But while this was being done she also exulted.
Might it not still be possible that there should be before her a
happy evening to her days; and that she might stand once more beside
the falls of Linter, contented, hopeful, nay, almost glorious, with
her hand in his to whom she had once refused her own on that very
spot?
CHAPTER LIII
None But the Brave Deserve the Fair
Though Mr. Robert Kennedy was lying dead at Loughlinter, and though
Phineas Finn, a member of Parliament, was in prison, accused of
murdering another member of Parliament, still the world went on with
its old ways, down in the neighbourhood of Harrington Hall and Spoon
Hall as at other places. The hunting with the Brake hounds was now
over for the season,--had indeed been brought to an auspicious end
three weeks since,--and such gentlemen as Thomas Spooner had time on
their hands to look about their other concerns. When a man hunts five
days a week, regardless of distances, and devotes a due proportion
of his energies to the necessary circumstances of hunting, the
preservation of foxes, the maintenance of good humour with the
farmers, the proper compensation for poultry really killed by
four-legged favourites, the growth and arrangement of coverts, the
lying-in of vixens, and the subsequent guardianship of nurseries, the
persecution of enemies, and the warm protection of friends,--when
he follows the sport, accomplishing all the concomitant duties of a
true sportsman, he has not much time left for anything.
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