"Then come with us in our walk, that I may enter immediately upon my new office."
"Are we going to walk?" Fritz asked. "No, Lieschen, let us ride. We have had no ride to-day. You would rather ride, Herr Pigglewitch, would you not?"
"I like to ride, but since I have no horse----"
"Do you know how to ride?" Lieschen interrupted him. "Is riding taught at the schools? Oh, if you like to ride you can easily have a horse; but no, now I think of it, I must not offer you papa's riding-horse, he does not like to have Cousin Albrecht or the inspectors ride it, and Herr Storting and Herr von Wangen are both using their horses to-day. There is Cousin Albrecht's second horse, but I don't know whether he would allow----"
"And even if he would I should not take advantage of his permission."
"But Soliman is in his stall," Fritz interposed.
"We must not offer Herr Pigglewitch Soliman, he is too wild and uncontrollable. No one can ride him except Cousin Albrecht, and he has, as you know, Fritz, been thrown twice."
"I do not think Soliman would throw me," Egon said.
"Oh, you do not know how tricky he is," was Lieschen's grave reply. "Even Cousin Albrecht, who is a very skilful horseman, has as much as he can do to control Soliman; he advised papa to sell the beautiful creature at any price, for he never can be cured of his tricks."
"You make me really anxious to try my fortune with Soliman. There is no pleasure in riding a quiet horse. The pleasure in riding comes from the necessity of straining every muscle and exercising all one's will to keep one's horse well in hand."