Thereupon the Captain intimated
to the Committee that unless some advances were made he should go.
The Committee refused, and thereupon the Captain went;--not
altogether to the dissatisfaction of the farmers, with whom an
itinerant Master is seldom altogether popular. Then for a time
there was great gloom in the U.R.U. What hunting man or woman does
not know the gloom which comes over a hunting county when one
Master goes before another is ready to step in his shoes? There had
been a hope, a still growing hope, that Lord Rufford would come
forward at any such pinch; but since Miss Penge had come to the
front that hope had altogether vanished. There was a word said at
Rufford on the subject, but Miss Penge,--or Lady Rufford as she was
then,--at once put her foot on the project and extinguished it.
Then, when despair was imminent, old Mr. Hampton gave way, and
young Hampton came forward, acknowledged on all sides as the man
for the place. A Master always does appear at last; though for a
time it appears that the kingdom must come to an end because no one
will consent to sit on the throne.
Perhaps the most loudly triumphant man in Dillsborough was Mr.
Mainwaring, the parson, when he heard of the discomfiture of
Senator Gotobed. He could hardly restrain his joy, and confided
first to Dr. Nupper and then to Mr.
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