"Look!" she cried, suddenly. "How slowly our horses have been walking!
The rest are almost out of sight. We had better join them. Will you race with me?"
"Any thing you please."
"Come on, then."
She touched her horse with the whip, and they set forward at full speed. f.a.n.n.y, who was by far the better mounted, soon gained the day.
"Rein up," cried Morton, as they came near the party, "or your horse will startle the others."
f.a.n.n.y drew the curb, but not quite successfully; and her rapid arrival produced some commotion. Stubb"s horse, in particular, began to prance and curvet in a manner which greatly disturbed his rider"s equanimity.
"Whoa! Whoa, boy!" said Stubb. "Steady, now! steady, sir! Whoa!"
f.a.n.n.y"s eyes twinkled with malicious delight. She had a great contempt for Stubb, who, on his part, was mortally afraid of her.
"That"s a good horse of yours," pushing close to his side.
"Yes, a very fine horse, indeed. Steady, boy! Steady, now!"
"A capital horse; but he needs a spirited hand like yours to manage him."
"Whoa! Quiet, now!--poor fellow!"
This last endearing address was checked by a sudden jolt, produced by a spasmodic movement of the horse, which shook the cavalier to his very centre.
"Punish him well with your spurs, Mr. Stubb, and let him run; that"s the way to cure him of his tricks. Suppose we try a race together."
"Thank you, Miss Euston, but the fact is-- Whoa, boy! whoa!-- I mean, the stableman told me that he is rather short of breath."
"O, never mind the stableman. Come, let"s go."
"Thank you, Miss Euston, I believe not to-day."
"You astonish me. I will lay any bet you like--you shall name the wager--any thing you please."
"Really, this is a little too bad!" soliloquized the horrified Mrs.
Primrose. "Miss Euston, I entreat of you--I beg--that we may have no more racing. It is very dangerous, besides being----"
"What is it besides being dangerous, Mrs. Primrose?"
"_Very_ indecorous."
"I am very sorry, for I have set my heart on a race with Mr. Stubb."
"Mr. Morton," said the distressed lady, aside to that young gentleman, "you are a prudent and sober-minded person; pray use your influence."
She was interrupted by a most uncanonical e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n from the author of her embarra.s.sments, which, though couched in a foreign language, petrified her into silence. A sharp gust of wind had blown away f.a.n.n.y"s veil, and she was on the point of dashing off in pursuit of it.
"Stop!" cried Morton, "you"ll break your neck. Let me get it for you."
The veil sailed away before the wind, and Morton spurred in pursuit, delighted to display his horsemanship before ladies, though it had no other merit than a tenacious seat and a kind of recklessness, the result of an excitable temperament. The ground was rough and broken, and studded with rocks and savin bushes, and as he galloped at a breakneck speed down the side of the hill, in a vain attempt to catch the veil flying, even f.a.n.n.y held her breath. He secured his prize, as it caught against a bush, and returned to the road.
"Now, Miss Euston," said Mrs. Primrose, looking folios at the offender, "I trust we shall be allowed to go on in peace."
There was an interval of repose. Stubb regained his peace of mind.
Miss Primrose, with whom he fancied himself in love, smiled upon him, and his self-conceit, before shaken in its stronghold, was returning in full force, when f.a.n.n.y, who nourished a peculiar spite against this harmless blockhead, and whom that afternoon a very Satan of mischief seemed to possess, again rode to his side, and renewed her solicitations for a race.
"Miss Euston," said Mrs. Primrose, "I am certain you would do nothing so unladylike as to force Mr. Stubb to race against his will. Consider the example you would set to Georgiana Gosling, who always imitates what she sees you do."
The words were mild and motherly; but the countenance of the outraged matron had an uncompromising look of reprehension, which exasperated f.a.n.n.y"s wayward humor beyond measure. She began, it is true, a lively conversation on general topics with the intelligent Stubb, but, meantime, by alternately checking and exciting her horse, and urging him to play a variety of antics, she contrived to infect her companion"s steed with the like contagion. He pranced, plunged, and chafed, till his rider was brought to the verge of despair.
The road had become quite narrow, running through a thick forest, frequented chiefly by woodcutters in the winter, and hunters of the picturesque in summer. f.a.n.n.y"s imitator, the adventurous Miss Gosling, a little girl of fourteen, had ridden a few rods in advance of the rest, when suddenly they saw her returning, astonished and disconsolate.
"We can"t go any farther; there"s a great tree fallen across the road."
A severe thundergust of the night before had overthrown a hemlock, the trunk of which, partly sustained by the roots and branches, formed a barrier about four feet from the ground. It was impossible to pa.s.s through the woods on either side, as they were very dense, and choked with a tangled growth of laurel bushes.
"How very annoying!" said Miss Primrose.
"What shall we do?" inquired Miss Gosling.
"Why, jump over it, to be sure," said f.a.n.n.y. "Mr. Stubb and I will show you the way."
"You are surely not in earnest!" cried Mrs. Primrose.
"Of course I am. I have taken higher leaps at the riding school, twenty times."
"You had better not," said Morton, who had alighted by the roadside to draw his saddle girth.
"It is too dangerous to be thought of for a single moment," added Mrs.
Primrose.
"Our horses," pursued the indiscreet Stubb, "are not used to leaping, and some of the ladies would certainly be hurt."
"The fool!" thought Morton. "He has done it now."
f.a.n.n.y threw a laughing, caustic glance at her victim.
"_Mine_ will leap, I know; and you are not a lady. Come, Mr. Stubb."
"Miss Euston," interposed the excited Mrs. Primrose, "this must not be. I am here in your mother"s place, and she will hold me responsible for your safety. I forbid you to go, Miss Euston."
f.a.n.n.y looked for a moment in her face. Morton caught the expression.
It was one of unqualified, though not ill-natured, defiance.
"Come," cried f.a.n.n.y again, and ran her horse towards the tree. She leaped gallantly, and cleared the barrier; but it was evident that she had lost control of the spirited animal, who galloped at a furious rate down the road.