“Oh yes,” she answered, “I am always ready when you want me. And see, Jasper,” she added, “here are my jewels,” handing him a small ebony casket “I thought they might be of use to us, in case of our wanting money; and yet I should grieve to part with them, for they are the diamonds you gave me that night we were wedded.”
He took it with a steady hand, and thrust it into the bosom of his dress, saying, with a forced smile, “You are ever careful, Theresa. But you have said nothing, I trust, to your maidens, of our going.”
“Surely not, Jasper, they believe I am going but for a morning’s ride. Do you not see that I have got on my new habit? You have not paid me one compliment on it, sir. I think you might at least have told me that I looked pretty in it. I know the day when you would have done so, without my begging it.”
“Is that meant for a reproach, Theresa?” he said, gloomily, “because—”
“A reproach, Jasper,” she interrupted him quickly, “how little you understand poor me! I hoped, by my silly prattle, to win you from your sorrow at leaving all that you love so dearly. But I will be silent—”
“Do so, I pray you, for the moment.”
And without further words, he led her down the steps of the terrace, and helped her to mount her palfrey, a beautiful, slight, high-bred thing, admirably fitted to carry a lady round the trim rides of a park, but so entirely deficient in bone, strength, and sinew, that no animal could have been conceived less capable of enduring any continuous fatigue, or even of making any one strong and sustained exertion. Then he sprung to the back of his own noble horse, a tall, powerful, thorough-bred hunter, of about sixteen hands in height, with bone and muscle to match, capable, as it would appear, of carrying a man-at-arms in full harness through a long march or a pitched battle.
Just as he was on the point of starting, he observed that one of his dogs, a favorite greyhound, was loose, and about to follow him, when he commanded him to be taken up instantly, rating the man who had held the horses very harshly, and cursing him soundly for disobeying his orders.
Then, when he saw that he was secure against the animal’s following him, he turned his horse’s head to the right hand, toward the great hills to the westward, saying aloud, so that all the bystanders could hear him,
“Well, lady fair, since we are only going for a pleasure ride, suppose we go up toward the great deer-park in the forest. By the way,” he added, turning in his saddle to the old steward, who was standing on the terrace, “I desired Haggerston, the horse-dealer, to meet me here at noon, about a hunter he wants to sell me. If I should not be back, give him some dinner, and detain him till I return. I shall not be late, for I fancy my lady will not care to ride very far.”