MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. tj 



with Summers if you can help it. That is my tip, but you 

 must manage things yourself, at all events to begin with." 



Fortune favoured Miss Badsworth, for as it happened she 

 killed the three birds mentioned with one stone. 



" Pray sit down," she said in her pleasant voice, feeling 

 some compassion for the three individuals whose shuffling 

 feet betokened their uneasiness. " I am glad I happened 

 to find you here ; let me see, yo^i are the bailiff, you are 

 the stud-groom, andj^ow, of course, are Joseph Summers, the 

 huntsman; I've often heard of you." 



" Kennel huntsman, now, ma'am," Summers said, touching 

 his silvery hair. 



*' Well, forgive me if I made a mistake. I'm afraid I 

 don't know the difference, but perhaps I shall learn." Miss 

 Badsworth smiled and took a chair with her back to the 

 cottage window with its red-leaded pots of scarlet geraniums 

 and pelargoniums. 



" Go on smoking, I don't wish to disturb you, but I am 

 glad you are all three here," she said. 



Hibbert and Grimes resumed their pipes with awkward 

 smiles ; words which they had lately uttered seemed to stand 

 like spectres behind their chairs. The kennel huntsman's 

 long clay lay on the table, and his eyes rested respectfully on 

 the lady seated before him. He might have received orders 

 to draw Clintbury Wood when the leaves were falling in 

 showers. 



Miss Badsworth took credit for her own composure. 

 "They may laugh at me," she thought, ''and I may be 

 well out of my depth in this business, but certainly meet- 

 ings do give one confidence." 



" Of course you all know the terms of the late Squire's 

 Will ; it's a matter of common property," she said, and at 

 the first shot Grimes and Hibbert metaphorically slunk down 

 each behind the boulder of offended dignity. Joseph Sum- 

 mers never moved a muscle. 



" It puts things and me in rather an awkward position, 

 and I don't mind saying I am at a loss to understand the 



