er of them, however, was prepared to
behold the track made and the fence down the very next morning when they
came out, about ten o'clock, to the west side of Miss Hopkins'
boundaries.

"As sure as you live, Maggie," exclaimed Lorania, eagerly, "he's got it
all done! Now, that is something like a lover. I only hope his heart
won't be bruised as black and blue as I am with the wheel!"

"Shuey says the only harm your falls do you is to take away your
confidence," said Mrs. Ellis.

"He wouldn't say so if he could see my _knees_!" retorted Miss Hopkins.

Mrs. Ellis, it will be observed, sheered away from the love affairs of
Mr. Cyril Winslow. She had not yet made up her mind. And Mrs. Ellis, who
had been married, did not jump at conclusions regarding the heart of man
so readily as her spinster friend. She preferred to talk of the bicycle.
Nor did Miss Hopkins refuse the subject. To her at this moment the most
important object on the globe was the shining machine which she would
allow no hand but hers to oil and dust. Both Mrs. Ellis and she were
simply prostrated (as to their mental powers) by this new sport. They
could not think nor talk nor read of anything but _the wheel_.

Between their accidents, they obtained glimpses of an exquisite
exhilaration. And there was also to be counted the approval of their
consciences, for they felt that no Turkish bath could wring out moisture
from their systems like half an hour's pumping at the bicycle treadles.
Lorania during the month had ridden through one bottle of liniment and
two of witch hazel, and by the end of the second bottle could ride a
short distance alone. But Lorania could not yet dismount unassisted, and
several times she had felled poor Winslow to the earth when he rashly
adventured to stop her. Captain Carr had a peculiar, graceful fling of
the arm, catching the saddle bar with one hand while he steadied the
handles with the other. He did not hesitate in the least to grab
Lorania's belt if necessary. But poor modest Winslow, who fell upon the
wheel and dared not touch the hem of a lady's bicycle skirt, was as one
in the path of a cyclone, and appeared daily in a fresh pair of white
trousers.

"Yous have now," Shuey remarked impressively, one day--"yous have now
arrived at the most difficult and dangerous period in learning the
wheel. It's similar to a baby when it's first learned to walk but ain't
yet got sense in walking. When it was little it would stay put wh