" She half closed her eyes and smiled, repeating, "This
is love.
"Oh how I despise all the others and their feeble flatteries!"
"Heaven forgive me my mad, my wicked wish!
"I _am_ beloved.
"I am adored.
"I am miserable!"
As soon as the carriage was out of sight, David came down and hurried
from the place. He found the pony at the inn. The ostler had not even
removed his saddle.
"Methought that ostler did protest too much."
David kissed the saddle and the pommels, and the bridle her hand had
held, and led the pony out. After walking a mile or two he mounted the
pony, to sit in her seat, not for ease. Walking thirty miles was
nothing to this athlete; sticking on and holding on with his chin on
his knee was rather fatiguing.
Meantime, Eve walked on till she was four miles from home. No David.
She sat down and cried a little space, then on again. She had just
reached an angle in the road, when--clatter, clatter--David came
cantering around with his knee in his mouth. Eve gave a joyful scream,
and up went both her hands with sudden delight. At the double shock to
his senses the pony thought his end was come, and perhaps the world's.
He shied slap into the hedge and stuck there--alone; for, his rider
swaying violently the reverse way, the girths burst, the saddle peeled
off the pony's back, and David sat griping the pommel of the saddle in
the middle of the road at Eve's feet, looking up in her face with an
uneasy grin, while dust rose around him in a little column.
Pages:
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201