country, and preach to the villages. So, when George came grinning to
me with the letter, I told him to buy a new side-saddle for the gray,
and take her the lot, with my compliments. I had noticed a slight
spavin in his near foreleg. She rode him that very day in the park, all
alone, and made such a sensation that next day my gray was standing in
Lord Hailey's stables. But she rode Hailey, like my gray, with a long
spur, and he couldn't stand it. None of 'em could except Sir Charles
Bassett, and he doesn't play fair--never goes near her."

"And that gives him an unfair advantage over his fascinating
predecessors?" inquired the senior, slyly.

"Of course it does," said Vandeleur, stoutly. "You ask a girl to dine
at Richmond once a month, and keep out of her way all the rest of the
time, and give her lots of money--she will never quarrel with you."

"Profit by this information, young man," said old Woodgate, severely;
"it comes too late for me. In my day there existed no sure method of
pleasing the fair. But now that is invented, along with everything
else. Richmond and--absence, equivalent to 'Richmond and victory!' Now,
Bassett, we have heard the truth from the fountain-head, and it is
rather serious. She swears, she kicks, she preaches. Do you still
desire an introduction? As for me, my manly spirit is beginning to
quake at Vandeleur's revelations, and some lines of Scott recur to my
Gothic memory--

"'From the chafed tiger rend his prey, Bar the fell dragon's blighting
way, But shun that lovely snare."'

Bassett replied, gravely, that he had no such motive as Mr. Woodgate