IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 143 



you would insinuate that to observe perfection 

 it was only necessary to look at you. If, in ad- 

 dition to this, you could intimate to any worried 

 or impatient pupils that they had not been 

 properly taught, you would make yourself gen- 

 erally beloved, and these are the ways of the 

 casual exercise rider, male and female. But 

 you, Esmeralda, are slightly unfitted for the 

 perfect assumption of this part by knowing 

 how certain things ought to be done, although 

 you cannot do them, and alas ! you are not yet 

 adapted to the humbler but prettier character of 

 the real exercise rider, who is thoroughly taught, 

 and whose every movement is a pleasure to be- 

 hold. 



There are many such women and a few men 

 who prefer the ring to the road for vari- 

 ous reasons, and from them you may learn 

 much, both by observation and from the hints 

 which many of them will give you if they find 

 that you are anxious to learn, and that you are 

 really nothing more pretentious than a solitary 

 student. So into the saddle you go, and you 

 and Nell begin to walk about in company. " In 

 company," indeed, for about half a round, and 



