me. You seem to enjoy it amazingly."

"I am fond of walking. I do not find the heat oppressive."

"Ah, yes; you are thin. Have not much bulk to carry; one of Pharaoh's
lean kine. It requires a warm day to make your blood circulate freely. I
like winter and spring best for long rambles."

"I should think you would prefer riding," said Lyndsay; "yet I see you
out every day on foot."

"I never ride: I hate and detest riding. I never could be dependent upon
the motions of an animal. Horses are my aversion; jackasses I despise.
God, when He gave us legs of our own, doubtless intended us to make use
of them. I have used mine ever since I was a baby, and they are not worn
out yet. I got upon my feet sooner than most children, and have kept
them to their duty ever since. I am a great walker; I have been walking
all my life. Do you know that I have walked over Europe alone, and on
foot?"

"So I have heard," said Lyndsay. "It must have been an arduous
undertaking for a lady."

"Far easier than you imagine. Women are just as able to shift for
themselves as men, if they would follow my example, and make the trial.
I have scarcely sat still for the last twenty years. There is not a
remarkable spot in Europe that I have not visited, or mountain but what
I have climbed, or cavern that I have left unexplored. Three years ago I
commenced a pedestrian tour through Great Britain, which I accomplished
greatly to my own satisfaction. When I take a fancy to a place, I stay
in it until I have explored all the walks in the neighbourhood. Directly
I grow tired, I am off. 'Tis a happy, independent sort of life I lead.
Confinement would soon kill me."

"Your friends must feel very anxious about you," said Flora, "during
your absence."

"Friends! Fiddlesticks! Who told you I had any friends who care a fig
for me or my movements? I am gloriously independent, and mean to remain
so. There is but one person in the world who is related to me in the
most remote degree, or who dares to trouble their head about me or my
doings, and he is only a half brother. He has opposed himself against my
freedom of thought and action; but I don't care that"--(snapping her
fingers vigorously)--"for him or his opinions. He has made war upon my
roaming propensities all his life. As if a woman has not as much right
to see the world as a man, if she can pay her own expenses, and bear her
own burthen, without being a trouble to any one. It is certainly no
busines