Grasping her skirts at the hem in an instant I had ripped them through.
"Now behind," she said; "it's my old riding skirt, Jack."
In an instant it, too, was split.
She smiled, a flash of her old humor behind her sternness. "Now, turn,
Jack."
When I turned back again she had slipped both her garters over her
divided skirts, so that they were held firmly to her ankles. The next
instant she was in my saddle, astride.
"You, dear, sweet, old, stubborn Satan," she said softly, "I am sorry I
must punish you. Shut the gate, Jim; I am going to make him do his best
stunt to pay for this."
At the first blow from her whip he sprang up in anger, but the whip fell
fast and with fury. Her lithe body sat him easily, like a part of him,
her two heels buried in his flanks. He made leap after leap, but still
she sat him, cutting his sides into whelks. He leaped high to dismount
her; he wheeled suddenly, but never caught her off her guard. The whip
never let up. Frighted, angry, he bolted for the plank fence. The gate
was shut, but Eloise gave him the whip at every jump.
"Stop her--he'll kill her!" I cried, as I saw him rise for the leap.
[Illustration: "STOP HER--HE'LL KILL HER," I CRIED.]
I expected to see him strike the fence midway, and come back on her in a
heap. Instead I saw Eloise lift him, with a quick firm hand, straight
up towards the sky and I saw the horse land on the other side clean, and
clear, without losing a stride. Then they vanished in a whirl of dust
up the pike.
"I'll ride after her," I cried to Aunt Lucretia. "He'll kill her yet."
"Don't worry," she smiled, "she's more apt to kill him. But that jump,
Jack, that jump--did you see it?"
My Aunt's eyes were ablaze with a kindled fire. I had seen it often when
a race was on. She rode up to the fence. "Five feet six, Jack," she
said laughing; "why, the record cross-country is five feet six--that's
the record held by Colonel Goff's horse--" and she laughed again
meaningly.
It was fifteen minutes before we saw Satan coming back! He came in a
gentle canter, his great head held high in pride, because Eloise was
laughing and joking with him, patting his mane and calling him sweet
names. "You darling Satan," she cried, as she leaped down, "I did so
hate to punish you!"
They say horses do not weep, but there were tears in the eyes of Satan
as he rubbed his head against her breast, and nibbled the apple she held
out to him.
Up the road cantered a horseman in haste, riding an English hunter.
Eloise looked up and smiled. "I can't go with you to-day, Jack. Here
comes Colonel Goff. I wanted you to see that jump. Isn't he great?
He's done it a dozen times, and yet Colonel Goff really thinks he owns
the champion." She laughed, her eyes shining. "I must run in and change
my habit for the scolding I know is coming."
I turned sullenly in my saddle and rode off. I did not wish to see Goff
take her away from us.
I did not enjoy the ride over the farm. The sick brood mare, with the
young colt, which nickered so distressingly for Aunt Lucretia, alone
excited my sympathy. I was heartsick myself. I did not even enjoy
seeing Tammas and Marget.
As we rode away from the dairy we met Elsie coming down the wooded path,
a smile on her pretty lips.
"That girl," said my Aunt, "is a fine creature, and do you know, Jack,
if I know anything of breeding, she's got rare blood in her. It shows
in a hundred ways. Now, watch her."
She was dressed in white, her hair hanging in two plaits down her back.
"I am playing at being in Scotland," she said as we came up, "and I have
gathered these Scotch wild flowers for Mr. Jack." She handed them up to
me, and when my eyes met hers in thanks Aunt Lucretia saw the blush that
flushed her face. She looked sharply at me a moment and then smiled. I
walked to the barn gate, Elsie going with us, and telling me of the
Scotch flowers and trees. "I would be quite happy here," she said, "if
we only had the heather on these hills."
Aunt Lucretia turned at the gate. "You must come up to the house some
night this week, and we'll have a Bobbie Burns evening," said she.
"Oh, thank you," Elsie answered, smiling at me instead of at Aunt
Lucretia.
"Who was that you were talking to before we met you?" I asked. "The
gentleman who rode off when he saw us coming?"
"That was Captain Braxton. He has asked my hand in marriage, but I
dinna think I shall," she added, with a little sigh. "I dinna like him
as I should, but I dinna say yet, for I shall think it over. He's noo
like Mr. Jack." Her little Scotch words would slip in now and then.
I flushed and looked at Aunt Lucretia, who sat biting her lips as if in
anger. Elsie was all frankness. She put her hand in mine trustingly,
and instantly I knew why she had told me.
"No brother could love you more than I do," I said. "Tammas and Marget
raised me, too, so I'm really your brother." I laughed to hide my anger
at Braxton Bragg and the turn affairs had taken.
She had lifted my hand with a loyal little gesture and pressed it to her
cheek before I could withdraw it. "You'll come to see me, often, won't
you, Mr. Jack? I need you to help me."
"Jack," I said, smiling at her, "just Jack from now on."
"Oh, but that's not respectful, and I'd not be wanting in respect for
you for the world."
"I'll not call you Elsie then, any more," I answered, "nor make the
request of you I'm going to make."
"Jack, then," she said. "And your request--it is already granted."
"That you'll not see Braxton Bragg alone until--well, until I have
talked with you," I said earnestly.
"O--h," and her eyes opened wide. "Jack, why, of course. If he writes
to me again I'll send the letter to you before I answer it."
"Bring it," I said; "I want to see it right away."
We rode back to the house.
"Jack," said my aunt, "he is the most contemptible reversion to a scrub
that ever came from a good pedigree! But if he tries that game on that
child--he has played it recklessly since you left--I'll kill him
myself--damn him!"
I soon forgot Elsie. I caught sight of Eloise entertaining Goff in our
old bower, and I could see that as he sat there, smoking and watching
her, he already thought she was the Countess of Carfax.
*CHAPTER XI*
*TWO WAYS OF LOVE*
I knew that Colonel Goff would not only stay the afternoon but the
evening also. He had been doing it ever since the war, for he regarded
his General's home as his also. The assurance of the man incensed me.
The divine right of his old kings seemed to have been born in him; and
now that he had won Eloise, she and The Home Stretch and all that it
contained were his whenever he chose to have them.
Eloise would tease him in pure wantonness, and scorn him, and even
ridicule him; for all of which he worshipped her, as is apt to be the
way with men. Yet I very quickly noticed the little touch of sadness,
which, despite her efforts, fell over her so suddenly. To her wit and
repartee, her fun and humor, his only answer would be flashes of his
fine teeth, and his favorite exclamation, "Fawncy now, but isn't that a
blooming good one?" I was convinced that he loved Eloise and was proud
of her; but I thought it was such a feeling as he might have for any
beautiful animal, the same worship he might easily have bestowed upon an
Arab mare of the desert.
It was not long before Colonel Goff and Aunt Lucretia were in their
usual dispute about horses and he was scolding her for letting Eloise
ride Satan: "Ah, that unregistered fool! Really, my dear madam, you
should not let her go near him, he'll be the death of her yet. Now,
there is my imported Irish hunter; he's got a head as well as legs; say
now--suppose I just send him over for her," and he looked at Eloise to
see what she would say.
Eloise threw up her fine head significantly.
"The idea, Colonel Goff! Why, I wouldn't be caught riding him! That
big thing better than Satan! Why His Satanic Majesty can gallop rings
all around him."