Page:Maud Howe - A Newport Aquarelle.djvu/46

 in which he had been confined, a field ahead of the hunting party.

The hounds leaped forward at a quicker pace, crying at the sight of their prey, and the men and women spurred their horses on for the last field.

Excited exclamations escaped from the men as they lashed their tired steeds, and a cry of "Go on, Nimbus!" fell on Farwell's ear. It had come from the lips of Gladys; and as he looked at her, he wondered where the tender expression could have vanished which had stirred his heart an hour ago.

She was flushed, and her eyes sparkled with excitement. She struck her horse and urged him over the last wall as a jockey might have done, and with the cry which he had heard, and which had no sound of her natural voice in it, she swept across the field even with the huntsmen, and leading the whole cavalcade.

And the fox? well, he was only a stupid little creature after all, and, quite dazed by