ow.

"At first the great delight was to crowd round him, pat him, stroke his
mane, finger his trappings; cry out words of ecstatic praise and
admiration, and attempt to feed him with all manner of unsuitable food.

"Icon, I gather, behaved much as most males behave on finding
themselves the centre of a crowd of admiring women. He pawed the
ground, and swished his tail; arched his neck, and looked from side to
side; munched cakes he did not want, winking a large and roguish eye at
Brother Philip; and finally, ignoring all the rest, fixed a languorous
gaze upon the Prioress, she being the only lady present who stood
apart, regarding the scene, but taking no share in the general
adulation.

"At length the riding began; Brother Philip keeping firm hold on Icon,
while the entire party of nuns undertook to mount the nun who had
elected to ride. Each time Brother Philip attempted a description of
this part of the proceedings he was at once seized with such spasms in
the region of his girdle, that speech became an impossibility; he could
but hold himself helplessly, looking at me from out streaming eyes,
until a fresh peep at his mental picture again bent him double.

"Much as I prefer a story complete, from start to finish, I was
constrained to command Brother Philip to pass on to scenes which would
allow him some possibility of articulate speech.

"The sternness of my tones gave to the good brother the necessary
assistance. In a voice still weak and faltering, but gaining firmness
as it proceeded, he described the riding.

"Most of the nuns rode but a few yards, held in place by so many
willing hands that, from a distance, only the noble head of Icon could
be seen above the moving crowd, surmounted by the terrified face of the
riding nun; who, hastening to exclaim that her own delight must not
cause her to keep others from participation, would promptly fall off
into the waiting arms held out to catch her; at once becoming, when
safely on her feet, the boldest encourager of the next aspirant to a
seat upon the back of Icon.

"Sister Mary Seraphine proved a disappointment. She had been wont to
boast so much of her own palfrey, her riding, and her hunting, that the
other nuns had counted upon seeing her gallop gaily over the field.

"The humble and short-lived attempts were all made first. Then Sister
Mary Seraphine, bidding the others stand aside, was swung by one tall
sister, acting according to her instructions,