J. S. Fletcher

“ The room in which Miss Lister and Anthony sat was hot—the winter landscape looked cool and inviting. Miss Lister, from her side of the big fire, looked at Anthony, sprawling in an easy-chair on his.
"How I should like to see it!—her, I mean," she said. "Couldn't we—would Mr. Poskitt mind if we went to look at her?"
"Not he!" said Anthony. "Here, come on, I'll take you over to the stable. I'll wager aught you like there isn't a man in Yorkshire can show you the points of a horse as well as I can. Horseflesh is my particular hobby." ”

“ If Miss Annetta Lister had desired to make a conquest of Mr. Anthony Merrill, she could not have devised a better plan of campaign than that which Anthony himself thus forced upon her. When the two emerged from the stable after nearly three-quarters of an hour's horse-talk, Anthony was firmly convinced that of all the common-sense, intelligent, practical young women in the world, this tall and attractive young woman, wrapped in his new great-coat, was the paragon. ”

“ It was a sort of family tradition amongst the Merrills that they should all dance well, and old Merrill himself, though he weighed eighteen stone, could foot it as lightly as a girl. So Anthony said that he would be only too pleased to dance with Miss Lister, and the hostess thereupon bade the gentlemen take their partners.
A consequential person with very black whiskers approached Miss Lister as she and Anthony stood near the piano. He executed a low bow and glanced at Anthony's un-evening-like garments with supercilious eyes. ”

“ It's generally pretty lively at night."
"And what does appeal to you?" inquired Miss Lister.
"A jolly good day with the hounds," replied Anthony with great enthusiasm, "or a bit of good shooting or fishing—anything out of doors."
"Ah!" said Miss Lister, throwing much significance into her tone. "You're a sportsman—that's very plain to see. I felt at once you were when I noticed the fox's head at the top of your scarf-pin—I think you can always tell a sportsman by his scarves and his pins. I should say our host, Mr. Poskitt, was a sportsman." ”

“ I'm not afraid of cold," said Anthony, as he opened the hall-door and led the way to the stable. "When you come to rise at five o'clock of a morning, as I make a point of doing, you don't think much about cold. Now, then," he continued, as they entered the stable and saw Mr. Poskitt's mare throw a somewhat vicious eye over her shapely shoulders at them, "what do you think of that? Isn't she a beauty?—gad, I wish she was mine! She's a great deal too young and skittish for old Poskitt—she'll throw him some day. ”

“ Poskitt insisted on having, he found his arm round Miss Lister's slim waist. Before the evening was over he had made progress in a fashion which dazzled his subsequent vision of things.
Miss Lister had given him permission to call upon her next time he went to fair or market at Leeds, and she had promised that when spring came round again she would pay a visit to Sellincote Farm, and not only see all the things that Anthony could show her, but take a lesson in riding.
"You'll look as well in the saddle as any woman that rides to hounds in the county!" ”

“ Roller," she said, "but you must excuse me—I'm giving this dance to Mr. Merrill. See—there's Miss Jones over there—she's disengaged. Won't you ask her?"
Mr. Roller closed his very white teeth over his very black moustache and retired, not to dance with Miss Jones, but to get into a corner with his friend Mr. Webber, there to sulk and say nasty things.
"That's the way with women, Webber," he said bitterly. "Her and me's almost engaged, and she throws me over for a country bumpkin like that—a feller that comes to an evenin' party in shootin'-clothes and boots as big as canal boats." ”

“ It seemed to him that, apart from performing certain household duties in a perfunctory manner, giggling and tittering about nothing at every available opportunity, dressing them- selves up and peacocking about the village street, or in the market town, in obvious endeavours to catch the eyes of every man they met, there was nothing that girls could be said to do. ”

“ Like most men who love horses, Anthony was a little "dressy"—he liked to array his well-set-up young figure in large checks, and Newmarket gaiters, and fancy waistcoats, and smart white neckerchiefs with horseshoe pins in them, and he was as strict in the surveillance of his tailor as a man of fashion is. ”

“ Webber slowly. "He's rather a small foot, and by Jove, bumpkin or not, he can waltz! There's none of us can waltz like that, Roller, old man."
"Pshaw!" said Mr. Roller. "I'm sick of women—fickle things! Wish we could go somewhere and do a bitter or a drop of Scotch. No hope of that, worse luck!"
There was no hope of anything of that sort until an hour later, when Miss Lister invited her guests into an adjoining room to partake of a cold collation. By that time Anthony had waltzed with several young ladies, and had become well warmed by the exercise. ”

“ Don't you go to any of them wicked theatres, now, Anthony!"
"All right, mother," replied Anthony; "I can take care of myself."
"I'd call on Miss Lister if I were you, Tony," said Matilda. "I'm sure she'd be pleased to see you."
"Nothing of the sort, Matilda!" said Mrs. Merrill, in her most reprimanding manner. "Anthony's much too sensible to run after young girls."
Anthony heard and made no reply. He not only meant to see Miss Lister, but to take her out for a walk—perhaps to the theatre. It was not often that he got the chance of spending the evening in Leeds ”

“ Poskitt, a hospitable and jovial old gentleman, who believed that at Christmas every lass should have a lad, and every lad a lass, had discovered that after inviting Anthony to his party he had no young lady to pair off with him, and he had forthwith commissioned his nephew Stephen's wife, who was coming from Leeds to attend the festivity, to bring a friend with her—"a nice, lively young woman with no standoffishness about her, and up to a bit of fun." The nice, lively young woman proved on arrival to be Miss Annetta Lister, and Mr. ”

“ Then he summed up courage, or possibly resigned himself to the necessity of having to talk. "It's always the same here, or at any similar place, after dinner on a Christmas Day," he said. "The old 'uns get into the little parlour and drink and smoke all the afternoon; the old ladies go into the drawing-room and chatter a bit and sleep a bit; the girls go off with their young men—that's how it's done. ”