“Yes, indeed! Isn’t he a dear? The ‘boys’ sent him,” returned Sobrante’s mistress, pleased to be noticed even thus much by the haughty senior.
“Hmm. He is—quite handsome. But, if he’s been reared in the—the wilds, you’ll have trouble with him. You should be careful.”
“Yes, of course. But there’ll be no trouble. I’ve had him out once already and though he didn’t like the automobiles, at first, he got so he despised them after a little while. He thinks elevated trains are dreadful but—he’s as obedient as a horse can be. He knows me already.”
“How absurd! That would be according him human intelligence, which no four-footed beast possesses. Don’t be too confident.”
Now there was nothing that would sooner arouse Jessica’s quick temper than disparagement of horses; and she flashed back:
“Indeed, some horses do possess it—or its equivalent. Why, I could tell you things about Sobrante animals that would amaze you, if you didn’t know they were true.”
“And because you told them I suppose I should know that!” retorted Helen sarcastically. “I’ve often heard of ‘California stories’ and I’m not anxious for them. Only, take care. I’ve ridden for several years and I know horses are not to be trusted till after you’ve used them a long time. Even Beauty, here, is restless and I have to watch him all the time. He is intelligent, if you please, extraordinarily so, but he hasn’t yet learned to ‘despise’ an auto, after all these weeks.”
“Yes, he is intelligent—to a degree. Not like Sobrante, though; and if you’ve ridden for years I’ve ridden all my life. It is you who need warning. That Beauty is in a vicious mood, to-day. There is evil in his eye. Yes, I am ready!”
With this response to the master’s question: “Ready, young ladies?” Jessica fell into line, Ephraim beside her, the proudest man in the whole cavalcade, even though mounted on a beast the “boys” would have laughed at. But, as he had once ridden “Stiffleg” from love of that beast he now bestrode this hired hack from affection for his “Little Captain,” who was growing so fast she was outstripping that adjective “Little.”
The master himself took his place beside Helen Rhinelander, and to that young horsewoman this was both pleasing and displeasing. It was flattering to be singled out as the only one of the class worthy such attention; yet, on the other hand, it suggested to onlookers that it was a case of precaution.