It was a pleasant and picturesque sight to see the beaters, like a file of medieval huntsmen, dwindle down the hill in their green and silver in one direction, and, five minutes later, the sportsmen in another. It looked like some mysterious military maneuver on a small scale; and again Jenny considered the illusion of free choice enjoyed by the grouse, who, perhaps, two miles away, crouched in hollows among the heather. And yet, practically speaking, there was hardly any choice at all.... Lady Richard, the wife of one of the men, interrupted her in a drawl. "Looks jolly, doesn't it?" she said. Jenny assented cordially. (She hated this woman, somehow, without knowing why. She said to herself it was the drawl and the insolent cold eyes and the astonishing complacency; and she only half acknowledged that it was the beautiful lines of the dress and the figure and the assured social position.) "We're driving," went on the tall girl. "You rode, didn't you? "Yes." "Lord Talgarth's mare, isn't it? I thought I recognized her." "Yes. I haven't got a horse of my own, you know," said Jenny deliberately. "Oh!" Jenny suddenly felt her hatred rise almost to passion. "I must be going," she said. "I've got to visit an old woman who's dying. A rector's daughter, you know--" "Ah! yes." Then Jenny mounted from a rock (Lady Richard held the mare's head and settled the habit), and rode slowly away downhill. (III) Dick approached the Rectory next day a little before twelve o'clock with as much excitement in his heart as he ever permitted to himself. Dick is a good fellow--I haven't a word to say against him, except perhaps that he used to think that to be a Guiseley, and to have altogether sixteen hundred a year and to live in a flat in St. James's, and to possess a pointed brown beard and melancholy brown eyes and a reposeful manner, relieved him from all further effort. I have wronged him, however; he had made immense efforts to be proficient at billiards, and had really succeeded; and, since his ultimate change of fortune, has embraced even further responsibilities in a conscientious manner. Of course, he had been in love before in a sort of way; but this was truly different. He wished to marry Jenny very much indeed.... That she was remarkably sensible, really beautiful and eminently presentable, of course, paved the way; but, if I understand the matter rightly, these were not the only elements in the case. It was the genuine thing. He did not quite know how he would face the future if she refused him; and he was sufficiently humble to be in doubt. The neat maid told him at the door that Miss Launton had given directions that he was to be shown into the garden if he came.... No; Miss Launton was in the morning-room, but she should be told at once. So Dick strolled across the lawn and sat down by the garden table.