1 64 MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



Presently the cry of hounds ceased, and the void was 

 filled with " Gar away on baik," the crack of whips and the 

 occasional yowl as a thong descended on a culprit more 

 resolute than the rest. Then Miss Badsworth blew her 

 horn and rode slowly away in an opposite direction, looking 

 over her shoulder and watching the fugitives endeavouring 

 to avoid the horses in close pursuit. 



" That will do ; don't knock them about any more," she 

 cried, when the men were within hearing ; then blew her 

 horn again, and as the hounds came up, spoke words of 

 admonition to some by name, whose drooping sterns proved 

 that in their cases the whipcord had told. Jack Morgan 

 looked on with admiration in which perhaps some prejudice 

 in the young lady's favour mingled. 



'* That's the way to do it," he said. 



'* It seems to me very cruel to beat the dogs like that," 

 Mrs. Dickinson said. 



** * Spare the rod and spoil the child.' Isn't that supposed 

 to be a wise maxim ? You see, it's like this : they have got 

 to learn right from wrong before the season begins, but 

 you will please to notice that the huntsman is, or should be, 

 their refuge, the whippers-in the avengers. See ? " 



Mrs. Dickinson did not, but a certain old lady, who stood 

 on her lawn just where it was separated from the park, by a 

 ** Ha, ha i " did. She was clad in a short serge skirt, a holland 

 jacket, and broad straw hat which had been tanned by many 

 suns ; she leant upon a stout oak stick, and as she watched 

 the proceedings, to which the cry of hounds and the notes of 

 the horn had attracted her attention, she muttered apprecia- 

 tive sounds. 



" Funny thing, um ; there's nothing odd about it, she 

 might be a good-looking boy, and she sits on her pony as 

 though she were part of it ; a better tone too out of the 

 horn than poor Hugo ever got, he was always a bit woolly. 

 Now I wonder if she will remember to raise her hat."- 



Lavvy, with the hounds clustering round her pony, 

 trotted up to the spot where the old lady stood, and Lady 



