"SUSPENSE." 77
 However, it was long previous to this climax that Flora
had many happy days with Harry, attending him sedulously,
and assisting him with all her ability in his raids on rabbits,
hares, pheasants, wild ducks, or rats in the barn. Flora was
not particular; any game came right to her, which was one
advantage of her mixed descent. Harry averred that she
would have gone at a deer had she got the chance of deer-
stalking. He was proud of her skill in pointing and in bringing
him the game, though he was free to admit that she was not
probably just such a dog as that which the poet Earl of Surrey
-with the true poetic insight into animal nature, and power of
drawing forth and tutoring animal gifts-first taught to point.
 I don't know whether Harry or Flora enjoyed most those
early autumn mornings, when the silvery white mist drew a
bridal veil over the orange and tawny woodlands, when the
young man's foot crushed out the aromatic fragrance from the
thyme and mint in the pasture; or those winter and spring
afternoons, when the sunset reddened the prevailing gray, and
the two crouched, stiff but staunch, among the frozen sedges
by the silent brook, and trudged home content-although
they had got but a single green-necked duck, or were empty-
handed-in the gathering darkness, with the stars coming out
and twinkling over their heads. The two were excellent
company, and in room of speech Harry whistled-oh! with
what untiring wind, and how cheerily-in a way that it
would have done Lady Margaret's heart good to hear, leaving
echoes which rang pathetically in other hearts throughout the
long years.
 The first great change which made good Flora's footing
in the curate's family, was Harry's ultimate choice of the