umped it with me, if I'd
asked him ever so," he said afterwards. Lucinda rode at it, straight
as an arrow, but her brute came to a dead balk, and, but that she
sat well, would have thrown her into the stream. Lord George let
Lizzie take the leap before he took it, knowing that, if there were
misfortune, he might so best render help. To Lizzie it seemed as
though the river were the blackest, and the deepest, and the broadest
that ever ran. For a moment her heart quailed;--but it was but for a
moment. She shut her eyes, and gave the little horse his head. For a
moment she thought that she was in the water. Her horse was almost
upright on the bank, with his hind-feet down among the broken ground,
and she was clinging to his neck. But she was light, and the beast
made good his footing, and then she knew that she had done it. In
that moment of the scramble her heart had been so near her mouth that
she was almost choked. When she looked round, Lord George was already
by her side. "You hardly gave him powder enough," he said, "but still
he did it beautifully. Good heavens! Miss Roanoke is in the river."
Lizzie looked back, and there, in truth, was Lucinda struggling with
her horse in the water. They paused a moment, and then there were
three or four men assisting her. "Come on," said Lord George;--"there
are plenty to take her out, and we couldn't get to her if we stayed."

"I ought to stop," said Lizzie.

"You couldn't get back if you gave your eyes for it," said Lord
George. "She's all right." So instigated, Lizzie followed her leader
up the hill, and in a minute was close upon Morgan's heels.

The worst of doing a big thing out hunting is the fact that in nine
cases out of ten they who don't do it are as well off as they who
do. If there were any penalty for riding round, or any mark given to
those who had ridden straight,--so that justice might in some sort
be done,--it would perhaps be better. When you have nearly broken
your neck to get to hounds, or made your horse exert himself beyond
his proper power, and then find yourself, within three minutes,
overtaking the hindmost ruck of horsemen on a road because of some
iniquitous turn that the fox has taken, the feeling is not pleasant.
And some man who has not ridden at all, who never did ride at all,
will ask you where you have been; and his smile will give you the lie
in your teeth if you make any attempt to explain the facts. Let it be
sufficient for you at such a mom