ot love one another. Shirley--able and
_ruse_ statesman--had some sense of colonial independence, colonial
ambition, colonial self-respect. Sir Oliver had none; he was a Whig
patrician, and the colonies existed for the use and patronage of
England. More than a year before, when Massachusetts raised a militia
and went forth to capture Louisbourg--which it did, to the astonishment
of the world--the Governor, whose heart was set on the expedition, had
approached Captain Vyell and privately begged him to command it. He was
answered that, having once borne the King's commission, Captain Vyell
did not find a colonial uniform to his taste.

Chapter VIII.

CONCERNING MARGARET.

He called again, next morning. He came on horseback, followed by a
groom. The groom led a light chestnut mare, delicate of step us a
dancer, and carrying a side-saddle.

Ruth's ear had caught the sound of hoofs. She looked forth at her open
window as Sir Oliver reined up and hailed, frank as a schoolboy.

"Your first riding lesson!" he announced.

"But I have no riding-skirt," she objected, her eyes opening wide with
delight as they looked down and scanned the mare.

"You shall have one to-morrow." He swung himself out of saddle and gave
over his own horse to the groom. "To-day you have only to learn how to
sit and hold the reins and ride at a walk."

She caught up a hat and ran downstairs, blithe as a girl should be
blithe.

He taught her to set her foot in his hand and lifted her into place.

"But are you not riding also?" she asked as he took the leading-rein.

"No. I shall walk beside you to-day . . . Now take up the reins--so; in
both hands, please. That will help you to sit square and keep the right
shoulder back, which with a woman is half the secret of a good seat.
Where a man uses grip, she uses balance. . . . For the same reason you
must not draw the feet back; it throws your body forward and off its
true poise on the hips."

She began to learn at once and intelligently; for, unlike her other
tutors, he started with simple principles and taught her nothing without
giving its reason. He led her twice around the open gravelled space
before the house, and so aside and along a grassy pathway that curved
between the elms to the right. The pathway was broad and allowed him to
walk somewhat wide of the mare, yet not so wide as to tauten the
leading-rein, which he held (as she learned afterwards) merely to give
her