--clothes," said Ayala. Then she whispered, "I haven't got
a habit, or anything else anybody ought to have."

"Ah," said the Colonel; "I don't know anything about that. I should
say that Nina must have managed that. The horse department was left
to me, and I have done my part. You will find that you will have to
go out next Tuesday and Friday. The hounds will be here on Tuesday,
and they will be at Rufford on Friday. Rufford is only nine miles
from here, and it's all settled."

Before the day was over the difficulty had vanished. Miss Albury's
horse was not only called into requisition but Miss Albury's habit
also. Ayala had a little black hat of her own, which Lady Albury
assured her would do excellently well for the hunting field. There
was some fitting and some trying on, and perhaps a few moments of
preliminary despair; but on the Tuesday morning she rode away from
the hall door at eleven o'clock mounted on Sprite, as the little
horse was called, and felt herself from head to foot to be one of
Colonel Stubbs's team. When at Glenbogie she had ridden a little, and
again in Italy, and, being fearless by nature, had no trepidation to
impair the fulness of her delight.

Hunting from home coverts rarely exacts much jumping from ladies.
The woods are big, and the gates are numerous. It is when the
far-away homes of wild foxes are drawn,--those secluded brakes
and gorses where the nobler animal is wont to live at a distance
from carriage-roads and other weak refuges of civilization,--that
the riding capacities of ladies must be equal to those of their
husbands and brothers. This present moment was an occasion for great
delight,--at least, so it was found by both Nina and Ayala. But it
was not an opportunity for great glory. Till it was time for lunch
one fox after another ran about the big woods of Albury in a fashion
that seemed perfect to the two girls, but which nearly broke the
heart of old Tony, who was still huntsman to the Ufford and Rufford
United Hunt. "Darm their nasty ways," said Tony to Mr. Larry
Twentyman, who was one of the popular habitues of the hunt; "they
runs one a top of anothers brushes, till there ain't a 'ound living
knows t'other from which. There's always a many on 'em at Albury,
but I never knew an Albury fox worth his grub yet." But there was
galloping along roads and through gates, and long strings of horsemen
followed each other up and down the rides, and an easy coming back to
the places fr