"You young dog!" said his father, when the exhibition was over and Clarence had dismounted. "So you've been taking us in all this time, pretending you couldn't stick on a horse for more than a few seconds, hey?" "Oh, well," he said modestly, "I didn't like to say too much. Fact is, it's only quite lately that I've felt what you might call at home on a gee." The Stud grooms could have testified how very lately this was if they had thought proper to do so--which, of course, they did not. "It only shows what can be done with a little perseverance," said Queen Selina. "Clarence, you will be able to ride through the City now!" He managed to get Daphne to himself for a few minutes on the way back to the Palace. "Well, Lady Daphne," he began, "I've done what I could to please you, and I hope you are satisfied, what?" "Indeed I am, Prince Clarence," she said warmly, for he had risen several places in her esteem during the past hour. "And I congratulate you most heartily. And now things will be ever so much pleasanter for you, won't they?" As she spoke she noticed the pendant, which, of course, she recognised immediately. "Ah, you're looking at this," he said. "Daresay it strikes you as funny my wearing it?" "Not at all, Sir," she replied; "it isn't really a woman's ornament." She did not tell him how she knew it was not, for she had not forgotten her undertaking to say nothing about it. "Well, it was the Mater's," he said. "She's made me promise to wear it always. Thinks it may bring me luck." "I hope it will, Prince Clarence," she said, quite sincerely; and, as the Queen happened to look back just then and summon her sharply to her side, that was all that passed between him and Daphne on that occasion.