202 MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



weather was fine and dry ; by good luck the thunderstorms 

 came in time to save the roots, and yet the harvest was 

 early. 



Miss Badsworth in fact had a favourable time for her first 

 experience of farming, but her niece had more difficulty in 

 carrying out Joe Summers' methods of getting hounds in 

 condition. All sorts of rumours prevailed in the surrounding 

 neighbourhood. Some people declared on the best authority 

 that Miss Badsworth had adopted a remarkable hermaphro- 

 dite costume, and at the same time was very much averse 

 to the ordinary contents of male garments. It did not take 

 long to expand or modify rumours of the kind according to 

 the taste of receiver or transmitter. Then to those who 

 called and had the good fortune to find Miss Badsworth at 

 home there accrued much disappointment, for nothing could 

 be farther from the preconceived ideas than Miss Badsworth 

 herself clad in fashionable tailor-made garments, or, per- 

 chance, a riding habit of the newest pattern. Such callers 

 came from a distance ; those in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood had naturally either seen Miss Badsworth or made her 

 acquaintance on the occasion of her visits to Cranston in her 

 brother's time. 



*' The girl would be rather nice-looking if it wasn't for that 

 ridiculously short hair," was a frequent comment on Lavvy as 

 the callers settled themselves upon the cushions of their 

 landaus and returned homewards under the influence of a 

 sense of injury. 



Only early risers — and they consisted principally of 

 labourers or their employers — had as yet seen the slim 

 figure in the stained red coat and bowler hat in the midst 

 of the hounds at exercise until September had just come in ; 

 then it was that Major Creswell was astonished as he re- 

 turned to his breakfast from a visit to his little dairy farm, 

 where the vet. had just expressed doubts as to the recovery 

 of a favourite cow. The sound of horses trotting on the 

 road arrested his attention, and bobbing heads and just a 

 flash of scarlet proclaimed hounds at exercise. The Major 



