THE HAUGHTYSHIKE HUXT. 205 



It would be stretching the bounds of strict veracity to say 

 that the interview was a particularly cordial one. Lady 

 Lumpkin, although obliged, by the exigencies of the case, to 

 be civil, came away ' horrified, quite too horrified,' as she 

 expressed it to her second daughter, who waited for her in the 

 carriage outside, ' with that awful woman's vulgarity ! ' and 

 Mrs. Binkie, on her part, confided to Sep that she never met 

 anybody more ' top-loftical ' (whatever that might mean) than 

 Lady Lumpkin. "Oh, she's that haughty and overbearin' I 

 couldn't stand the woman at all, that I couldn't. Our boy'U 

 have a nice time of it with her for a mother-in-law, I'm think- 

 ing ! " And to tell the truth, our friend Trousers had, in 

 secret, cherished much the same idea. Luty also, now she 

 was firmly settled in the saddle as an engaged young woman, 

 was not quite so pleasant a companion as she had been 

 beforehand. The combative side of her disposition was given 

 rather too free a rein, and poor Travers lived in a con- 

 tinual state of being snubbed and put in his place ; a 

 condition of things which did not agree with that young 

 gentleman at all. 



The month of February waned, the Ides of March drew on. 

 Sir Tommy and Jack, at a long and earnest consultation, held 

 in Travers 's room, and by the aid of that estimable person's 

 cigars and whisky, had come to the conclusion that although 

 the house was dull, still that (having nowhere better to go) 

 they would stay on, and see the season out. 



The Hunt steeplechases were fixed for the end of March, and 

 Ronald was reserving Marmion for the principal event. It 

 was not a question of getting the horse fit — he was ready to 

 run for a man's life — but of keeping him so, and not overdoing 



