nd are we to go home now? Is it all over?"

"They say the country is full of foxes," said Lord George. "Perhaps
we shall chop half-a-dozen."

"Dear me! Chop half-a-dozen foxes! Do they like to be chopped? I
thought they always ran away."

Lord George was constant and patient, and rode at Lizzie's side from
covert to covert. A second fox they did kill in the same fashion as
the first; a third they couldn't hunt a yard; a fourth got to ground
after five minutes, and was dug out ingloriously;--during which
process a drizzling rain commenced. "Where is the man with my
waterproof?" demanded Mrs. Carbuncle. Lord George had sent the man to
see whether there was shelter to be had in a neighbouring yard. And
Mrs. Carbuncle was angry. "It's my own fault," she said, "for not
having my own man. Lucinda, you'll be wet."

"I don't mind the wet," said Lucinda. Lucinda never did mind
anything.

"If you'll come with me, we'll get into a barn," said Sir Griffin.

"I like the wet," said Lucinda. All the while seven men were at work
with picks and shovels, and the master and four or five of the more
ardent sportsmen were deeply engaged in what seemed to be a mining
operation on a small scale. The huntsman stood over giving his
orders. One enthusiastic man, who had been lying on his belly,
grovelling in the mud for five minutes, with a long stick in his
hand, was now applying the point of it scientifically to his nose.
An ordinary observer with a magnifying-glass might have seen a hair
at the end of the stick. "He's there," said the enthusiastic man,
covered with mud, after a long-drawn, eager sniff at the stick.
The huntsman deigned to give one glance. "That's rabbit," said the
huntsman. A conclave was immediately formed over the one visible
hair that stuck to the stick, and three experienced farmers decided
that it was rabbit. The muddy enthusiastic man, silenced but not
convinced, retired from the crowd, leaving his stick behind him, and
comforted himself with his brandy-flask.

"He's here, my lord," said the huntsman to his noble master, "only
we ain't got nigh him yet." He spoke almost in a whisper, so that
the ignorant crowd should not hear the words of wisdom, which they
wouldn't understand or perhaps believe. "It's that full of rabbits
that the holes is all hairs. They ain't got no terrier here, I
suppose. They never has aught that is wanted in these parts. Work
round to the right, there;--that's his line." The men did work