noon
To an uninitiated mind it would have seemed marvelous and beautiful in its combination of simplicity and intricacy , to have noted the delicate tactics with which Bertie conducted himself between his two claimants -- bending to his Countess with a reverent devotion that assuaged whatever of incensed perception of her unacknowledged rival might be silently lurking in her proud heart ; wheeling up to the pony-trap under cover of speaking to the men from Egerton Lodge , and restoring the Zu-Zu from sulkiness , by a propitiatory offer of a little gold sherry-flash , studded with turquoises , just ordered for her from Regent Street , which , however , she ungraciously contemned , because she thought it had only cost twenty guineas ; anchoring the victimized Seraph beside her by an adroit `` Ah ! by the way , Rock , give Zu-Zu one of your rose-scented papelitos ; she 's been wild to smoke them '' ; and leaving the Zu-Zu content at securing a future Duke , was free to canter back and flirt on the offside of Vivandiere , till the `` signal , '' the `` cast , '' made with consummate craft , the waving of the white sterns among the brushwood , the tightening of girths , the throwing away of cigars , the challenge , the whimper , and the `` stole away ! '' sent the field headlong down the course after as fine a long-legged greyhound fox as ever carried a brush . Away he went in a rattling spin , breaking straight at once for the open , the hounds on the scent like mad : with a tally-ho that thundered through the cloudless , crisp , cold , glittering noon , the field dashed off pell-mell ; the violet habit of her ladyship , and the azure skirts of the Zu-Zu foremost of all in the rush through the spinneys while Cecil on the King , and the Seraph on a magnificent white weight-carrier , as thoroughbred and colossal as himself , led the way with them . The scent was hot as death in the spinneys , and the pack raced till nothing but a good one could live with them ; few but good ones , however , were to be found with the Quorn , and the field held together superbly over the first fence , and on across the grassland , the game old fox giving no sign of going to covert , but running straight as a crow flies , while the pace grew terrific . `` Beats cock-fighting ! '' cried the Zu-Zu , while her blue skirts fluttered in the wind , as she lifted Cecil 's brown mare , very cleverly , over a bilberry hedge , and set her little white teeth with a will on the Seraph 's attar-of-rose cigarette .