same time followed and imitated him as if she had been a young spaniel he
was training. The life the child led, it would have broken a motherly
woman's heart to hear about; but there was no good woman near her, her
mother's relatives, and even Sir Jeoffry's own, having cut themselves off
early from them--Wildairs Hall and its master being no great credit to
those having the misfortune to be connected with them. The neighbouring
gentry had gradually ceased to visit the family some time before her
ladyship's death, and since then the only guests who frequented the place
were a circle of hunting, drinking, and guzzling boon companions of Sir
Jeoffry's own, who joined him in all his carousals and debaucheries.

To these he announced his discovery of his daughter with tumultuous
delight. He told them, amid storms of laughter, of his first encounter
with her; of her flogging him with his own crop, and cursing him like a
trooper; of her claiming Rake as her own horse, and swearing at the man
who had dared to take him from the stable to ride; and of her sitting him
like an infant jockey, and seeming, by some strange power, to have
mastered him as no other had been able heretofore to do. Then he had her
brought into the dining-room, where they sat over their bottles drinking
deep, and setting her on the table, he exhibited her to them, boasting of
her beauty, showing them her splendid arm and leg and thigh, measuring
her height, and exciting her to test the strength of the grip of her hand
and the power of her little fist.

"Saw you ever a wench like her?" he cried, as they all shouted with
laughter and made jokes not too polite, but such as were of the sole kind
they were given to. "Has any man among you begot a boy as big and
handsome? Hang me! if she would not knock down any lad of ten if she
were in a fury."