A stoat crossed the road before the horse's nose as we drove up, and Ralph, who seems to have been specially invented by Providence for the destruction of small vermin, was in attendance on it in a moment.

I had seen something of the kind before, so I came on." Evelyn laid down her work, and went across the lawn, and round the corner of the house, in the direction of the shrubbery, from which the voice of her lord and master "rose in snatches," as he plunged in and out among the laurels.
"And how is Lord Hope-Acton ?" continued Lady Mary, with an air of elaborate unconcern.

"I used to know him in old days as one of the best waltzers in London.

I remember him very slim and elegant-looking; but I suppose he is quite elderly now, and has lost his figure?
or so some one was saying." "Not lost, but gone before, I should say, to judge by appearances," said Charles, meditatively, gazing up into the blue of the summer sky.
The mixed impiety and indelicacy of her nephew's remark caused a sudden twitch to the High Church embroidery in Lady Mary's hand; but she went on a moment later in her usual tone: "And Lady Hope-Acton.

Is she in stronger health ?" "I believe she was fairly well; not robust, you know, but, like other fond mothers with daughters out, 'faint yet pursuing.'" Lady Mary bit her lip; but long experience had taught her that it was wiser to refrain from reproof, even when it was so urgently needed.
"And their daughter, Lady Grace.