This would be unnecessary, Mr. Martin (the Long Man) told her. The
haw-haw was still as perfect as ever and a wonder of concealed traps for
the unwary, but the gate should be seen to at once.

Thus La Sarthe Chase was armed fully against Wendover, when, about
Easter, Mrs. Cricklander decided she would come down and bring a few
friends. It was with a sudden violent beating of the heart that Halcyone
learned casually from Mr. Carlyon that John Derringham would be of their
number.

The aunts took in the _Morning Post_, but until she was eighteen they
had rigorously forbidden Halcyone's perusal of it. Newspapers, except
one or two periodicals, were not fit for young ladies' reading until
they were grown up, they felt. However, their niece, having now come to
years of discretion, sometimes had the pleasure of reading John
Derringham's speeches and thrilled with joy over his felicitous daring
and caustic wit. The Government could not last much longer, but he at
least, as far as he could, would keep it full of vigor until the end.
She knew, therefore, that the last sitting before the Easter recess had
been a storm of words sharp as sword-thrusts--it was before the days of
the language of Billingsgate and the behavior of roughs. There were
quite a number of gentlemen still in the House of Commons, who often
behaved as such.

Those wonderful forces which Halcyone culled from all nature, and
especially the night, gave her a serenity over the most moving events,
and when the sudden beating of her heart was over, she waited calmly for
the moment when she should see John Derringham again.