CHAPTER XXX. 



Miss Lavvy's success, or Miss Lavvy's shortcomings, were 

 weighed by all sorts and conditions of persons who dwelt 

 within the boundaries of the Cranston Hunt ; knowledge of 

 the noble science was certainly not universal. A good day 

 or a bad day was often calculated upon personal conditions. 

 For instance, those who happened to be at hand when sud- 

 denly a long, dragging, sportless day was electrified by a 

 brilliant twenty minutes to ground, went home contented 

 and with nothing but commendation of the tired little girl 

 who had pulled herself together and gone in front from end 

 to end. 



Even Major Creswell, who from vantage ground had 

 watched the proceedings, and by virtue of a favouring bend 

 in the fox's line had been handy at the finish, acknowledged 

 that the little red-coated figure on the grey (Lavvy was 

 riding a grey horse) had the best of it all the way, and with- 

 drew his previously stated opinion that you couldn't expect 

 sport with a woman to draw the coverts. Those who had 

 gone home early and so missed the fun gave vent to gloomy 

 forebodings as to a shortage of foxes. Alf Diccox, on the 

 other hand, accounted for the absence of the required animal 

 by the fact that the previous day having been wet with every 

 sign of a wet night to follow, " them chaps had ' put to ' the 

 earths too early so as to save a drenchin' ". 



In fact, people brought their own weights and measures 

 wherewith to appraise Miss Lavvy, and cared not that the 

 standard mark was wanting. One thing few could deny (and 

 those were they who were seldom at hand) : Miss Lavvy, 

 owing to plenty of nerve and a devotion to her hounds, had 



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