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48 the lieutenant down the hill, and who now stood close to the bridle of the brigadier's charger, whose nose she presently began to caress with her broad brown hand.

The brigadier, incensed by what he considered a piece of gross impertinence on the part of one of the country-folk, drew back his horse with a jerk, and uttered an oath, bursting the next moment into a not very refined reproof for her temerity. The woman remained however entirely unmoved by it, and as the horse retreated, she followed him up, until she again stood close to the bit he was champing.

"May I make so bold as give him a drink of water, sir?" asked she, in a pleasant, deep voice, with less of the rough country accent than one would have expected from her. "Sure you've had a long, hard ride, and one should be merciful to one's beast."

Tregenna glanced at her with more interest than before. When she spoke, there was a certain quiet authority about her, most proper to the mistress of a farmhouse; and he perceived that she was younger by some years than he had supposed, not more than eight