for them, and they admitted of a mistake.  But the horse, though he would rush at them unpleasantly, took them when they came without touching them.  It might be all right yet,—­unless the beast should tire with him; and then, Phineas thought, a misfortune might probably occur.  He remembered, as he flew over one such impediment, that he rode a stone heavier than his friend.  At the end of forty-five minutes Bonebreaker also might become aware of the fact.

The hounds were running well in sight to their right, and Phineas began to feel some of that pride which a man indulges when he becomes aware that he has taken his place comfortably, has left the squad behind, and is going well.  There were men nearer the hounds than he was, but he was near enough even for ambition.  There had already been enough of the run to make him sure that it would be a “good thing”, and enough to make him aware also that probably it might be too good.  When a run is over, men are very apt to regret the termination, who a minute or two before were anxiously longing that the hounds might pull down their game.  To finish well is everything in hunting.  To have led for over an hour is nothing, let the pace and country have been what they might, if you fall away during the last half mile.  Therefore it is that those behind hope that the fox may make this or that cover, while the forward men long to see him turned over in every field.  To ride to hounds is very glorious; but to have ridden to hounds is more glorious still.  They had now crossed another road, and a larger one, and had got into a somewhat closer country.  The fields were not so big, and the fences were not so high.  Phineas got a moment to look about him, and saw Lord Chiltern riding without his cap.  He was very red in the face, and his eyes seemed to glare, and he was tugging at his horse with all his might.  But the animal seemed still to go with perfect command of strength, and Phineas had too much work on his own hands to think of offering Quixotic assistance to any one else.  He saw some one, a farmer, as he thought, speak to Lord Chiltern as they rode close together; but Chiltern only shook his head and pulled at his horse.

There were brooks in those parts.  The river Eye forms itself thereabouts, or some of its tributaries do so; and these tributaries, though small as rivers, are considerable to men on one side who are called by the exigencies of the occasion to place themselves quickly on the other.  Phineas knew nothing of these brooks; but Bonebreaker had gone gallantly over two, and now that there came a third in the way, it was to be hoped that he might go gallantly over that also.  Phineas, at any rate, had no power to decide otherwise.  As long as the brute would go straight with him he could sit him; but he had long given up the idea of having a will of his own.  Indeed, till he was within twenty yards of the brook, he did not see that it was larger than the others.  He looked around, and there was Chiltern close to him,