In the Riding-School; Chats with Esmeralda

! Like a thing

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scarlet carnation in her button-hole, she drove to the riding-school, where she had agreed to meet Theodore and her other friends, not like Mrs. Gilpin, lest all should say that she was proud, but because her master had promised to lend her one

e lessons; Theodore, all his life accustomed to ride anything calling itself a horse, but making no pretenses to mastery of the equestrian science; the lawyer, understood, on his own authority, to be well informed in everything; the society young lady, erect, precise, self-satisfied; the Texan, riding with apparent laziness, his hands rather high and seldom quiet, but not to be shaken from his seat; the beauty, languid and secretly discon

eauty. "It is such a beautiful col

horse is a good horse, not necessarily an animal which would look well in a p

bered Tennyson's line about swaying the rein with flying finger tips, was executing some movements which made

s what I want to see, and 'pretty rider' is 'good rider.' Wait until tha

s own way, with very little regard for the rule of the road. The American who drives, whatever may be his social station, admires the courage of th

he ladies on the left?" asked

safety for the lady in the days when English equestrianism was born. Travelers took the

s her from any passing car or carriage, and in case of a runaway what can her escort, his left hand occupied with his own reins, do to aid her with hers, or to disentangle her foot from the stirrup or her habit from the pommels in case she is thrown? Can he snatch her from the sa

with your horse's spinal column. Draw yourself back a little, until you can feel the pommel under your right knee. 'Draw' yourself back; don't lean, but keep yourself perfectly erect, your back perpendicular to your horse's. Sit a little to the left; lean a little to the right. Let your left shoulder go forward a little, you

ackward glance, he cried, in the fashion of a military

he master, and she shook herself into place, eliciting a hearty "Good!" from him. "Look at your pretty girl," he growled softly, but savagely, and truly the beauty solicited attention. Slipping to the left in her saddle, one elbow pointing to

woman. But here arose a little difficulty. The space between the lawyer's horse and the beauty's as they stood was too wide to allow him to lay the parcel in her outstretched fingers. The Texan, on her right hand, had enough to do to keep her horse and his ow

as out of his saddle, had placed the parcel in her hand, and was bac

leave your saddle without good cause, and never leave your horse loose for a moment.

our horse step sideway

He won't.

s perfectly true, and the master and the cavalryman exchanged comprehending glances as the latter said: "Well, don't mind. An eminent authority announced after the Boston horse show of 1889 that high-school a

ng rather than for leaping and hunting, and he caught the whip from the ground and was back in his place in a twinkling. The ladies were unmoved, because inappreciative; the lawyer looked savagely envious,

I'll take this beast along in advance. He will shy, or do some outrageous

the reach of self-propelling vehicles, and he repeated the performance a the sight of two other cars, although evidently less ala

windows was more than horse nature could endure, and he started for the next county to institute an inquiry as to whether such actions were to be allowed, but fou

gry, "Here, what are you doing!" shouted to his plunging steed, had brought all the women in th

king her wrists sharply, and but for the cavalryman's quick shifting of the reins to his

tennial quadrille and all the cabinet ladies to point his moral, had he seen them making equestrian bl

d back just now," Esm

do it, and he may do almost anything because

ething or somebody

t to the right as far as you can and look to the front harder than ever, so as to be ready to guide your

eauty to the society y

?" asked the other, still v

has caught his tail on my h

ted the other. "My horse's eyes are not at that end o

tle; there! We ought not to be so close together, and we o

in a minute or two, according to the master, the society young lady stiffening visibly, losing the cadence of the trot very so

he's no rider, but is perfectly selfish and self-possessed, and she will cheat her escort into thinking that she is one. Glad she's no pupil of mine, however! She always heads the conversation, one of her friends told me the other day. That is

heodore stared

owed the others to go on without them. "Careful," he added, and Esmeralda, adjusting herself st

as anywhere, but it is not well for the pupil, whose attention is distracted by a thousand things, and who learns less in a year than she would in a month in school. There is no finish about the riding of a woman so taught. She may be pretty, as you said of one of your friends, she may be s

y to break into a gallop if his pupil were thrown, but keeping out of Ronald's hearing, lest he should be further startled by finding himself followed. There was a clear stretch of road before her, a

ept by the riding party, but as Versatilia and the beauty turned to look at her, and forgot to control their horses, the cavalryman and the Texan had to do it for them, and could do nothing for Es

ld be on the road alone; a small boy whistling shrilly; these were all the spectators of Esmeralda's flight. She felt desolate and deserted, and yet sure that it was best that she should be alone, since the master could overtake her if he would, and she wondered if

usly urges him forward. If there were a side road here, I'd gallop around and meet her, or if there were fields on either side, I'd leap th

she believed, inevitable crash, when lo! She saw that just in front of her lay a long piece of half-mended road, full of ugly little stones, and she turned Ronald on it, with a triumphant, "See how you like that, sir," and then sawed his mouth. In half a minute he wa

goes faster than you mean to have him. You are a good girl, and you shall not be scolded, or snubbed, either," he muttere

eled," said the societ

ss her reins into her right hand so as to use her left to repair the accident, the society young lady was effectually silenced, while the master, holding Esmeralda's

meralda to lean forward as her horse climbed upward, "If you should have

l brilliantly, barely escaped going over their horses' heads, and all f

h I knew more, and I'm going to learn, and I see now

id the society young lady. "Native ability is better than teaching

How many dancing lessons, music lessons, elocution lessons have you taken? More than seventeen? I thought so. Here's a railroad bridge, but no train coming. Had one been approaching, and had there been no chance

er horse to the stable, was happy, but puzzled. "Theodore," she cried, as soon as he appeared i

"I was afraid to take charge of yo

ng!" cried Esmeralda. "Bu

tology," sa