If there
were any penalty for riding round, or any mark given to those who had
ridden straight, so that justice might in some sort be done, it would
perhaps be better. When you have nearly broken your neck to get to hounds,
or made your horse exert himself beyond his proper power, and then find
yourself, within three minutes, overtaking the hindmost ruck of horsemen
on a road because of some iniquitous turn that the fox had taken, the
feeling is not pleasant. And some man who has not ridden at all, who never
did ride at all, will ask you where you have been; and his smile will give
you the lie in your teeth, if you make any attempt to explain the facts.
Let it be sufficient for you at such a moment to feel that you are not
ashamed of yourself. Self-respect will support a man even in such misery
as this.
The fox on this occasion, having crossed the river, had not left its bank,
but had turned from his course up the stream, so that the leading spirits
who had followed the hounds over the water came upon a crowd of riders on
the road in a space something short of a mile. Mrs. Carbuncle, among
others, was there, and had heard of Lucinda's mishap.
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