2IO MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



one of them had a tittle of evidence to bring against him 

 beyond the fact that he kept ferrets and employed his spare 

 time as a rat-catcher of some note. That he knew every 

 litter of foxes within the boundaries of the hunt, and occasion- 

 ally what had become of them, did not add to his popularity 

 amongst his velveteen-clad brethren, but withal he was a man 

 of few words: *'They was there, but they bein't now," 

 being the utmost to which he would commit himself. In 

 the summer his outfit was varied, though breeches and 

 leggings invariably formed a part ; in the hunting season he 

 donned a stained red coat and rusty velvet hunting-cap. 



Hugo Badsworth gave Alfs character the benefit of the 

 doubt and himself a cottage rent free, and employed him 

 in various ways. He was a man to whom fatigue was un- 

 known, whose knowledge of country was unlimited, and 

 whose instinct (for such it must have been) rarely led him 

 astray when once a fox had left covert. 



Miss Badsworth had busied herself, amongst other things, 

 in getting an invalid daughter of his into a convalescent 

 home, and Lavvy had selected another who was sound and 

 able-bodied to be, what she called, her valet. Hence the 

 above-mentioned oath of fealty ; though it must be acknow- 

 ledged that intense admiration for " the Reformer" and much 

 learned conversation with Miss Lavvy on the point had set 

 the seal on the compact. 



It was in the grey dawn of a September morning that 

 Diccox first inspected the weather before loosing a couple of 

 broken-haired terriers. 



"A wet jacket more than likely before we gets back," he 

 said, "but maybe 'twill be only off the bushes, they won't 

 have trimmed out the rides yet." Then, after leaving things 

 thus in the hands of Providence, he fed his fowls, whistled 

 his terriers, and swinging a lead and couples in his hand, 

 set forth for Clinkern Wood, three miles off. There were 

 glistening drops upon the sprays in the hedges and the 

 ripened grass by the roadside, the leaves of the swedes held 



