t he was having any lessons at all until he had
completed the course and become an accomplished equestrian.

"Well, my boy," said the King, when the Crown Prince entered the Royal
Parlour after his private lessons in the Palace tiltyard. "Well, and how
did you get on, hey?"

"Never got on at all," Clarence reluctantly admitted. "Not likely I
should, when there wasn't a bally gee in the stables that would let me
come near him!"

"Clarence!" cried his mother, "you _don't_ mean to say you've been there
all this time without riding a single horse!"

"I'd have ridden 'em right enough, if they'd let me get on 'em--but they
wouldn't."

"And pray what was the Marshal about?" inquired the Queen.

"Well, he was laughing most of the time; it's my belief he'd had 'em all
gingered up beforehand."

"I'm quite sure, Clarence, he would be incapable of such conduct as
that. Why _should_ he?"

"_I_ don't know," he said. "But I won't have _him_ about again. I'll get
some one else to teach me."

"But, my dear boy, nobody can teach you much if you can't even manage to
get on a horse's back. You'll only get hurt if you try any more, and you
will be far wiser to give it up altogether."

"Not much, Mater!" he declared; "I'm not so easily bested as all that.
Now I've begun I mean to go on with it."

And he went on; for, to do Clarence justice, want of pluck was not among
his defects. But he was obliged to admit that the Marshal was not fairly
accountable for the horses' behaviour, since they were quite as
unmanageable when he was no longer there.

They were spirited creatures, but perfectly docile until they caught
sight of Clarence, when they immediately became as vicious as the most
untameable bronco. If he contrived occasionally to get hoisted into the
saddle, he never remained there long enough to put the Royal Chief
Huntsman's instructions into practice, and he began at last to have
serious doubts whether Nature had ever intended him to shine as a
horseman.

He said nothing of these ignominious experiences to Daphne, partly
because he never found an opportunity, though more from a fear of being
laughed at. But he could not keep them from his family, and so Daphne
came to hear of his repeated failures through Princess Ruby. She did not
laugh at them, however; she was even a little touched. She thought more
of him for his attempts to follow her unlucky suggestion than if he had
never attempted anything at all, and fully beli