82 IN THE BIDING-SCHOOL. 



looked for approval. " As for seventeen lessons, 

 they are better than seven, of course, but they 

 are not much, after all. How many dancing 

 lessons, music lessons, elocution lessons have 

 you taken ? More than seventeen ? I thought 

 so. Here's a railroad bridge, but no train com- 

 ing. Had one been approaching, and had there 

 been no chance to cross before it came, I should 

 have made you turn Ronald the other way, Miss 

 Esmeralda, so that if he ran he would run out 

 of what he thinks is danger, and not into it. 

 And now for an easy little trot home." 



An easy little trot it was, and Esmeralda, left 

 at her own door, where a groom waited to take 

 her horse to the stable, was happy, but puzzled. 

 " Theodore," she cried, as soon as he appeared 

 in the evening, "did you ask the master to go 

 with us ? He treated me just as he does in 

 school." 



" Yes, I did," said Theodore boldly. " I was 

 afraid to take charge of you alone. That was 

 a 'road lesson.' " 



" You — you — exasperating thing ! " cried 

 Esmeralda. "But then, you were sensible." 



"That's tautology," said Theodore. 



