"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. Having done, he rose at last from Sir Terence's
desk, at which he had been sitting, and took up his riding-crop
and cocked hat from the chair where he had placed them.
"And now," he said, "I think I will ride into Lisbon and endeavour
to come to an understanding with Count Redondo and Don Miguel
Forjas."
Sir Terence advanced to open the door. But Wellington checked him
with a sudden sharp inquiry.
"You published my order against duelling, did you not?"
"Immediately upon receiving it, sir."
"Ha! It doesn't seem to have taken long for the order to be
infringed, then.
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