Vixen

g day’s rabbit-shooting. It was not his nearest way home, but he liked the broad clearing in the pine wood, which had a ghostly look at dusk, and was so still and lonely that the dart of a

spongy, slippery with damp dead leaves, and inclined in a general way to bogginess; but it was ground that Ro

suspected of snakes, and beyond the ditch the fence that enclosed Squire Tempest’s domain — an old manor house in th

speculated Roderick, shifting his bag from one

he gate a keeper’s cottage. The flame of a newly-lighted candle flashed o

should like to say good-bye to the li

he keeper’s children were playing a

ne for her ride this

the eldest shock

come ba

ant take care h

r pony; but then it was an understood thing within a radius of ten miles or so that she was a self-willed young person, and even at fifteen yea

e forky branches sprawling across the way, then a half-sweet, half-shrill call, like a bird’s, at which the keeper’s children scattered themselves like a brood of

rie?” cried the shrill sweet v

aid Roderick, “you’ll come to

as I get my fling first,” repli

le face, brown eyes that sparkled with life and mischief, and a rippling mass

ing, Vixen?” remonstrated Roderic

his thickset brown cob. “It’s quite against Mrs. Tempest’s orders, and

t him jump. And as for poor dear, pretty little mamma,” continued Vixen, addressing herself to Roderick, and changing her tone to one of patronising tenderness, “if she had her way, I should be brought up in a little box wrapped in jeweller’s wool, to keep me safe. But you see I take after

with a kiss on Titmouse’s gray no

k home with Mr. V

“I’m due at home at this moment, only I couldn

ht place. But whether you are due or not, you’re coming up to the stables with me to give Titmouse his apples, and then

will be as

ed Vixen. “That’s the

lgar for a

preach at me sermons so long”— here Vixen extended her arms to the utmost —“and I’m afraid they’d make

rtcomings with the abundance of her love. The hea

for anything. She must hav

grave. That hair of hers never could be gray, you know, it’s too self-opinionated in its sandiness. Now c

till standing by the gate irresolute, inclination drawing him to the Abbey House, duty call

e said remonstrantly; “I really

es says to the horses; I don’t know what there is for dinner,” she added confidentially, “but I feel

as he is abou

apa is as fond of me a

sure

me,” exclaimed Vixen, with con

o the endurance of his mother’s anger in the future as a price to be paid for the indulgence of

lating, and vast thickets of rhododendron and azalea rose high above them, or sank in green valleys below their path. Here and there a group of tall firs towered

lattices, peeping like a watchful eye from under the shadow of a jutting cornice. The stables had been added in Queen Elizabeth’s time, after the monks had been routed from their snug quarters, and the Abbey had been bestowed upon one of the Tudor favourites. These Elizabethan stables formed the four sides of a quadrangle, stone-paved, with an old marble basin in the centre — a basin which the Vicar pronounced

oil-lamp fixed here and there against the wall. Into this dim uncertain light came Roderick and Vixen, through the deep sto

oeskin saddle still on his back, waiting to be fed and petted by his young mistress. It was a pretty picture, the old low-ceile

submitting to be undressed. Then, with many vigorous tugs at straps and buckles, and a good dea

explained, as Rorie watched her with an amuse

rself lightly into a comfortable corner of the manger, began to carry out her system of reward for good conduct, with much coquetry on her part and Titmouse’s, Rorie watching it all from the empty stall adjoining,

an occasional unfriendly remark from captious critics; but it was not red hair for all that. The eyes were brownest of the brown, large, bright, and full of expression. The mouth was a thought too wide, but it was a lovely mouth notwithstanding. The lips were full and firmly moulded — lips that could mean anything, from melting tenderness to sternest resolve. Such lips, a little parted to show the whitest, evenest teeth in Hampshire, seemed to Rorie lovely enough to ple

d flourished; that lady herself being ethereal, and considering her own appearance a strictly correct standard

e made a greedy snap at an apple, and was repulsed with a gentle pat on hi

of a pony,” answered

at be all th

erhaps,” looking at him mischievously, “even an odd corner for you. What difference can a few more birthdays make in me? I shall be too big for Titmouse, that’s the only misfortune; but I shall always keep him for my pet, and

London for a season, and be presented, and go to no end of balls, and ride in the R

ted in the endeavour to translate English slang into that tongue. “No, when I grow up I shall take papa the tour of Europe. We’ll see all those places I’m worried about at lessons — Marathon, Egypt, Naples, the Peloponnesus, tout le tremblement— and I sha

Croke could

agine the wild things I say to

th a vigorous peal, that se

st run and dress. Come to the

down at his brown shooting-suit, leather gaiters, and tremendous boots — boots which, in

onsiders it a sacrifice to mamma’s sense of propriety when he washes his hands after coming i

ixen, I feel too muc

pted,” cried Vixen, pulling him out of the

the glow of the great beech-wood fire; a ruddy light which shone upon many a sporting trophy, and reflected itself on

rial bearings, roughly cut in freestone. A mailed figure of the usual stumpy build, in helm and hauberk, stood on each side of the hearth; a large three-cornered chair covered with stamped and gilded leather was drawn up to the fireside, the Squire’s favourite seat on an autumn or winter afternoon. The chair was empty now, but, stretche

prang to his feet, and bounded over to his young mistress, whom he nearly knocked down in the warmth of his welcome. Nip

