three men do against thirty or forty?"

"They ought to take up somebody as an example to the rest."

"They have offered, in the handsomest manner, to arrest me if Sir
Charles will give me in charge," said Trefusis.

"There!" said Lady Jane, turning to her husband. "Why don't you give
him--or someone--in charge?"

"You know nothing about it," said Sir Charles, vexed by a sense that she
was publicly making him ridiculous.

"If you don't, I will," she persisted. "The idea of having our ground
broken into and our new wall knocked down! A nice state of things it
would be if people were allowed to do as they liked with other peoples'
property. I will give every one of them in charge."

"Would you consign me to a dungeon?" said Trefusis, in melancholy tones.

"I don't mean you exactly," she said, relenting. "But I will give
that clergyman into charge, because he ought to know better. He is the
ringleader of the whole thing."

"He will be delighted, Lady Brandon; he pines for martyrdom. But will
you really give him into custody?"

"I will," she said vehemently, emphasizing the assurance by a plunge in
the saddle that made the bay stagger.

"On what charge?" he said, patting the horse and looking up at her.

"I don't care what charge," she replied, conscious that she was being
admired, and not displeased. "Let them take him up, that's all."

Human beings on horseback are so far centaurs that liberties taken with
their horses are almost as personal as liberties taken with themselves.
When Sir Charles saw Trefusis patting the bay he felt as much outraged
as if Lady Brandon herself were being patted, and he felt bitterly
towards her for permitting the familiarity. He uas relieved by the
arrival of the procession. It halted as the leader came up to Trefusis,
who said gravely:

"Gentlemen, I congratulate you on the firmness with which you have this
day asserted the rights of the people of this place to the use of one of
the few scraps of mother earth of which they have not been despoiled."

"Gentlemen," shouted an excited member of the procession, "three cheers
for the resumption of the land of England by the people of England! Hip,
hip, hurrah!"

The cheers were given with much spirit, Sir Charles's cheeks becoming
redder at each repetition. He looked angrily at the clergyman, now
distracted by the charms of Lady Brandon, whose scorn, as she surveyed
the crowd, expressed itself by a pout which became her pretty lips