s and chains and
buckles; the glinting bridles, reins and saddles; Lord Tybar's
exquisitely poised figure, so perfectly maintaining and carrying up the
symmetry of his horse as to suggest the horse would be disfigured,
truncated, were he to dismount; his taking swagger, his gay, fine face;
and she....

An incantation: jingle of bits mouthed in those velvet muzzles; a hoof
pawed sharply on the road; swish of long, restless tails; creaking of
saddlery; and sudden bursts of all the instruments in unison when heads
were tossed and shaken. Remotely the whirr of a reaping machine. And
somewhere birds....

Pretty!

VI

Greetings had been exchanged; his apologies for his blundering descent
upon them laughed at. Lord Tybar was saying, "Well, it's a tiger of a
place, this Garden Home of yours, Sabre--"

"It's not mine," said Sabre. "God forbid."

"Ah, you've not got the same beautiful local patriotism that I have.
It's one of my most elegant qualities, my passionate devotion to my
countryside. That was what that corker of a vicar of yours, Boom
Bagshaw, told me I was when I wept with joy while he was showing me
round. Yes, and now I'm a patron of the Garden Home Trust or a governor
or a vice-priest or something. I am really. What is it I am, Nona?"

"You're a bloated aristocrat and a bloodsucker," Nona told him in her
clear, fine voice. "And you're living on estates which your brutal
ancestors ravaged from the people. That's what you are, Tony. I showed
it you in the _Searchlight_ yesterday. And, I say, don't use 'elegant';
that's mine."

"Oh, by gad, yes, so I am," said Lord Tybar. "Bloodsucker! Good lord,
fancy being a bloodsucker!"

He looked so genuinely rueful and abashed that Sabre laughed; and then
said to Nona, "Why is elegant 'yours', Lady Tybar?"

She made a little pouting motion at him with her lips. "Marko, I wish to
goodness you wouldn't call me Lady Tybar. Dash it, we've called one
another Nona and Marko for about a thousand years, long before I ever
knew Tony. And just because I'm married--"

"And to a mere loathsome bloodsucker, too," Lord Tybar interposed.

"Yes, especially to a bloodsucker. Just remember to say Nona, will you,
otherwise there'll be a cruel scene between us. I told you about it
before I went away. You don't suppose Tony minds, do you?"

"And Sabre," said Lord Tybar, "what the devil does it matter what a
bloated robber minds, anyway? That's the way to look at me, Sabre.
Trample