Tilly, very much excited because of the new habit, highly pleased at having got the victory, feeling quite sure that she could outdo Margot in the art of riding, sprang into her saddle in her somewhat awkward fashion.
Starlight looked askance with almost a wicked look in his eye at the creature on his back. Notwithstanding the habit and the red cap, she was not Margot. She did not know how to sit on him comfortably. He began to feel a sense of annoyance and a great desire to get rid of her, but Malachi whistled to him softly, somewhat as a thrush whistles to her young. Ah, well, he understood that note. He settled down to endure and do his best.
He thought, in his dear horsey mind, how very easily he could pitch the thing that he didn't like off his back and get rid of her forever when they reached the wide ditch. He did not object to trying the wide ditch this morning, anything to get rid of the thing on his back.
Tilly, for a moment, felt inclined to scream.
"Don't let out any noise for the Lord's sake," said Malachi. "You'll set him off if you do and when he does go, it is like a lightning flash, I can tell you. You say you are brave, prove it! Ah, that's better. Hold yourself erect, but for the Lord's sake don't keep the reins so tight. You don't want to strangle the creature. Sit easy, for Heaven's sake, just as though you were part of Starlight and he was part of you. That's the way to ride. That's the way pushkeen rode yesterday."
They had passed the tumble-down gate by this time and Tilly had partly recovered her courage.
"I can ride better than la Comtesse," she said. "I have had far more experience."
"Have ye now? Ye weren't born a Desmond, by any chance?"
"No, I'm a Raynes. The Rayneses are——"
"You needn't tell me," said Malachi. "They are the finest family in the whole of England. They can skim the air on a horse's back like a bit of a bird. Once you put'em on, you can't get'em off. Those are the Rayneses for you. I know the breed, otherwise I wouldn't have mounted you on pushkeen's thoroughbred."