"I don't believe you ever owned one," said the friend.
Lizzie was in truth delighted to have her cousin beside her. He had, at any rate, forgiven what she had said to him at his last visit, or he would not have been there. And then, too, there was a feeling of reality in her connexion with him, which was sadly wanting to her,—unreal as she was herself,—in her acquaintance with the other people around her. And on this occasion three or four people spoke or bowed to her, who had only stared at her before; and the huntsman took off his cap, and hoped that he would do something better for her than on the previous Monday. And the huntsman was very courteous also to Miss Roanoke, expressing the same hope, cap in hand, and smiling graciously. A huntsman at the beginning of any day or at the end of a good day is so different from a huntsman at the end of a bad day! A huntsman often has a very bad time out hunting, and it is sometimes a marvel that he does not take the advice which Job got from his wife. But now all things were smiling, and it was soon known that his lordship intended to draw Craigattan Gorse. Now in those parts there is no surer find, and no better chance of a run, than Craigattan Gorse affords.
"There is one thing I want to ask, Mr. Greystock," said Lord George, in Lizzie's hearing.
"You shall ask two," said Frank.
"Who is to coach Lady Eustace to-day;—you or I?"
"Oh, do let me have somebody to coach me," said Lizzie.
"For devotion in coachmanship," said Frank,—"devotion, that is, to my cousin,—I defy the world. In point of skill I yield to Lord George."
"My pretensions are precisely the same," said Lord George. "I glow with devotion; my skill is naught."
"I like you best, Lord George," said Lizzie, laughing.
"That settles the question," said Lord George.