"Yes, fawncy!" said Eloise, mimicking him, which made him flush again
and then look at her admiringly.
Aunt Lucretia broke in. "He can," she said very firmly. "I wonder,
Colonel Goff, why you should send to England for a horse when you have
better ones at home?"
Colonel Goff laughed loudly.
"Why you even think that bang-tailed son of Nestor can jump," went on
Aunt Lucretia, laying her trap quietly for him.
This was the one strong point of the son of Nestor, and the one thing
about him that his owner had published on his arrival.
"Madam," he said with great seriousness, a bit offended, "madam, I think
I told you before that he held the championship for cross-country at
Melton-Mowbry."
"Oh, so you did," said my Aunt Lucretia, ever so sweetly, "and yet I
believe Satan can beat him both at the distance and over the hurdles."
Goff laughed, but not as though pleased. He was too well-bred to reply
to Aunt Lucretia in her kind. So he only tapped his boot, and looked at
Eloise, who smiled sweetly at him, as if urging him on.
"I was talking the other day to Secretary Roswick of our State Fair,"
went on Aunt Lucretia calmly, "and was entering some of my own things.
Now, Roswick, you know, makes me put up about half of his programmes.
He has asked me to get up some novelties on the side. We'll just have a
hurdle race if you say so."
"Capital, capital!" said Goff, for the first time showing excitement.
Then he quieted down suddenly. "What am I thinking about? What, in
this unregistered country, could go against Nestor, champion hurdler of
his class?"
"Satan," said Aunt Lucretia, smiling sweetly.
"Fawncy!" shouted the Colonel decisively.
"I'll lay you five hundred that he can," said my Aunt, "and I don't know
a thing in the world about your game."
"Madam," said Goff, quietly, "I have never taken an unfair advantage of
a woman."
"Colonel Goff," said my Aunt very seriously, "you know as well as you
know anything, that if I know anything it is horses, that I am of age,
and that I am good for all my obligations. I'll bet you five hundred
dollars that Satan will beat your horse at his own game."
"Do you know, madam," said Goff, "that a jumping horse is born to jump?
Not one in a thousand can go over a three-foot hurdle, and this brute of
yours--"
"Brute?" said Eloise, icily. "Brute, Colonel Goff, he is an angel! He
can do anything."
"And you will ride him?" he asked.
"Nobody else can," said my Aunt. "Yes, she'll ride him and beat you,
too."
"I'll take your bet," said he. "I'd give five hundred dollars to ride
once in a race with the only girl in America who is really English. How
she ever got into this blooming country I can't see!"
I left my Aunt and the Colonel arranging their new game for the
Cumberland meeting. I did not take much interest in Eloise riding
against him!
I had ordered my horse, intending to ride over to Ned's; I wanted to see
my pets there, Little Sister, and Captain Skipper and the new arrival.
Eloise followed me through the wood lot. She came up and slipped her
arm through mine, and its very touch carried a sadness, it seemed as if
the quick electric pulse was gone. In her eyes there was a weariness,
an indefinable longing. It touched me to see her so, my live,
light-hearted, foster sister of old.
"Jack," she sighed, "I am--I am--" She stopped and looked up into my
face.
"What?" I asked. "I should think you would be happy, so soon to marry
an Earl."
"It is sooner than you suppose," she said seriously. "He does not wish
it known yet because the proper notification has not come from his
attorneys in England, but--but--Jack--Jack, his brother is already dead
and he wants me to marry him. I have already promised to marry him next
month."