f the stablemen to open the gates, my proposal was met with
derision and contempt.

"I should have thought such a masculine lady as yourself, Kate, would
have been above requiring any assistance. I am always in the habit of
driving these ponies quite by myself; but of course, if _you're
afraid_, I'll have a groom to go with us immediately."

_Afraid_, indeed! I scouted the idea: my blood was up, and I almost
hoped something would happen, that I might fling the word in my aunt's
teeth, and ask her, "Who's _afraid_ now?" It came sooner than I
bargained for.

The ponies were pulling hard, and had got their mouths so thoroughly
set against my aunt's iron hand, that she might as well have been
driving with a pair of halters for any power she had over them, when a
rush of colts in an adjoining paddock on one side of the lane, and a
covey of partridges "whirring up" out of a turnip-field on the other,
started them both at the same moment. My aunt gave a slight scream,
clutched at her reins with a jerk; down went the ponies' heads, and we
were off, as hard as ever they could lay legs to the ground, along a
deep-rutted narrow lane, with innumerable twistings and turnings in
front of us, for a certainty, and the off-chance of a wagon and bell
team blocking up the whole passage before we could emerge upon the
high road.

"Lay hold, Kate!" vociferated my aunt, pulling for her very life, with
the veins on her bare wrists swelling up like whipcord. "Gracious
goodness! can't you stop 'em? There's a gravel-pit not half a mile
farther on! I'll jump out! I'll jump out!"

My aunt began kicking her feet clear of the sundry wraps and shawls,
and the leather apron that kept our knees warm, though I must do her
the justice to say that she still tugged hard at the reins. I saw such
an expedient would be certain death, and I wound one arm round her
waist, and held her forcibly down in her seat, while with the other I
endeavoured to assist her in the hopeless task of stopping the runaway
ponies. Everything was against us: the ground was slightly on the
decline; the thaw had not yet reached the sheltered road we were
travelling, and the wheels rung against its frozen surface as they
spun round with a velocity that seemed to add to the excitement of our
flying steeds. Ever and anon we bounded and bumped over some rut or
inequality that was deeper than usual. Twice we were within an inch of
the ditch; once, for an awful hundred yards, we were