ere two or three carriages; one containing Counsellor Webb's
family. He himself was one of the stewards, and, consequently
appeared on horseback in a red coat. Another belonged to Sir Michael
Gipson, who owned the greater part of the town, and who drawing about
six thousand a year from this county and the next, had given ten
pounds, to be run for by farmers' horses, contriving thereby to show
them that he thought they ought to indulge in expensive amusements,
and to stimulate them to idleness and gambling. As, however, the land
in the country was chiefly let in patches under twenty acres each,
and to men who were unable to feed the sorry beast necessary to keep
them in tillage, Sir Michael's generosity had not the effect which
it might be presumed to cause; and his ten pound was annually won by
some large tenant, who might call himself a farmer, but who would
make a desperate noise if another man presumed to call him anything
but a gentleman. Of cars there were plenty, crowded with pretty
faces, all evidently intending to be pleased; not invariably,
however, for there was Mrs. Keegan in one of those altogether
abominable affairs called inside cars, not because you had any of
the comforts of an inside place in case of rain, for they have no
covering, but because the inmates, sitting on each side, have full
power to kick each other's shins, and no liberty to stretch their
legs. There she sat alone, as sour as at the moment when she had
first seen her Hyacinth as he was deposited by the hotel waiter on
the mat inside her hall-door.

She looked little as if she was there for amusement, and, in truth,
she was not. After a time, Hyacinth had come to himself; and by dint
of continual scolding, much soda-water, and various lavations, he had
enabled himself to make a very sickly appearance on horseback; but
the wife of his bosom was determined that he should not escape from
thence to another ordinary, or even to any hospitable table where
he might get drunk for nothing; and, consequently, she was there to
watch him.

There was but one other there that did not seem bent on enjoyment,
and this was poor Feemy. There she was, sitting on the same side of
the car with Lyddy McKeon; and the good-natured mother had taken care
that this should be the side facing the horses; but Feemy took no
interest in them. She had given over crying and sobbing; but she was
silent, and apparently sullen, and would much have preferred her own
little