Under the Red Dragon

ss indebted to the healthful breeze that swept the green sides of the Denbigh hills, to

heir normal expression was quiet and subdued; they only flashed up at times, and she was a girl that somehow every colour became. In pure white one might have thought her lovely, and lovelier still, perhaps, in black or blue or rose, or any o

, floating loose over her shoulders and to beneath her waist from under a smart little hat, the feather and fashion of which imparted

ere that of Dora, who permitted herself to laugh at times when her sister would barely have smiled, and to say things on which the other woul

eferred to scamper about on a beautiful Welsh pony, the small head, high withers, flat legs, and round

he twelfth of next month," said

ope that the alleged brevity of his visit might find him some tender interest in her eyes, or stir some chord by its suggestiveness in her breast; but Winny,

re looking ill for the pheasants in October, for the gamekeeper tells me that the gapes have been prevalent among them. T

hall be making havoc among the Russians," repl

war with horror and dismay. So many dear friends have gone, so many more are going, it makes

d, not to Phil Ca

, colouring, and adding a little hastily, "

tocratic or unimpressionable to think of goi

would have tempted her. And Bob Spurrit the groom has broken a

"the loveliness of the evenin

o Mr. Guilfoyle that piece of Ger

y my kind friend's invitation. Then I should see her in a very little time now! I had been resolved to watch well how she received me, though it would be no easy task to read the secret thoughts of one so well and so carefully trained to keep all human emotions under perfect control, outwardly at least--a "Belgravian thoroughbred," as I once heard Sir Madoc term her; but if she changed colour, however faintly, if there was the slightest perceptible tremor in her voice, or a flash of the eye, which indicated that which, under the supervision of the usually astute dowager her mother, she dared scarcely to betray--an interest in one

oyle a musici

and sings too; but I can't help l

ry Hardinge; is he so?' asked Sir Madoc, w

e he scratched out of its engagements another on which I stood sure to win, make

, in fact," said Sir Madoc in

add "especially in the society of Lady Cressingham," after whom he dangled, on

im? We have a Welsh proverb

sing the speed of her horse, as she seemed to dread the Welsh procliviti

crops, fat pigs, and the county pack; and shake their heads about ministerial policy and our foreign prestige, whatever th

ulation. "Well, it is what the doctor said," per

on't talk of

e shouldn't

Madoc; "neither schooling in Swit

on; four young ladies, each with a flirtation on hand; and four old ones, deep in religion and scandal, flannel an

tongue runs on!"

y propriety for us all in black velvet and diamonds. Winny, el

id I, "is it in honour of

ry particular inde

wh

M

ou

n," she added, shaking back the

ve one round dance with Lord Potters

at day, though we are to dance on the grass, or I hope he may forget all about it. Old Potter, I call

em espe

ch a particular f

etual adorer of Lady Estelle, favoured too, apparently, by her mother, and had been

t--Carneydd Llewellyn, so called from the mountain whence h

care as yours? Among soldiers," said I, "the poor animal wi

racteristic to remind them of home, of the wild hills of Wales, perhaps to make them think of the donor. Besides, papa say

shall I--how shall

gan to address some of the merest commonplaces to Phil Caradoc; who, with his thick brown curly hair parted in the middle, his smiling handsome face and white regular teeth, was finding great favour in the eyes of the laughing Dora. But now we were drawing near Craigaderyn Court. The scenery was Welsh, and yet the house and all its surroundings were in character genuinely English, though to have h

n Snowdon. This long apartment was so cool that, though the season was summer, a fire burned in the old stone fireplace; and on a thick rug before it lay a great, rough, red eyed staghound, that made one think of the faithful brach that saved Llewellyn's heir. The windows were half shaded by scarlet hangings; a hunting piece or two by Sneyders, with pictures of departed favourites, horses and dogs, indicated the tastes of the master of the house and of his ancestors; and there too was the sku

masculine finery; hearing the while from a distance the notes of a piano in another wing of the house come floating through an open window. The air was German;--could