Savage what it might be.

"That, sir," he replied with a kind of haughty reserve, "is the portrait
of her future ladyship, which his lordship keeps for his private heye."

Miss Manners sniggered, and I said:

"Oh, thank you. What an ill-omened kind of thing to do!"

Then, observing through an open door the hall in which my hat had been
taken from me, I lingered and as the others vanished in the little
gallery, slipped into it, recovered my belongings, and passed out to
the garden, purposing to walk there till I was warm again and Scroope
reappeared. While I marched up and down a terrace, on which, I remember,
several very cold-looking peacocks were seated, like conscientious
birds that knew it was their duty to be ornamental, however low the
temperature, I heard some shots fired, apparently in a clump of ilex
oaks which grew about five hundred yards away, and reflected to myself
that they seemed to be those of a small rifle, not of a shotgun.

My curiosity being excited as to what was to be an almost professional
matter, I walked towards the grove, making a circuit through a
shrubbery. At length I found myself near to the edge of a glade, and
perceived, standing behind the shelter of a magnificent ilex, two men.
One of these was a young keeper, and the other, from his appearance,
I felt sure must be Lord Ragnall himself. Certainly he was a
splendid-looking man, very tall, very broad, very handsome, with a
peaked beard, a kind and charming face, and large dark eyes. He wore a
cloak upon his shoulders, which was thrown back from over a velvet coat,
and, except for the light double-barrelled rifle in his hand, looked