CHAPTER XI. 



It was a natural thing- that members of the Cranston Hunt 

 should feel themselves aggrieved. The disposal of Hugo 

 Badsworth's property, and the provision relating to the 

 hounds, was no secret. 



The hunt had gone on for generations ; it had always 

 owed its existence to the liberality of some one individual 

 member of the Badsworth family, but it reckoned that ex- 

 istence as personal property, and when it was threatened 

 with petticoat government it attempted to ** go out on 

 strike ". That is to say, Major Creswell, a fussy little man, 

 a martinet (as he thought) anywhere out of doors, or where 

 his wife was not, rebelled against the idea that the manage- 

 ment should be in the hands of a woman, and that their 

 sport should be ruined by female inefficiency. Upon this 

 theme he harped until he stirred up sundry others to hold a 

 meeting, and persuaded Sir Gregory Sorter, Bart., to permit 

 that meeting to be held at his house. 



Now, Sir Gregory, though a baronet, was impecunious, so 

 it was natural that he named three o'clock as the time of 

 meeting, thereby avoiding any display of hospitality beyond 

 " a cup of tea " when the proceedings were over. As the 

 only wealthy person in the neighbourhood, the attendance of 

 Lady Flora Parkfield (a plain-speaking old lady, but a large 

 landowner) was solicited and secured ; but people felt, much 

 as King Ahab did about Michaiah, that there was no saying 

 what view she might take. Curiosity and a certain search- 

 ing after truth caused many to attend, so the room was well 

 filled, and Sir Gregory's mental calculations as to the cost 

 of the inevitable tea at so much a head was upset (he 



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