Across the field she thought she could hear friends break into cheering.
Jeanette could only take a swift survey of the other riders.
They were not so numerous as at the start. Others had dropped out.
The following moment in a smooth stretch of riding Jeanette heard the light hoofs of another horse close to her own. Then the horse and rider passed her. Jeanette recognized her stepmother.
In the midst of her annoyance she could not fail to see that she was sitting her horse as easily and with as little appearance of fatigue or strain as she had shown a little time before when talking idly with her friends.
Jeanette knew that she herself was overexcited by her unexpected success. She also was growing tired. Her pony might be influenced by her emotions. She remembered now that her stepmother had advised her half a dozen times to save her strength till toward the end of the race.
She spurred her pony faster.
An instant of grudging admiration. Her stepmother had jumped one of the most difficult of the ditches with the same ease and grace with which she ordinarily rode up to the door in front of their home.
Her heart pounding and her blood beating faster in her ears, Jeanette followed her example. Her pony was showing fatigue, but gallant as she herself was.
Before they reached the final ditch two other riders were abreast with them.