‘By yourself, and on a strange animal, Miss Anstruther! It is quite out of the question.’ ‘I have ridden all sorts of animals.’ ‘Perhaps; but not without an attendant. What would the regiment think to see you riding alone?’ ‘I am sorry, I have mistaken the place,’ she said gravely. ‘I thought Mushin-Bunda was so very quiet that one might do anything here. I should not think of troubling you to accompany me.’ And she turned towards the house as though with the intention of giving up her ride. But I placed myself upon the threshold, and barred her entrance. ‘You have not been treating me fairly for some days past, Miss Anstruther. What have I done to offend you?’ ‘Nothing,’ she answered in a low voice. ‘Then don’t add insult to your injury by refusing my escort on this occasion. You need take no more notice of me, you know, than if I were your groom; and that will not be much alteration from your usual behaviour.’ She held her head so low that I could hardly see her face; but she re-entered the verandah as I spoke, and I concluded that my terms were accepted. In another moment the horses were at the door. ‘Come,’ I said, as gaily as I could, as I held out my hand to aid her in descending the steps; and as I took hers, I felt that it was trembling. I put her on her horse. Notwithstanding her height, she is almost feather-weight; and her elastic figure sprang into the saddle, from the impetus it received from me, as though she had really been the animal to which I am so fond of comparing her. So I settled her in her seat, arranging her skirt and stirrup-leather for her, and handing her the reins, without once looking in her face; and then I mounted my own horse, and we rode out of the compound side by side. The silence that we maintained was ominous. She did not speak a word, and I could think of nothing to say, although I felt that an explanation was about to take place between us. I was glad, therefore, when we came to a long strip of green turf, and I could suggest that she should try of what mettle her animal was made; a suggestion to which she dumbly assented by breaking into a canter. As we rode along together, I glanced at her light figure, poised like a bird upon the saddle, and saw that she rode well, sitting home to her crupper, and handling her reins as though she were accustomed to them. (_N.B._—I have read and heard a good deal about the want of grace in a woman’s seat on horseback, but, for my own part, I never think a lady looks so well as in that position, always provided that she understands her business and has a figure worth looking at. A handsome woman on a handsome horse is a sight for royalty, and I never know which to admire most, the mortal or the equine.)