"We are very gay at times.

There are private theatricals and dances, occasionally an official ball, and we are promised picnics and water-parties now that the summer is here." "And in the autumn, ma'am, we may find you a little hunting," his lordship promised them.

"Plenty of foxes; a rough country, though; but what's that to an Irishwoman ?" He caught the quickening of Miss Armytage's eye.

"The prospect interests you, I see." Miss Armytage admitted it, and thus they made conversation for a while, what time the great soldier sipped his wine and water to wash the dust of his morning ride from his throat.

When at last he set down an empty glass Sir Terence took this as the intimation of his readiness to deal with official matters, and, rising, he announced himself entirely at his lordship's service.
Lord Wellington claimed his attention for a full hour with the details of several matters that are not immediately concerned with this narrative.