"Ah!"
The pony was off with a bound like a buck. She had found out the right
depth of pin this time. "Ah! where is my whip? I have dropped it; how
careless!" Then they had to ride back for the whip, and by this means
joined Mr. Fountain. Lucy rode by his side, and got the carriage
between her and her beau. By this plan she not only evaded sentiment,
but matured by a series of secret trials her skill with her weapon.
Armed with this new science, she issued forth, and, whenever Mr.
Talboys left off indifferent remarks and sounded her affections, she
probed the pony, and he kicked or bolted as the case might require.
"Confound that pony!" cried Talboys; "he used to be quiet enough."
"Oh, don't scold him, dear, playful little love. He carries me like a
wave."
At this simple sentence Talboys' dormant jealousy contrived to revive.
He turned sulky, and would not waste any more tenderness, and
presently they rattled over the stones of Royston. Lucy commended her
pony with peculiar earnestness to the ostler. "Pray groom him well,
and feed him well, sir; he is a love." The ostler swore he would not
wrong her ladyship's nag for the world.
Lucy then expressed her desire to go forward without delay: "Aunt will
expect me." She took her seat in the carriage, bade a kind farewell to
both the gentlemen now that no tender answer was possible, and was
whirled away.
Thus the coy virgin eluded the pair.
Now her manner in taking leave of Talboys was so kind, so smiling (in
the sweet consciousness of having baffled him), that Fountain felt
sure it all had gone smoothly.
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