character: guessing, for instance, why she raised one ear and laid down
the other; why she kept bearing so close to the left that she brushed his
leg against the hedge; and why, when she arrived at a little side-gate in
the fields, which led towards the home-farm, she came to a full stop, and
fell to rubbing her nose against the rail,--an occupation from which the
parson, finding all civil remonstrances in vain, at length diverted her
by a timorous application of the whip.

This crisis on the road fairly passed, the pad seemed to comprehend that
she had a journey before her, and giving a petulant whisk of her tail,
quickened her amble into a short trot, which soon brought the parson into
the high road, and nearly opposite the Casino.

Here, sitting on the gate which led to his abode, and shaded by his
umbrella, he beheld Dr. Riccabocca.

The Italian lifted his eyes from the book he was reading, and stared hard
at the parson; and he--not venturing to withdraw his whole attention from
the pad (who, indeed, set up both her ears at the apparition of
Riccabocca, and evinced symptoms of that surprise and superstitious
repugnance at unknown objects which goes by the name of "shying")--looked
askance at Riccabocca.

"Don't stir, please," said the parson, "or I fear you'll alarm the
creature; it seems a nervous, timid thing;--soho, gently, gently."

And he fell to patting the mare with great unction.

The pad, thus encouraged, overcame her first natural astonishment at the
sight of Riccabocca and the red umbrella; and having before been at the