98 BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



followed the example of Griffith Roberts, whose 

 regard for his boots seemed his one human weak- 

 ness, and climbed after him through the heather 

 tussocks along the bank. Single file and silence 

 prevailed severely, and my heart began to beat 

 in unusual places, such as my throat and ears. 

 What Miss O'Flannigan's heart did I could not 

 tell, but each time that I caught from behind a 

 glimpse of her cheek, it seemed to glow in more 

 royal contrast to the dull background of the 

 mountain - side. Another wall and wicket - gate 

 were arrived at ; our guide looked round at us 

 with an eye of cynical expectancy, and hesitated. 

 It was an intimation that we mia;ht rest, — a com- 

 passionless concession to the inadequacy whose 

 extent he knew by experience, and not by sym- 

 pathy. But sympathy was not what we craved 

 for. I sat down on a rock, and Miss O'Flannigan 

 extended herself at full length on some contiguous 

 boulders, and the ' Arabian Nights ' could not have 

 provided us with any more satiating form of en- 

 joyment. 



