BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 95 



the parlour window, and we had followed him as 

 unresistingly as the rats followed the Pied Piper. 

 There are, however, rare occasions when it is 

 agreeable to be coerced into doing what is right. 

 As, at a steady three and a half miles an hour, 

 we strode after Griffith Roberts, we began to be 

 conscious of restored enthusiasm and intelligence, 

 and, impartially, it seemed to us that we should 

 be delightful charges for him — so affable, so active, 

 so anxious for information. Griffith Roberts's back 

 had, however, not quite so social an aspect as 

 might have been expected, and he maintained his 

 lead of five yards w^ith uncommunicative firmness. 

 Miss O'Flannigan and I called on each other for 

 a spurt, and for two or three niinutes walked at 

 the rate of four miles an hour w^ithout any appre- 

 ciable result. It became clear that Griffith Rob- 

 erts moved, planet-like, in a certain fixed relation 

 to his satellites, and that his lead of five yards was 

 an institution not easily to be set aside. All that 

 we had effected was the raising of the pace from 

 three and a half miles to four, and the discovery 



