kate's day with the old horse 211 



Luckily for the Irish, they take trouble well, and 

 though skinning is an unpleasant process, they soon 

 get used to it. 



Three months after the events recorded in the 

 preceding paragraphs, Kate and her father were 

 living at what had been their agent's cottage, a tiny 

 house with stabling for one horse. The Lowry's 

 agent was now Colonel Lowry himself, and his 

 daughter (the best and straightest lady rider in 

 Gonaway) had laid aside her habit as a souvenir 

 of happier days. 



At the Hall a rich Londoner had replaced the 

 old squire (as his tenant), and a London young lady 

 inflicted agony on the mouths of such horses as 

 she rode, and never disgraced her sex by an after- 

 breakfast visit to the stables. 



Instead of the laughter of that tom-boy Kate, 

 highly finished performances on the piano frightened 

 the blackbirds off the lawn, and instead of jokes 

 and half-crowns from a poor but warm-hearted 

 native, the peasantry now received pamphlets on 

 market gardening and threepenny pieces from an 

 alien millionaire. 



Molly says they have just shot ' the Laurels ' 



