the Limerick coverts were found to be equally within reach. From Ennis
also he could attend some of the Galway meets,--and then with no other
superior than a captain hardly older than himself to interfere with
his movements, he could indulge in that wild district the spirit of
adventure which was strong within him. When young men are anxious to
indulge the spirit of adventure, they generally do so by falling in love
with young women of whom their fathers and mothers would not approve. In
these days a spirit of adventure hardly goes further than this, unless
it take a young man to a German gambling table.

When Fred left Scroope it was understood that he was to correspond
with his aunt. The Earl would have been utterly lost had he attempted
to write a letter to his nephew without having something special to
communicate to him. But Lady Scroope was more facile with her pen,
and it was rightly thought that the heir would hardly bring himself
to look upon Scroope as his home, unless some link were maintained
between himself and the place. Lady Scroope therefore wrote once a
week,--telling everything that there was to be told of the horses, the
game, and even of the tenants. She studied her letters, endeavouring to
make them light and agreeable,--such as a young man of large prospects
would like to receive from his own mother. He was "Dearest Fred," and
in one of those earliest written she expressed a hope that should any
trouble ever fall upon him he would come to her as to his dearest
friend. Fred was not a bad correspondent, and answered about every other
letter. His replies were short, but that was a matter of course. He was
"as jolly as a sandboy," "right as a trivet;" had had "one or two very
good things," and thought that upon the whole he liked Ennis better than
Limerick. "Johnstone is such a deuced good fellow!" Johnstone was the
captain of the 20th Hussars who happened to be stationed with him at
Limerick. Lady Scroope did not quite like the epithet, but she knew