“Ah, my Lord, there are two things that would about kill me.”

“What are they, Larry?” asked Harry Stubbings.

“To offend his Lordship, or to part with the mare.”

“You shall do neither,” said Lord Rufford; “but upon my word I think she’s the fastest thing in this county.”  All of which did not cure poor Larry, but it helped to enable him to be a man.

The fox had been killed close to Norrington, and the run was remembered with intense gratification for many a long day after.  “It’s that kind of thing that makes hunting beat everything else,” said Lord Rufford, as he went home.  That day’s sport certainly had been “tanti,” and Glomax and the two counties boasted of it for the next three years.

CHAPTER XX

Benedict

Lady Penwether declared to her husband that she had never seen her brother so much cowed as he had been by Miss Trefoil’s visit to Rufford.  It was not only that he was unable to assert his usual powers immediately after the attack made upon him, but that on the following day, at Scrobby’s trial, on the Saturday when he started to the meet, and on the Sunday following when he allowed himself to be easily persuaded to go to church, he was silent, sheepish, and evidently afraid of himself.  “It is a great pity that we shouldn’t take the ball at the hop,” she said to Sir George.

“What ball;—­and what hop?”

“Get him to settle himself.  There ought to be an end to this kind of thing now.  He has got out of this mess, but every time it becomes worse and worse, and he’ll be taken in horribly by some harpy if we don’t get him to marry decently.  I fancy he was very nearly going in this last affair.”  Sir George, in this matter, did not quite agree with his wife.  It was in his opinion right to avoid Miss Trefoil, but he did not see why his brother-in-law should be precipitated into matrimony with Miss Penge.  According to his ideas in such matters a man should be left alone.  Therefore, as was customary with him when he opposed his wife, he held his tongue.  “You have been called in three or four times when he has been just on the edge of the cliff.”

“I don’t know that that is any reason why he should be pushed over.”

“There is not a word to be said against Caroline.  She has a fine fortune of her own, and some of the best blood in the kingdom.”

“But if your brother does not care for her,—­”

“That’s nonsense, George.  As for liking, it’s all the same to him.  Rufford is good-natured, and easily pleased, and can like any woman.  Caroline is very good-looking,—­a great deal handsomer than that horrid creature ever was,—­and with manners fit for any position.  I’ve no reason to wish to force a wife on him; but of course he’ll marry, and unless he’s guided, he’ll certainly marry badly.”