"'You're not going to put me on that animal, are you?' he muttered. 'I'd rather stay here.'
"'Never,' I said, stamping. 'Taras-Bulba is as quiet as a lamb. Now just do what I tell you.'
"That German was a tremendous weight, but I managed to get him up and tie him firmly in the saddle with the reins.
"Then I mounted his great beast.
"You can imagine how I cursed myself for my folly as we went back. The man I wanted to hate had won my sympathy—and I'd done it myself! It only wanted Taras-Bulba's look of amazement to complete my discomfiture:
"'What on earth have I done?' he seemed to say, 'for you to give me a German to carry, while you desert me for that ugly, hairless, brown brute with hoofs the size of frying-pans?'
* * * * * *
"You mustn't break a man's leg if you don't want to marry him. I need hardly tell you the sequel. Creatures like myself are bound by their actions only, and my wildness had committed me to something which the will of all the Kaisers in the world could not have brought about.
"There was a most sensational scene when I returned on the bay, followed by Taras-Bulba with his Grand Duke tied on to him. The hunt was stopped. They all came crowding round us. I had to tell the whole story and made a point of being as brief as possible, as one does with things of which one isn't too proud. But the injured man filled in the details. His fever made him eloquent and transformed me into a heroine. I had to put up with the congratulations of the whole Court.
"The Kaiser, who magnifies and distorts everything, cried out: