“If you are going to ride, you ought to ride this morning, oughtn’t you?”
“Yes,” she answered. “I think I ought to go at once.”
He felt a bit uncomfortable, but if Carl didn’t know enough to take quick advantage of his opportunity that was his own fault. Surely his duty as a brother did not go so far as to manage Carl’s wooing. She started towards the stable.
“I will go just as I am,” she determined.
“And I will help you saddle the horse,” he said.
Aladdin heard her coming before her feet had touched the barn floor and greeted her with a glad whinny. He cropped at her fingers as she untied the halter rope. Sam, the man of all work, came up, but she would have none of his help. She led out the strong-limbed animal and in a jiffy adjusted his bridle. The most that Barnes found to do was to throw the saddle over his back, and even then she insisted upon fastening the girths herself. Barnes kept his eye down the road and became as impatient as Aladdin himself for the start.
Sam held out his hand and her foot scarcely touched it as she vaulted lightly into the saddle. And then how like a queen she looked! Her long skirt made her seem even more like one of those for whom King Arthur’s knights fought.
She spoke a word to Aladdin, waved her hand, and in all too brief a space was out of sight.
Barnes went back to the house. Near the Dutch door he met Carl.
“Eleanor,” explained Barnes, “has just galloped off.”