ressed with it. Sylla rides well enough,
but her seat is not such as would have been held in high repute in the
shires. She also displays a most ladylike tendency on the present
occasion to what is technically called ride her horse's head off.

"Two to one!" murmured Blanche; "why, it should be ten to one upon old
Selim!" and with that she turned her eyes to ascertain after what
fashion old Selim's jockey is conducting himself. But a single glance
at Lionel bending slightly forward in his stirrups, with hands low and
his horse held firmly by the head, pretty well convinces her that he is
a first-flight man to hounds, and probably has appeared in silk on a
racecourse. The match terminates as might be anticipated: Sylla, under
the laudable impression that she is making her advantage in the weights
tell, gallops her luckless mare pretty nearly to a standstill, and
Lionel, though winning as he likes, good-naturedly reduces it to a half
length, whereby his defeated antagonist lays the flattering unction to
her soul that, had he carried a few more pounds, the result would have
been the other way.

They jogged soberly along some couple of miles, when Blanche exclaimed
gaily, "Who is for the short cut home? 'Let all who love me follow
me.'" And, putting King Cole at the small fence that bordered the
road, she jumped into the big grass-field on the other side. Lionel
Beauchamp and Laura Chipchase followed promptly; but Jim, who was a
little in advance, said quietly,

"We had better, I think, keep the road, Sartoris. The governor's hack,
though admirable in his place, is not quite calculated for the
inspection of the agriculture of the neighbourhood."

He said this good-naturedly, solely upon Sylla's account. He had
marked the finish of her race with Lionel, and had come to the
conclusion that the young lady was not much of a horsewoman. Now this
short cut, although over an easy country, did involve the negotiation
of two or three good-sized fences, and he thought it just possible that
the girl would prefer not being called upon to ride over anything of
that sort. Sylla was possessed of a good many accomplishments, but
riding across country was not one of them. She had, however, that
curious but common desire to excel in that for which she had no
aptitude; still, if she possessed no other attribute of a horsewoman,
she was undoubtedly gifted with nerve amounting almost to recklessness.

"Oh, no, Captain Bloxam,"