"We met in a London slum," she said. "I happened to be passing a stable yard when I heard a noise like a horse being hurt or frightened, and men laughing. So I opened the gate and went in. There was poor old Sultan tied up in one corner and half a dozen roughs baiting him, all the time taking good care not to get within his reach, for he was almost mad with terror and rage and ill-treatment. I told them what I thought, and in the telling I got too close to 'The Sultan,' and he grabbed me by the arm. In ten minutes he had made such a mess of me that it took a month to patch me up. And the men were such cowards that they never tried to rescue me. It was 'The Sultan' himself who seemed to realise he'd set on his best friend, for he stopped chewing me, and stood sniffing at me, and let me crawl away. And I didn't remember anything more until I found myself back home. Then I remembered the poor horse left to the mercy of those cruel wretches; and I sent someone along to buy him and take him away from his awful surroundings. It was so obvious he had known better days, although he had sunk right down to dragging some East End coal higgler's cart. The first time I was allowed out I went to his paddock and had a look at him. And I'm sure he knew me. He stretched his long neck over the gate and sniffed and snuffed at me and seemed quite conscience-stricken. At the end of a fortnight I was on his back, and now I take him everywhere I go, as he gets worried if he doesn't see me about. He can't believe his awful days are over unless I'm here to reassure him."
As Pansy told the tale she leant against the big horse; and she told it as if her own hurts were nothing.
"And you took him into your favour after he had treated you so abominably!" Le Breton said.
"I couldn't be hard on him for what was the result of his awful surroundings."
"You are very magnanimous."
Pansy smiled.
"You'll forgive me for not accepting that pretty necklace, won't you?" she asked.
"Some day, when we know each other better, you'll honour me by accepting it," he said.
He spoke to the girl now as if she were his equal, not just some pretty toy he happened to have fancied.
"I never take anything from men—except perhaps a few flowers."