r place in a railway carriage, and demanding it, too,
without the slightest idea of paying you for it with thanks; whose study
it is to treat you as though she ignored your existence while she is
appropriating your services. The hunting lady who demands assistance is
very particular about her gates, requiring that aid shall be given to
her with instant speed, but that the man who gives it shall never
allow himself to be hurried as he renders it. And she soon becomes
reproachful, oh, so soon! It is marvellous to watch the manner in which
a hunting lady will become exacting, troublesome, and at last imperious,
deceived and spoilt by the attention which she receives. She teaches
herself to think at last that a man is a brute who does not ride as
though he were riding as her servant, and that it becomes her to assume
indignation if every motion around her is not made with some reference
to her safety, to her comfort, or to her success. I have seen women look
as Furies look, and heard them speak as Furies are supposed to speak,
because men before them could not bury themselves and their horses out
of their way at a moment's notice, or because some pulling animal would
still assert himself while they were there, and not sink into submission
and dog-like obedience for their behoof.

I have now before my eyes one who was pretty, brave, and a good
horse-woman; but how men did hate her! When you were in a line with her
there was no shaking her off. Indeed, you were like enough to be shaken
off yourself, and to be rid of her after that fashion. But while you
were with her you never escaped her at a single fence, and always felt
that you were held to be trespassing against her in some manner. I shall
never forget her voice, "Pray, take care of that gate." And yet it was
a pretty voice, and elsewhere she was not given to domineering more than
is common to pretty women in general; but she had been taught badly from
the beginning, and she was a pest. It was the same at every gap. "Might
I ask you not to come too near me?" And yet it was impossible to escape
her. Men could not ride wide of her, for she would not ride wide of
them. She had always some male escort with her, who did not ride as she
rode, and consequently, as she chose to have the advantage of an escort,
of various escorts, she was always in the company of some who did not
feel as much joy in the presence of a pretty young woman as men should
do under all circumstances. "Mi