"Give up top-boots?" said Larry. "You don't mean to say you'll ride in black!" "Top-boots, black boots, spurs, breeches, and red coat, I renounce them all from this moment. If ever I'm seen in a hunting field again it will be in a pair of trousers with overalls." "Now, you're joking, Colonel," said Larry. "Why won't you wear a red coat any more?" said Ayala. "Because I'm disgraced for ever. I came out to coach two young women, and give them a lead, and all I've done was to tumble into a brook, while a better man has taken my charge away from me." "Oh, Jonathan, I am so sorry," said Nina, "particularly about your getting into the water." "Oh, Colonel Stubbs, we ought to have stopped," said Ayala. "It was my only comfort to see how very little I was wanted," said the Colonel. "If I had broke my neck instead of wetting my feet it would have been just the same to some people." "Oh, Jonathan!" said Nina, really shocked. "We ought to have stopped. I know we ought to have stopped," said Ayala, almost crying. "Nobody ever stops for any one out hunting," said Twentyman, laying down a great law. "I should think not," said Captain Batsby, who had hardly been off the road all the time. "I am sure the Colonel will not be angry with me because I took the young ladies on," said Larry. "The Colonel is such a muff," said the Colonel himself, "that he will never presume to be angry with anybody again. But if my cousin and Miss Dormer are not very much obliged to you for what you have done for them there will be nothing of gratitude left in the female British bosom. You have probably given to them the most triumphant moment of their existence." "It was their own riding, Colonel; I had nothing to do with it." "I am so much obliged to you, Sir," said Nina. "And so am I," said Ayala, "though it was such a pity that Colonel Stubbs got into the water." At that moment came the long expected call. Tony Tappett had killed his fox, after crossing and re-crossing through the wood half a score of times. "Is it all over?" asked Ayala, as they hurried down the knoll and scurried down the line to get to the spot outside the wood to which Tony was dragging the carcase of his defeated enemy. "It's all over for him," said Larry. "A good fox he was, but he'll never run again. He is one of them bred at Littlecotes. The foxes bred at Littlecotes always run." "And is he dead?" asked Nina. "Poor fellow! I wish it wasn't necessary to kill them." Then they stood by till they saw the body of the victim thrown up into the air, and fall amongst the blood-smirched upturned noses of the expectant pack. "I call that a pretty little run, Sir Harry," said Larry Twentyman. "Pretty well," said Sir Harry; "the pace wasn't very great, or that pony of mine which Miss Dormer is riding could not have lived with it."