id Rorie; “but it’s no wonder, when

ord I shall hate you,

ow’s bound to be fond of him; and when a young lady pitches into a bird-boy with

ing into the drawing-room, “here’s Roderick, and he’s come to dinne

it dimness near the velvet-curtained hearth. “Of course I am always glad to se

dy glow, “I feel quite awfully ashamed of myself; I’ve been rabbit-shooting, and

her distorted countenance in the fire-light — and furthe

rs. Tempest, with a long-suffering air. “Really, Miss McCrok

e of the hearth opposite Mrs. Tempest’s sofa. He could just see the flash of those active needles, a

nt to be forgotten. He used to wonder whether it would ever wear out, or whether it was not made

you wouldn’t mind his shooting-clothes a bit, though they do make him look like the under-keeper, except that the under

rself out of the room; leaving Roderick Vawdrey to make the best of his existence for the next twenty mi

at this moment, and lighted up that luxur

the way of a drawing-room, that spaciou

ars; water-colour sketches by Hunt, Prout, Cattermole, and Edward Duncan; sage-green silk curtains; black and gold furniture, and all the latest prettinesses of the new Jacobean school. The mixture of real medievalism and modern quaintness was delightful. One hardly knew where the rococo began or t

h he did above all things abhor to be trapped i

he used to say of Mrs. Tempest’s drawing

us occupations of her life. To attire herself becomingly, and to give the Squire the dinners he best liked, in an order of succession so dexterously arranged as never to provoke satiety, were Mrs. Tempest’s cardinal duties. In the intervals of her life she read modern poetry, unobjectionable French novels, and reviews. She did a little high-art needle-work, playe

was Mrs. Tempest’s inevitable rema

Oxford, Roderick?” the lady

ut she had never attached herself particularly to anybody except the Squire. Him she adored. He took all the trouble of life off her hands, and gave her all good things. She had been poor, and he had

e, with a sigh, “I’m

without lifting her eyes from her

ontinued Mrs. Tempest, in that soft conciliator

ehow or other this time, for my mother’s sake. She attaches a good deal of importance to it, though for my own part I can’t see w

usly, “is always a good, and we cannot t

ands are gone and spent a man may turn usher in an academy, and earn fifty pounds a year and his laundress’s bill by grinding Caesar’s Commentaries into small boys.

but you are not going to lose house and land

” answered the young man carelessly, “but t

e stifled yawn behind her huge black fan, upon which Cupids and Graces, lightly sketched in French gray, were depicted dancing in the airiest attitudes,

s room, and make myself decent bef

pest, with another yawn

ng of his short crisp hair, when the gong boomed out its friendly summons. The gentleman’s room opened fro

l had put on a picturesque brown velvet frock. A scarlet sash was tied loosely round he

fire-glow lit up the picture of the Squire in his

gh ground this side of Pickett’s Post, and ran him nearly into Ringwood. Go in and fetch my wife, Rorie. Oh, here she is”— as the portière was lifted by a white hand, al

ur scarlet coat, Edward,” replied the submiss

; but I haven’t been actua

in to dinner, the squire still playing with his daughte

literary element was not obtrusively conspicuous. You felt that it was a room quite as well adapted for conviviality as for study. There was a cottage piano in a snug corner by the fireplace. The Squire’s capacious arm-chair stood on the other side of the hearth, Mrs. Tempest’s low

uest, and the squire stooping, red-faced and plethoric, over his mulligatawny; while Vixen, who was at an age when dinner is a secondary consideration, was amusing herself with the dogs, gentlemanly animal

College, Oxford — so, as this was his last night, I made him come

Have some more of that mulligata

g his celebrated statue feat. With his forelegs stiffly extended, and his head proudly poised, he simulated a dog of marble; and if it had not been

e, after I’d told him not to move a paw, and I stayed away quite five minutes, and then stole quietl

opened the door, and get himself into position? What are these?” as the old sil

?tel,” said the butler, in the usu

automatically, and we

of Argus, her own particular favourite; and the blunt black

angry.”

alous,” answered Vixen, “when he knows

wing himself back in his chair with the unctuous

rosiest red at

ch things,” she cried; “I was

d licked him,” exclaimed the Squire, rapturo

times, but looked the pict

know, to her dying day, that sorrel would never let anyone dismount her quietly. Now what does Vixen spy but a lubberly lad and a lot of small children ill-using a mastiff pup. They’d tied a tin-kettle to the brute’s tail, and were doing their best t

gly, “Rorie has heard it all a thousand

-morrow’s Times,” said R

by this time the sorrel mare had allowed Stubbs to get off her, and Stubbs rushed to the rescue. The young ringleader had been too much surprised by his ducking to pull himself together again before this, but he came up to time now, and had it out with Stubbs, while the sorrel was doing as much damage as she conveniently could to Mrs. Farley’s p

o, and Dr. Dewsnap told us the other day that everybody undergoes a complete change of — what is it? — all the tissu

om Mrs. Tempest, or an occasional wise interjection from Miss McCroke, who in a manner represented the Goddess of Wisdom in this s

and praised, and the Squire’s full voice was mellowing after his second glass of port, when the butler came in with a letter on a salver, and

f he had encountered an unexpec

er,” he

handsome letter w

visage, and having received his host

e. Be good enough to come home at once. The Dovedales arrived at Ashbourne quite unexpectedly this afternoon, and are dining with me on purpose to see you before you go back to Oxford. If y

VAWD

t the Tempests hit him hard. Why was it that his mother was a

g, Rorie?” ask

dales are dining with my mothe

nt at a juvenile party. “It’s quite too bad, Rorie,” she went on, “I had made up my mind to beat you at pyramids

lefully, made his adieux, a