m THE HIDING-SCHOOL. 65 



verely correct in his road saddle, and looking 

 immensely tall as he stood on the stable floor, 

 she inly applauded her own wisdom, strongly 

 doubting that Theodore's unpractised arm would 

 have tossed her into her place as lightly as the 

 master's, and she was secretly overjoyed when 

 the master himself mounted and joined the 

 party with her, making its number nine ; Es- 

 meralda herself, the graduate of three lessons ; 

 Theodore, all his life accustomed to ride any- 

 thing calling itself a horse, but making no pre- 

 tensions to mastery of the equestrian science ; 

 the lawyer, understood, on his own authority, 

 to be well informed in everything ; the society 

 young lady, erect, precise, self-satisfied ; the 

 Texan, riding with apparent laziness, his hands 

 rather high and seldom quiet, but not to be 

 shaken from his seat ; the beauty, languid and 

 secretly discontented because her horse was " in- 

 tended for a brunette, and a ridiculous mount 

 for a blonde " ; Versatilia, who had " taken up 

 riding a little," and the cavalryman, calm, quiet, 

 and fraternally regarded by the master, as he 

 reviewed the little flock from the back of a 

 horse which had been offered to him as the para- 



