Mount Royal, Volume 3 of 3

e first time this season, and everybody was full of that event. Christabel, Mrs. Torrington, and the St. Aubyn girls were breakfasting in their habits and hats: whips and glov

of the study rather than the hunting field, contemplated these Nimrods with an amused smile; but the Reverend St. Bernard beheld them not without pangs of envy. He, too, had been in Arcadia; he, t

" inquired Leonard, as his

o ride from here to Trevena?" exclaimed Christabel. "I am going with

have neve

But I have ridden over every inch of the ground. I know

ver saw," said de Cazalet. "It is a delight to ride

I forgot all about the harriers. Nobody tol

mselves in those skimpy lop-sided petticoats which have replaced the flowing drapery of the

e ray of consciousness yet remained to recognize the degrees of equine strength and quality. He overhauled the ma

e can carry me?"

ought to be safe upon her. Is that

es

beast, all show," muttered Leo

Christabel's mare, and was ready to lift her into the saddle. She went up as lightly as a shuttlecock from a battledore, scarcely tou

the head groom, as the party rode away,

ir. She only

ick as you can. I'll

pony, and had seldom ridden over better ground from the time when Major Bree first took her out with a leading rein. The day was long, and there was plenty of fast going-but these three were always in the front. Yet even the husband's immediate neighbourhood in no wise lessened the Baron's marked attention to the wife, and Leonard rode homeward at dusk sorely trou

himself. "Perhaps she is carrying on li

d scarcely kick this man out of his house because he inclined his head at a certain angle-because he dropped his voice to a lower key when he spoke to C

in after dinner; but this evening Leonard did not stay in the drawing-room. He felt that he could not trust h

s," he said to his bosom friend, Jack; "but a mixture of the two is unen

ender their half-crowns and shillings as tribute to Captain Vandeleur's superi

pockets were full of loose silver, and till the other men had come to the conclusion that pool was a slow game, with an element of childishne

a scamp," muttered little Monty in a friendly aside

with-never ill-never out of temper-always ready for the day's work, whatever it is, and always able

ld want food and gowns, and stalls at the theatres? I have been thinking that if those St. Aubyn girls have money-on the nail, you know, not in the form of expectations from that painfull

in that quarter, Monty," answered Leon

rkhouses of the next century will be peopled by the offspring of the land

de that remark two or three times b

time-smoking and drinking mulled Burgundy

stand as an outraged husband, and say "This shall not be." If the Baron's devotion to her was marked enough for every one to see, and if her acceptance of his attentions was gracious in the extreme, his devotion and her graciousness were no more than he had seen everywhere accepted as the small change of society, meaning nothing, tending towards nothing but gradual satiety; except in those few excepti

surely that his presence, his affection, had never contributed to her happiness-he would let her see that he could live without her-that he was content to accept the position s

utterly charming. This was the verdict of her new friends-but her old friends were less enthusiastic. Major Bree ca

n air of forced hilarity. I sigh for the house as it was i

Jove," said Leonard. "Why did you put i

nd safe, that's all. But I don't think you ought to object to her hunting, Leonard, or to her doing

r letters to me were so d--d short. I hardly

d been to each other before you came home. A woman may break an engagement of that kind, and may be very happy in her union with another man, but she can'

say that Christabel was out of h

the doctor ever crossed the threshold. But surely Miss Bridgema

he grave; and I am not going to

ttier than ever. That Swiss tour with Miss Bridgeman and the boy did her worlds of good. I thought you mad

nard, thinking bitterly how very improbable it

is days to field sports-his evenings for the most part to billiards and tobacco. He drank more than he h

boot-jack. If you're not careful you'll be in for an attack of del. trem., and that will chaw you up in a very short time. A man of your

s friendly warning w

brandy in a day than I

ve had his fine training. Wonderful constitution he must have-hand as steady as a rock. You sa

oot; he's less of an im

s life in a shooting gallery. You're a dooced good shot

gun in the Rockies. FitzJesse told me that in South A

ed beasts-never gone for a fellow