f triumph. I planned revenge. Cost what it might I would
ride him once more. In the eyes of the law I was his master. I would
exercise my legal rights to the full.

The afternoon came at last. I was in a white heat of anger, though as I
ascended to the saddle there were bystanders who put a more uncharitable
construction upon my complexion.

Brutus cast an uneasy eye at my heels as we started: 'What are those
things you've got on?' he inquired.

'Spurs,' I replied curtly.

'You shouldn't wear them till you have learnt to turn your toes in,' he
said. 'And a whip, too! May I ask what that is for?'

'We will discuss that presently,' I said very coldly; for I did not want
to have a scene with my horse in the street.

When we came round by the statue of Achilles and on to the Ride, I
shortened my reins, and got a better hold of the whip, while I found
that, from some cause I cannot explain, the roof of my mouth grew
uncomfortably dry.

'I should be glad of a little quiet talk with you, if you've no
objection,' I began.

'I am quite at your disposal,' he said, champing his bit with a touch of
irony.

'First, let me tell you,' I said, 'that I have lost my only love for
ever.'

'Well,' he retorted flippantly, 'you won't die of it. So have I. We must
endeavour to console one another!'

I still maintained a deadly calm. 'You seem unaware that you are the
sole cause of my calamity,' I said. 'Had you only consented to face Wild
Rose yesterday, I should have been a happy man by this time!'

'How was I to know that, when you let me think all your affections were
given to the elderly thing who is trotted out by my friend the grey?'

'We won't argue, please,' I said hastily. 'It is enough that your
infernal egotism and self-will have ruined my happiness. I have allowed
you to usurp the rule, to reverse our natural positions. I shall do so
no more. I intend to teach you a lesson you will never forget.'

For a horse, he certainly had a keen sense of humour. I thought the
girths would have snapped.

'And when do you intend to begin?' he asked, as soon as he could speak.

I looked in front of me: there were Diana and her accepted lover riding
towards us; and so natural is dissimulation, even to the sweetest and
best women, that no one would have suspected from her radiant face that
her gaiety covered an aching heart.

'I intend to begin _now_,' I said. 'Monster, demon, whatever you are
that have held me in thrall so l