"Do you like horses?" As she waited my reply, she averted her face.
"I admire them, and I like them mostly in their relations with people."
"What kinds of horses and people?"
"I thrill over wild horses, and glory in great runners and jumpers and chargers. I have a brotherly feeling toward El Stedoro. In general, the horses that warm my heart the most are workhorses— who plow men's fields and draw their wagons—and old nags that children can climb under and ride on or behind."
"You don't think a high-bred horse is better than a low-bred person?"
"I wouldn't like to think such an evil thought as that."
"Evil?"
"Terribly evil."
"You won't get on very well in upper-class society, Mr. Blackburn."
"I'm afraid not."
"Are you going to try?"
"No."
"What you said when I saw you last gave the impression that you were."
"I've decided that after winding up some affairs in England, I'll make my home in America."
"Then why do you want to marry a girl—a woman—of high position?"
"I've decided that I don't care what her position is if we can be happy together."
"This is the first time I've seen you since you came. Papa led me to believe you'd devote a good deal of time to me. That was to be expected after what you said at our house in London. But perhaps you've changed your mind about that."
"I haven't changed my mind about you—you are most beautiful and desirable—but I don't think you have anything to fear from me."
"I find that I don't fear you. Papa does—and I never knew him to fear anyone before—and so does Harvey. I don't think Dick does-he's almost incapable of fear. Papa wouldn't dream of telling me to be nice to you—to encourage you to pay court to me, you of common birth and more than twice my age—if he didn't fear you terribly." She turned and looked me in the face. "The only possible reason is that you have it in your power to ruin him. That could happen in only two ways—he owes you a great debt, or you owe him a great debt. The first would be money, the second revenge. So I do fear you—but for his sake and for Sophia's. I look at you, and I don't think you are cruel, or wicked, or base. My life has never been like other girls' of my class, and I don't expect it ever will be. So whatever he tells me to do in regard to you—if it can save him and save Sophia's husband—I can stand to do."
"You must love your father very much."
"I don't think I do. I don't think it's possible. I think all the women in his life found that out. But he loves me very much. It's being loved, not loving, that creates the unavoidable obligation. And he's a great captain—a great chieftain."
"I didn't expect you to speak so frankly."
"I have to. There's so much at stake—perhaps more than I have any idea. All of you know more than I do. I'll ask you one thing. You wouldn't want me, would you, if I were unwilling to go?"
"At least I wouldn't take you."
"There's a degree of willingness, or unwillingness. One is more, and the other's less than before."
"I'm glad of that, but I don't think you'll have to concern yourself with either one. I believe there'll be another outcome."
Her eyes drew again to mine, and her bright tints changed.
"I'm relieved in one way, but more frightened."
"Why?"
"What you proposed might have worked out much better than I thought at first. It could be a marriage of convenience, as you said. I'd begun to think it might be the luckiest outcome possible. There's awful bad luck—something worse than that—in the air."
"I hope it won't strike you, Eliza. Look out, for it's very near."
Eliza followed my glance to Lord Tarlton and Dick, making toward us down the driveway. Both were in riding habits, but Lord Tarlton carried a black thornwood cane instead of a crop, and Dick had a racing bat. Eliza turned smiling. Again like Isabel Gazelle, she had good ability to dissemble. I thought that the little lord's delicately molded face became ennobled if not beautified on beholding her, and he walked with princely bearing. There was a sheen on Dick's eyes I had not seen before.
"So here you are," Lord Tarlton said. "Admiring Donald Dhu."
"Who could help it?" I asked.
"But he needs exercise, Blackburn, and Dick and I were just saying that we weren't satisfied with the showing he made against your gray at Elveshurst. Eliza, were you satisfied?"
"It wasn't a conclusive test, if that's what you mean," Eliza answered.
"Donald and I were on a course we'd ridden only once. Well, Blackburn would be in the same fix if he'd care to prove to us 'twas no accident that the gray won before. But as the saying goes, turn-about is fair play."
"I maintain it was no accident, my lord," I answered. "If you want proof of it. El Stedoro will supply it with good cheer. As for the course being new, I'll take him over the ground and the jumps beforehand, let him look at them good and smell them, and then if we lose, we'll have no fault to find."
"Dick, here's a buck!"
"But Papa, the course we spoke of is three times as long as t'other if we go out and back," Dick said. "Maybe that's too long for the gray, considering he's newly walked from London. I dare say we could cut it in half—"
"That's not necessary, sir," I broke in when Dick paused. "That walk from London, taking his time, put him in good fettle."
"Then I know nothing to stop a good race," Lord Tarlton said. "It's too long for my old bones, but Dick will do the honors, and Donald puts his best foot for'ard for him, as you'll see. And now, what of a wager or two, to spice the dish? First, Eliza, I'll lay one with you. You told me the gray was a cleaner jumper than Donald Dhu—"
"I don't remember telling you that—"
"Well, you did, and here's your chance to back it. I'll lay five pounds with you my Donald will win by a length."
"Shall I take him, Holgar?"
"All he'll put down and you can cover."
"Then I'll make it ten."
"Done for ten. But that's in the family—I'd be swindled out of 'em anyhow—and I'U make no such bet with you, Blackburn, my honored guest. Against you, it's not a length I'll undertake to win by, but one hair of the nose, I'll stand on one side of the home gate, with Eliza and your Jim on t'other, and if we disagree who's over first, majority rules. Does that suit you?"
"Perfectly, my lord."
"No doubt you'll like to lay a wager, so kindly name the sum."
"Why, I'd like to make it worth my while to make El Stedoro hustle, so what would you say of five thousand pounds?"
"By God, Blackburn," Lord Tarlton cried, looking at me as though in startled admiration. "You take my breath!"
I paid no attention to that. It was part of a show in which, at this point, I took little interest. What arrested me was Eliza turning white.
"Don't bet that much, Holgar," she told me in low tones.
"Come, Eliza—" That was Tarlton's voice, with a rasp in it.
"It's not sporting, and you know it isn't, when he's your guest. Holgar, it isn't gentlemanly, considering Papa is your host."
"I bow to your better taste. What sum do you suggest?"
"A thousand pounds would be a tremendous bet. That's what our old hostler, Quigley, has earned in—in twenty years. And if you'll make it a hundred, I'll give you my glove to carry."
"Then a hundred it will be."
"A sweet little spoil-sport you are!" Dick burst out, his rage barely controlled.
I'm proud of her, sink me if I ain't," Tarlton reproved him. "Dick, sometimes you and I let our acquisitiveness get out of hand. Eliza, get your bright bay and show Blackburn the old closed road. Once across Dolmen Brook, turn and come back. Then, Blackburn, you can rest your horse and have a bite of lunch. You and Dick can run about three, when the sun's begun to pitch and the light's soft."