"Watch and wait!" said the lady.
"Yes, I watched and I waited," he continued, "till at last they gave me a ride. She'd had a good deal of fun with a sort of go-cart they tried to put her in; and when I saw her I think her owner was a little out of conceit with his venture. She was very poor and starved-looking,—not half the mare she is now; but she ran away with me for nearly two miles, and I found she could—just! So I bargained, and jawed, and bothered, though I gave a hatful of money for her all the same. When I got her home to barracks, I had her regularly broke and bitted; but she never was easy to ride, and she never will be!"
For all comment, Miss Douglas drew the curb-rein through her fingers, while the mare bent willingly and gently to her hand.
"Oh! I know they all go pleasant with you!" said Daisy. "Men and horses, you've the knack of bringing them to their bridles in a day! Well, I hunted her that season in Meath and Kildare; but somehow we never dropped into a run. At last one morning, late in the Spring, we turned out a deer in the Dublin country, and took him in exactly twenty-seven minutes. Then this child knew what its plaything was made of. Didn't I, old girl?"
He patted the mare's neck, and her rider, whose eyes brightened with interest, laid hers on exactly the same spot when his hand was withdrawn.
"You found her as good as she looks," said Miss Douglas. "Oh! Daisy! in that grass country it must have felt like being in heaven!"
"I don't know about that," said the light dragoon; "but we were not very far off, sometimes, on the tops of those banks. However, I found nothing could touch her in jumping, or come near her for pace. Not a horse was within a mile of us for the last ten minutes; so I took her down to the Curragh—and—Miss Douglas, can you—can you keep a secret?"
"Of course, I can," replied the lady. "What a question, Daisy, as if I wasn't much more like a man than a woman!"
His face assumed an expression of solemnity befitting the communication he had to impart. His voice sank to a whisper, and he looked stealthily around, as if fearful of being overheard.
"We tried her at seven pound against Robber-Chief, four Irish miles over a steeple-chase course. She gave the Chief seven pound, her year, and a beating. Why, it makes her as good as the Lamb!"