as we rolled along amongst those stately old
trees, and that lovely scenery, and those picturesque little places
set down in that abode of beauty. I thought how charming it would be
to saunter about here in the early summer mornings or the still summer
nights, and listen to the thrush and the blackbird and the nightingale
in the copse; and then I thought I would not care to wander here
_quite_ alone, and that a whisper might steal on my ear, sweeter than
the note of the thrush and the nightingale; and that there might be a
somebody without whom all that sylvan beauty would be a blank, but
with whom any place would become a fairyland. And then I fell to
wondering who that somebody would be; and I looked at Cousin John, and
felt a little cross--which was very ungrateful; and a little
disappointed--which was very unjust.

"Here we are, Kate: that's the Grand Stand, and we'll have the
carriage right opposite; and the Queen's not come, and we're in heaps
of time; and there's Frank Lovell," exclaimed the unconscious John as
we drove on to the Course, and my daydreams were effectually dispelled
by the gay scene which spread itself before my eyes.

As I took John's arm and walked into the enclosure in front of the
stand, I must confess that the first impression on my mind was
this--"Never in my life have I seen so many well-dressed people
collected together before;" and when the Queen drove up the Course
with her brilliant suite of carriages and outriders, and the mob of
gentlemen and ladies cheered her to the echo, I was such a goose that
I felt as if I could have cried. After a time I got a little more
composed, and looked about at the different toilettes that surrounded
me. I own I saw nothing much neater than my own; and I was pleased to
find it so, as nothing gives one greater confidence in a crowd than
the consciousness of being well dressed. But what I delighted in more
than all the bonnets and gowns in the universe were those dear horses,
with their little darlings of jockeys. If there is one thing I like
better than another, it is a thoroughbred horse. What a gentleman he
looks amongst the rest of his kind! How he walks down the Course, as
if he knew his own value--self-confident, but not vain--and goes
swinging along in his breathing-gallop as easily and as smoothly as if
I was riding him myself, and he was proud of his burthen! When
Colonist won the Cup, I felt again as if I could have cried. It was a
near race, a