Page:Maud Howe - A Newport Aquarelle.djvu/44

 She never was quite gracious to any one. An introduction to Farwell followed, and as the two gentlemen bowed, the horns of the huntsmen warned them that the run was about to begin.

Off went the hounds across the road, scrambling over the loose stone-wall which divided it from the field.

They ran sniffing and crying at the herring scent, as if they knew all about the imposture practised on them, and resented it.

After them followed the riders, men and women. The wall was not a very high one, and the horses leaped lightly over it, no one coming to grief.

The carriages by this time were all tearing down the high-road, which was also lined with a number of riders, who followed the hunt from this safe vantage-ground, endangering nothing but their eyesight, which the cloud of dust threatened, and enjoying the hunt quite as much as its followers,—so they affirmed.