Wych Hazel bowed—remembering with some amusement Mr. Rollo's caracole on the former occasion all about Mrs. Coles. Privately she wished she had not promised to stay to dinner.
'I was frightened to death at your riding'—the lady went on.
'Did your horse start at anything?'
'My horse starts very often when I am on him,' said Wych Hazel laughing.
'Does he! And do you think that is quite safe?'
'Why not?—if I start too. The chief danger in such cases is in being left behind.'
Wych Hazel was getting her witch mood on fast. Mrs. Coles looked a trifle puzzled.
'But my dear!' she said, 'the danger of that, I should think, would be if the other horse started.'
'O no, ma'am,' said Hazel gravely. 'My escorts never even so much as think of running away from me.'
At that point Primrose's gravity gave way, and she burst into a laugh. Mrs. Coles changed the subject.
'I have been very impatient to see one I have heard so much of,' she began again. 'In fact I have heard of you always. I should have called at Chickaree, but I couldn't get any one to take me. Arthur, he was busy—and Dr. Maryland never goes anywhere but to visit his people—Prim goes everywhere, but it is not where I want to go, for pleasure; and Dane I asked, and he wouldn't.'