i68 BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



mammoth governess-cart at the hotel door, with 

 an old man, dressed in what we had learned to 

 regard as the height of Welsh religious fashion, 

 standing by it. His beard was long and white, 

 his face was cross, with a crossness that momen- 

 tarily deepened as he glanced at the hotel. We 

 studied him with the refined observation of idle- 

 ness. 



"An Arch-Druid, evoluted into an elder of the 

 straitest of the Rehoboths," remarked Miss O'Flan- 

 nigan, easily ; " his wives and daughters had better 

 not keep him waiting much longer, there is the 

 flame of human sacrifice in his eye, pleasantly 

 blended with the confidence of their eternal " 



At this juncture, Ellen, the coffee-room-maid, 

 came into the room. 



" If you please, ladies, the driver is waiting, and 

 wants to know when you will be ready." 



So we were his wives and daughters ! We went 

 forth anxiously to accept the situation, too de- 

 pressed even to wrangle as to which was which. 



That no trap was available for Tommy was, in 



