s it Mr. Pryme, Pussy?"

Beatrice nodded.

"And he can't go a yard," said her uncle, sorrowfully and reproachfully.

"Oh, I think he goes very well, uncle; his seat is capital; it is only
his hands that are a bit heavy; but then he has had very little
practice."

"Tut--tut, don't talk to me, child; he is no horseman. He may be a good
young man in his way, but what can have made you take a fancy to a fellow
who can't ride is a mystery to me! Now tell me the whole story, Pussy."

And then Beatrice made a clean breast of it.

"I will see if I can help you," said her uncle, seriously, when she had
finished her story; "but I can't think how you can have set your heart
upon a fellow who can't ride!"

This was evidently a far more fatal error in Tom Esterworth's eyes than
the other matter of her being shut up in Mr. Pryme's rooms. Beatrice
began to think she had not done anything so very terrible after all.

"I must turn it over in my mind. Now come and eat your mutton-chop,
Pussy, and when we have finished our lunch, you shall come out with me
in the dog-cart. I am going to put Clochette into harness for the first
time."

"Will she go quietly?"

"Like a lamb, I should say. You won't be nervous?"

"Dear, no! I am never nervous; I shall enjoy the fun."

The mutton-chop over, Clochette and the dog-cart came round to the door.
She was a raking, bright chestnut mare, with a coat like satin. Even as
she stood at the door she chafed somewhat at her new position between
the shafts. This, however, was no more than might have been expected. Mr.
Esterworth declining the company of the groom, helped his niece up and
took the reins.

"We will go round by Tripton and back by the common," he said, "and talk
this matter well over, Pussy; we shall enjoy ourselves much better with
nobody in the back seat. A man sits there with his arms crossed and his
face like a blank sheet of paper, but one never knows how much they hear,
and their ears are always cocked, like a terrier's on the scent of a
rat."

Clochette went off from the door with a bound, but soon settled down into
a good swinging trot. She kept turning her head nervously from side to
side, and there was evidently a little uncertainty in her mind as to
whether she should keep to the drive, or deviate on to the grass by the
side of it; but, upon the whole, she behaved fairly well, and turned out
of the lodge gates into the high road with perfect docility and good
breedin