202 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



bred Americans from frank self-discussion, 

 stands in the way of perfect sympathy between 

 him and the European master, representative 

 of races in which everybody, from an emperor 

 in his proclamations to the peasant chatting 

 over his beer or petit vin y may discourse upon 

 his own most recondite peculiarities. 



For all these reasons, the European riding 

 master is often misunderstood, even by his 

 older pupils, and young girls almost invariably 

 mistake his patient reiteration and his method- 

 ical vivacity for anger, so that his classes 

 seldom contain any pupils not really anxious to 

 learn, or whose parents are not determined that 

 they shall learn in his school and in no other. 

 Teaching is a matter of strict conscience with 

 him, and even after years of experience, and in 

 spite of more than one severe lesson as to 

 American sensitiveness, he continues to speak 

 the truth. Even when his pupils have become 

 what the ordinary observer calls perfect riders, 

 he allows no fault to go unreproved, although 

 nobody can more thoroughly enjoy the evening 

 classes, organized by fairly good riders rather 

 for amusement than for instruction. If you 



