rd George led her, and she was not to ride upon his heels.
So much at least she understood,--and so much she was resolved to do.
That dread about her front teeth which had perplexed her on Monday
was altogether gone now. She would ride as fast as Lucinda Roanoke.
That was her prevailing idea. Lucinda, with Mrs. Carbuncle, Sir
Griffin, and the ladies' groom, was at the other side of the covert.
Frank had been with his cousin and Lord George, but had crept down
the hill while the hounds were in the gorse. A man who likes hunting
but hunts only once a year is desirous of doing the best he can with
his day. When the hounds came out and crossed the brook at the end
of the gorse, perhaps he was a little too forward. But, indeed, the
state of affairs did not leave much time for waiting, or for the
etiquette of the hunting-field. Along the opposite margin of the
brook there ran a low paling, which made the water a rather nasty
thing to face. A circuit of thirty or forty yards gave the easy
riding of a little bridge, and to that all the crowd hurried. But one
or two men with good eyes, and hearts as good, had seen the leading
hounds across the brook turning up the hill away from the bridge,
and knew that two most necessary minutes might be lost in the crowd.
Frank did as they did, having seen nothing of any hounds, but with
instinctive knowledge that they were men likely to be right in a
hunting-field. "If that ain't Nappie's horse, I'll eat him," said one
of the leading men to the other, as all the three were breasting the
hill together. Frank only knew that he had been carried over water
and timber without a mistake, and felt a glow of gratitude towards
Mr. MacFarlane. Up the hill they went, and, not waiting to inquire
into the circumstances of a little gate, jumped a four-foot wall and
were away. "How the mischief did he get atop of Nappie's horse?" said
the horsey man to his friend.

"We're about right for it now," said the huntsman, as he came up
alongside of Frank. He had crossed the bridge, but had been the first
across it, and knew how to get over his ground quickly. On they
went, the horsey man leading on his thoroughbred screw, the huntsman
second, and Frank third. The pace had already been too good for the
other horsey man.

When Lord George and Lizzie had mounted the hill, there was a rush of
horses at the little gate. As they topped the hill Lucinda and Mrs.
Carbuncle were jumping the wall. Lord George looked back