MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 45 



under the impression that the sporting terms you have used, 

 ' breaking up the carcase ' and ' blooding the hounds,' are 

 ceremonies which take place after death, and consequently 

 cause no suffering, but are a part of what we should call, in 

 worthier objects, education." 



Mrs. Dickinson, who had, as she thought, coached up her 

 subject under one of the officers of the Humanitarian Society, 

 a person who had never seen a hound in his life, looked at 

 Miss Badsworth with some astonishment. It was a subject 

 she had expected to have had all to herself, and now she 

 found her would-be ally knew as much or more than she 

 did. 



Lavinia Badsworth had seen a rapidly passing vision of 

 her brother Hugo working out the cunning devices of a 

 beaten fox ; and there occurred to her many excuses of the 

 good man which she had listened to when night had fallen 

 for having lost him here, there, or somewhere else. There 

 was an impression left on her mind of exhilarating times 

 when hounds were running merrily over the grass, when the 

 fresh air whistled, and the fences were easy. There might 

 be jealousies, there might be heart-burnings, there might 

 even be words when only one practical place in a fence 

 presented itself and late comers or timid riders caused 

 obstruction ; but barbarity was absent, and a sportsmanlike 

 element of fairplay was predominant, except, perhaps, when 

 the master in his eagerness had his hounds just a trifle too 

 near the spot from whence a fox was being ejected. 



Miss Badsworth was ready to arouse in her sisters the 

 spirit of independence, but in no way did she imagine that 

 the cause could be furthered by unnecessary interference with 

 men. In her heart she could not subscribe to Mrs. Dickin- 

 son's opinions, but she had a way of temporising, and this 

 had on more occasions than one let her in for work with 

 which she had little sympathy, and concerning which she fore- 

 saw insuperable difficulties. She looked at her guest, at her 

 hair twisted up unequally on either side of her head, at her 

 divided skirt pitchforked on anyhow, and her jacket which 



