122 THE HAUGHTY SHIRE HUNT. 



exertions in the saddle, fourteen stone was the lowest she 

 could walk. 



Of the rest of the Castle party, there were the Rev. Geoffry. 

 Yarboro, who, although only a ' square ' dancer, yet always 

 thoroughly enjoyed the brilliant toilettes, the merry music, 

 and the gay sparkle of a ball ; two or three aristocratic 

 mammas, with their equally aristocratic daughters, and half- 

 a-dozen young sprigs of nobility for the latter to dance with. 

 One of the said daughters was just now revolving round 

 the room with the Ducal arm encircling her fairy waist. It 

 was too soon after dinner for His Grace to feel sentimental ; 

 still it was dawning on him that this was really a very pretty- 

 looking girl. He would take an opportunity, later on, of 

 sitting out a dance with her, in some pleasant little nook 

 where they would not be interrupted, and 



But alas for human resolve ! At that precise moment the 

 Ducal eye fell on the beautiful face of Adela Comely, who had 

 just entered the ball-room, and stood at the door, surrounded 

 by men in the Hunt uniform, bowing and smirking, and 

 trying to outdo each other in paying Jju-dc-su'cle compliments, 

 as they solicited the honour of a dance. Adela had far too 

 good an eye for effect to arrive at the very beginning of the 

 evening. She had so timed matters that her entry into the 

 ball-room should not be made in the midst of a crowd of 

 counter-attractions. She wanted the field to herself — just as 

 you and I, my brother scribbler, try to get our books out at 

 the moment when they won't be swamped by the books of 

 other and better writers than ourselves, you know ! 



Having secured one dance each, the little court, of which 

 Miss Comely was the reigning, and somewhat imperious, 



