CHAPTER VIII.
SCHOOLING.
“Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend,
How went he under him?”
“This is the prettiest low-born lass——”
“And so she gave you a great fright? Well, now, wasn’t that too bad? I wish I’d caught her at her tricks, and I’d soon have packed her about her business. You know, they say she was the best step-dancer in the country when she was a girl; and to think of her going dancing under your window, and you taking her for a ghost!”
Willy’s amusement overcame his sympathy, and he laughed loud and long.
I had been impelled to confide my alarm of Sunday night to him when we were on our way round to the stables to see the horses, on the following morning, and I now rather resented his refusal to see anything but the ludicrous side of the incident.
“You are very unsympathetic. I am sure you would have been just as frightened as I was,” I said. “She looked exactly like a ghost; and in any case I should like to know why she selected my window to dance under?”
“She meant it for a compliment, of course. I suppose she thought you’d be a good audience. I’ve seen her now and again jack-acting there in front of the house, but I’m afraid all I said was to tell her go home. But then, I’m not sympathetic like you!”