nd blue; she had had two of her tiny teeth
knocked out. The men were furious, she was a pet with them; and she
would not say who had done it, though she knew twenty swords would have
beaten him flat as a fritter if she had given his name. I got her to sit
to me some days after. I pleased her with her own picture. I asked her
to tell me why she would not say who had ill-treated her. She put her
head on one side like a robin, and told me, in a whisper: 'It was one of
my comrades--because I would not steal for him. I would not have the
army know--it would demoralise them. If a French soldier ever does a
cowardly thing, another French soldier must not betray it.' That was
Cigarette--at seven years. The _esprit du corps_ was stronger than her
own wrongs."

* * *

A better day's sport even the Quorn had never had in all its brilliant
annals, and faster things the Melton men themselves had never wanted:
both those who love the "quickest thing you ever knew--thirty minutes
without a check--_such_ a pace!" and care little whether the _finale_ be
"killed" or "broke away," and those of older fashion, who prefer "long
day, you know, steady as old time, the beauties stuck like wax through
fourteen parishes as I live; six hours if it were a minute; horses dead
beat; positively walked, you know, no end of a day!" but must have the
fatal "who-whoop" as conclusion--both of these, the "new style and the
old," could not but be content with the doings of the "Demoiselles" from
start to finish.

Was it likely that Cecil remembered the caustic lash of his father's
ironies while he was lifting Mother of Pearl over the posts and rails,
and sweeping on, with the halloo ringing down the wintry wind as the
grasslands flew beneath him? Was it likely that he recollected the
difficulties that hung above him while he was dashing down the Gorse
happy as a king, with the wild hail driving in his face, and a break of
stormy sunshine just welcoming the gallant few who were landed at the
death, as twilight fell? Was it likely that he could unlearn all the
lessons of his life, and realise in how near a neighbourhood he stood to
ruin when he was drinking Regency sherry out of his gold flask as he
crossed the saddle of his second horse, or, smoking, rode slowly
homeward through the leafless muddy lanes in the gloaming?

Scarcely;--it is very easy to remember our difficulties when we are
eating and drinking them, so to speak, in bad sou