THE POAOHEB'S REVENGE. 113 



Daddy's so pleased with the present you've given him. Say 

 ' good-night ' to mother and Captain Charlton." 



Later on Lord Middleford remarked to his wife, "That 

 scoundrel, Jackson, is back again, and the little ones en- 

 countered him yesterday. They have been looking after his 

 sick wife and child, but I think they had better not go there 

 any more. You remember how he threatened ' to pay ' me, 

 if he swung for it." 



" Miss Pope told me about it, dear," replied Lady Middle- 

 ford, '' and she said she would not take the children there any 

 more, although Mrs. Jackson did not know who they were. 

 She says she is such a nice woman, and the child a dear 

 little thing. Dr. Treaves said they have been at death's door 

 and want a lot of nourishment, so he mentioned them to 

 Miss Pope as deserving people for the children's gifts. She 

 knew nothing of the husband, except that he was in prison." 



" Now, you good people," said Lord Middleford the next 

 morning at breakfast, " I am going to ride over to the Water- 

 meadows Farm, to look at some shorthorns. I shall then go 

 on to the Kennels, so you had better meet me there. The 

 judging begins at twelve o'clock." 



It was a beautiful early autumn morning, and harvest in 

 full swing ; and as he gaily cantered along on a new purchase, 

 a five-year-old hunter, well calculated to carry his thirteen 

 stone weight to hounds, his mind naturally wandered in the 

 direction of cub-hunting. Ah ! he would soon be at work 

 again amid the dew of the early morning, rattling the cubs 

 about, and returning with such an appetite for breakfast. 

 Then he flushed a covey of partridges, and his thoughts 

 turned on the next week's prospects on the moors, the possible 

 show of October pheasants, and then to his head keeper, 

 Smythe, only just recovered from the murderous onslaught 



H 



