is hand again and drawing
Wych Hazel's reins a little further through her fingers.
'There, that is quite enough for him, steady as he is. Do you
keep so free a rein in the household as you do in the saddle?'

'There has been no household--and no bridle, except for me.'

'Is Mr. Falkirk partial to a short rein?'

'What is "short?" ' she said with a laugh. 'That is an utterly
unsettled point. Are women never appointed guardians, Mr.
Rollo?'

'Certainly,' said Rollo, gravely. 'Always, when they marry.'

She glanced at him, doubting whether he might be laughing at
her.

'But I mean as Mr. Falkirk was.'

'Not often; but it occasionally happens. I congratulate you
that your case was not such.'

'Ah, you do not know!' she said quickly, with a sort of
outbreak of impatience.

'You don't know either,' said he.

'Yes I do. Not much about women to be sure--I have known very
few. But I do know Mr. Falkirk, and love him dearly, and think
a great deal more of him than you possibly can, Mr. Rollo.'

'I have thought a great deal about him,' said Rollo, in a sort
of dry, innocent manner. 'But I will tell you--a man's
guardianship leaves you a moral agent; a woman's changes you
into a hunted badger; and if you were of some sorts of nature
it would be a hunted fox. You know I have been under
guardianship too?'

'Yes, but I thought it was Dr. Maryland's?' she said looking
at him with astonished eyes. 'And you speak--Ah, you do not
know, as I said, after all. You never wanted anything that a
man could not give you.'

He laughed a little, his eye brightening and changing as he
looked at her with a very winning expression.

'I had all that a man could give me. Dr. Maryland was father
and mother in one, gentle and strong. But I have been in
wardship under a woman too, partially, and it was as I tell
you. Dr. Maryland would say: "Dane, don't go there," or "let
that alone," and I _did_, except when a very wicked fit got hold
of me. But _she_ would stick a cushion with pins, to keep me out
of it, and if she wanted to keep a cup from my lips she rubbed
gall where my lips would find it.'

'_Two_ guardians!' said Wych Hazel; 'so that queer woman at
Catskill thought _I_ had. But it is a great deal harder to have
a man find fault with you, nevertheless.'

'Why?' said Rollo, laughingly and seriously too.

'They are so quick in their judgments,' said the girl; 'so
sure about the evidence. The jury agree without retiring, and
s