30 MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



and Lavvy will run you down with the pony in the morn- 



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ing. 



Dewthorpe was an old-fashioned stone-built house like 

 many of its neighbours in the district, but there was comfort 

 within, and there were charms without, which might very 

 well have been absent in a more modern residence. 



As they rode up Jack Morgan had a vision of gables, ivy 

 and creeper-covered walls, a picturesque garden, a farmyard 

 and buildings at the back, stabling, kennels of a primitive 

 nature according to modern ideas, but warm, well drained 

 and ventilated, and a general absence of paint. 



There was a delightful, haphazard appearance about these 

 things, as if they had been plumped down as occasion offered, 

 or circumstances required. It was Charles Badsworth's way 

 of doing things, and these were the outcome of fourteen 

 years' residence and a limited purse. 



Within doors things were different. If the carpets were 

 somewhat worn an air of comfort reigned everywhere, the 

 furniture if solid was tastefully arranged, and the old oak and 

 mahogany shone as it only can under the careful and ener- 

 getic hand. There were arm-chairs which seemed to say 

 " Sit down and take your ease " ; flowers in the hall, flowers 

 on the dining-room table, flowers in the drawing-room, and 

 it was plain that some one had arranged them with appre- 

 ciative hands. 



Jack Morgan doubted if the nectar of the gods was superior 

 to the cider administered to him by the Squire from a brown 

 stoneware jug with a silver rim. 



" We are early folk, primitive you'll probably think ; we 

 dine at seven," Mr. Badsworth said. " I must just look 

 round ; will you come ? " 



Miss Badsworth having disappeared, Jack readily con- 

 sented, and in three-quarters of an hour he came to the 

 conclusion that method and management were as good, and 

 founded on personal knowledge and personal supervision, at 

 Dewthorpe as at Cranston, though the accessories were as 

 wide apart as the very poles. Hounds were fed, one or two 



