The sporting chance

								

roused, though not to the same pitch as before, the guests upon Sir
Roderick's coach returned in little straggling groups to partake of
tea.  Sir Roderick himself, flushed with his victory, did the
honours, and received the congratulations of all his friends.  He was
bubbling over with good spirits, perpetrated innumerable verbal
blunders, at which he was the first to laugh, and distributed
"largesse" freely among the hangers-on about the coach--this, until
such a crowd of minstrels, gipsies, and such like had collected that
it was all the grooms could do to disperse them; but it was a
good-natured, cheering crowd, and Sir Roderick was distinctly
enjoying himself.
Captain Armitage, his white beard and moustache contrasting forcibly
with his rubicund complexion, disdained tea, and appropriated a
champagne bottle to himself.  He was less excitable than he had been
on the journey down, but then, as he would say himself, he was the
kind of man whom drink sobered.  Lady Lempiere and Major Molyneux
were conspicuous by their absence, but all the other guests had put
in an appearance.  Lord Caldershot was still assiduous in his
attentions to Rada, who, for her part, was in a state of delight at
having won the coach sweepstake, as well as several pounds, the
proceeds of her own investment upon Hipponous, plus many pairs of
gloves which she had apparently won off her cavalier.
She was a distinctly pretty girl; Mostyn, who had had some
opportunities of talking to her during the day, was constrained to
admit the fact.  He was attracted by her, and yet, at the same time,
in some peculiar manner, repelled.  She was unlike any girl he had
ever met.  She had no reserve of manner, she spoke as freely as a man
might speak, and yet her whole appearance was distinctly feminine.
"Rada Armitage is a little savage," so Royce had explained her to
Mostyn.  "She has lived all her life with that wretched old
scapegrace, her father, for her mother died when she was an infant.
She has never known a controlling hand.  Heaven knows how they
exist--Armitage's cottage at Partingborough is a disgrace to a
civilised man.  Rada's like an untrained filly, and you must take her
at that.  She was called after a horse, too, one upon which the
captain won a lot of money the year she was born."
The girl was small in stature, although she was slim and perfectly
proportioned, giving, perhaps, an impression of inches which she
really did not possess.  Her hair was deep black, glossy, and
inclined to be rebellious; her eyes, too, were black, very bright,
piercing, and particularly expressive.  They seemed to change in some
peculiar way with every emotion that swayed her; one moment they
would be soft, the next they would flash with humour, and then again
they would be scornfully defiant.  As with her eyes, so it was with
her mouth and with her face generally; to Mostyn she was a puzzle,
and he wondered what her real nature could be.