MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 307 



dear, it's addressed to me, but I wouldn't ask you to accede 

 against your will. The work and the tie are too much for 

 any woman." 



Both her brother and niece laughed heartily, but Miss 

 Badsworth took the sting out of their mirth by saying, 

 "Well, I mean it. Hugo was perfectly right." 



** I'll take time to consider," Lavvy said. She had glanced 

 down the list of names ; Jack Morgan's was not there. 



It was at Mr. Silas Tucker's request that the Cranston 

 met at Berryhead. A spread was provided with which the 

 Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London could 

 scarcely have found fault. That it was overdone goes with- 

 out saying. Fortunately there are on such occasions some, 

 at all events, who are ready to feed, and when Mr. Tucker 

 proposed *' Fox 'unting " from the head of his table, there 

 was a very tolerable assembly present to drink the toast. 



Miss Badsworth, naturally, attended the function ; and Mrs. 

 Tucker gyrated round " the dear Duchess " and Lady Susan 

 with an affability which was almost servile. Lavvy remained 

 with her hounds, and declined all invitations to the spread ; 

 but round her there gathered an admiring crowd, and 

 one and all congratulated her on the capital sport she 

 had shown during the last week. For this, no doubt, a good 

 gallop from Casselton (forty minutes to ground with a clever 

 bit of hound work in the middle) was responsible, though 

 the cavalry division inclined to a twenty minutes' scurry 

 from Blackthorpe, which ended in a fair and square kill in 

 the open, when hounds had had the best of the horses all 

 the way. 



** You are sure to find," Silas said with confidence, as he 

 stood with his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat, after 

 having personally conducted the butler to Lavvy and waved 

 a benedictory hand over a tray of liqueurs. " I tell my man 

 that it is quite possible to show birds and foxes too." Con- 

 sidering that no fox had been seen during four days' shoot- 

 ing (save the one which came from somewhere else), Lavvy 

 thought the assertion a bold one ; in fact she was suspicious 



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