noon before
One who has lived twenty-eight years , having no desire unfulfilled , and taking his part of every pleasure that wealth , high birth , and a splendid body can give him , may well ride gaily over a good white road and have leisure to throw back his head to hearken to a skylark soaring in the high blue heavens above him , to smile at a sitting bird 's bright eyes peeping timidly at him from under the thick leafage of a hazel hedge , or at the sight of a family of rabbits scurrying over the cropped woodland grass at the sound of his horse 's feet , their short white tails marking their leaps as they dart from one fern shelter to the other ; and to slacken his horse 's pace as he rides past village greens , marking how the little children tumble and are merry there . So my lord Marquess rode and Mr. Fox with him , for two days at least . In the dewy morning they set forth and travelled between green hedgerows and through pretty tiny villages , talking pleasantly , as old friends will talk , for to the day of his old preceptor 's peaceful dying years later at Camylott , the Marquess -LRB- who was then a Duke -RRB- loved and treated him as a companion and friend , not as a poor underling Chaplain who must rise from table as if dismissed by the course of sweetmeats when it appeared . For refreshments they drew rein at noon before some roadside inn whose eager host spread before them his very best , and himself waited upon them in awful joy . When the sun set , one manservant rode on before to prepare for their entertainment for the night , and when they cantered up to the hostelry , they found the whole establishment waiting to receive and do them honour , landlord and landlady bowing and curtseying on the threshold , maidservants peeping from behind doors and through upper windows , and loiterers from the village hanging about ready to pull forelocks or bob curtseys , as their sex demanded . '' 'T is my lord Marquess of Roxholm , the great Duke of Osmonde 's heir , '' they would hear it whispered . `` He has come back from the wars covered with wounds and now rides to pay his respects to their Graces , his parents , at Camylott Tower . ''