146 LADIES ON HORSEBACK. 



the chase, which I confess was but seldom, 

 for the first day upon which I accepted a 

 mount we left off eighteen miles from home, 

 and I was so exhausted by the time we 

 arrived there, that I fairly fainted before 

 reaching my own chamber. It was not the 

 distance which tired me, although it was a 

 pretty good one, but the fact that I was 

 troubled with the double-rise all the way. 

 I strove in vain to remedy it by urging my 

 gigantic steed to a faster trot, and making 

 him go up to his bridle ; but the moment I 

 began to experience a little relief, my com- 

 panion — dear old man, now in heaven ! — would 

 say, **Well, that is the worst of ladies 

 riding : they must always either creep in a 

 walk, or bucket their horses along at an 

 unnecessary pace. Why can't you jog on 

 quietly, as I do ? " He was clearly not suffer- 

 ing from the annoyance which was vexing 

 and fatiguing me. I looked at him closely, 

 watched his motion in the saddle — that slow, 

 slow rise and fall — I compared it with mine, 

 our pace being the same, and the mystery was 

 at once solved. Both horses were trotting 



