"
"Indeed! what, on foot, and we on horseback?"
"Ay; but I can steer in the wind's eye."
"Aunt, Mr. Dodd proposes a race home."
"With all my heart. How much start are we to give him?"
"None at all," said David; "are you ready? Then give way," and he
started down the hill at a killing pace.
The equestrians were obliged to walk down the hill, and when they
reached the bottom David was going as the crow flies across some
meadows half a mile ahead. A good canter soon brought them on a line
with him, but every now and then the turns of the road and the hills
gave him an advantage. Lucy, naturally kind-hearted, would have
relaxed her pace to make the race more equal, but Talboys urged her
on; and as a horse is, after all, a faster animal than a sailor, they
rode in at the front gate while David was still two fields off.
"Come," said Mrs. Bazalgette, regretfully, "we have beat him, poor
fellow, but we won't go in till we see what has become of him."
As they loitered on the lawn, Henry the footman came out with a
salver, and on it reposed a soiled note. Henry presented it with
demure obsequiousness, then retired grinning furtively.
"What is this--a begging-letter? What a vile hand! Look, Lucy; did you
ever? Why, it must be some pauper."
"Have a little mercy, aunt," said Lucy, piteously; "that hand has been
formed under my care and daily superintendence: it is Reginald's."
"Oh, that alters the case. What can the dear child have to say to me!
Ah! the little wretch! Send the servants after him in every direction.
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