CHAPTER XI. THE RIDE. I wish I were as I have been, With bended bow and bloodhound free, Gather the rose-buds while you may, IF Major Gordon had thought Kate charming, in her simple morning dress, he considered her transcendently beautiful on horseback. The easy, graceful seat; the light bridle hand; the erect figure; and the animation which the pastime kindled in eye and cheek, rendered her doubly lovely to his mind. She seemed to fulfill every requirement for that beau-ideal which he had long sighed after as unattainable, and which should unite in one person a Rosalind, an Imogen, and a Portia. The day was sultry, so, after proceeding a short distance, Kate said "I think I can find a cooler road, if you will permit me to be the guide. There used to be an old one, somewhere near here, which had become quite deserted before I went to Europe; it was grass-grown in many places, and must now present an unbroken sward, which will be a relief to the horses after toiling through these hot sands. For half a mile or more, the way leads through a cedar-swamp, where what we call a corduroy road had been laid down. We shall find it deliciously cool. Here is the very place.” So saying, she turned her horse into an opening between the trees, where, in spite of the obliterated wheel-tracks, it was apparent a road had once run. Tall pines rose on either hand, stretching far away in a vista that seemed interminable, like pillars in a gothic colonnade. The air was full of the sweet aroma they shed. Their fallen tassels, faded to a rich brown color, carpeted the road. "What a bit of ground for a canter," said the Major, who was eager to test Kate's horsemanship. "Shall we give our steeds a brush ?" "Willingly," said Kate; and away they went. It was a beautiful sight to see the two spirited animals cantering side by side, so that a blanket would have covered both. Arab was full of play, and turned continually to snap at his companion, which Kate laughingly permitted him to do occasionally, while at other times she wheeled him off with a dexterous turn of her wrist, which elicited the open admiration of Major Gordon. Very soon, the natural emulation between the two mettled steeds began to tell on their pace, which gradually increased from a canter to a gallop. They went snorting along now, their necks arching at the strain upon the bit; their hoofs crackling the pine splinters that strewed the road; the foam. flecking their glossy coats as they tossed their heads; and now one, and then another, momentarily succeeding in passing his antagonist, only however to be passed in turn. 66 'They are determined to try each other's mettle," said Kate, laughingly. "It's as much as I can do to keep Arab in. Suppose we let them out and have a race in earnest." "Agreed," said the Major, entering into the spirit of the thing as fully as his fair companion. "You see yonder thunder-riven pine," said Kate, pointing with her riding-whip. "It is probably half a mile off. The best one gets there first. Are you ready?" 66 'Ready," answered the Major. "Go," cried Kate, giving her horse his head. Away they went, like twin arrows from a bow: the riders laughing in the very abandon of fun; the horses, with outstretched necks, straining every nerve. The Major's steed, though a superior one, was somewhat too heavily built, and this quickly began to affect his speed. Arab, on the contrary, was in his element. With his neck extended almost in a straight line, his nostrils expanded, and his fine eyes a-blaze, he soon sprang far ahead of his adversary. Kate, as she left the Major's side, merrily looked over her shoulder, waving her hand in triumph. In a few moments she drew in at the blasted pine, walking Arab slowly until Major Gordon came up. 'Your horse runs like a deer," said that gentleman. "Yet, from his looks, I should think a child might ride him, when he's at full speed; he doesn't seem to move his body at all; it is only his limbs; but they are drawn up as beautifully as a greyhound's." "He's a darling," said Kate, enthusiastically, leaning over and patting his neck; at which Arab looked around gratified. "I wouldn't exchange him for half of England." Major Gordon smiled a little at this enthusiasm, though he could not but think that it became Kate charmingly. "Poor Selim," said the Major, patting his horse in turn, "you did not win, and it's not often you're beaten. But never mind, old fellow, you can carry your master in battle, if need be, as gallantly as the best." "To confess the truth," answered Kate, "I had no idea Selim could run so well. He's a noble fellow," she continued, leaning over and patting him also. "Ha! you like it, do you, my brave Selim? But I declare if Arab isn't jealous. See, he is ready to bite both you and your horse, Major. I must draw him off," she added, laughingly, as she turned his head, striking him at the same time with her heel, so that he sprang to one side. Fie, fie, Arab !" and she patted him anew, "you should be ashamed of yourself, sir. You are first in the heart of your mistress, and might allow her at least to be civil to others." By this time they had reached the edge of the cedarswamp, which Kate had described. The road was much decayed, so that it would have been necessary to walk the horses, even if there had been no race. Kate was in high spirits, and rattled on gayly. To the Major, unaccustomed for several years to female society, except at rare intervals, her conversation was perfectly bewitching; and indeed it would not have been without its spell even to the most ennuied habitue of the choicest circles; for it exhibited that rare union of refinement and wit, intellect and sentiment, which, when combined in woman, renders her so irresistible. "Ah! here we are at the spring," she said, at last, drawing up Arab at the side of the road, where a pool of dark, amber-colored water, limpid as flint glass, lay slumbering under the mossy roots of an enormous red cedar. Slowly the rich, aromatic water welled out from the impenetrable recesses of the swamp, into this natural basin, ebbing away from it, at the other side, as imperceptibly, and flowing off over silver-white sand, till it lost itself beneath the rude bridge crossing the road. Gigantic trees, laden with dark foliage, fairly met overhead, obscuring the sunshine, and filling the air around with spicy odors. To add to the fairy-like charm of the spot, the atmosphere was as cool as that of a cave. "This is delicious," said the Major, lifting his hat from his heated brow. "It is Greenland at our very doors. The water looks so tempting that I must have a drink," he continued, dismounting. "Will you permit me, Miss Aylesford, to be your cup-bearer ?" "I haven't the heart to refuse," said Kate, fanning herself, with her broad-leafed hat, "for the water is the best in the whole region. Besides, to be frank, I'm half dead with thirst. But will your horse stand?" "Like a lamb, generally, but as he is also thirsty, and might drink, I'll fasten him thus," and with these words the Major threw the bridle over the limb of a tree. "Yonder you'll find a leaf large enough for an impromptu cup," said Kate, observing that he was looking about as if for one. "I used to come here frequently, before I went abroad, and always knew where to find materials for a woodland goblet." And she directed him with a wave of her hat, still fanning herself. The Major was not long in profiting by the hint, and skillfully arranging the leaf, filled it with water, and bore it to his lovely companion in triumph. "Handsomely done," said Kate. "You must once have been the wood-nymphs' Ganymede, if the doctrine of transmigration of souls be true. Ah!" she continued, with a sigh, "what a world of poetry went out with the Greeks, who peopled every object in the landscape with life, so that a wood, or a tree, was an actual dryad or hamadryad. How I drank in those pages of Tasso, when I was still quite a child, where the Christian knight hews down the tree, which, a beautiful nymph, bleeds at every stroke. I cried over the poor lady, imprisoned in the cruel bark, as if my heart would break." "It's the most alluring feature of the old Pantheism, that beautiful fiction of tutelary spirits of the woods and streams," said Major Gordon, as he took the emptied cup; and filling it, in the spirit of the thought he poured the water out again, saying, "A pious Greek would have propitiated, in this way, the deities of the place by a libation." "They don't seem to be in an especially good humor now, at any rate," said Kate, who happened to glance up at the sky at that moment. "As well as I can see, through the leaves over-head, a thunder storm is coming up. We have been so long in the cool forest aisle, that we have noticed neither the increasing darkness, nor the fall in the tempera |