The Doctor didn't see, or did not seem to see.
"I mean," proceeded the Colonel, explanatorily, "that you haven't that degree of anxiety which is necessary to give a zest to existence. Now, when you've a leader who is almost perfectly free, and over whom you can only exercise a control of—the most gentle and persuasive kind, you're always slightly anxious, and sometimes you're very anxious. For instance, last time we drove back from Sootythorn it was pitch dark,—wasn't it, Fyser?"
Here Colonel Stanburne turned to his groom, who was sitting behind; and Fyser, as might be expected, muttered something confirmatory of his master's statement.
"It was pitch dark; and, by George! the candles in the lamps were too short to last us; and that confounded Fyser forgot to provide himself with fresh ones before he left Sootythorn, and—didn't you, Fyser?"
Fyser confessed his negligence.
"And so, when the lamps were out, it was pitch dark; so dark that I couldn't tell the road from the ditch—upon my word, I couldn't; and I couldn't see the leader a bit, I could only feel him with the reins. So I said to Fyser, 'Get over to the front seat, and then crouch down as low as you can, so as to bring the horses' heads up against the sky, and tell me if you can see them.' So Fyser crouched down as I told him; and when I asked him if he saw any thing, he said he did think he saw the leader's ears. Well, damn it, then, if you do see 'em, I said, keep your eye on 'em."
"And were you going fast?" asked the Doctor.
"Why, of course we were. We were trotting at the rate of, I should say, about nine miles an hour; but after a while, Fyser, by hard looking, began to see rather more distinctly—so distinctly that he clearly made out the difference between the horses' heads and the hedges; and he kept calling out 'right, sir,' 'left, sir,' 'all right, sir,' and so he kept me straight. If he'd been a sailor he'd have said 'starboard' and 'port;' but Fyser isn't a sailor."
"And did you get safe to Wenderholme?"
"Of course we did. Fyser and I always get safe to Wenderholme."