62 THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. 



" All right, Trousers, I'll show him who's the boss, you 

 bet your boots," replied the valiant Baronet, with an easy 

 assurance which he did not exactly feel. " I'll put a bit 

 on the beggar that'll hold a ship. Don't you trouble 

 yourself about it." 



" I'll give you a tip. Tommy," said Travers, squeaking in 

 a somewhat lower key than usual and looking confidential. 

 " If he bolts with you, drop the reins and hang on by the 

 saddle. 7 did ! " 



That night at dinner, Mr. Sej^timus Binkie enquired of his 

 hopeful son how he had enjoyed his first day's hunting. 

 Mrs. Binkie wanted to know whether he had spoken to the 

 'Dook,' and Miss Penelope Binkie asked whether there were 

 any ladies out, and if so, what they 'had on.' Travers, his 

 head still swimming from his unaccustomed flight through 

 the air, and the shake of his ' downer,' got rather mixed in 

 his reply, and said, feebly, that he didn't think he much 

 liked hunting the Duke, and he hadn't spoken to the ladies, 

 and they hadn't anything he meant he hadn't seen any- 

 thing of what they had on — though he must, of course, have 

 seen it, or he couldn't have seen them. At least what he 



meant to say was, that . Oh, please pass him the sherry, 



he didn't feel very well, and he'd tell them all about it some 

 other time. 



Jack and Sir Tommy rattled on about the run in a way 

 perfectly unintelligible to the Binkies. Even their hostess 

 failed to extract anything tangible of what she wanted to 

 know from either. 



"Well, was Lord Gravy — the Book's son — was he out to- 

 day ? " Mrs. Binkie had all the sleuth-hound instinct of 



