Page:The time spirit; a romantic tale (IA timespiritromant00snaiiala).pdf/97

 fair presumption that the guarantee covered the fact of its disposition, since it had made the perilous journey from the jobmaster's, three doors out of Park Lane, and across the No Man's Land yclept Hyde Park Corner, that terrible and trappy maze, without a suspicion of mental stress.

Jack's best hunting voice ascended to an open window of the second story. The complete horsewoman, in every detail immaculate, came on to the little balcony of Number 16, Victoria Mansions.

"What a gorgeous day!"

"A ripper!"

If excitement there was on the side of either, self-*mastery concealed it. Yet an inconvenient pressure of emotion was shared by both just then. In spite of a liberal share of self-confidence and a will under strong control Mary could hardly refrain from the hope that she was not going to make a perfect fool of herself. As soon as she beheld the upstanding chestnut below with its slender legs and thin tail, she winged an involuntary prayer to Allah that there were no tricks in its repertory unbecoming a horse and a gentleman. As for Jack, the presence of all the horses in the world would not have excited him. It was not in him to be excited by things of that kind, that is to say, it was part of his religion not to be excited by them; all the same there was a genuine, nay, almost terrible thrill in his heart this morning.

In the course of a rather wakeful night he had made up his mind "to come to the 'osses" in sober verity. To the best of his present information the gods, in the