"Not know!' echoed Edward. ye mean?' · What do "Exactly what I say, Master Edward,' replied John, in a slow, measured voice. 'I saw the fox,' continued he, as plainly as I now see you; and I had done so for minutes before, when we were running him from scent to view. I say, Sir, that I saw this with my own eyes, and I also saw the hounds run in to him, and pull him down in the middle of this very grass field that we are now standing in.' "Well!' said Edward, as the huntsman arrived at a pause in his narrative. "With a who-woop, which you might have heard, Sir,' resumed John, I jumped off to save the brush and pads, when there was nothing left to save or to see.' "Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Edward. 'What, they swallowed him, skin, marrow, bones, and all!' "Swallowed him!' ejaculated the huntsman. 'Could five couple of hounds, Sir, break up and gorge a fox, while a man was throwing his foot out of the stirrup? No, no, no,' continued he; I thought a miracle would be worked on the last day of Sir Godfrey Flamstead's hunt- and I didn't live to be mistaken.' CHAPTER IX. "Too old, by Heaven: let still the woman take "MRS. FRANCIS JAMES JONES sat in the breakfast parlour of Franca Villa, in a gloomy disconsolate mood. Before her on the table were some writing materials, and the County Herald, containing in one column an advertisement for the disposal of Sir Godfrey's horses and hounds, and in another a paragraph announcing that the Baronet and his son were about to proceed immediately to the Continent, much to the regret of everybody in the vicinity of Wynford Grange. "Seated at some little distance was Emily Matilda, busily engaged with pencils and colours, in the endeavour to draw the representation of some animal with legs and wings, but whether it was intended for an eagle, cock-robin, butterfly, or grasshopper, would have puzzled a naturalist of high pretensions. Emily Matilda was certainly that which Sir Godfrey designated her to be, a pasty-faced girl.' There was no appearance whatever of blood in her features, and her lips had that ashy hue which might lead an observer to conclude she was in the constant habit of munching pickles. Her hair was red, if not positively of the shade called 'carroty;' and her figure had that want of roundness in all points, that her chronicler would be unworthy of credit, and prove himself to be a gross flatterer, if he described it by any other term than the graphical one 'scraggy.' "Matilda, my love,' said Mrs. Jones. 66 6 Yeth, ma?' returned the young lady. VOL. III. H "Leave the room, child,' replied the mother. I wish to be alone for an hour." "The request was readily obeyed, and Mrs. Jones left alone: that is, if the society of a small fat spaniel, snoring on a neighbouring footstool, is to be considered as nothing. 66 6 So,' said Mrs. Jones, glancing for the fiftieth time at the paragraph in the newspaper, ' they are going to leave, and my hopes are doomed for ever to be blighted. 'Tis useless to deceive myself,' continued the widow, rising hastily from her chair, and pacing the room hurriedly; 'I never have, and I never will. Emily Matilda is plain, and far from being so accomplished as the money spent on her education would lead one to hope. But then her fortune I depended on as the attraction; and this, notwithstanding my frequent hints to the son, and plainer intimations to Sir Godfrey, has proved, from first to last, a complete failure.' "Mrs. Francis James Jones said no more |