"'Do you want to look at the race-course?' Lillie said.
"'Yes.'
"'Then follow me,'—and with the word she called cheerily to her horse, and swung her whip with such effect that what was a canter became a gallop, and then a run, so long, so fierce, so reckless, that I held my breath as I looked at her. We went right across country, over fences and ditches by the dozen, and never drew rein until we reached the shore.
"Then she turned in her saddle as I came up, and nodded triumphantly, her face a thousand times brighter and more bewitching than I had seen it yet.
"'Well, what do you think of Nathan now?' she asked.
"'He is wonderful,' I answered.
"'But that is by no means his best. You wait here, and I will put him round the course once as well as I can. We are to go down the beach to that white post, then up through the big field, over a bad hedge, which we must leap at a particular spot, then across the lane and through these four last fields home, and then over it all again. You shall try the ground this afternoon if you will.'
"She said all this rapidly, as if the business of the day had begun, and cantered down the sloping field. Arrived near the starting-point, I heard her give what seemed almost a yell, and lethargic Nathan, well awake, burst into the same tremendous pace, going faster and faster every moment, until he attained a speed which seemed positively terrific, a woman being in the saddle, and then Lillie ceased urging him, and rode unflaggingly, as she only could, over all obstacles, until she reached my side.
"'How can there be any doubt of your winning?" I asked.
"'I sometimes think there is none when Nathan has been going so well; but'—and a cloud came over her face—'there is one colt I am really afraid of,—a little black mare of Harry Dunn's. O, how that creature flies over the ground!'