ack; while at
the back of each enclosure lay the sleeping quarters of roofed and
sheltered benches. At the further end of the kennels stood a couple of
cottages, where the whips and kennelman lived.

"How beautifully clean it all is!" exclaimed Nan.

The whip smiled with obvious delight.

"If you keep 'ounds, miss, you must keep 'em clean--or they won't be
'ealthy and fit to do their day's work. An' a day's hunting is a day's
work for 'ounds, an' no mistake."

"How like a woman to remark about cleanliness first of all!" laughed
Roger. "A man would have gone straight to look at the hounds before
anything else!"

"I'm going now," replied Nan, approaching the bars of one of the
enclosures.

It seemed to her as though she were looking at a perfect sea of white
and tan bodies with slowly waving sterns, while at intervals from the
big throats came a murmurous sound, rising now and again into a low
growl, or the sharp snap of powerful jaws and a whine of rage as a
couple or more hounds scuffled together over some private disagreement.
At Nan's appearance, drawn by curiosity, some of them approached her
gingerly, half-suspicious, half as though anxious to make friends, and,
knowing no fear of animals, she thrust her hand through the bars and
stroked the great heads and necks.

"Can't we go in? They're such dear things!" she begged.

"Better not," answered Roger. "They don't always like strangers."

"I'm not afraid," she replied mutinously. "Do just open the gate,
anyway--_please_!"

Trenby hesitated.

"Well--" He yielded unwillingly, but Nan's eyes were rather difficult
to resist when they appealed. "Open the gate, then, Denman."

He stood close behind her when the gate was opened, watching the hounds
narrowly, and now and again uttering an imperative, "Down, Victor! Get
down, Marquis!" when one or other of the great beasts playfully leapt
up against Nan's side, pawing at her in friendly fashion. Meanwhile
Denman had quietly disappeared, and when he returned he carried a
long-lashed hunting-crop in his hand.

Nan was smoothing first one tan head, then another, receiving eager
caresses from rough, pink tongues in return, and insensibly she had
moved step by step further into the yard to reach this or that hound as
it caught her attention.

"Come back!" called Trenby hastily. "Don't go any further."

Perhaps the wind carried his voice away from her, or perhaps she was so
preoccupied with the hounds