44 THE MASTER OF THE HOUNDS. 



but not forlorn, from riding a race with Dick Vernon, and 

 beating him, too, at the expense of half my skirt." 



"Keally, Selina," exclaimed her father, "you had better 

 adopt skins and jack-boots at once." 



" I have done it already, daddy dear ! " she replied, laughing, 

 and patting her boot with her riding- whip. 



" Oh, you hoiden ! " laughed Sir Lionel, " what next ? " 



" Don't exactly know, papa, after riding over Dick Yernon, 

 his horse, and a five-barred gate at one swoop." 



" The devil she did ! " remarked Sir Francis ; " that beats 

 Leicestershire hollow." 



"And a demmed scurvy trick to play a fallow who was 

 politely stooping to open the gate for you," put in the Captain. 



" Think so, Ned 1 'pon honour, eh ! Now for a scamper on 

 the open ; come on. Will Beauchamp, while my blood is up ! " 

 saying which, she cantered ofi' towards the downs. 



Before throwing the hounds into the gorse, at Will Beau- 

 champ's request, the horsemen ranged themselves in line, to 

 prevent the fox breaking towards the valley, an extent of open 

 downs stretching for several miles in the opposite direction. 

 A brace of foxes were on foot directly, one breaking through 

 the horsemen, with the body of the pack upon his scent, and 

 just emerging from the gorse, where a rate from Charley 

 stopped them in a moment, and they were immediately capped 

 by William Beauchamp on to the line of the other, which had 

 gone straight away at the right point. 



" Hold hard one minute, gentlemen ! " shouted Beauchamp ; 

 " let them get their heads well down first, then ride as hard as 

 you please." But none heeded him, every man going off at 

 score, and leaving the hounds to get together as they could, 

 threading their way with inconceivable dexterity through nearly 

 kwo hundred horses, without a hound being disabled. The pack 

 got together like a flash of lightning, and took up the running 

 at such a terrific pace, that in a few minutes they were clear 

 away from all interference, the hardest riders being unable to 

 live with them. In five minutes more, in ascending some 

 rising ground, the hounds fairly beat every horse, and in another 

 five minutes they run into their fox on the open down, not an 

 individual being within a mile of them at the finish. 



Sir Francis and Will Beauchamp rode side by side through 

 the burst. "Well, Sir Francis," remarked the latter, "they 

 are putting their best legs foremost now, and beating us 

 hollow." 



