Seeing Jack look bewildered, Gerald whispered, "He was talking nonsense. He takes you for me now; it was to me he was talking."
"I was not talking nonsense!" said Hugh, clearly. "I said I had been pawing in the valley, and that this was not the right valley to paw in. It wasn't! My Beloved will understand what I mean, if she uses her mind."
"He was a horse!" cried the Colonel. "Astonishing thing, that nobody can understand that child, when he is speaking perfectly rationally. He was a horse, I tell you! Whinnied at me, sir, when I asked him to get me a hockey-stick. Try it again, Boy! Let's hear you once more, eh?"
Hugh smiled, but could not do more than shake his head.
"Thank you for explaining, Guardian!" he said. "I was Pegasus, you see, and Bellerophon and I were just going to plunge down through the clouds and kill the Chimæra; but I forgot where I was for a minute, and began to paw in the valley, and say 'Aha!' and, of course, the cloud broke through, and down we went. I hope dear Bellerophon isn't hurt."
"Bellerophon is all right!" said Jack. "Right as a trivet. He says he thinks you'd better go home, old man; he thinks it will be better Chimæra-hunting to-morrow, anyhow."
"Yes! yes!" cried the Colonel, making a brave effort to enter into the child's idea.
"Go back to the stable, Boy,—I mean Dobbin, or whatever your name is, and—and have some hay!"
But Hugh's brow contracted.
"Pegasus didn't eat hay!" he murmured, still leaning against Hildegarde's shoulder.