utiful head and looked
with fearless curiosity in the direction whence the sound came. Shag, of
course, did as nearly as he could exactly the same. What they saw was
a big roan horse with an enormous arched neck, squat feet, and
long-tasselled fetlocks.

Lady Clare had no difficulty in recognizing Valders-Roan. But how big
and heavy and ominous he looked in the blood-red after-glow of the
blood-red sunset. For the first time in her life Lady Clare felt a cold
shiver of fear run through her. There was, happily, a fence between
them, and she devoutly hoped that Valders-Roan was not a jumper. At that
moment, however, two men appeared next to the huge horse, and Lady Clare
heard the sound of breaking fence-rails. The deep hoarse whinny once
more made the air shake, and it made poor Lady Clare shake too, for
now she saw Valders-Roan come like a whirlwind over the field, and so
powerful were his hoof-beats that a clod of earth which had stuck to one
of his shoes shot like a bullet through the air.

He looked so gigantic, so brimming with restrained strength, and somehow
Lady Clare, as she stood quaking at the sight of him, had never seemed
to herself so dainty, frail, and delicate as she seemed in this moment.
She felt herself so entirely at his mercy; she was no match for him
surely. Shag, anxious as ever to take his cue from her, had stationed
himself at her side, and shook his head and whisked his tail in a
non-committal manner. Now Valders-Roan had cleared the fence where the
men had broken it down; then on he came again, tramp, tramp, tramp,
until he was within half a dozen paces from Lady Clare. There he
stopped, for back went Lady Clare's pretty ears, while she threw herself
upon her haunches in an attitude of defence. She was dimly aware that
this was a foolish thing to do, but her inbred disdain and horror
of everything rough made her act on instinct instead of reason.
Valders-Roan, irritated by this uncalled-for action, now threw ceremony
to the winds, and without further ado trotted up and rubbed his nose
against hers. That was more than Lady Clare could stand. With an
hysterical snort she flung herself about, and up flew her heels straight
into the offending nose, inflicting considerable damage. Shag, being now
quite clear that the programme was fight, whisked about in exactly the
same manner, with as close an imitation of Lady Clare's snort as he
could produce, and a second pair of steel-shod heels came within a