on the left, a mellow bugle-note came floating; then all of a sudden a multitude of dogs burst out of that forest and went tearing by and disappeared in the forest on the right; there was a pause, and then a cloud of horsemen in black caps and crimson coats plunged out of the left-hand forest and went flaming across the field like a prairie-fire, a stirring sight to see.  There was one man ahead of the rest, and he came spurring straight at me.  He was fiercely excited.  It was fine to see him ride; he was a master horseman.  He came like, a storm till he was within seven feet of me, where I was leaning on the wall, then he stood his horse straight up in the air on his hind toe-nails, and shouted like a demon: 

“‘Which way’d the fox go?’

“I didn’t much like the tone, but I did not let on; for he was excited, you know.  But I was calm; so I said softly, and without acrimony: 

“‘Which fox?’

“It seemed to anger him.  I don’t know why; and he thundered out: 

“‘Which fox?  Why, the fox?  Which way did the fox go?’

“I said, with great gentleness—­even argumentatively: 

“’If you could be a little more definite—­a little less vague—­because I am a stranger, and there are many foxes, as you will know even better than I, and unless I know which one it is that you desire to identify, and——­’

“’You’re certainly the damdest idiot that has escaped in a thousand years!’ and he snatched his great horse around as easily as I would snatch a cat, and was away like a hurricane.  A very excitable man.

“I went back to Mrs. Blank, and she was excited, too—­oh, all alive.  She said: 

“‘He spoke to you!—­didn’t he?’

“‘Yes, it is what happened.’

“’I knew it!  I couldn’t hear what he said, but I knew be spoke to you!  Do you know who it was?  It was Lord C., and he is Master of the Buckhounds!  Tell me—­what do you think of him?’

“’Him?  Well, for sizing-up a stranger, he’s got the most sudden and accurate judgment of any man I ever saw.’

“It pleased her.  I thought it would.”

G. got away from Nauheim just in time to escape being shut in by the quarantine-bars on the frontiers; and so did we, for we left the next day.  But G. had a great deal of trouble in getting by the Italian custom-house, and we should have fared likewise but for the thoughtfulness of our consul-general in Frankfort.  He introduced me to the Italian consul-general, and I brought away from that consulate a letter which made our way smooth.  It was a dozen lines merely commending me in a general way to the courtesies of servants in his Italian Majesty’s service, but it was more powerful than it looked.  In addition to a raft of ordinary baggage, we had six or eight trunks which were filled exclusively with dutiable stuff—­household goods purchased in Frankfort for use in Florence, where we had taken a house.