had a good house, and owed no one a shilling.  He was handsome, and about the best-tempered fellow known.  Of course they all desired that he should prevail with Mary.  “I wish that I were old enough, Larry, that’s all!” Kate had said to him once, laughing.  “I wouldn’t have you, if you were ever laughing.”  “I wouldn’t have you, if you were ever so old,” Larry had replied; “you’d want to be out hunting every day.”  That will show the sort of terms that Larry was on with his friend Kate.  He called at the house every Saturday with the declared object of going over to the club that was held that evening in the parlour at the Bush, whither Mr. Masters also always went.  It was understood at home that Mr. Masters should attend this club every Saturday from eight till eleven, but that he was not at any other time to give way to the fascinations of the Bush.  On this occasion, and we may say on almost every Saturday night, Mr. Twentyman arrived a full hour before the appointed time.  The reason of his doing so was of course well understood, and was quite approved by Mrs. Masters.  She was not, at any rate as yet, a cruel stepmother; but still, if the girl could be transferred to so eligible a home as that which Mr. Twentyman could give her, it would be well for all parties.

When he took his seat he did not address himself specially to the lady of his love.  I don’t know how a gentleman is to do so in the presence of her father, and mother, and sisters.  Saturday after Saturday he probably thought that some occasion would arise; but, if his words could have been counted, it would have been found that he addressed fewer to her than to any one in the room.

“Larry,” said his special friend Kate, “am I to have the pony at the Bridge meet?”

“How very free you are, Miss!” said her mother.

“I don’t know about that,” said Larry.  “When is there to be a meet at the Bridge?  I haven’t heard.”

“But I have.  Tony Tuppett told me that they would be there this day fortnight.”  Tony Tuppett was the huntsman of the U.R.U.

“That’s more than Tony can know.  He may have guessed it.”

“Shall I have the pony if he has guessed right?”

Then the pony was promised; and Kate, trusting in Tony Tuppett’s sagacity, was happy.

“Have you heard of all this about Dillsborough Wood?” asked Mrs. Masters.  The attorney shrank at the question, and shook himself uneasily in his chair.

“Yes; I’ve heard about it,” said Larry.

“And what do you think about it?  I don’t see why Lord Rufford is to ride over everybody because he’s a lord.”  Mr. Twentyman scratched his head.  Though a keen sportsman himself, he did not specially like Lord Rufford,—­a fact which had been very well known to Mrs. Masters.  But, nevertheless, this threatened action against the nobleman was distasteful to him.  It was not a hunting affair, or Mr. Twentyman could not have doubted for a moment.  It was a shooting difficulty, and as Mr. Twentyman had never been asked to fire a gun on the Rufford preserves, it was no great sorrow to him that there should be such a difficulty.  But the thing threatened was an attack upon the country gentry and their amusements, and Mr. Twentyman was a country gentleman who followed sport.  Upon the whole his sympathies were with Lord Rufford.