LADY FOXHUNTERS 289 



thinking as "mamma " — indeed, mamma's opinions must have 

 been chiefly derived from the daughter — has determined not 

 to let the season close without a final effort for our hero. 

 According!}' she has enlisted one of those convenient articles 

 called a cousin, that women know so well how to use, either as 

 suitors or cats'-paws, to attend her to the meet. Well she 

 looks as she sits on her horse, and if the animal was only as 

 well turned out as she is, she would do uncommonly well. 

 There is not one woman in a hundred with the slightest idea 

 about either a horse or a carriage. Thin legs and long tails 

 are all they look for in a saddle-horse. Small legs, however, 

 would not exactly do for Henrietta, for she is a good load, 

 though her well-formed back and waist are admirably developed 

 by the close-fitting evenness of her well-made London habit. 

 The hat, too, becomes her. It rather fines than fulls her 

 plump healthy cheeks, and the maid has given some extra 

 labour in the brightening and arrangement of her flat-dressed 

 hair. Most young women look well in hats and habits. But 

 here comes Sir Rasper, bearing down the road like a man-of- 

 war in full sail. He comes at the pace of the regular five or 

 six days a week man, who knows to a minute how long it will 

 take him to "do " each meet. You can tell at a glance that 

 he is a workman ; everything bespeaks it, from the hat on 

 his head to the spur at his heel. What an age of anxiety — 

 what a world of time is often comprised in a brief unpre- 

 meditated moment like the present ! A glance, a look, a word, 

 and the thing is done. Sir Rasper greets our fair friend with 

 the hearty cordialitj^ of a half-way-met agreeably-surprised 

 foxhunter. He is pleased with the attention of so fine a girl. 

 A tinge of pink pervades Henrietta's bright healthy com- 

 plexion, as she recognizes the pressure of her somewhat hard 

 hand. When hers is released she dives into the saddle-pocket 

 for the fine lace-fringed handkerchief. Cousin Spooney looks 



amazed. 



u 



