222 MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



which her Grace and Lady Susan took an interest ; they 

 neither of them could shoot to any purpose, having still the 

 rooted feminine objection to a report, however modified ; but 

 naturally the Duchess was a leader in the social circle and 

 was aware of the fact. 



There was a tradition, and it may have been founded on 

 fact, that at one time the Duchess " went very well " ; if she 

 had lost her nerve a bit now she did not acknowledge it, and 

 few could have been found who would endanger their bread 

 and butter by pointing out the fact to her. 



That Miss Badsworth was a leader in a different line, and 

 by force of circumstances had suddenly appeared as a con- 

 stellation in the circuit which the Duchess claimed as her 

 own, was perhaps sufficient cause for jealousy. When her 

 Grace had called at Cranston, like many others, she had 

 found a good-looking, quiet and unobtrusive lady, who never 

 once gave herself away, but left the impression, even on the 

 unalgebraic mind, that she was an unknown quantity. 



"I couldn't make head or tail of her, my dear," she had 

 said to her daughter, who, having a cold in her head, had not 

 accompanied her, " and she was dressed like anybody else, 

 only, I must say, in perfect taste. I asked her to join our 

 rifle club, but she declined, saying it was not much in her 

 line, and yet she is going to try and hunt hounds ! " 



That an avoided topic should come to the surface was only 

 a matter of course ; it always does. 



" I thought I heard hounds running in the distance this 

 morning when I was tinkering up the motor. Was any 

 one out ? Were you, Morgan ? " Toby Sorter asked in a 

 pause of conversation. 



" Yes, I went," Jack replied, aware that now he was in for 

 some cross-examination, to say nothing of examination in 

 chief. ''There were plenty of foxes and quite a nice scent ; 

 they killed a brace of cubs and got outside for nearly twenty 

 minutes with one." 



"And who really did hunt the hounds?" the Duchess 

 asked. " There have been so many stories about ; people say 



