Part 10 (2/2)
I replied, much nettled, that I did not want to h he was a Tory, he was not at all stupid and would probably get into the Cabinet
This was my first shrewd political prophecy, for he is in the Cabinet now
I cannot look at hi that he was the first e of seventeen, I said he would be in the Cabinet in spite of his being a Tory
For pure unalloyed happiness those days at Easton Grey were undoubtedly the most perfect of my life Lucy's sweetness toover fences and the perfect certainty I had that I would ride better than any one in the whole world gave me an insolent confidence which no earthquake could have shaken
Off and on, I felt qual into a happy sleep, drea hounds, echoes of ”Pray, Mamma” out of Mrs Markham, or early punishments of unfinished poems would play about my bed
On one occasion at Easton Grey, unable to sleep for love of life, I leant out of theinto the dark to see if it was thawing
It was a beautiful night, warot all aboutnofarmer, but to htly, the charht drive about in his low black pony-carriage, called in those days a Colorado beetle, but hunting on wheels was no role forthe field
My heart sank as I saw the coaily down the road, preceded by the hounds, trotting with a staccato step and their noses in the air
Just as I was turning to go ho a loose horse with a lady's saddle on it The ani it violently by the head, bumped it into my phaeton I saw my chance
MARGOT: ”Hullo, rooht jobbing his lady's horse in the room, miss”
MARGOT: ”Ju for; tell ?”
MAN (quite unsuspicious and thawing at my sweetness and authority): ”Bless your soul! Mrs Chaplin doesn't 'unt this 'orse! It's the Major's! She only 'acked it to the ): ”But can it ju down my habit skirt): ”It's a 'orse that can very near jump anythink, I should say, but the Major says it shakes every tooth in 'is gu-'eaded”
It did not taketo mount and in a moment I had left the lee, I began to look about n of the hunt! Only odd reers, terriers straining at a strap held by drunken runners--some in old Beaufort coats, others in corduroy--one-horse shays of every description by the sides of the road and sloppy girls with stick and ta their eyes across the fields to see the hounds
My horse with a loose rein was trotting ai a ”Halloa!” I pulled up and saw the hounds streaether, so close that you could have covered them with a handkerchief
What a scent! What a pack! Have I headed the fox? Will they cross the road? No! They are turning away from me! Now's the reat resolution and trotted up to a wall at the side of the road; he leapt it like a stag; we flew over the grass and the next fence; and, after a little scra, I found myself in the sah as the boy said, but a wonderful hunter; it could not put a foot wrong; we had a great gallop over the walls, which only a few of the field saw
When hounds checked, I was in despair; all sorts of ladies and gentle towards me and I wondered painfully which of them would be Mr and which Mrs Chaplin What was I to do?
Suddenly re my new friend and patron, I peered about for the Duke; when I found him and told him of the aard circumstances in which I had placed myself, he was so edtheir horse They were not less susceptible to dukes than other people and in any case no one was proof against the old Duke of Beaufort At the end of the day I was given the brush--a fashi+on co-field now--and I went home happy and tired
CHAPTER IV
MARGOT AT A GIRLS' SCHOOL--WHO SPILT THE INK?--THE ENGINE DRIVER'S MISTAKEN FLIRTATION--MARGOT LEAVES SCHOOL IN DISGUST-- DECIDES TO GO TO GERMANY TO STUDY
Although I did not doover my education, others did it for me