in a mushroom hat, carrying a spud and 

 garden-basket, and wearing an expression of com- 

 plete and unaffected amazement, which, consider- 

 ing all things, and especially the fact that Miss 

 O'Flannigan and I had fallen into maniac laughter, 

 was a pardonable lapse of good breeding. Point- 



