IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 69 



the right. Let your left shoulder go forward a 

 little, your right shoulder backward. Now you 

 are exactly right. Try to remember your sen- 

 sations at this minute, in order to be able to 

 reproduce them. When I say 4 Careful,' pass 

 yourself in review and endeavor to feel where 

 you are wrong. But," addressing the cavalry- 

 man, who was in advance with Versatilia, " is 

 this procession a funeral ?" 



"Not exactly," said the cavalryman, and 

 then, after a backward glance, he cried, in the 

 fashion of a military riding-school master : 

 " Pr-r-re-pare to tr-r-r-ot — Trot ! " 



Esmeralda remembered to shorten her reins, 

 and resigned herself to the Fates, who were pro- 

 pitious, enabling her to catch the cadence of 

 the trot, and to rise to it during the few seconds 

 before the cavalryman slackened rein. "Care- 

 ful," said the master, and she shook herself into 

 place, eliciting a hearty " Good ! " from him. 

 " Look at your pretty girl," he growled softly, 

 but savagely, and truly the beauty solicited 

 attention. Slipping to the left in her saddle, 

 one elbow pointing toward Cambridgeport and 

 the other toward Dorchester, her right foot vis- 



