At seven o'clock the whole party were reassembled in the drawing-room. Mr. Simpson, in all the consciousness of a spotless shirt in which blazed an elaborate diamond stud the size of a sixpenny piece, was trying to make himself agreeable to Mildred, while Jack was in a deep discussion with Tom and his uncle over the prospects of the season, and listening to the accounts of past performances. "Dinner is served" from the butler took them all into the dining-room, where they were soon hard at what Tom called "trencher-work." "What horses have you brought, Mr. Simpson?" said the Colonel during the pause after the soup. "Ah--two, Colonel Vivian. A bay mare I had last season, and a new horse I bought from Ward the other day; a splendid fencer--nothing is too big for him. Ah--I had to give four hundred for him though, so he ought to be good," replied Simpson. "He ought indeed. I wish I could afford to give such prices," rejoined the Colonel, on whose ear the statement of £ s. d. grated somewhat harshly. "I advise you to ride him to-morrow; the hounds meet here, and the keeper tells me there are a brace of foxes in the osiers, and if they take the usual line it wants a good horse to live with them." Mr. Simpson's face did not express a vast amount of rapture at this, and he almost wished he had not been quite so fulsome on the subject of his new purchase. However, turning to Mildred, he said: "Miss Vivian--ah--I suppose you follow the hounds to-morrow?" "Yes," replies Mildred; "I ride my favourite horse Birdcatcher, and I hope we shall show you some sport." "Follow the hounds!" muttered Jack under his breath, who was getting rather jealous of his fellow-traveller. "He did not suppose the hounds would follow her, did he?" an idea that he imparted to Ethel, who was next to him, and which seemed to amuse her mightily. "I believe the fellow's a funk," he went on. "Anyhow, I'll draw him," and across the table he said: "Simpson, is your nag good at water and timber, for the Belton brook runs below the osiers, and there are one or two rather awkward stiles to be negotiated?" "Oh yes. Ah--he is a first-rate water-jumper, and, I believe, very good all round." "That's all right then; you will be cutting us all down," put in Tom; whereat Simpson smiled a sickly and most unbecoming smile, by which he meant to insinuate that he was going to try, and thought it extremely probable that he would succeed, but which conveyed to everybody the impression that he wished Belton brook and the stiles at the bottom of the sea. Florence, who saw this, immediately proceeded to set his mind at rest by telling a number of stories anent the difficulties of the country, and the number of men that had come out in the morning in all the pride of their scarlet, and had returned bemudded and besmirched after a visit to the bottom of the brook, all of which anecdotes she referred to Mr. Wilton for verification.