174 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



XII. 



Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy. 



Shakespeare. 



jND now, Esmeralda, having determined 

 to put your master's advice into prac- 

 tice and to "keep riding," you think 

 that you must have a habit in order to 

 be ready to take to the road whenever you have 

 an opportunity, and to be able to accompany 

 Theodore, should he desire to repeat your music- 

 ride ? And you would like to know just what 

 it will cost, and everything about it? And first, 

 what color can you have ? 



You "can" have any color, Esmeralda, and 

 you " can " have any material, for that matter. 

 Queen Guinevere wore grass green silk, and if 

 her skirt were as long as those worn by Matilda 

 of Flanders, Norman William's wife, centuries 

 after, her women must have spent several hours 

 daily in mending it, unless she had a new habit 

 for every ride, or unless the English forest roads 



