"Then why do you go at all? Why can you not send an excuse?"
"Dear Emma, would you refuse to go if you were in my place?" inquired Laura.
Emma Cavendish could not reply.
"No, you would not," added Laura, "because it would not be right to refuse."
"But, my dear, to perform so long a journey on horseback! It must be over twenty miles. Let me see—it is about nine miles from here to Wendover, and it must be ten or eleven from Wendover to Lytton Lodge," said Emma.
"No; only about eight or nine. The whole distance is not more than seventeen or eighteen miles by the roundabout route. And if I could go as the crow flies it is not more than six miles. Why, you know the eastern extremity of your land touches the western extremity of uncle's."
"So it does. And if, as you say, you could go as the crow flies—that is, straight over mountains and rivers—you could get there in two hours. As it is, it will take you five or six hours, and that is too long for a girl to be in the saddle, especially a city-bred girl, unaccustomed to such exercise."
"I think I can stand it," smiled Laura.
"But you shall not try. If you will go you must take the little carriage. When do you propose to start?"
"To-morrow morning."