Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-08-13

| her amorous eye and sweet, seductive
smile. And so throughout that summer
| and on into the autumn her heart re-
| mains a pag which no one around can
| read.
But just as the leaves are turning
| sere, as if this were suggestive to a lady
/! herself turned twenty-for Belle Main
| warning has reached this ripe age-an
incident occurs which, as every one sup
| poses, will have the effect of fixing her
| cNoice. For if the brave deserve the
fair, which no doubt they do, though
not always getting them. then Henry
Harding should be her chosen one.
The incident in question takes place
in the hunting field, or, rather. on the
| ground of the meet" Winter is now
on; the first frosts shew their boar upon
the grass; the farmers have garnered
their crops, and the stubs" may be
trodden and trampled by everyone VINO
owns or can hire a horse, without dam
age or danger, save to the riders own
neck. The hunt is stag, the hounds
Her M~ajesty's," and the "meet" on
Gerrard's Cross common, where there
is room enough for all the relocated
gentry in England, hunting horses and
livery, stable hacks included, the latter
mastering strong around the royal
pack. Room also for many carriages
and as much muslin" as may care to
shew itself on the ground.
On this particular day there IS an
unusual display of sealskin jackets,
with pretty faces above the fur-none
p~rettier or more admired than that OF
| Miss Mainwaring. For she is there IN
her pony phaeton, feathered hat on her
| head, whip and ribbons in hand; her
| cheeks as roseate on this crisp winters
morning as if they reflected the col
| or of the scarlet coats. that cluster
| around her carriage.
She has her hybrid of page and
| groom perched on the rumble behind,
a YOUTH well trained to sustain the
dignity of the situation.
The stag, uncarted bounds off; but,
being a lazy brute, runs badly, and in
stead of striking cross country, keeps
along the Kings highway-the old Ok
ford road that erst reSOunded with the
rafting wheels of thirty stage coaches
now scarce travelled, and silent, save
when the horn of the huntsman, as on
this particular morning, with the So
norous baying of hounds, once more
startles to cheerful life its long SUM
bering echoes.
Only for a short{while does the chase
lie along the road. An open farm gate
gives the stag admission to the fields;
where, after %fioundering about and
taking two or three fences, he doubles
back towards the starting place. On
first Looping off, his eye had caught the
sheen of water, as he passed the pond
upon the common. In the hour of his
distress he remembers it, and with GER
vine instinct, thinking it will save him
makes straight back for it.
By this, most of the carriages that
came to the meet have driven off,
only some two or three remaining. OF
these one is the phaeton of Miss Main
waring, which is still i nthe same place
as when the hounds broke away
drawn up near the waters edge. Be-
side it is a gentleman in pink coat and
velvet hunting cap, seated in his sad
die, with body bent down, conversing
with the lady in the phaeton. Instead
of joining in the chase, he has elected
to remain behind, the dear in the
carriage having more attraction for
him than the deer turned out Of the
cart. Not much of Nimrod he-for it
is Nigel Harding.
While the two are engaged in what
appears an interesting tete-a-tete, he
seeming more serious than she, the
hounds baying, for a time faint and far
off, gradually gains strength, telling
that the chase is on return. Soon a
louder ''growl" is borne upon the
breeze, and while its sonorous echoes
are still reverberating from the church
tower near by, the stag is seen burst
ing through a quickest hedge, that car
ries him one more out upon the COM
mon Without needing the shouts of
the smock-frocks, still lingering on the
ground Of the meet, or their efforts to
intercept him, he runs direct for the
water, in his frenzy thinking only of
his canine pursuers, and f~ancying he
may there throw them of the scent.
Bounding blindly on, he passes the
pony %phaeton. shaving it so closely as
almost to scratch his skin against the
rail of the rumble. In another jump
he has plunged into the pond and goes
dashing on towards its censer.
The chased stag is not the only ami
NAL that takes to the water, for the
pony, scared. and if as affected by the
same frenzy, rears up in the shafts,
and, turning abruptly, PUSHES in, too,
dragging the phaeton after. Nor stops