s. No further explanation was
required.

'We are close to a kennel of hounds,' said Ethelberta, as Picotee held
tightly to her arm. 'They cannot get out, so you need not fear. They
have a horrid way of suddenly beginning thus at different hours of the
night, for no apparent reason: though perhaps they hear us. These poor
horses are waiting to be killed for their food.'

The experience altogether, from its intense melancholy, was very
depressing, almost appalling to the two lone young women, and they
quickly retraced their footsteps. The pleasant lake, the purl of the
weir, the rudimentary lawns, shrubberies, and avenue, had changed their
character quite. Ethelberta fancied at that moment that she could not
have married Neigh, even had she loved him, so horrid did his belongings
appear to be. But for many other reasons she had been gradually feeling
within this hour that she would not go out of her way at a beck from a
man whose interest was so unimpassioned.

Thinking no more of him as a possible husband she ceased to be afraid to
make inquiries about the peculiarities of his possessions. In the high-
road they came on a local man, resting from wheeling a wheelbarrow, and
Ethelberta asked him, with the air of a countrywoman, who owned the
estate across the road.

'The man owning that is one of the name of Neigh,' said the native,
wiping his face. ''Tis a family that have made a very large fortune by
the knacker business and tanning, though they be only sleeping partners
in it now, and live like lords. Mr. Neigh was going to pull down the old
huts here, and improve the place and build a mansion--in short, he went
so far as to have the grounds planted, and the roads marked out, and the
fish-pond made, and the place christened Farnfield Park; but he did no
more. "I shall never have a wife," he said, "so why should I want a
house to put her in?" He's a terrible hater of women, I hear,
particularly the lower class.'

'Indeed!'

'Yes, and since then he has let half the land to the Honourable Mr.
Mountclere, a brother of Lord Mountclere's. Mr. Mountclere wanted the
spot for a kennel, and as the land is too poor and sandy for cropping,
Mr. Neigh let him have it. 'Tis his hounds that you hear howling.'

They passed on. 'Berta, why did we come down here?' said Picotee.

'To see the nakedness of the land. It was a whim only, and as it will
end in nothing, it is not worth while for me to make further
expla