“No. Nor the ’orse.”
“Then it’s all right. Mr. Stirling, we need not interrupt your ride. Belden will see me home.”
Belden see her home! Peter would see him do it! That was what Peter thought. He said, “I shall ride with you, of course.” So they started their horses, the groom dropping behind.
“Do you want to try it again?” asked Mutineer of the roan.
“No,” said the mare. “You are too big and strong.”
Leonore was just saying: “I could hear the pound of a horse’s feet behind me, but I thought it was the groom, and knew he could never overtake Fly-away. So when I felt the saddle begin to slip, I thought I was—was going to be dragged—as I once saw a woman in England—Oh!—and then suddenly I saw a horse’s head, and then I felt some one take hold of me so firmly that I didn’t have to hold myself at all, and I knew I was safe. Oh, how nice it is to be big and strong!”
Peter thought so too.
So it is the world over. Peter and Mutineer felt happy and proud in their strength, and Leonore and Fly-away glorified them for it. Yet in spite of this, as Peter looked down at the curly head, from his own and Mutineers altitude, he felt no superiority, and knew that the slightest wish expressed by that small mouth, would be as strong with him as if a European army obeyed its commands.
“What a tremendous horse you have?” said Leonore. “Isn’t he?” assented Peter. “He’s got a bad temper, I’m sorry to say, but I’m very fond of him. He was given me by my regiment, and was the choice of a very dear friend now dead.”
“Who was that?”